Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

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This week on Uprising:

* Beyond the Hype: Dissecting Barack Obama’s Historic Speech
* Black Agenda Report on the Obama-Biden Ticket
* Understanding Thailand’s Crisis of Democracy
* Katrina Pain Index: New Orleans Three Years Later
* Largest ICE Raid Ever in Mississippi: Nearly 600 Arrested

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Beyond the Hype: Dissecting Barack Obama’s Historic Speech

On Thursday August 28th, in front of a crowd of nearly 85,000 people in Denver, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama gave an historic acceptance speech. He spoke on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s I have a Dream speech, invoking more economic populist rhetoric than ever before. Responding to the Republican critique that he had not provided specifics about his plans as president, Obama spelled out his position on the economy, the environment, education, health care, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more. He clearly delineated himself from his rival John McCain, and current president Bush.

GUEST: Ethel Long-Scott, Executive Director of the Women’s Economic Agenda Project, (WEAP), and editorial board member of the Black Commentator.

Black Agenda Report on the Obama-Biden Ticket

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the Obama-Biden ticket.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Understanding Thailand’s Crisis of Democracy

Thousands of activists in Thailand have occupied a government office compound demanding that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s government resign. Nearly 2000 police surrounded the mass sit-in by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) during the week and clashed with them, leaving several people injured. The confrontation is the culmination of months of protests to unseat the current government. But going further back, the PAD was instrumental in fomenting a December 2006 military coup that toppled the previous government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Since then, under military rule, the country has drafted a new constitution and had a general election which brought into power Sundaravej’s party run by Mr. Shinawatra’s allies. The demonstrations have brought central Bangkok to a halt and so far there is no end in sight.

GUESTS: Kevin Hewison, Director of the Carolina Asia Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been researching and writing on Thailand for 30 years

Katrina Pain Index: New Orleans Three Years Later

Friday August 29th was the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which killed 1600 people and left hundreds of thousands displaced. Now, as Hurricane Gustav threatens the Gulf Coast, we honor the survivors and victims of Katrina today. Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and author of the forthcoming book, Storms Still Raging: Katrina, New Orleans and Social Justice. Earlier this week he published a series of staggering statistics called Katrina Pain Index – New Orleans Three Years Later. The audio version of these statistics is read by Teddy Robinson and Donna Walker of KPFK. Music by Terence Blanchard from the soundtrack to When the Levees Broke.

The Katrina Pain Index: New Orleans Three Years Later, by Bill Quigley, can be read here: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/
2008/08/24/11127/

Largest ICE Raid Ever in Mississippi: Nearly 600 Arrested

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out the largest workplace raid ever this past week along the Gulf Coast Region of Mississippi. Conducted less than a week after the agency ended its ‘self-deportation’ pilot program, a spokeswoman from ICE said that nearly 600 employees from Howard Industries had been taken into custody. ABC News reported that “the scene resembled a paramilitary operation: sealed exits, workers shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles.” The factory had to be closed for the day due to the the sheer volume of the crackdown on its workforce. The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, or MIRA, denounced the raids for spreading fear among families and the Latino community. The week before the group had predicted impending ICE activity citing similarities between what was taking place along the Gulf Coast and what had occurred in Postville, Iowa earlier in the year.

GUEST: Bill Chandler, Executive Director of the Mississippi Immigrants’ Rights Alliance (MIRA)

For more information, visit www.yourmira.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.” — James Madison