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This week on Uprising —

• Dissecting Bush’s State of the Union Address to hear the reality behind Bush’s double speak on Iraq, Iran, health care, and the environment.
• Cindy Sheehan returns from Venezuela – we’ll hear an interview with her the day before her arrest at the State of the Union speech in DC.
• The “Other” War – Human Rights Watch’s Saman Zia Zarifi updates us on the current situation in Afghanistan – why the US is decreasing troops and why NATO is increasing troops.
• Plus Empire Notes on Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian elections, and the
  Black Commentator on Iran.

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Dissecting Bush’s State of the Union Address

GUESTS: Norman Solomon, Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Dr. Don McCanne, Senior Health Policy Fellow with Physicians for a National Health Program, Karen Wayland, Legislative Director with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

President Bush gave his State of the Union Address last Tuesday, touching on international and domestic issues. As always, the event was highly ceremonial and filled with coordinated theatrical applause. Bush touched on various issues, cheif among them, Iraq, Iran, health care, social security, immigration, alternative sources of energy, and domestic spying. Most mainstream media coverage, especially TV network news, failed to critical scrutinize Bush’s assertions, assumptions, and plans. Today on Uprising, we begin the show today by dissection the State of the Union, focusing primarily on Iraq, Iran, health care and the environment.

Empire Notes
GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about Hamas and Palestinian democracy.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Cindy Sheehan Meets with Hugo Chavez

GUEST: Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mother for Peace, mother of fallen US soldier

Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan was at the State of the Union, as a guest of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. She was wearing a T-shirt that had the number of dead US soldiers in Iraq on it and was arrested and thrown out before the speech began. In a letter describing what happened, Sheehan responded, “I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.” Sheehan has said that she may sue the capitol police for violating her first amendment rights. The day before her arrest, we interviewed Cindy on Uprising. She had just returned from the Americas World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela where she met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Sheehan told Chavez, “I am convinced with your support … and the support of people all over the world, the war in Iraq will end, our troops will come home, Bush will be impeached and he will be brought to justice.”

During our interview with Cindy Sheehan on Tuesday January 31st, we heard the breaking news that Judge Samuel L. Alito had just won confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Black Commentator
GUEST: Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is about a war-hungry public.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

The “Other” War: New Developments in Afghanistan

GUEST: Saman Zia Zarifi, Research Director for Asia at Human Rights Watch

An international donors conference to promise aid to Afghanistan wrapped up in London last Wednesday. Several countries and the Asian Development bank pledged 10.5 billion dollars for rebuilding Afghanistan over the next five years. This included fighting poverty, improving security and cracking down on the drug trade. While the conflict in Iraq occupies most attention, there have been major changes in Afghanistan in recent months. Despite the fact that Afghanistan held parliamentary elections in September, 2005 was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, with 91 US soldiers and 1600 Afghans killed. Suicide bombings have become more common. While US troops have seen a decrease, NATO countries, especially Britain and Canada, have been increasing their military presence on the ground.

For more information, visit www.hrw.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“The Greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” — the late Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. Mrs. King passed away on Tuesday January 31st, 2006.