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This week on Uprising —

* Arizona Voters Pick Anti-Immigrant Measures

* Norman Finkelstein on the madness of Israeli policy

* Empire Notes on a Change of Course in Iraq

* Fast Food Nation – a new film based on the best selling book

* A report on the politics of starvation in Niger

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Arizona Voters Pick Anti-Immigrant Measures

GUEST: Isabel Garcia, co-chair of Derechos Humanos, based in Tuscon, Arizona

On November 7th, voters in Arizona overwhelmingly approved several anti-immigrant ballot measures by an average margin of three to one. Arizona voters decided to deny bail, state-funded literacy programs, punitive damages in lawsuits, and in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. Also passed was proposition 103 which made English the state’s official language. Interestingly, according to an Associated Press exit poll, about half of Arizona’s Latinos voted to pass proposition 103. As immigrant rights activists have noted, voters essentially made English the state’s official language while at the same time denying undocumented immigrants access to literacy classes. Additionally, in Arizona’s state and congressional races, candidates who favored the so-called comprehensive approach to federal immigration reform of Arizona Senator John McCain, prevailed over more hard-line anti-immigrant candidates.

Finkelstein on the Madness of Israeli Policy

GUEST: Norman Finkelstein, professor at DePaul University and author of many books including, “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History”

The United States recently vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that demanded Israel immediately stop military actions in the Gaza Strip and pull out of the territory. Washington’s decision angered the Arab World. The resolution came in the wake of Israel’s brutal assault on Beit Hanoun, the northern town of the Gaza Strip. Last Wednesday, Israeli forces killed 19 people there, including, seven children and four women. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret and said that the death of civilians resulted from a technical mistake. Palestinians called the tragedy an act of state terrorism.

Empire Notes on a Change of Course in Iraq

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

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on a Change of Course in Iraq.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Fast Food Nation

GUESTS: Richard Linklater, director of many acclaimed films including “Fast Food Nation”; Eric Schlosser, journalist and author of the best-selling book, “Fast Food Nation”

Based on the best-selling book, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, acclaimed director Richard Linklater has made a feature film by the same name. Fast Food Nation, the film, will be premiering in Los Angeles this evening at the Egyptian Theater as part of the Artivist Film Festival. The film has an all-star cast including Bruce Willis, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Wilmer Valderrama, Yareli Arizmendi, Kris Kristofferson, Greg Kinnear, and more. Rather than filming it as a documentary, Linklater and Schlosser co-wrote the screenplay as a feature, weaving in the many disturbing facts from the book, Fast Food Nation, into the plot line through the experiences of fast food company executives, undocumented immigrant meat-packers, high-schoolers flipping burgers, and college activists.

For more information about what you can do, visit www.participate.net/fastfoodnation

Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation?

GUESTS: Frederic Mousseau, a Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute and Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, both are co-authors of the report

We end the show today with a look at chronic hunger which globally affects more than 800 million people and kills nearly 6.5 million children each year. According to the United Nations about 300,000 children under the age of five risk death from malnutrition every year in the Sahel region of Africa which is in the North Western part of the continent. The region includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso. Last year, a food crisis in Niger made news headlines all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of children were treated by aid agencies, breaking past records of relief intervention. Despite this, thousands of children still died of hunger related causes. The 2005 food crisis has been blamed on locust invasion and drought. However, according to a new report by the Oakland Institute, last year’s crisis cannot be singled out as an isolated episode in Niger’s history. The report entitled, “Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation?” asks the following key questions: “What is the cause of this chronic emergency? How have several decades of development programs failed to eradicate hunger and malnutrition? What needs to be done to end this cycle of poverty and famine? and, What if any are the obligations of the international community during these food crises?”

“Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation?” is a publication of the Oakland Institute (www.oaklandinstitute.org), a think tank for research, analysis, and action whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic, and environmental issues in both national and international forums.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“If you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. If you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.” — Manuel Alcantara.