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This week on Uprising:

* A Challenge to Voter ID
* Black Agenda Report on the Mortgage Crisis
* Writers Guild Strikers on the Picket Line
* Empire Notes on Henri Alleg
* The Other Conquest

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A Challenge to Voter ID

GUEST: Justin Levitts, Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law

Lawyers from the Brennan Center for Justice joined various voting rights organizations in filing a legal brief with the Supreme Court against Indiana’s voter identification law. Citing evidence from a new Washington Institute study, opponents say that it effectively disenfranchises thousands of registered voters and should be done away with. The study indicates that voters in Indiana most likely to be effected by the law were poor, black, and elderly – and the study shows there is a significant gap between black and white Indiana voters with access to a valid form of photo ID.Key findings also found politics to be a major factor. Defenders of the Voter ID law claim that its purpose is to combat fraud; however its requirements are much more likely to disenfranchise Democrats than Republicans. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments and issue a decision before the 2008 Presidential elections.

For more information, visit www.brennancenter.org/

Empire Notes on Henri Alleg

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 commentary is on Henri Alleg.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Writers Guild Strikers on the Picket Line

GUESTS: Brian Davidson, Janie Diane Raphael, Doug Petrie, Writers on the Picket Line

Television celebrities like George Lopez and Minnie Driver have joined picket lines in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike. As the strike drags on, The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have yet to return to the negotiating table. Talks broke down between the two sides over a new contract – the old one expired on the 31st of October. The union’s key demands center around residual payments from DVD sales, and digital distribution. The 12,000 member strong WGA union originally sought to double residual payments from DVD sales for their members but are amenable to lowering their demands. However, no agreement has been reached on digital distribution. Though Hollywood studios claim that such distribution is still in its early phases and its successes too early to judge, a popular television show such as “The Office” has attracted seven million iTunes downloads. As the labor dispute continues, writers are not the only personnel affected: the strike has put many television crew members out of work.

For more information, visit www.wga.org/

Black Agenda Report on the Mortgage Crisis

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about the Mortgage Crisis. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The Other Conquest

GUEST: Salvador Carrasco, Filmmaker

Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History removed a massive, 12 ton monolith dedicated to the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli on Tuesday in what is present-day Mexico City. The archaeologists say that they are now exploring the area for the tomb of an Aztec king, who reigned more than 500 years ago in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Since Spanish conquistadores built historically-recognized colonial buildings over the site, archeologists have not been able to reach the older Aztec structures. It could be said that much of Aztec history has literally been covered up by Spanish colonialism, beginning with Hernan Cortez in 1519 – yet the original customs of the Mexica people continue to thrive in present-day Mexico. About 10 years ago, filmmaker Salvador Carrasco set out to make a film to highlight the period between the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 and the apparitions of the Virgen de Guadalupe in 1531. The film, called La Otra Conquista (The Other Conquest) faced serious obstacles from Mexico’s government-sponsored film institute, which tried to stop it from being made. Yet when it was released in 1999, it broke box-office records in Mexico. The film was briefly screened in the United States – and just recently released on DVD.

For more information, visit www.theotherconquest.com/

Uprising’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Divide and conquer is good advice – but unite and lead is much better.” — Anonymous