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This week on Uprising:

* Civilian Deaths, Drugs, and US Policy in Afghanistan
* New Study Links Plastics Toxins to Disease; FDA Ignores Risks
* Black Agenda Report on the State of the US Economy
* McCain Tries to Squelch Troopergate Investigation
* Tim Wise: This is Your Nation on White Privilege

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Civilian Deaths, Drugs, and US Policy in Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates this past week during his visit to Afghanistan expressed regret at civilian deaths in a recent US air strike – and then used it to justify sending more troops to Afghanistan. On August 22nd, a US air strike killed 90 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, according to on-the-ground reports. The US has vehemently denied that claim saying instead that 30-35 Taliban militants were killed and only 4-5 civilians. After mobile phone video footage contradicted those claims, the US now plans to open a joint investigation along with the Afghan government into the incident. One US military official was quoted in an AFP report that approximately 4,000 air strikes have been conducted in Afghanistan this year alone. That’s more than an average of 15 strikes a day! Meanwhile, a suspected Afghan drug lord named Bashir Noorzai is being tried in New York on charges of attempting to smuggle tens of millions of dollars of heroin into the US. Noorzai and his lawyers claim that in fact he was an ally of the US, and helped defeat and disarm the Taliban. The case highlights the political compromises the US has repeatedly made in Afghanistan.

GUEST: Conn Hallinan, Senior Analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus

New Study Links Plastics Toxins to Disease; FDA Ignores Risks

A new study linking a toxin in plastics to heart disease and diabetes, confirms assertions that consumer advocates have been making for years. Bisphenol A or BPA is used widely in plastic food and beverage containers, including baby bottles and sippy cups, as well as to line the coating of food cans. Consumer safety organizations had long relied on animal studies. Now, British researchers have found that among 1,455 US adults, those with the highest levels of BPA in their blood stream are more likely to have heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and raises new questions about why the food industry has continued to use BPA in food packaging even while safer alternatives exist. About 7 billion pounds of BPA are produced globally every year and according to government agencies, 93% of Americans have it in their bodies. Shockingly, after hearing held this past week by the Food and Drug Administration on the safety of BPA, the chemical was deemed safe. Laura Tarantino, head of the FDA’s office of food additive safety said, “Right now, our tentative conclusion is that it’s safe, so we’re not recommending any change in habits.” Incidentally, Canada has banned the use of BPA in its products.

GUEST: Sonia Lunder, Senior Scientist with EWG and an expert on Bisphenol A. For more information, visit http://www.ewg.org/featured/218.

Black Agenda Report on the State of the US Economy

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the state of the economy.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

McCain Tries to Squelch Troopergate Investigation

Less than two months before the Presidential election, Vice Presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin faces an ethics investigation into her role in firing her state’s Public Safety Commissioner. Walt Monegan says he was terminated because he rebuffed intense pressure from the governor and her aides to dismiss Mike Wooten, a state trooper who was involved in a messy custody battle with Palin’s sister. The scandal has come to be known as “Troopergate,” and, while Palin initially agreed to fully cooperate with an investigation into it, she has now backtracked on that pledge. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is working furiously to defuse the investigation – an action that is itself questionable in terms of ethics. The McCain-Palin ticket has claimed that Palin’s record as governor of Alaska proves her willingness to take on government corruption. “Troopergate” threatens to derail that claim.

GUEST: Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). For more information, visit www.citizensforethics.org.

Tim Wise: This is Your Nation on White Privilege

The nomination of Senator Barack Obama was sure to bring in a slew of racial politics to the forefront in this year’s Presidential elections. But the nomination of Governor Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has added a surprise twist to the dynamics – one that involves both race and gender. A poll released by Washington Post and ABC News just after John McCain picked Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate suggested that the Republican strategy of drawing white women voters away from Democrat Barack Obama had worked. According to that poll McCain was ahead of Obama by 12 points among white women. Whereas last month, Obama had been leading McCain by 8 points among the same demographic. But a newer poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation shows that in fact Obama was losing white women before the conventions and that trend now continues. White women supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton were angry about their candidate losing to Obama before the conventions began. Many threatened to boycott the party entirely and vote for McCain instead.

GUEST: Tim Wise is an anti-racist writer and educator, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and his new book is called Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-racist Reflections From an Angry White Male

Read Tim Wise’s essay, “This is Your Nation on White Privilege” here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/this-your-nation-white-privilege.

For more information, visit www.timwise.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The denial of racism is a form of racism itself.” — Tim Wise