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This week on Uprising:

* Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy
* Black Agenda Report called “The World Flees From The American Disease”
* The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans
* Empire Notes: Avoiding Another Fiasco

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Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy

In series of negotiations with members of the Obama administration, Congress has finally come to an agreement on a version of the economic stimulus package that was being debated for weeks. Even though both houses of Congress had increased the size of the bill to greater than $800 billion in their respective versions, the final version of the bill was cut down to $789 billion. Programs that were scaled back or cut to appease the minority Republican party included Obama’s middle class tax cut, school construction funds, tax incentives for home buyers, and provisions for health insurance to the unemployed. Many lawmakers are balking at the size of the bill, the largest government effort to save the economy since World War II. And yet, it is paltry in comparison to the $2.5 trillion financial industry rescue plan proposed recently by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

GUEST: Dean Baker, Co-Director of Center of Economic and Policy Research, and author of the brand new book, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy

Black Agenda Report called “The World Flees From The American Disease”

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is called “The World Flees From The American Disease.”

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans

On February 12th, the US Senate took up the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, meant to fully and transparently fund the Veterans Administration. The VA has been plagued by funding shortfalls and delays, often leading to long delays in processing claims for veterans, and even providing medical care to returning soldiers. The legislation has been applauded by veterans rights groups like Disabled American Veterans. Despite the fact that news of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has faded in favor of the economic recession, there are hundreds of thousands of returned soldiers, huge numbers of who face near-daily battle with the VA and getting care for their physical and mental injuries. This is what independent journalist and author Aaron Glantz calls “Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans,” the subtitle to his new book, The War Comes Home. According to Glantz’s research, between 15-50% of all post 9-11 veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 320,000 of them suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury, and 18 veterans a day are committing suicide. Aaron Glantz spent many months reporting on the war in Iraq, and his earlier book was How America Lost Iraq. He is a familiar voice on Pacifica Radio and Free Speech Radio News. I spoke with him recently at the Los Angeles studios of KPFK about his new book, The War Comes Home.

GUEST: Aaron Glantz, independent journalist and author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans

Empire Notes: Avoiding Another Fiasco

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is called “Avoiding Another Fiasco.”

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

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Warmaking doesn’t stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago.” — Colman McCarthy