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This week on Uprising:

* Analyzing the GM Bankruptcy Plan
* Black Agenda Report: Bankers Win Even When They Fail
* Conservative Accusations of Racism Against Sonia Sotomayor
* Empire Notes on Israeli Settlements and Obama
* Mainstream Media’s Love Affair with Arizona’s Renegade Sheriff Arpaio

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Analyzing the GM Bankruptcy Plan

The nation’s largest auto company General Motors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and a majority government ownership. Under the complex deal the public will get a 60% share in the company for $50 billion. The Obama administration negotiated the deal with GM, as well as its creditors and the United Auto Workers. GM will have to close a number of plants and auto workers will lose more than 20,000 jobs. Retirement benefits are also being negotiated to save GM money. However GM’s very profitable business in China will not be part of the deal. The other major auto manufacturer, Chrysler, just went through a bankruptcy proceeding and will merge with Fiat to stay on its feet. However, in the case of GM, analysts are concerned that the plan to keep the company afloat will only work if there are strong sales. In this economic climate, that’s a long shot.

GUEST: Richard Wolff, Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Black Agenda Report: Bankers Win Even When They Fail

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is called Bankers Win Even When They Fail.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Conservative Accusations of Racism Against Sonia Sotomayor

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reported last Friday that Supreme Court Justice Nominee Sonia Sotomayor has acknowledged a poor word choice in comments singled out by critics. An excerpt of a 2001 lecture given by Sotomayor at UC Berkeley has been widely reported fueling allegations by conservatives that the would-be first Latina to serve in the highest court in the land is “racist.” In the sentence in question, Sotomayor, in response to a quote by Sandra Day O’Connor said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” President Obama, in an NBC interview said of Sotomayor’s words, “I’m sure she would have restated it.” The statement was enough for conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and Republican Newt Gingrich to publicly lambast the nominee as “racist.” Sotomayor’s decision against a “reverse discrimination” case brought by white firefighters in Connecticut is has added fodder to the accusations. Congressman Tom Tancredo took the attacks a step further by implying Sotomayor was a racist because of her membership in the National Council of La Raza, calling the civil rights organization a “Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses.” Regardless of the tone and fervor of the attacks on Sotomayor recent polls show her nomination to be viewed favorably by a margin of two to one.

GUEST: Fabiola Torres, an Ethnic Studies instructor at Glendale Community College

Empire Notes on Israeli Settlements and Obama

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Israeli Settlements and Obama.

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

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Mainstream Media’s Love Affair with Arizona’s Renegade Sheriff Arpaio

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a subject of perennial controversy, put his prisons on lockdown last month after being faced with a hunger strike by inmates. The man who likens himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” called an end to the lockdown a day after the Goldwater Institute accused Arpaio of improperly clearing criminal investigations and reporting faulty statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a result. The criticism follows an earlier claim by the institute last December that Arpaio’s prioritization of high publicity immigration sweeps were undermining traditional law enforcement. Despite the fact that Arpaio has faced numerous lawsuits and even a federal investigation for racial profiling, the Maricopa County Sheriff has appeared prominently in the corporate media as a spokesperson on immigration. According to a new report in Extra! – the magazine of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – has appeared on cable news television twenty-one times over the past year. CNN has accounted for seventeen of those invitations. Conversely, the report also notes that as Sheriff Arpaio has been a frequent guest on cable news television, the voices of those who are directly affected by his policies have been woefully missing.

GUEST:Aura Bogado, freelance journalist, former anchor of FSRN, who wrote an article in FAIR’s magazine Extra.

Read Aura Bogado’s article at www.fair.org/index.php?page=3790

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“One hates what one fears.” — Marylin Manson.