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This week on Uprising:

* Still No New Deal From Obama on Economy
* Black Agenda Report on Democrats Rebranding Themselves
* US/NATO Kill Campaigners Ahead of Afghan Elections
* Learn, Don’t Burn, Says Muslim Rights Group

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Still No New Deal From Obama on Economy

In what is being touted by some as Obama’s New Deal, the President laid out his latest fiscal policies in two speeches this past week. On Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the President began a long-awaited articulation of his latest fiscal policies, which he continued in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday. Cleveland is where Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner just a month ago gave a major speech denouncing the Democrats’ plans to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire. It was at Boehner that Obama took aim in his speeches, saying that the Republicans have no new ideas and have constantly lobbied to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. But critics who supported Obama’s first $700 billion economic stimulus plan are disappointed that he does not even use the term stimulus anymore, and that in fact his plan is too weak to stimulate the economy. Obama’s plans include investing in infrastructure building, letting tax cuts for the wealthy expire, making permanent tax cuts for the middle class, and allowing businesses to deduct the capital investments costs now rather than later. As if deferring to the Republican mantra of a bloated deficit Obama maintained that his new proposals would pay for themselves. It is highly unlikely that even this weak plan would make it through Congress.

GUEST: Max Fraad Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University.

Read Wolff’s writings in the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-fraad-wolff

Black Agenda Report on Democrats Rebranding Themselves

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

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

US/NATO Kill Campaigners Ahead of Afghan Elections

The US Army released documents on Wednesday revealing that a dozen soldiers have been charged with a series of crimes in Afghanistan ranging from the murder and assault of Afghan civilians, to the mutilation of their bodies, and attempts to cover up the crimes. The grim news comes days after a botched NATO air strike killed 10 Afghan civilians campaigning in the Northern region of the country in the run-up to the September 18th parliamentary elections. President Karzai condemned the civilian deaths at the hands of a military force that is partly responsible for ensuring the safety of Afghans participating in election activities and voting. After the killings NATO said it had targeted and successfully killed or wounded 12 insurgents. There was no official U.S. response to the deaths of the campaigners, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying on Thursday he had not yet heard about them. He reiterated NATO’s assertion that the attack targeted insurgents and was successful in killing a high-ranking official of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, violence in the country has caused serious problems for elections officials, and threatens to cause the disenfranchisement of large sections of Afghanistan voters. Reuters reports that more than 900 polling stations will remain closed on election day, many in areas inhabited by ethnic Pashtuns. The announced burning of Qurans by a Florida pastor on September 11th has only fueled tensions. A crowd of about ten thousand protesters attacked a NATO airbase in Northern Afghanistan over the planned burning on Friday. One person was shot and killed and 8 wounded by NATO forces.

GUEST: Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in US national security policy, writer for the Inter Press Service

Read Gareth Porter’s work online at www.ipsnews.net.

Learn, Don’t Burn, Says Muslim Rights Group

After making headlines last night saying he was canceling a highly controversial Qur’an burning, Pastor Terry Jones today said it could happen, though was unlikely. He told a reporter this morning, “We are seriously, seriously, seriously considering not burning the Qur’ans.” In his televised press-conference on Thursday evening Terry Jones said he was canceling the burning after reaching an agreement to have the so-called “ground zero mosque” moved. Florida’s Imam Mohammad Musri yesterday immediately said he had not negotiated an end to the New York Cordoba House Muslim center with Jones. The Florida Imam said he would arrange a meeting between Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in New York and Pastor Jones for tonight, and Jones is hedging on his commitment to cancel until the two talk. Jones was apparently moved to reconsider the September 11th burning after receiving a phone call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a visit by the FBI yesterday.

In response to the rise of anti-Islamic sentiment and hate crimes against Muslims and mosques around the country, the Council on American and Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is launching an education campaign. In a press-release CAIR said evidence shows that when people learn about the Islamic faith they are less likely to have anti-Muslim prejudices. CAIR’s education campaign includes a detailed tool-kit on how individuals and communities can respond to anti-Muslim actions on September 11th and beyond. The group is also gathering 200,000 copies of the Qur’an to be distributed, calling the action “Learn, Don’t Burn”.

GUEST: Zahra Billoo, Public Relations Director, CAIR – San Francisco Bay Area

Find out more at www.cair.com and www.explorethequran.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it.” — Rabindranath Tagore