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This week on Uprising:

* After Super Tuesday, Romney and Santorum Remain Ahead
* G8 Summit is Moved from Chicago, Protesters Remain Undeterred
* The Self-Made Myth and the Truth About How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed
* Global and Domestic Challenges Women Face On International Women’s Day

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After Super Tuesday, Romney and Santorum Remain Ahead

With the results from Super Tuesday races in this week, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney still appears to be the front runner winning in six out of ten states: Alaska, Idaho, Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Rick Santorum still trails him, winning in three states: North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Newt Gingrich won the race in Georgia – the state he represented in Congress for two decades. And even though Ron Paul did not win outright in any states, he hauled in 40% of the vote in Virginia – a state where Santorum and Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot, leaving voters with only two options. Paul also won substantial percentages in Alaska, North Dakota, and Vermont. Because all ten states use some form of proportional allocation, percentages of votes translate into delegates.

Mitt Romney now boasts a total of 415 delegates according to the Associated Press. His win in Ohio, which is considered a crucial swing state in the general election, surprised many after days of poor showings in pre-election polls. Money has played a huge role in the GOP primary race so far and Super Tuesday was no exception: The Super PAC supporting Romney spent more than $4 million on ads in Ohio, while the group backing Santorum spent less than a quarter of that amount.

Also in Ohio, long-time progressive Congressman Dennis Kucinich lost a hard-fought primary battle for his seat in the House of Representatives, to Marcy Kaptur. Nation magazine writer John Nichols called Kucinich “the first electoral victim of the current round of redistricting” and “the purest anti-war champion” progressives had in the House.

Rick Santorum’s wins in the southern states of Tennessee and Oklahoma have been attributed to their significant fundamentalist Christian populations.

In the coming week, elections and caucuses in Kansas, the Virgin Islands, Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi, Hawaii, and American Samoa will take place.

GUEST: Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute. He has written extensively about American politics, foreign policy and the intersection of money and politics. His book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, is just out in paperback. Ari Berman is Uprising’s Election Analyst

G8 Summit is Moved from Chicago, Protesters Remain Undeterred

While the nation was focused on Super Tuesday elections, the White House Press Secretary made an understated announcement on Monday that the May G8 summit would be moved from Chicago to Camp David. White House National Security Spokesman Tommy Vector later called the mountain retreat in Maryland more “intimate,” and a better fit for the needs of the annual meeting of leaders of the countries with the world’s 8 largest economies. The original plan had been for Chicago to host the G8 summit on May 18th and 19th and then the NATO summit on the 20th and 21st. Tommy Vector said the President was not splitting the conference locations to avoid planned mass protests, but activists doubt the claim. The four days of international meetings between world and military superpowers drew invitations for protests from US activists such as Bill Ayers and groups such as the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism. Rahm Emmanuel, Mayor of Chicago and former Chief of Staff to President Obama, began planning for the G8 and NATO protests last year. In January, after some negotiation, the Chicago City Council passed new restrictive laws on protesting in the city. FireDogLake.com reports these include increased fines and jail time for failing to get a parade permit, requiring protest marches to be covered by insurance for up to $1million in damages, and allowing law enforcement to deputize nearly anyone, from DEA agents to private security guards. However, Emmanuel’s new rules did not dampen plans for protest and it appears the G8 location change has not either. Chicago activist Andy Thayer, who is working with a coalition of groups in preparation for the May summits told the Associated Press on Tuesday, “Guess what? The protests are going to happen anyway.” There is also a possibility that activists will follow the G8 to Maryland.

GUEST: Rachel Perotta, member of the Occupy Chicago Press Committee

Visit www.occupychi.org for more information.

The Self-Made Myth and the Truth About How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed

As we head toward the presidential election this November, the Republican front runner Mitt Romney is a man whose estimated net worth is $250 million. Romney claims to be a “self made man” despite his privileged upbringing and the fact that he made most of his money through financial investments which are taxed at a lower rate than regularly earned income. Now, authors Brian Miller and Mike Lapham in their book titled ‘The Self Made Myth,’ examine the fantasy that a person who merely works hard can achieve the American Dream. The ‘self made myth’ has its origins in early America which was intent on setting itself apart from the pedigreed aristocracies of Europe which offered little hope for individual success. Horatio Alger’s stories of the individual’s rise from rags to riches struck a deep chord in the American psyche. But, as Miller and Lapham point out in their new book, businesses and individuals can not succeed without certain infrastructure in place like a public education system, public transportation, the US postal service, and other laws and regulations. When one acknowledges all the ways in which entrepreneurs benefit from these pre-existing systems, taxes are seen more clearly as a way to financially support the structures which helped these individuals create their wealth in the first place. Instead of the self made man there is actually a ‘built together’ reality which helps us as a community. By debunking the idea of the self made man, Miller and Lapham show us that there is no level playing field and ideas about the self made man are at the heart of how we shape our public policy decisions. With interviews from Warren Buffett, Disney heir Abigail Disney, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s, among others, Miller and Lapham show how these successful business people benefited from governmental programs.

GUEST: Brian Miller is executive director of United for a Fair Economy

Visit www.selfmademyth.org for more information.

Challenges Women Face On International Women’s Day

It has been documented that International Women’s Day has been celebrated around the world since a German Marxist activist named Clara Zetkin in 1910 decided it was important at least once a year to mark the political struggles and movements for women’s rights. Zetkin probably did not however, imagine that in 2012, a marketing company in the US would launch a campaign to raise awareness of International Women’s Day by encouraging women to wear red lipstick. A campaign called Rock Your Lips, by the company AKQA, is encouraging women around the country today to practice their “power pouts” and post photos of their red lipstick adorned lips to promote this International Women’s Day.

Zetkin also probably would not have fathomed that in 2012, the right of women to have access to contraception would be a debatable issue based on the supposed tenets of a religious institution whose leadership has shredded its own morality for condoning wide spread child sexual abuse. Or that a government body like the Virginia State House would attempt to require women seeking abortions to submit to vaginal ultrasounds. Or that a prominent media figure – Rush Limbaugh – would rail against contraception by labeling an advocate a “slut,” and a “prostitute,” and demand that she post a sex video online simply because she supports employers being mandated to provide insurance coverage of the pill. The recent political discourse on women’s basic rights has degenerated to such an extent that women are left approaching this International Women’s Day with befuddlement and outrage.

Meanwhile, the United Nations just concluded its 56th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, focusing on the rights of rural women worldwide. And a new agency was founded this year, called the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. But much of the conversation around women’s rights this International Women’s Day seems to have been co-opted by business interests. ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest corporations, has donated more than $53 million to “spur economic opportunities for women.” Exxon is now collaborating with the United Nations Foundation to “identify the most effective global investments that promote economic opportunities for women.”

And, the apparently official IWD website, InternationalWomensDay.com, is a corporate-sponsored online hub of activities around the world celebrating the day. Web Banners advertising Scotiabank, and the African Development Bank run across the website, which also promotes under its Gender Initiatives Page, the numerous corporations that promote women’s rights. The website also encourages women to follow a link to “explore your development opportunities.”

But, around the world, women continue struggling with day to day issues of poverty and war, even as the global recession has been used as a justification for so-called austerity measures and violence has worsened women’s rights. In Afghanistan, US ally President Hamid Karzai this week endorsed a “code of conduct” drafted by a council of clerics that allows, among other things, husbands to beat their wives in certain circumstances. In Iraq, a country that has enjoyed comparatively better rights for women in the Middle East, so-called honor killings are on the rise – this week news erupted of a man who brutally tried to kill his three teenage daughters because he suspected they were having sex – two of them died.

GUESTS: Loretta Ross, founder and the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of Madre, is an international women’s human rights organization that works in partnership with community-based women’s organizations

Visit www.sistersong.org and www.madre.org for more information.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” — Susan B. Anthony