Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising:

* Supreme Court Extends DC Handgun Ban
* Jerry Lembcke on “Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal”
* Black Agenda Report on Media Coverage of the Recession
* Vandana Shiva at the G20 protests in Toronto

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Supreme Court Extends DC Handgun Ban

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in McDonald v. Chicago that the city’s 28-year old handgun ban was unconstitutional. The decision comes just three weeks after Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis announced that Chicago’s murder rate through the first half of 2010 was higher than at the same point last year. This decision by the high court applies nationwide the 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that there is a Second Amendment right to keep a handgun in your home for self-defense. The Second Amendment says, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The 5-4 Supreme Court decision explicitly applied that sentence to handgun possession in the home. But the ruling does not prevent local and state laws restricting who can possess handguns and where they can be taken. However, the gun rights lobby is eager to repeal those laws which it feels infringe upon the 2nd Amendment. Herb Titus, counsel for Gun Owners of America says the first priority for the gun lobby will be to challenge laws banning gun ownership for those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors. This despite evidence that access to firearms increases intimate-partner deaths five times compared to incidents where no guns are present. Gun violence in America claims 30,000 lives per year, and states with the most lax gun laws and highest rates of gun ownership lead the nation in gun deaths.

GUEST: Jonathan Lowy, Senior Attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal

Earlier this year the US war in Afghanistan surpassed in length, the war in Vietnam. It is now officially considered the longest war the US has ever been engaged in. Despite the recent change in leadership from General Stanley McChrystal to David Petraeus, there seems to be little movement in the direction of wrapping up the war effort. How the US war in Afghanistan will ultimately be viewed remains to be seen. However, examining post-Vietnam war rhetoric can be instructive. Among the most persistent of perceptions was the one of Hanoi Jane, the nickname given to Hollywood actress and antiwar activist Jane Fonda who visited Hanoi during the war and was used by the American right to explain US defeat in the war. “In blaming the antiwar movement for undermining the military’s resolve many found in the imaginary Hanoi Jane the personification of their stab-in-the-back theories.” Now, Jerry Lembcke, professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross has a new book called Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal. Lembcke’s earlier book was The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam. In Hanoi Jane, Lembcke deconstructs the myth, conducting first hand research, to show how several years after the war’s end, Fonda was demonized as part of an organized propaganda effort to rewrite the history of the war.

GUEST: Jerry Lembcke, professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross, author of “Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal, and The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam

Black Agenda Report on Media Coverage of the Recession

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is about on Media Coverage of the Recession.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Vandana Shiva Address Anti-G20 Protests

The leaders of the Group of 20 countries or G20 met in Toronto last week to adopt what they call austerity measures in response to the global financial crisis. Discussions focused around deficit reduction rather than relief for ordinary citizens. After intense lobbying by the financial sector, the governments meeting in Toronto postponed plans for tough banking regulations. G20 leaders also failed to tackle climate change issues. The meeting also drew thousands of protesters from Canada and around the globe, and an astronomical $1 billion police and security budget. By the end of the summit over 1000 people had been arrested, many of whom say their civil rights were violated. There are reports of police indiscriminately detaining and arresting by-standers, targeting people wearing black-T shirts, and using excessive force. Security personnel forced the dispersal of protesters at a designated demonstration site, and detained hundreds of people for hours outside, in the rain. The Canadian Civil Rights Association says they have been flooded with calls regarding arrests and the tactics used, and are considering a joint lawsuit against the Toronto Police and other security forces. Groups ranging from Greenpeace to the Canadian Criminal Lawyers Association are calling for an independent probe of police actions. On June 25th thousands of activists gathered at Massey Hall in Toronto for a rousing event featuring music and speakers like Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, and Amy Goodman. The event was called Shout Out for Global Justice and today we’ll play you an excerpt of that event featuring Vandana Shiva. Dr. Shiva is an internationally renowned environmental activist based in India. She has degrees in Physics and Philisophy, is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, and has written several books including Earth Democracy.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.” — George Bernard Shaw