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:

* Clinton or Obama – What’s the Difference?
* Black Agenda Report on Prisons and the Green Party
* Katrina Survivors Scramble to Meet Housing Assistance Deadline
* Empire Notes on Impeachment – Part 1
* Iran Targeted Economically and Militarily

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

Clinton or Obama – What’s the Difference?

GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco

Senator Barack Obama, one of the top two leading 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls, has shown his true colors. In a recent speech he called on the US to pull out of Iraq and focus on what he calls “the real sources of terrorism”: Afghanistan and Pakistan, including unilateral military action in Pakistan if necessary. The speech comes amid an ongoing squabble between Obama and Senator Hilary Clinton, the other leading Democratic candidate. The latest tiff happened during a YouTube sponsored debate over the advisability of meeting with so-called “hostile” leaders, such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, without preconditions. But they seem to agree on Afghanistan with Clinton saying in a recent speech, “Distracted by Iraq, we have squandered much of what our military accomplished in Afghanistan.” Are the two candidates really that different? Would a Clinton or Obama presidency simply mean getting mostly out of Iraq and getting deeper into Afghanistan? If so, is that good enough for most Americans?

Black Agenda Report on Prisons and the Green Party

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about Prisons and the Green Party. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Katrina Survivors Scramble to Meet Housing Assistance Deadline

GUESTS: Chris Kromm, Executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies, and founder of Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Vanita Rogers, Member of the New Orleans Survivors Council from the Lower 9th Ward

Yesterday was the deadline for survivors of Hurricane Katrina to apply for state funds for homeowners. Louisiana’s Road Home grant program was designed to compensate homeowners for damages not covered by insurance policies. The total number of people seeking grants is expected to top at around 175,000. For many Louisiana residents, the grants are a last hope to save their homes. But the Road Home program is problematic. So far grants have been awarded to fewer than a quarter of all applicants. Additionally, the 6.4 billion dollars in federal money alloted to the program could fall severely short of what’s needed to fulfill the grants. As much as $11 billion extra could be needed. State officials hope to get more for the program in an Iraq war spending bill expected to come before Congress in September or October. Many members of Congress have expressed support for the extra allocation but the White House has been less committal. Donald Powell, President Bush’s Gulf Coast recovery chief, hasn’t yet indicated whether the White House would back more aid.

Empire Notes on Impeachment – Part 1

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

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

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Iran Targeted Economically and Militarily

GUEST: Nader Sadeghi, Board member of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran, and professor of surgery at George Washington University

Last week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates began touring Gulf Arab nations being considered in a new proposed Bush Administration arms deal. Saudi Arabia, alongside five other Gulf nations, could receive up to twenty billion dollars worth of advanced weapons including satellite-guided bombs, fighter aircraft upgrades, and naval vessels. The plan is partly designed to hem in the Iranian regime. Secretary Rice commented to the Washington Post, “There isn’t a doubt that Iran constitutes the single most important single-country strategic challenge to the United States and to the kind of the Middle East that we want to see.” The United Nations Security Council recently passed two resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and abide by its nuclear treaty obligations. Meanwhile Iran, one of the world’s leading oil producing countries, has begun to ration gasoline. The announcement sparked angry reactions and massive traffic jams in Tehran. Protesters burned gas stations and set cars on fire. The rationing of gasoline adds to the economic woes already plaguing Iranians, including rising inflation and growing unemployment.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world – no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.” — Woodrow Wilson