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This week on Uprising:

* Obama Tax Cut Deal Passes Senate and House, Offers Big Giveaways to Super-rich
* Cancun Concludes with Bare Bones Commitment
* Black Agenda Report on the Entrapment of Muslims
* Australians Stand Up In Solidarity with Assange and WikiLeaks
* US Media Coverage of WikiLeaks Documents Reveal Hypocrisy, Bias

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Obama Tax Cut Deal Passes Senate and House, Offers Big Giveaways to Super-rich

The Senate on Wednesday passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act by an 81 to 19 vote. The bill passed by a wide margin despite resistance from the left and right—including a nine-hour rebuke last Friday from Independent Vermont senator, Bernie Sanders. The controversial legislation was then quickly ushered into the House for consideration within hours where it was voted on late Thursday night. It passed the House by a vote of 277-148 despite opposition from liberal Democrats. Championed by President Obama and the Republican leadership as a compromise, the deal contains, among other things, a two year extension on the Bush-era tax rates for all, including the super-rich, a 13-month extension on unemployed benefits, a reinstatement of the Estate Tax at lower levels than under Bush, and a temporary reduction to the Social-Security-funding payroll tax. Independent senator Bernie Sanders tried to amend the bill before the Senate vote to make it more progressive: extending tax cuts for the bottom 98% of Americans, reforming the Estate Tax, preserving the payroll tax, and more. But his amendment was also voted down before the bill ultimately passed. However the Senate version accidentally omitted a low income housing tax credit for Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors. The bill now heads to President Obama’s desk for a final signature.

GUEST: Matt Taibbi, contributing editor of Rolling Stone Magazine, author of The Great Derangement, Spanking the Donkey, and Smells Like Dead Elephants. His latest book is Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con that is Breaking America

Cancun Concludes with Bare Bones Commitment

The United Nations’ annual climate conference—held this year in Cancun, Mexico—concluded this weekend offering little more than the assurance that negotiations will continue next year in Durban, South Africa. With expectations drastically reduced by the ineffectiveness of last year’s talks, the UN hailed the establishment of a global climate fund as an important first step to providing assistance to the world’s poorest countries as they attempt to deal with the worst effects of climate change. Another development came with Japan succumbing to enormous last-minute pressure to not block the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol. However, with mounting resistance to the treaty, which is set to expire in 2012, many wonder whether these actions just delay the inevitable for Kyoto. Meanwhile tenuous progress took form in the deforestation deal known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation or (REDD), which establishes a framework for rich countries to reimburse poor countries to stop logging. However, the details of how to pay for REDD are still unclear. Environmental and indigenous activists are also concerned that the ambiguous language will allow logging companies to continue tree removal by simply avoiding protected areas of forest and that rich nations will utilize the deal to offset their own carbon emissions. At it current rates, deforestation accounts for approximately 20% of CO2 emissions worldwide—more than all cars, buses, air planes, trains, and ships combined.

GUEST: David Waskow is the Climate Change Program Director at Oxfam America. He is a veteran of national and international climate change negotiations and just returned from the UN talks in Cancun, Mexico.

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Find out more at: www.oxfam.org

Black Agenda Report on the Entrapment of Muslims

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

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Australians Stand Up In Solidarity with Assange and WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks’ Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Julian Assange, was finally freed on bail by a British court on Thursday. He is expected to appear at another hearing on January 11th and will begin fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on charges of rape and sexual crimes. An attorney for Julian Assange, speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, said a secret grand jury has been convened here in the US, in Virginia, to discuss bringing criminal charges against Julian Assange. Attorney Mark Stephens said that Assange is entitled under Swedish and International law to be informed of any investigations or charges against him. A secret grand jury would violate these rights. The reaction of US officials and public figures to the latest WikiLeaks document dump of 250,000 diplomatic cables has been largely negative and increasingly aggressive. Writing in the Washington Times, Jeffery T. Kuhner said Assange is “aiding and abetting terrorists” and “the administration must take care of the problem – effectively and permanently.” This latest document dump has also garnered International criticism, even from his native country of Australia. Speaking to the British newspaper the Guardian, a lawyer for Assange said Australia had uncharacteristically failed to offer any assistance to a citizen facing an international barrage of questionable criminal charges. In reaction to their government’s inaction, an independent, grassroots Australian organization called GetUp! has started a campaign of public support for their fellow countryman. GetUp! raised enough money to buy a full-page ad for their cause in the New York Times, which ran on Thursday. The group is also collecting signatures for a petition to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that denounces calls for violence against Assange and “detention with out charge.”

GUEST: Brett Solomon, former Executive Director of GetUp! Australia, now spokesperson for GetUp!

Find out more at: www.getup.org.au

US Media Coverage of WikiLeaks Documents Reveal Hypocrisy, Bias

The latest WikiLeaks document cache of diplomatic cables is being released at a trickle. Contrary to popular understanding, the media watch-dog organization FAIR – Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – states that only 1,000 of the approximately 250,000 documents have been made public so far. However this small batch of documents has spurred a huge reaction from the US Government. Earlier this month a White House Executive Order barred government employees from viewing any and all of the leaked, widely available documents. And this week the US Air Force went a step further and blocked computer access to entire media websites, including that of the New York Times, in an effort to prevent employees from reading the material. The US Government is also exploring the possibility of bringing criminal charges against WikiLeaks co-founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange. Meanwhile, a survey of the mainstream media by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has found that many outlets are dismissive of the information found in the cables, while interpreting them as proof of competent and effective US diplomacy efforts. At the same time, the FAIR survey shows a media predilection for demonizing Assange as an anti-american radical and conspiracy theorist. In the New York Times David Brooks wrote, “Despite the imaginings of people like Assange, the conversation revealed in the cables is not devious and nefarious. The private conversation is similar to the public conversation, except maybe more admirable.” Brooks’ assertion that classified documents mirror what is already publicly known is another common refrain. Writing in the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum stated that Assange had, “…vast ambitions. Among them the end of American government as we know it.” However she goes on to say that the cables, “Show US diplomats pursue pretty much the same goals in private as they do in public.”

GUEST: Peter Hart, Activism Director at FAIR and and Co-producer of CounterSpin, which airs Sundays at 1:30 pm

Find out more at www.fair.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” — Aldous Huxley