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:

* Who’s Responsible for the S&P Downgrade & Does it Really Matter?
* Super-Committee Forms Amid Low Expectations of Success
* An in-Depth Look at What’s Behind the London Riots
* Black Agenda Report on the London Riots

* * *

Who’s Responsible for the S&P Downgrade & Does it Really Matter?

After hitting a low-point earlier in the week, the biggest drop in 10 months, the Dow Jones Industrial average jumped back up by Friday. The stock market is expected to remain volatile in the wake of the recent downgrading of the U.S.’s credit rating by Standard & Poor (S&P), and ahead of a policy statement expected from the Federal Reserve. The S&P downgrading was historic – after months of political wrangling over raising the debt ceiling in order to preserve the U.S.’s credit rating, the private company was the only one to reduce the rating from AAA to AA+. It is the first time in history that such a move has taken place. In a document explaining their reasoning, Standard and Poor said, “America’s governance and policy making is becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable.” Meanwhile, the two other major credit rating agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, have stood firm on their AAA rating. President Barack Obama gave a short address at the White House on Monday August 8th reflecting on the downgrade. Obama also said he plans to push for an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, and “modest adjustments” to Medicare to help boost the economy. Meanwhile, Conservatives have jumped on the S&P downgrade issue to blame the President. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney lambasted Obama for carrying out a “partisan, blame-oriented presidency,” and said the downgrade “punctuated once again the failure of leadership by the president.” Another Republican Presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann, blamed Obama for “dismiss[ing] the downgrade of our country’s credit rating, and argu[ing] that there’s no more room for spending cuts in Washington.” But billionaire investor Warren Buffet, some Democrats, and even the President’s spokesman are bandying about the term, “Tea Party downgrade,” saying that the S&P gave in to the extreme rightwing groups.

GUEST: Joshua Holland, senior writer and editor at Alternet.org, author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy: And Everything else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America

Read Joshua’s latest article here: http://www.alternet.org/story/151935/standard_and_poor%27s%3A_
just_more_corrupt_wall_street_insiders_waging_class_war_on_america/

Listen to our November 22, 2010 interview with Joshua Holland here: http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=17281

Super-Committee Forms Amid Low Expectations of Success

Democratic and Republican leaders have chosen 12 lawmakers to sit on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a panel charged with cutting the federal budget by $1.2 trillion before the year’s end. The so-called super committee’s mandate was created in the recent debt ceiling bill that was signed into law, and is supposed to consist of three House representatives from each party, and three Senators from each party. The Democrats nominated are representatives Clyburn, Becerra, and Van Hollen, and Senators Kerry, Murray, and Baucus. And, the Republicans nominated to the super committee are House Representatives Camp, Upton, and Hensarling, and Senators Toomey, Portman, and Kyl. Democratic Senator Patty Murray is the only woman on the committee. Questions have already surfaced about the group’s chances of agreeing to specific cuts. All six Republicans have signed on to Grover Norquist’s pledge to raise no new taxes. And, with an election year coming up, many Democrats say they are reluctant to make further cuts to social safety-net programs. If the panel fails to come up with a proposal by its November 23rd deadline, a two percent cut in federal spending will take effect automatically, with Medicare and the Pentagon’s budgets coming under the axe. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has already made it clear that he will not support any cuts to the military and corporate lobbyists are flocking to Washington to protect their industries. Politico quoted one K Streeter as saying he was gearing up “by writing 12 really large checks.” If just one of panel members crosses party lines, the committee’s recommendations will go to Congress for an up-or-down-vote, then move on for President Obama signature – or veto. The super-committee’s negotiations are not required to be public, and this week, criticism came from an unlikely source: Newt Gingrich said the group’s creation was “as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with.” He added, “[w]e owe it to the American people to say this committee should be in public… We should all know what they’re talking about. There should be no surprises.”

GUEST: Ari Berman is contributing writer for The Nation magazine and the author of Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics

Read Ari Berman’s article here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/162747/ari-berman-not-so-super-committee

An in-Depth Look at What’s Behind the London Riots

Nearly a week of rioting across England has shocked its residents and international onlookers. It began on Saturday August 6th in the North London town of Tottenham when a peaceful protest over the August 4th fatal police shooting of a black man named Mark Duggan spiraled out of control. Over the next few days, protests escalated throughout Tottenham, and the violence spread to Enfield and Brixton as banks were attacked, cars set on fire, and stores looted. By Monday, riots had spread to Birmingham and Liverpool, two of the largest cities in Britain, and even to upscale areas around London. British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the riots as “criminality pure and simple,” while the police referred to the spreading of violence as “copycat criminality.” By the middle of the week there were 16,000 police officers on the streets to quell the riots. Eventually, more than 1000 people had been arrested, and more than a 100 police officers wounded. At least five people have been killed. It has been determined that a majority of the rioters were unemployed young men. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Cameron issued what’s called a recall of Parliament – calling MPs back from their summer recess, to tackle the issue politically. Because social media and wireless communications were fingered as the main modes of communication between rioters, the Prime Minister has suggested curtailing access to digital networks. Mainstream media coverage of the riots have been unable to pin down what exactly is driving the riots. Writing for the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum says, “The rioters themselves do not wave signs. They do not chant. They weren’t protesting any particular government policy, as were student demonstrators in London last winter. They have not sought publicity for their views, if they have any. They hide from cameras and dodge journalists. And thus have they become the inkblot in a kind of national Rorschach test.” Yet, austerity measures around the UK this year led to the closure of scores of libraries, youth centers, and other social services. One activist with the group Occupied London, focused on responding to the cuts, told Al Jazeera English that the “problems in the community [are]…a bubble of anger and anxiety and oppression that has to be burst.” But David Cameron refuted that view, saying “This is not about poverty, it’s about culture. A culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority, and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities.”

GUESTS: Rob Berkeley, Director of the Runnymede Trust, a racial equality think tank in Britain, Daniel Elton, Managing Director of Left Foot Forward, a political blog, Jaya, a member of the Occupied London collective

Find out more about the organizations of our guests at: www.runnymedetrust.org, www.leftfootforward.org, and occupiedlondon.org.

View a Guardian video report published on July 31st, just days before the riots about the closure of youth centers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/video/2011/jul/31/haringey-youth-club-closures-video?CMP=twt_gu

Black Agenda Report on the London Riots

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

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.” — Mikhail Bakunin