Apr 04 2008
Weekly Digest – 04/04/08
Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.
PodcastThis week on Uprising:
* Zimbabwe: Will Mugabe Step Down After 28 Years?
* Black Agenda Report on the Congo
* Immigration: SAVE Act is “Sensenbrenner-in-Disguise”
* Empire Notes on Basra, Iraq
* Election 2008: Fox News Spreads Its Virus
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Will Mugabe Step Down After 28 Years?
GUEST: Briggs Bomba, Program Associate for Public Education and Mobilization at Africa Action
Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party held a politburo meeting to discuss the nation’s elections last weekend as hundreds of pro-Mugabe war veterans took to the streets of Harare. Last Saturday, Zimbabweans went to the polls casting their votes in one of the most pivotal elections in the recent history of the African nation. The political atmosphere there has remained tense as official results in the three-way presidential race have not been released. Fearful of tampering, civil society organizations in Zimbabwe have signed onto a petition demanding that the Southern African Development Community and the African Union pressure for the release of all electoral results immediately. ZANU-PF party officials have said that current President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for the past 28 years, is ready for a run-off election against his presumed Movement for Democratic Change rival Morgan Tsvangirai should presidential results declare the necessity of a second round. Tsvangirai’s MDC party has already claimed an outright presidential victory as official results from the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission has noted that opposition parties won a majority of seats in the parliament for the first time in three decades. If a run-off presidential election were to be deemed necessary, the contest would have to take place within the next three weeks.
Read Briggs Bomba’s blog from Zimbabwe at justzimbabwe.wordpress.com.
Special thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives for the 1979 interview with Mugabe.
Black Agenda Report on the Congo
GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report
This week’s commentary is about the Congo. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.
SAVE Act is “Sensenbrenner-in-Disguise”
GUEST: Deepa Fernandes, author of “Targeted: National Security and the Business of Immigration”
Congress is currently considering a controversial immigration proposal known as the Save America through Verification and Enforcement Act. Introduced by the vehemently anti-immigrant Congressman Tom Tancredo and Democratic Representative Heath Shuler last year, the SAVE act is seen by many critics as a strictly deportation bill. If passed into law, the legislation would mandate that all employers use verification databases to check the immigration status of their employees. Also, local police authorities would be required to assist in federal immigration enforcement. Along the border, the SAVE act calls for more patrol agents while creating a financial incentive for those who report anyone seen assisting undocumented immigrants. Critics of the proposed legislation argue that due to database margins of errors, the employment status of hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal residents would be at risk. Additionally, people’s civil rights would also be endangered by the meshing of local police with federal immigration officials. The Los Angeles City Council recently overwhelmingly approved a resolution against the SAVE act. Other major cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and Boston are considering similar resolutions.
Empire Notes on Basra
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 on Basra.
Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.
Fox News Spreads Its Virus
GUEST: Jonathan Kim, producer for Brave New Films
As the Democratic nomination process continues on longer than anyone expected, the mainstream media coverage, particularly cable TV news, is already tilting in particular directions. The impact of media coverage on an election is undeniable – as we have seen in past elections a sudden emphasis on one aspect of a candidate’s past can create a story where none existed before. Most recently, the controversy over Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright was created in large part by Fox News, and then picked up by other media outlets, turning it into a serious scandal for the Illinois Senator. We turn next to Jonathan Kim, a producer with Brave New Films, who has just made a short film piece for the internet, exposing how Fox News is engaging in dirty tricks to smear Barack Obama – and worse, how other news outlets are echoing Fox, sometimes word for word. Brave New Films is calling on outlets like MSNBC and CNN to “stop spreading the virus” of Fox News.
The video is available online at: www.foxattacks.com/virus
Watch the video, Fox Attacks Obama – Part 2:
Sonali’s Subversive Thought for Day
“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” — Malcolm X
One Response to “Weekly Digest – 04/04/08”
Lots of luck to Uprising. The tilt to Obama makes it useless for me. Cynthia McKinney is running and gets nothing. As for the Fox nonsense, Jeremiah Wright provided nonsense. And there’s no defense for his damning of America. As an African-American, I’m getting real tired of hearing people defend that. It wouldn’t happen in my church and it isn’t “a Black thing.” It’s repulsive — whether it comes from Pat Robertson or Jeremiah Wright. Uprising used to be my favorite show. I’ll go elsewhere.