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This week on Uprising:

* Special edition from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul
* Voices of Dissent Against the Iraq War
* A Critical Look at Gov Palin’s VP Acceptance Speech: Mainstream Media Coverage and the Future of the GOP

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Voices of Dissent Against the Iraq War

As this program is being recorded Republican presidential nominee John McCain is set to deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday evening, the last day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul Minnesota. I’ve spent the whole week here on Radio Row with a crew of journalists from Pacifica Radio and Free Speech Radio News, covering the convention and what’s been happening in the streets outside.

The major news inside the convention halls, and resonating in news media throughout the country is the performance Wednesday night of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, McCain’s Vice Presidential pick. We’ll spend the majority of the hour today dissecting Palin’s speech, what she represents, the media coverage of the election, and the future of the GOP, with political commentator and media critic John Nichols.

But first, a brief look at how protestors have been organizing in the streets outside the convention, and how the police have been responding. The weekend before the convention started, police preemptively arrested a group of organizers in house raids on the basis of an apparent conspiracy to disrupt the convention. Eight of those, from a group calling themselves the RNC Welcoming Committee, have now been charged with terrorism under a Minnesota version of the PATRIOT Act. Meanwhile, among the dozens of rallies, marches, and acts of civil disobedience organized this week, police have cracked down hard, sometimes without provocation, arresting more than 300 people, including Democracy Now host Amy Goodman and two of her producers. While Goodman was quickly released, many others face possible felony charges. The biggest demonstration of the week took place on Monday morning on the steps of the State Capital, bringing together antiwar groups with immigrants, welfare rights activists and more, to say no to the war in Iraq. I was at the march and spoke with a number of people there including an Iraq vet, a representative of the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Coalition, a Green Party candidate for Vice President Rosa Clemente, and an eight year old dressed as “Uncle Sam’s Good Twin.”

A Critical Look at Gov Palin’s VP Acceptance Speech

We spend the next part of the show taking a look at media coverage of the Republican Party, it’s candidates, and its strategies. According to the media watchdog group, Media Matters, neither ABC nor CBS aired analysis from Democrats, Democratic strategists, or progressive media figures during their live coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention on September 2, which was also the first day of the networks’ live coverage of the convention. This contrasted sharply with coverage of the DNC, where politically diverse analysis was presented.

With the major speech by Governor Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention scheduled for last night, I ran into former Senate Majority Leader and Mississippi Senator Trent Lott earlier yesterday on the floor of the convention. He was being interviewed by an ABC News camera who asked him about VP pick, Governor Sarah Palin when I inserted my recorder in the mix and followed up with some questions of my own.

We spend the rest of the hour today looking at the future of the Republican party based on what has happened so far at the Republican National Convention. The GOP is at a major crossroads with its incumbent president having the lowest popularity rating of all time, based on an unpopular war and plummeting economy. It faces challenges not only from the Democratic Party but from the Libertarian party which could end up being a spoiler factor. The party’s nominee lags in the polls, albeit by a small amount. While hurricanes hit harder and more Americans become aware of the dangers of global warming and the need for energy conservation, the party has adopted a chorus for offshore drilling. While more Americans are fed up with the war in Iraq, John McCain supports continuing and expanding it. While more Americans are suffering from poverty, the Republicans are pushing for greater tax cuts to enrich the already rich. Yesterday’s convention speeches provoked ominous group chants of “USA, USA.”

GUEST: John Nichols, political writer for the Nation, co-founder of Free Press

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office” – Will Rogers