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:

* Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story – conversation with Stefan Forbes
* Empire Notes on the Economic Crisis and the Left
* Conversation with Marian Wright Edelman on Children’s Rights
* Black Agenda Report on how Bankers are Using the Financial Crisis

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

Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story

Many of us know Karl Rove as Bush’s Brain. But we don’t hear as much about Karl Rove’s mentor, the late Lee Atwater. Credited with helping elect W’s father against Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988, Atwater legitimized the Republican playbook of negative campaigning, coded racism, working the rumor mill, and worse, to get candidates elected. In light of the barrage of negative campaigning coming primarily from the Republican candidacy, understanding Atwater’s legacy is more important than ever. Starting at a very young age in his home state of South Carolina, Atwater began his ascent into the Republican Party by leading the College Republicans where he started practicing his approach to election campaigning. His audacity and success led him to be a Ronald Reagan aide, and then chief campaign strategist for George H W Bush, and finally, Chair of the Republican National Committee. His reputation earned him various unflattering nicknames, including “happy hatchet man,” “political assassin,” the GOP’s “Darth Vader,” and “the most evil man in America.” In the end, Atwater’s deeds seem to catch up with him. In 1990, at the age of 39, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and before he finally died a year later, he apologized to many of his political victims. Now, a new documentary chronicles the brief life and political career of Lee Atwater and the legacy he has left for the Republican Party. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, is produced and directed by Stefan Forbes. It provides a unique window into the life of the “godfather of the modern negative political campaign.”

GUEST: Stefan Forbes, producer and director of Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story.

Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story, is showing at select theaters across the country.

Related Links

• Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story
• New York Times Review
• Washington Post Review

Empire Notes on the Economic Crisis and the Left

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on the Economic Crisis and the Left.

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

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Conversation with Marian Wright Edelman on Children’s Rights

A new study this week concluded that more than 2 million American children whose parents have employer provided health insurance, are not insured themselves. The result contradicts the myth that the key to getting healthcare for all children is to get their parents insured. Nationwide, a total of 8.1 million children under the age of 18 have no health insurance. One of the many aspects of the economic fallout in recent times has been a dramatic increase in child poverty and homelessness. Today we’ll hear from Marian Wright Edelman, civil rights leaders, and one of the leading children’s advocates in the nation. As the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, Ms. Edelman directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children’s Defense Fund. For two years she served as the Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in 1973 began CDF. Today she is the founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund and the author of The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation. I spoke with Marian Wright Edelman recently about her new book and the upcoming elections and its impact on children.

GUEST: Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, author of “The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small”

Black Agenda Report on how Bankers are Using the Financial Crisis

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary on how Bankers are Using the Financial Crisis.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“If we think we have ours and don’t owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.” — Marian Wright Edelman