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 —

* A Conversation with Ray McGovern on Lebanon, Iraq, Veterans, and more.
* Empire Notes on Hezbollah’s victory
* A look back at the results of ten years of Welfare Reform
* Radio BC’s Glen Ford on Medicaid
* Hundreds of Mexican miners fired after striking – David Bacon makes links with globalization and immigration

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

A Conversation with Ray McGovern

GUEST: Ray McGovern, former CIA Analyst, co-founder of “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity”

Lebanon is facing a humanitarian emergency with more than 650,000 refugees are returning to their devastated homes after a ceasefire was signed by Israel. Hezbollah is handing out financial compensation to some refugees whose homes were destroyed. The war has strengthened support for Hezbollah, particularly among Lebanese in the South, where the Israeli bombing was the worst. Overall, 1,181 Lebanese people were killed and 4,051 injured. The Israeli war on Lebanon is perceived by many as a parallel effort to the US war in Iraq. Violence in Iraq is continuing to escalate, with the first-ever attack by a female suicide bomber reported to have targeted US and Iraqi forces on Friday August 18th. Meanwhile, hundreds of veterans gathered at Peace Arch park near the Canada-U.S. border over the weekend of August 12-13, to show their opposition to the Iraq war and support war resisters. About 30 Iraqi war resisters are believed to have fled to Canada, most of whom saw action before leaving. One of those attending the weekend gathering was my guest, Ray McGovern.

Empire Notes on Hezbollah’s Victory

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 Hezbollah’s Victory

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Tenth Anniversary of Welfare Reform

GUEST: Avis Jones DeWeever, Director of Poverty, Education and Social Justice Programs at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, also known as welfare reform. The bill was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton with support from the Republican Party. Many commentators in the media are celebrating the anniversary by citing statistics that show a decline in child poverty rates and teen pregnancies, and an increase in child-support collections. However, one columnist for the Chicago Tribune admits, “a disturbing number of former welfare recipients have merely moved to the ranks of the ‘working poor,’ still struggling to make ends meet with a subpoverty income.” Starting on October 1, the federal government will demand that states meet new standards for getting people off welfare. In order to keep receiving federal money, states will need to make sure at least half of their welfare recipients find jobs or at least search for work rigorously.

DeWeever has authored a report on education and welfare, entitled “Resilient & Reaching for More: Challenges and Benefits of Higher Education for Welfare Participants and Their Children.”

For more information, visit www.iwpr.org

Radio BC on Medicaid

Glen Ford, Radio BC

Today’s commentary by Radio BC’s Glen Ford is about Medicaid.

Hundreds of Mexican Miners Fired After Striking

GUEST: David Bacon, labor journalist, KPFA programmer, author of “The Children of NAFTA”

In the days following Mexico’s July 2nd presidential election, hundreds of striking Mexican miners were fired in the state of Sonora. Workers at the Nacozari Mine, one of the world’s largest copper mines, had been on strike since March 24th of this year. The strike came to an abrupt end when the Mexican Federal Labor Board granted the owner of the Nacozari Mine, Grupo Mexico, permission to close down operations by declaring the strike “an abandonment”. However, just days after the declaration, managers of the mines sought applications from some workers for the eventual re-opening of the mine. The episode was one of many in Mexico’s long running labor wars. If PAN presidential candidate, Felipe Calderon, is declared the winner of the recent elections, labor union activists expect more of the same. Calderon’s presidential campaign benefited from generous campaign donations that funded television ads including images warning of labor chaos and violence.

David Bacon’s recent articles on the Mexican miners are available here:

San Francisco Chronicle: Mexican workers want a recount.

New American Media: Hundreds of Mexican Miners Fired for Striking.

Visit David Bacon’s website at dbacon.igc.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.” — Jimmy Carter