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This week on Uprising:

* Does a Democratic Victory Signal a Change in US Policies?

* What impact will Ortega’s Election in Nicaragua Have?

* A Young Lebanese Activist Speaks Out on the devastation of her nation by Israel.

* This week’s Black Agenda Report on “American Facism”

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Does a Democratic Victory Signal a Change in US Policies?

GUEST: Norman Solomon, Syndicated columnist of “Media and Politics” and author of “War Made Easy”

The Democratic Party has won a majority number of seats in Congress in the November 7th mid-term elections, after 12 years of Republican domination. Out of 435 House seats, there are now 227 Democratic Congressional representatives. Among the notable victories are Keith Ellison, a Black Muslim American, who defeated Republican Alan Fine in Minneapolis to become the first Muslim in Congress.

Razor thin margins of victory in Senate races in Montana and Virginia have resulted in the Democrats winning 22 news seats. This makes a total of 51 Democrats in the Senate. Three top Republicans lost seats including Mike DeWine of Ohio, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Vermont voters elected Independent congressman Bernie Sanders, a self-professed “democratic socialist.” Among the notable Democratic losses, Harold Ford, who would have been the first Black American senator elected in the South since Reconstruction, conceded defeat to his opponent, Bob Corker. Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee for Senate, was beaten by one-time Democratic Senator turned Independent Joe Lieberman.

Black Agenda Radio on American Facism

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is on American Facism. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Nicaragua Elects Ortega

GUEST: Katherine Hoyt, Co-Coordinator of Nicaragua National Network

After sixteen years and numerous failed bids, Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega will once again become president of Nicaragua. A week ago this Sunday, Nicaraguans headed to the polls and elected the former guerrilla revolutionary to the presidency over his U.S. favored opponent Eduardo Montealegre. Daniel Ortega garnered 38% of the vote and won by a margin of 9% to successfully avoid a run-off election. In the run-up to the November 5th elections, former Reagan-era official involved in the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North, asked voters not to support Ortega’s presidential bid. U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, called the Sandinista candidate a “tiger who hasn’t changed his stripes,” and questioned the accountability of the Nicaraguan elections despite the Organization of American States deeming them in accordance with the law. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Ortega to congratulate him and said, “Now like never before, the Sandinista revolution and the Bolivarian revolution unite, to construct the future socialism of the 21st century.” However, Ortega reassured the nation’s business community by stating that he was not, “contemplating dramatic, radical changes in the economy, which has stabilized in recent years.” Nicaragua, after a consecutive series of neo-liberal presidents, has remained one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information, visit www.nicanet.org.

Young Lebanese Activist Speaks Out

GUEST: Malak Khaled, pre-school teacher and young activist in Lebanon, visiting the US

One day after the Israel army declared that it had pulled out and completed Operation Autumn Clouds in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, 24 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, 19 people were killed and at least 45 injured. The Israeli offensive included firing a large number of shells at the town. Another five Palestinians were killed in Jenin, in the northern West Bank by Israeli army fire. The on-going Israeli operations in Palestine were foreshadowed by Israel’s brutal 33 day war on Lebanon this summer. But some say it’s all part of Israel’s expansionist policies.

Meanwhile, Israeli jets violated Lebanese airspace this week, flying over the coastal town of Naqura, headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil). France, which currently heads Unifil, had summoned the Israeli Ambassador in Paris to protest Israeli warplanes diving on French peacekeepers in the south. Israel has been strongly criticized internationally for continuing such overflights despite the August 14 truce which officially ended its devastating month-long war with Lebanon. The Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz has said the overflights were necessary to monitor what he claims is continued weapons smuggling by Hezbollah.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Look at situations as contingent, not as inevitable, look at them as the result of a series of historical choices made by men and women, as facts of society made by human beings, and not as natural or god-given, therefore unchangeable, permanent, irreversible.” — Edward Said