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This week on Uprising:

* Report from a Healthcare Townhall: The Sound and the Fury
* Black Agenda Report: Clinton Threatening War in the Horn of Africa
* One More Soldier Refuses to Fight in the Afghanistan War
* Empire Notes on Global Environmental Strain: The Way Forward
* Chemical Companies Push Dangerous Greenhouse Gas Chemicals in Your Fridge

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A California Healthcare Townhall: The Sound and the Fury

The debate on healthcare reform has become overwhelmed by the onslaught of conservatives descending onto townhall meetings across the country. With marching orders from insurance industry funded groups, the right-wing groups have brought vitriolic rhetoric, racist signs, and even guns to the health care forums. I went to one such event in my local district in Southern California, organized by Blue Dog Democrat Adam Schiff, an early supporter of President Obama’s health care reform proposal. Hundreds of people showed up to the Wednesday event held on the lawn of the Alhambra Civic Center Library. I captured some of the planned speakers, and some of the voices, arguments, and screams of the audience. I asked people about their signs, where they were from, and why they were there. We begin with Congressman Adam Schiff.

View Sonali’s photos of the healthcare forum here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111653&id=614146598&l=cd41a78abe

Black Agenda Report: Clinton Threatening War in the Horn of Africa

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is about Clinton Threatening War in the Horn of Africa.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

One More Soldier Refuses to Fight in the Afghanistan War

An infusion of thousands of additional ground troops into Southern Afghanistan this July has resulted in the US experiencing its bloodiest month since the start of the war in 2001. General Stanley McChrystal who heads up the US military effort warned earlier this week that the Taliban was winning just days before the country’s second presidential elections. It is possible that the surge in troops and the news of a strengthening Taliban will lead to greater numbers of US troops refusing to serve in Afghanistan as they did in the Iraq war. Victor Agosto, the 24 year old US soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, who refused deployment to Afghanistan is now serving a one-month jail term and has been demoted to a Private by a military court. We spoke with Agosto this past May after he first announced his intention to refuse service in Afghanistan. Agosto spent 13 months in Iraq as a computer specialist. When he returned to the US he was stop-lossed and required to report for a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Now, another soldier from Fort Hood, Sgt. Travis Bishop, is facing Court Martial this Friday for also refusing to serve in Afghanistan. Bishop served 14 months in Baghdad with the 3rd Signal Brigade.

Independent journalist and writer Dahr Jamail has been following the stories of Victor Agosto and Travis Bishop in Texas.

GUEST: Dahr Jamail, author of the Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan

Read Dahr Jamail’s article here: http://www.truthout.org/081209A.

Empire Notes on Global Environmental Strain: The Way Forward

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Global Environmental Strain: The Way Forward.

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

Visit www.empirenotes.org for more information.

Chemical Companies Push Dangerous Greenhouse Gas Chemicals in Your Fridge

Officials from various nations are looking to amend the Montreal Protocol to regulate so-called F-gases – the environmentally toxic gas commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. In 1986, Chlorofluorocarbons, the pre-cursors to HFCs, were banned because of their serious danger to the Ozone layer. Touted by the major chemical companies as the environmentally friendly substitution to CFC’s, Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as well as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), collectively known as F-gases, stepped in to fill the void. What was not known widely at the time was that these new chemicals are greenhouse gases, and up to 20,000 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide. Described as “the worst Greenhouse gases you’ve never heard of,” these F-gases, account for about 17% of man-made climate change. Produced by such chemical powerhouses as Honeywell and DuPont, 90% of F-gases are being used to cool our refrigerators, homes, cars, and the food in our supermarkets and vending machines. The environmental organization Greenpeace, has developed a much safer alternative to the F-gases, called Greenfreeze, already being used in Asia, Europe, and South America.

GUEST: Kert Davies, research director with Greenpeace

Find out more at www.greenpeace.org.

Greenpeace’s website on “GreenFreeze” at www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/green-solutions/greenfreeze

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” — Rachel Carson