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"People who want to see the budget cut are people who are advocating throwing people out of work, it's that simple," says Dean Baker of the pressure from conservatives on Obama's budget--pressure, it appears, that Obama is conceding to as he brags that discretionary spending will be the lowest since Eisenhower's administration.So Obama's budget includes cuts to infrastructure, education, and more, and for Republicans, that's still not enough. Dean joins us from D.C. via Skype to talk about what the president should be arguing as the budget fight heats up.They're calling him the Mubarak of the Midwest: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker might have gone too far threatening to call the National Guard on union workers who might fight back against his draconian bill to strip their collective bargaining rights. Walker's union-busting has brought out thousands of protesters, who packed the capitol building and even drew support from the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. The protests continued today with a "sick-out" from Madison schools, and support just might be eroding for Walker's policies..."It's a reimagining of the middle east, what is possible," says poet Remi Kanazi of the revolution in Egypt, and Laila El-Haddad notes the direct impact that the Mubarak regime had on Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, which shares a border with Egypt. ; Laila and members of her family--including her small children--had been detained by the Mubarak regime.What does regime change mean for the Palestinian people? And what effect will the wave of civil rights protests and activism across Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Iran and Libya have? Laila and Remi join us to discuss.Finally, Laura has a few thoughts about Obama's budget--and all the things we shouldn't forget.

The revelation of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian diplomatic records has shocked the world -- all of it except the US, that is. The “Palestine Papers,” published by the Guardian and Al-Jazeera, which cover decades of failed so-called peace negotiations, show among other things just how much the Palestinian Authority was willing to sacrifice, and how much more the Israeli government still wanted. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Peace talks between Israel and Palestine are "a calming pill. Kind of a time game," according to Micha Kurz, co-director of Grassroots Jerusalem and a founder of Breaking the Silence, an organization of former IDF soldiers speaking out about their experiences in the Occupied Territories. While the talks stall, settlement building continues, and settlement building, Kurz notes, becomes a "fact" that makes the idea of a Palestinian state less viable. What can be done to change these facts on the ground? Kurz returns to GRITtv as part of a tour of North America, talking about grassroots initiatives for change in Jerusalem and beyond. From our friends at ColorLines, we bring you a selection from their "Drop the I-Word" campaign. Billy Wimsatt made a splash when he was 21 with the book Bomb the Suburbs--the "bomb" of the title meaning graffiti, not weaponry. Sixteen years later, he's back with a new book, and a new strategy, though with no less enthusiasm and fire for change. Instead, he says, it's time "to play the game in a more sophisticated way—to win."Please Don't Bomb The Suburbs is "a midterm report on my generation" according to Wimsatt, and a manual for continuing to move forward. He joined Laura in studio recently to discuss social movements post-Obama, the hip-hop generation coming of age, and why he's optimistic for the future. Finally, the recently-passed Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act had as one of its strongest features the right for shareholders to vote on CEO pay for corporations for which they hold stock. But the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups want to take that away. Laura has some thoughts.