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“Do we want to live in a place where the U.S. government can torture and kill people at will? Or do we not?” asks Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. A new Amnesty International report says that thousands of detainees in Iraq, many recently transferred from U.S. custody, are still at risk of torture, and back in the U.S. the Obama administration continues to use "national security" as justification for everything from dismissing lawsuits to searching laptops. Vince joins Laura in studio to discuss all this and more, and he points out that he is free to discuss all these issues publicly on GRITtv, while the only place the accusations cannot be discussed is in a court of law. "Your real friends are the ones who respect you enough to tell you when you're not thinking straight," says Jay Smooth, videoblogger, DJ, and commentator. In his latest blog, a collaboration with GIANT magazine, Jay defines the term "got-no-sensitive" for us and traces its history back to Joseph McCarthy. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin was the sole vote against the PATRIOT Act--that you probably know. But he's also been willing to stand up against his own party, voting against Tim Geithner's confirmation and more recently, against the financial reform bill that passed, saying it would do more harm than good. Laura caught up with Senator Feingold last weekend at Fighting Bob Fest in Wisconsin, and discussed the Citizens United case and corporate influence on politics, voting on principle, and why he's willing to stand up to Democrats. Finally, what's worse than corporations spending unlimited cash on elections? How about hiking up your insurance premiums to do so?

As Gibbs attacks progressive critics, the ACLU says that Obama's White House is enshrining Bush-era policies; "I Fear for My Country," says Muslim leader Daisy Khan on the opposition to the Ground Zero mosque and others nationwide; "Gaming the System" is a study that details how big banks are avoiding lending obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.

Among this week's news: An Afghan prison is to become the new Guantanamo; the US is considering a new base and more troops in Iraq; the Indonesian Army is implicated in the recent 'Activists' assassinations; a Colombian journalist was shot and killed; Kyrgyzstan unveils a new US military base plan; doubts grow about a Somali offensive; the Monarch Butterfly population is down 50-60% this year; the ACLU sues the Govt. over killer drones; Israel conducted air strikes in the Gaza strip; Coca-Cola is asked to pay millions for pollution in India; a Sudan rights lawyer is killed in the UK; the govt. rewarded bank auditors with big bonuses; tens of thousands march for immigration reform in Washington DC; NYT admits getting duped on its coverage of ACORN; most power plants still spew toxic mercury; experts say that militaries are preparing for climate doomsday; and the UN rejects a ban on Bluefin Tuna export. "The Global Report" is a weekly news show dedicated to covering news underreported by mainstream media.

In Trevor Paglen's new book, Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World, he investigates the "off the map" locations of covert government activity, including the "salt pit" in Kabul where Khaled El-Masri was held.
Ben Wizner, from the ACLU's National Security Project, is El-Masri's lawyer and he joins Paglen in studio with Laura to talk about black sites, government secrecy, and why anything goes when prisoners are taken off the map.
In today's video from Street Films' new series, "Fixing the Great Mistake," Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White explains how New York's Park Avenue was changed to plan the city around cars, not people.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people judged "mentally retarded" qualified as cruel and unusual punishment, and thus unconstitutional. Yet for this ruling to apply, prisoners must be evaluated properly and fairly by professionals, whose medical opinion is unbiased.
Multimedia investigative journalist Renee Feltz found several cases in Texas where inmates were kept on death row--and in some cases executed--despite clear evidence that they suffered the kind of mental disability that the Court described. She joins Laura in studio to share some of her video from her investigation and explain why states are still managing to execute the mentally challenged.
The Real News Network reports on protests in the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a new Israeli "heritage" plan, which classifies national and holy sites in Israel and the occupied territories as Israeli "heritage."
From our friends at Tactical Technology Collective, this third clip in the series explains how visual representations of information and data can broaden the reach of information activism across language barriers.