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"Everyone from the FDIC to the Pentagon have said that people are doing this as a way of life ... they are trapped in a series of loans," says Kai Wright of individuals and families who've become entangled in the system of payday lending. High-interest loans are being made to the people who need the extra cash most--and who are most unable to repay. As the Republican congress introduces a bill aimed at doing away with financial reform and continues its efforts to stymie the efforts of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, payday lending will continue to be attractive to low-income borrowers, and even more dangerous in the long-term. Is our economy, still reeling from the effects of the sub-prime mortgage explosion, prepared for any more suffering consumers or unscrupulous lending? This weekend, GRITtv headed to Boston with lots of our favorite media makers, activists, and thinkers for the National Conference for Media Reform. Laura was the emcee for the opening plenary, and then stuck around all weekend, talking about money, media and politics with movers and shakers. Check out some of what we saw at the conference! The details of the compromise that finally kept the government open and made deep cuts to the federal budget for fiscal year 2011 are finally beginning to emerge--and they're not pretty. Millions and even billions from education, labor, the EPA--all for what economist Richard Wolff says is a negligible impact on the actual deficit. Is there an upside to this mess? Richard joins Laura in studio, along with strategist Karen Finney from Washington, D.C., to break down the budget plan and the politics behind it. They also offer some solutions for ways to really fix the deficit. Finally, one thing we know for sure about the budget compromise is that there was no reduction at all in military spending. Laura has some thoughts. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"It's not about dollars and cents, it's about owners telling players who is boss," says Dave Zirin, sports columnist for The Nation, about the impending NFL lockout. Even Barack Obama has gotten into the act, though, writing off the labor dispute in professional football as "millionaires fighting billionaires" and ignoring the real factors in the fight, from the health risks and short careers the players face to the people who will be out of work if football doesn't go on--while the owners sign a TV contract that pays them even if there is no season. Dave joins us via Skype to give us the latest on why progressives should stand with the NFL players, and the connections to the labor struggles going on around the country right now. Sherry Johnson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin nearly lost her sight from glaucoma. When she had to miss work for surgery to save her eyes, she was fired from her position for taking the time off. She had also signed a petition for a union in her workplace just before her illness. In this clip from our friends at 1000 Voices, she explains why a union might have helped her keep her job. "Wikileaks is a symptom of a much larger change, an age when information can be moved into the public arena by all kinds of people," says Micah Sifry of the Personal Democracy Forum. Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of the "Collateral Murder" video aired on WikiLeaks, faces 22 new charges from the government, including "Aiding the Enemy." But which enemy is he aiding, Micah asks? Is it us? Micah is the author of a new book from OR Books (the publisher of At The Tea Party), WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency, and he joins Laura in studio for a conversation about the way transparency and freedom of information are changing our world, from military policy at home to revolution abroad. Finally, there's been a joke going around the labor protests. It goes something like this: A union member, a CEO and a Tea Party member are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO grabs 11, turns to the Tea Partier and says “The Union's out to take your cookie!� Laura's been thinking that the joke applies pretty well to another situation. For instance, the military. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"I feel reborn," says Egyptian feminist author and activist Nawal El Saadawi. "I am 80, but I feel young, I feel all my energy coming back, I feel my childhood dream coming back." The revolution in Egypt has inspired people across the world, and we talk to Nawal today to find out why she thinks the successful removal of the Mubarak regime is the culimation of a movement to change the entire structure of Egyptian capitalist, patriarchal politics. "The US has to go back to the drawing board," says legendary journalist Helen Thomas of US policy in the Middle East and North Africa. As Egypt throws off its regime and protests ripple across the region, she notes that the world is waking up to the fact that people under repressive dictatorships can and will fight back--and use nonviolence to achieve their aims rather than invasion. We check in with the longest-serving White House correspondent to discuss revolution, and why she's not done fighting. Meanwhile back at home, the Conservative Political Action Conference is a good place, says Sarah Posner, to "put your finger on the pulse of the conservative movement" in the US. From straw polls for president--Congressman Ron Paul won that one--to tiffs over gay conservatives and Islamophobia, this past weekend at CPAC saw a lot of action, and Sarah was there to report, for Religion Dispatches and The Nation. Sarah joins us via Skype to give us a rundown of the good, the bad, and the unintentionally hilarious--from Ann Coulter's declaration of support for GOProud to Dick Cheney's run-in with a heckler or two. And while people are drawing different lessons from the Egyptian revolution, Nicholas Kristof notes that one of the biggest is to listen to the powerless, not the powerful. And Laura looks at a few stories of the relatively powerless--the workers--being ignored right here at home. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope." ; Those are the words of Asmaa Mahfouz, one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, who took to the Internet to spread her message in the days leading up to the protests, which have spread across her country and led to President Mubarak announcing he will not run for reelection. As the protesters continue their fight to get Mubarak out sooner rather than later, we bring you Asmaa's words to remember how all of this got started."Just as we would argue about cinema or theater or dance, progressives sometimes only see the bad and not the good," in sports, says Nation sports columnist and Edge of Sports radio host Dave Zirin.