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"If people don't have trust and confidence in their elections, it's really hard to have confidence in the democracy writ large," says Wisconsin State Representative Cory Mason, noting the "gross incompetence or malice" involved in the sudden appearance, a day and a half after the polls closed, of 7500 votes for the conservative candidate in his state's Supreme Court race. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Democrats are moving forward with at least two recall elections for Republican state Senators who supported Scott Walker's union-busting, and Cory joins Laura to discuss via Skype from his district--which just happens to be the same district as that of Paul Ryan, the House GOP's leader on budget issues. “People have rights, and when we say we want to end Israel's multitiered system of oppression...we must immediately, in the same sentence, say people have equal rights in every formal way," says Omar Barghouti, author of the new book Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. And author, activist and professor Sarah Schulman has been involved with the Palestinian queer movement, emphasizing that their struggle is deeply tied to the struggle to end the occupation. Omar and Sarah join Laura in studio for a discussion of the interlocking oppressions being fought by the BDS movement. Poet Remi Kanazi shares some of the instructions given to activists for Palestinian causes. The ink on the compromise that kept the government open—barely--isn't even dry and they're already talking about the next round of cuts in Washington. Laura explains why Obama should give up compromising and go on the offensive--armed with the latest round of information about CEO pay. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Former regulator, Savings & Loan investigator, and current Braintruster at the Roosevelt Institute William K. Black says that if Elizabeth Warren isn't appointed to head the consumer protection agency passed as part of the financial reform bill, it will be a clear sign that the agency isn't going to protect consumers at all. While Warren has done the research in the field for 20 years, he notes, other candidates preferred by Treasury Secretary Geithner have fallen more into the Rubin/Summers camp of deregulators. Black joins us via Skype from Kansas City, where he's professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, to break down the problems with the financial reform bill and make the case for Warren as the only way for real consumer protection. We constantly hear about the size of the military budget, what percentage it is of our spending, what it did to the deficit. But numbers that large can simply become numbing. It's hard to fathom billions. So when Paris studio Moustache created this short film attempting to visualize the amount spent on war, we knew we had to share it with you. Peace process, proximity talks, one state, two state...though these terms are often tossed around the mass media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they have been rendered virtually meaningless. Instead, we see footage of Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama shaking hands, waxing eloquently on the need for mutual peace as the US simultaneously slips Israeli more tax dollars to further cement their occupation of Palestine. A just peace indeed. Where is this famous peace process? Does it exist? Is peace even a process to begin with? We asked blogger and author Antony Loewenstein and author and co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abuminah about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is reported, what is the role of new media, and how can this start its own viral uprising, independent of mass media banter. Finally, Laura has some thoughts about Top Secret America: the unlimited budget for contractors and the constant cuts for kids.

The announcement this week that Barack Obama would open up space along the Atlantic coast for offshore oil drilling wasn't a cruel April Fool's joke, sadly. The president who pledged not to "drill, baby, drill" our way out of energy and climate issues seems to be going back on his word. Is it really that bad? We ask David Roberts, senior staff writer at Grist.org. This week was the 34th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day, and also a day for awareness of the growing boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Land Day commemorates the deaths of six peaceful activists in a demonstration, and today we talk about activism and its ability to make change. Remi Kanazi, a poet and activist, and Phyllis Bennis of the Insitute for Policy Studies, join us in studio to discuss the ways that art, nonviolent protest, and pushes for creative boycotts are changing the way Americans look at Israel and Palestine. While people in the U.S. may be changing their minds about Israel and Palestine, citizens in East Jerusalem continue to suffer. Jennifer Utz visited East Jerusalem recently and reported on the plans to demolish up to 88 homes in the neighborhood of Al Bustan. Street clashes earlier this month were only the latest symptom of the mounting tensions. Finally, the Apple iPad is hitting stores, but is there something interesting about the content available for it?

As we celebrate the life and legacy of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King, we take a look back at another recent discussion of one of the biggest civil rights struggles of our time: the fight to liberate the Palestinian people. Not long ago, the UN Human Rights Council released the Goldstone Report, sharply condemning Israel's actions in the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza strip. Today we rebroadcast our show from the day that report was released, with activists Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson for the PLO, Neve Gordon, senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion Univesity and Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, to discuss the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Then, Hasan Kwame Jeffries talks about the legacy of the African-American struggle for freedom. And author and poet Remi Kanazi performs some of his new work. We also looked at community banking, back in the news as the hearings start up over the financial crisis, and the fight over the health care bill still isn't over either. We can't say for certain what Martin Luther King would do were he still with us. Still, we thought it an appropriate acknowledgement of his legacy of concern and struggle for the rights of all people, while we take the day to honor his memory, to re-air this program.