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According to retired Colonel Andrew Bacevich, Barack Obama "is a problem solver, he's surrounded himself with problem solvers at a time when maybe we need some creative thinking." This week saw the announcement that General David Petraeus would be taking Leon Panetta's spot as head of the CIA, while Panetta would be moving to replace Robert Gates as Defense Secretary. Bacevich joins Laura in studio to discuss the changes in the administration and the ongoing situation in Libya and Syria, and notes that at a time when the Arab world is undergoing deep changes, it should be a time for modesty in the US and a reconsideration of military power and the use of violence to achieve goals. "Rock is, among other things, a potent means of expressing the active emotions--anger, aggression, lust, the joy of physical exertion--that feed all freedom movements, and it is no accident that women musicians have been denied access to this powerful musical language." So wrote Ellen Willis in June of 1974, when the acclaimed feminist thinker and cultural critic was working as the Rock, Etc. columnist at the New Yorker. A new book of Willis's rock criticism is out now, titled Out Of The Vinyl Deeps and edited by her daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz, and this weekend a conference at New York University will celebrate her work as a pop culture thinker and writer. Nona joins Laura in studio with Drexel University professor Devon Powers to discuss Willis's influence and ideas. Baratunde Thurston is usually one of our favorite comedians, but even he couldn't bring himself to laugh at the ugly spectacle of a privileged white man like Donald Trump congratulating himself in front of news cameras for getting Barack Obama to produce a "long-form" birth certificate. Baratunde recorded his feelings about that statement, and what it says to millions of African-Americans. Distributed by Tubemogul.

What would Dr. King say about the racial achievement gap in our schools today? The most reliable national test data shows, for 13-year-olds, a 28-point racial gap in math scores, and a 21-point gap in reading scores. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"The US has basically already lost the war in Afghanistan, if they even knew what victory was defined at in the beginning," says Jeremy Scahill, just back from two weeks reporting unembedded in that country. The Taliban there are not unlike the Tea Party here, he notes, not popular in themselves but rather as a protest against the failures of the current regime.Then, this week, two bombs were found in packages in cargo holds on two planes from Yemen. Is this a new front on the "war on terror"? Jeremy fills us in on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, the soft war in Yemen and other countries, and why the wars have been conspicuously absent from this year's election campaigns.In our first installment of our new GRITtv Digs investigative series "Conspiracy Tactics," we were introduced to a new concept in the anti-choice movement: the co-opting of Civil Rights Movement language and strategies to break up the progressive coalition. In this segment, reproductive justice leaders in the African-American community question the sudden interest of white Conservatives in black women and their babies.

Mooz-lum is a new film, directed by Qasim 'Q' Basir and starring Evan Ross, Nia Long, Danny Glover, Roger Guenveur Smith, Summer Bishil and Dorian Missick. Focused on the story of a Muslim family living in the United States, it illuminates not only the usual coming-of-age issues, the struggle of parents and children to understand one another, but the unique struggle of a Muslim family to retain their identity in a country where fear and hatred for their religion is increasingly commonplace. Laura is joined in studio by Qasim Basir and actor Roger Guenveur Smith checks in via Skype to talk about the film, its intended audience, and what it's like dealing with the current political climate, where new angry anti-Muslim rhetoric seems to be around every turn.