congress

Thom Hartmann hosts U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to discuss the current events in Congress and the nation.

"Saying when the economy is at its weakest we're going to put into law that we can't spend more to pick ourselves up...that's a depression-maker," says Heather McGhee of Demos. But despite warnings from economists from all over, the government in Washington, Democrats and Republicans both, remain obsessed with the deficit.Heather joins Laura in studio to grade Obama, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and of course the Ryan plan on the budget, the deficit, and the need for more stimulus.Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine guitarist and protest singer as The Nightwatchman, was in Madison to support the workers' protest, and now his new music is inspired by those union workers. ; His new EP, Union Town, is coming out soon and its proceeds will go to support The America Votes Labor Unity Fund, but you can download this track for free now at SaveWorkers.org.
Bernie Madoff, the infamous Wall Street Ponzi schemer who became one of the villains of the economic crisis, played on his clients' fear, not their greed. So says Diana Henriques, author of the new book Wizard of Lies. Having twice interviewed Madoff in prison, Diana notes that his personal charisma combined with Wall Street's lax regulations to create a perfect storm that wiped out his clients' wealth.Diana joins Laura in studio for a conversation about Madoff, Wall Street, and the ways ordinary people get ripped off by complex financial schemes.Finally, playwright Tony Kushner has spent his career fighting

Photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was a guest on GRITtv recently to discuss his Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, which he made while embedded with a troop of soldiers in Afghanistan. He spoke candidly with us about the dangers of reporting on war. Tim Hetherington was killed in Misrata, Libya yesterday, along with photojournalist Chris Hondros. Two other journalists were wounded, along with at least 15 civilians killed and more than 100 injured in the last 24 hours. Christopher Anderson, Tim's studio-mate and an award-winning photojournalist himself, joins Laura in studio to remember his colleagues and discuss the perils of photographing war. Global climate change isn't an if anymore, it's a when, according to journalist Mark Hertsgaard. The planet is going to get warmer, and Hertsgaard says that only the "climate crooks and climate cranks" are still in the denial business. But legislation is stalled in Congress because those very same crooks control the purse strings of the politicians who make the decisions. How do the members of Generation Hot, like Hertsgaard's daughter Chiara, make it? Mark joined Laura in studio to discuss that and more in the second part of a two-part interview, this one focusing on the big picture, covered in his new book Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"I think it's an identity project that's been given to you, you can go out there and play the hero in the big scene, inscribe yourself in this political rhetoric about the situation," says Janus Metz, who went with a team of Danish soldiers to Afghanistan to make his documentary, Armadillo. The film follows the soldiers as they gradually become hardened to war and even commit acts that seem truly immoral. Janus joined Laura in studio for a conversation about the process of going to war with the soldiers and the reactions to his film. This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document. We can take care of the deficit and rebuild our infrastructure and strengthen our safety net by reducing military spending and eliminating corporate subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich. Or we can sink further into debt and amoral individualism by demonizing and starving the poor. Which side are you on? Those are the words of GRITtv guest Mark Bittman in the New York Times recently, explaining the fast he had joined to protest austerity measures that overwhelmingly target the hungry. Now over 30,000 people have joined the fast, including pop star and GRITtv guest Moby, and MoveOn created this video in which fasters explain why they've made their choice. The Tea Party governor of Maine ordered a labor mural removed from the state's Department of Labor--and a controversy ensued that even involved the federal labor department, who contributed funds to the mural. Protesters have continued to fight to get the mural reinstated, but a group of artists made their protest a little more creative, projecting photos of the mural on the side of the capitol. And finally, Nancy Goldstein has some choice words for the President about Bradley Manning--some of them from Obama's own constitutional law professor. Distributed by Tubemogul.