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Accountability and transparency are two key elements to a responsible government, notes Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and WikiLeaks and other sites like it help fulfill the transparency side of things, at least. Accountability, though, at least from the U.S. government, seems to be slow in coming--and Vince notes that the Tunisian people, who removed their despot, could use our support as well. Vince joins us to discuss the situation in Tunisia, the anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, and what is required to hold governments accountable to their people. "A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just."...A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Those were Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words on war--but last week a Pentagon official actually tried to claim that were King alive today, he'd actually support the war in Afghanistan. Our friends at Brave New Films put together this film as a reminder of what King really believed. This week not only commemorates King's birthday, but also is the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower's prescient warning about the military-industrial complex, the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of George W. Bush--and the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Russ Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, and he joins us to talk about these anniversaries, and what they mean for the America we live in now and the history we've forgotten. Last week the World Bank warned of "serious tensions and pitfalls" ahead in the global economy, and less than three percent growth for the U.S. Laura reminds us that there are plenty of problems in our economy that we should be worrying about before we take the bait in worrying over Europe. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Barack Obama hit the Daily Show on Wednesday night, and made the unfortunate comment that Larry Summers had done a "heckuva job" running the economy. Robert Scheer of Truthdig notes that Summers was the chief architect of Clinton-era policies that created the economic crisis in the first place, and that Obama's appointment of him to get us out of it was never going to result in anything but more money being thrown at Wall Street.Scheer visited the GRITtv studios to talk about Summers, Bill Clinton, Obama, and why there are a few Tea Party candidates he wouldn't mind seeing win this election cycle."It's a bizarre idea to fix a global capitalist crisis by breaking a long-term promise," notes Richard Wolff, economist and author of Capitalism Hits the Fan of the "austerity" measures rocking Europe's social democracies at the moment. Governments across Europe are implementing drastic cuts to social safety nets, raising retirement ages, all in the name of fiscal responsibility, and people have taken to the streets--in France, between 1.3 and 2.9 million people have come out in protest, a percentage that Wolff notes would be equivalent to between 6.5 and 14.4 million.So what's going on in Europe, and what are the lessons we can learn from the European left? Wolff joins us along with Inez McCormack, Chair of the Participation and the Practice of Rights Project in Ireland, to talk us through the crisis, the lessons, and the ongoing struggle.Finally, Laura remembers former president Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, who fought banks, the IMF, and the remains of the military dictatorship to return his country to prosperity.

President Obama promised better policies on student loans on the campaign trail, but as state budgets are suffering under the ongoing recession, students are seeing tuition skyrocket and are stuck with the loans. This video from Ramblin' Man Films looks at the growing movement for student loan justice.

Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz on Obama's stimulus plan, debt, climate change and his book, "Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy." President Obama has pledged $8.3 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first nuclear reactors in nearly three decades, which represents a new federal commitment to the nuclear power sector. We go to independent journalist and longtime anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman, who helped found the grassroots movement against nuclear power in the United States in the 1970s, for background and comments. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.