foreclosures

"People who want to see the budget cut are people who are advocating throwing people out of work, it's that simple," says Dean Baker of the pressure from conservatives on Obama's budget--pressure, it appears, that Obama is conceding to as he brags that discretionary spending will be the lowest since Eisenhower's administration.So Obama's budget includes cuts to infrastructure, education, and more, and for Republicans, that's still not enough. Dean joins us from D.C. via Skype to talk about what the president should be arguing as the budget fight heats up.They're calling him the Mubarak of the Midwest: Wisconsin governor Scott Walker might have gone too far threatening to call the National Guard on union workers who might fight back against his draconian bill to strip their collective bargaining rights. Walker's union-busting has brought out thousands of protesters, who packed the capitol building and even drew support from the Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers. The protests continued today with a "sick-out" from Madison schools, and support just might be eroding for Walker's policies..."It's a reimagining of the middle east, what is possible," says poet Remi Kanazi of the revolution in Egypt, and Laila El-Haddad notes the direct impact that the Mubarak regime had on Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, which shares a border with Egypt. ; Laila and members of her family--including her small children--had been detained by the Mubarak regime.What does regime change mean for the Palestinian people? And what effect will the wave of civil rights protests and activism across Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Iran and Libya have? Laila and Remi join us to discuss.Finally, Laura has a few thoughts about Obama's budget--and all the things we shouldn't forget.

Jesse Jackson calls Shirley Sherrod a "true freedom fighter" who fought back against "attempted character assassination"; Nevada leads the nation in uUnemployment, foreclosures, and bankruptcies; Reid leads in Nevada's senate race after a series of controversial statements by GOP challenger Sharron Angle; "Neither the destruction of the Ninth Ward nor the South Bronx was inevitable," declares Majora Carter on the struggle for environmental justice. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.

Big business has been meddling with the Gulf Coast long before BP. Industrial runoffs from factory farms have invaded the Gulf and fostering the growth of algae which produces lifeless or "dead" zones of the water. While these problems have been overlooked, they have come into our water and food supply, most commonly in the form of pesticides. David Kirby, expert on factory farming and author of "Animal Factory" joins us in the studio to tell us how Americans' longing for cheap food and cheap gas leads to expensive consequences. Currently, there are six million public housing units for nine million people in need of public housing. Right to the City presents "We Call These Projects Homes", an interview of Anne Washington from Community Voices about the need to empower public housing communities to express this need to the government. Ultimately, the government and the public will need to quench the negativity surrounding the public housing community to guarantee a greater right to housing. Are housing rights the new civil rights? Even though critics claim that housing shortages are crosses to bear, one can't solve foreclosures without first investigating problems behind public housing and homelessness. Protests and community empowerment actions such as "live-ins" akin to the "sit-ins" of the Civil Rights illustrate the growing need of Housing as not a government controlled entity, but an essential human right. Max Rameau, author of "Take Back the Land Movement" and Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights join us in the studio to discuss the current actions working to secure housing as a human right. Laura's F Word covered the the results of the primary in Pennsylvnia, and how the AFL-CIO's grassroots support contributed.

Even though today is the most important primary election day of the year, a slough labor protestors has invaded K Street to protest lobbying efforts against the banks as detracting attention from the actual state of the American people. Despite continuing foreclosures and layoffs, federal and local initiatives do not seem to be catering to these circumstances. On the contrary, they are not divesting from essential economies such as transit, and other blue collar strongholds. Labor correspondent and executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, Ed Ott, joins us in the studio to discuss why Americans are so angry, how the outcomes of the primaries could affect these issues, and ask where the power really lies. After abysmal coverage of the massive labor protests against the Washington Lobbyist stronghold on K Street one of the protestors tweeted, "maybe you have to serve tea to get noticed." In order to give these activists and their cause to call out lobbyists on their decisions to spend money on lobbying the bank rather than the American people, we are airing footage from the SEIU protest. Foreign development projects in Haiti: are they a necessary investment or part of long-standing trend of colonization? The idea may resonate poorly with a people who have suffered two centuries of foreign meddling and its devastating consequences but the track record of the current government and NGOs is nothing to celebrate either. Currently, Global Renewable Energy is proposing a project in La Gonave to use the land as a 'planned sustainable green community'. Blogger Pascal Robert wrote about this plan recently which he described as another step in the "wholesale sell-off of Haitian resources." Ray Laforest, member of the Steering Committee of the International Support Haiti Network and Fred E. Rice, CEO of Global Renewable Energy lay it all out on the table for us. And in today's F Word: the disturbing news of the recent deadly car bombing incident in Kabul, allegedly one of Afghanistan's safest cities. Don't forget, we are in pledge season! Help GRITtv meet its goal of $100,000 by giving now or spreading the word!