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"We're supposed to love life, right? And protect mothers and ban abortion because abortion is about ending babies lives, right? But then we see cuts to WIC, [Women, Infants & Children benefits], we know women are being chained to beds to give birth," Paris Hatcher of SPARK Reproductive Justice points out. The entire idea pushed by conservatives that we are concerned with a "culture of life" is proved false by the way our society treats mothers--certain mothers, anyway. Today, while the House debated H.R. 3, the "redefining rape" bill that would eliminate funding for abortion, we spoke with Paris via Skype from Georgia, and she noted the outrage that women around the country feel over the double standard in Congress and the states--we don't want women to have abortions, but we don't want to support their motherhood, either. One of the deadliest tornadoes in US history, over a mile and a half wide, touched down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last week, with devastation extending across seven states. More than 350 fatalities have been reported, 80 people are still missing in Tuscaloosa alone, and over a thousand people remain hospitalized with critical injuries. The Alabama state Emergency Management Agency is calling the aftermath in Tuscaloosa “Katrina, without three days warning...” While the networks are wall-to-wall Bin Laden, with or without budgets or even homes - survivors are getting the story out.. To compile this piece GRITtv's Rebecca MacDonald relied on eyewitnesses -- many of them students of University of Alabama assistant professor Dr. Rachel Raimist. Student Trey Moe's graduation was to be this week. "We need to understand that we are one people all of whom have myriad origins. We've come together here in this place," says bestselling author Walter Mosley. He joins us to talk about his newest book, 12 Steps Toward Political Revelation. For a growing number of American who feel left out--or even targeted--by the current political climate, the possibility of influencing change and of having a voice is becoming an increasingly problematic task. 12 Steps Toward Political Revelation stresses the importance of everything from finding a strong political identity, and recognizing the systems that work against us and not for us. Walter joins us to explain how important each of our paths towards political enlightenment is for our nation and our world. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"We need to be able to laugh about issues but we also need to know that aside from the comedy that we find in the series when cultures collide, there is a very real issue of displacement in many urban communities," says Julia Ahumada Grob, the co-creator and lead actor of the web TV series East WillyB. The show is set in Bushwick a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and it addresses the problems of gentrification and displacement of communities of color through humor, and brings high-quality TV production values to the 'net. Julia and actor Flaco Navaja join Laura in studio to discuss dealing with pressing social issues through humor, addressing the "new generation Latino" and why they moved to create their own media. The job of the journalist is not to give people a voice, filmmaker Miki Chakarova explains to her students: "People have a voice," she says, "It's just that they don't have an outlet." In her recent film, The Price of Sex, Chakarova went to great lengths to provide that outlet by embedding herself in the world of Eastern European sex trafficking. The resulting film is an intimate portrait of the individuals that comprise an industry, and the way that corruption thrives in the context of poverty. The film is playing around the country at select venues and will have its NYC premiere this summer at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Budget cuts are everywhere we look these days, but they often come right along with giveaways and moves to further enrich those at the top. In San Francisco, students and teachers came out to protest massive budget cuts in the California State University system, express outrage over the obscene salaries of the dean of students and voice their concern about their financially debt ridden future. This video comes courtesy of Davey D and OpenLine media. Finally, a new story in The Nation shows that the Supreme Court's also made it a lot easier for companies to pressure their employees directly about voting. Laura has some thoughts on the way Citizens United is changing the workplace as well as the ballot box. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Trinidad, Colorado saw one of the country's bloodiest labor battles in 1913-1914, during the legendary coal miner's strike there. Now a new documentary, Way Down In The Hole, looks at the conflicts that led to the violence, between laborers and bosses, organizers, immigrants, agents for hire, and more. Filmmaker Alex Johnston is a graduate of the Social Documentation (Soc Doc) program at UC Santa Cruz.

"We're lying to our kids," says professor and former charter school advocate and supporter of No Child Left Behind Diane Ravitch. High-stakes testing and punishing teachers for low-scoring kids is failing, according to her research; moreover, charter schools are only successful, when they are, because they can select the best students from the failing districts in which they are located.In a new piece at The Nation, and in her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, Ravitch lays out the case against the policies she once supported. ; She joins Laura in studio to discuss the problems with education--and how Obama and Arne Duncan might be making things worse, not better.