fox news

Last week Michael Moore appeared on our show and talked about the economy as he sees it--and Fox News called in billionaire Donald Trump to comment. Fair and balanced -- a billionaire to comment on a critique of this Country's skewed accumulation of wealth? ; Well, Michael Moore had the last word on Saturday in front of the Wisconsin state capitol.

"It's a very, very exciting time to be involved in politics," says the New Statesman's Laurie Penny, who has a cover story in the magazine this week on what's next for the student protesters in London now that the Liberal Democrat/Conservative government has passed the education budget cuts. Disability funding and even the National Health Service are in the sights of the government's hatchet, and the students are hard at work reaching out to broaden their coalition. Laurie joins us while on the move in London to talk student protests, the connection with activists around the globe, the Cairo and Tunisia protests, and more. "Economics has a lot to do with unhappiness," says Helena Norberg-Hodge, co-director of The Economics of Happiness. "We have an economic system that is systematically creating job scarcity worldwide," she notes, and it's time that we stopped obsessing about bottom lines, corporate growth, and income at the top and started to think about other ways of measuring positive effects in global society. Helena is also the author of Ancient Futures, and she joins us in studio to talk about the need for economic literacy, new models of measuring happiness, and finding a balance between rural and urban life. Finally, as New Yorkers dig ourselves out from another snowstorm, Laura notes that even the New York Times and a federal investigation have found no evidence that union workers caused the streets to remain unplowed back in December. That would be budget cuts and layoffs. Distributed by Tubemogul.

–William Murray, Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition in Washington DC joins us to discuss why he is against the Lower Manhattan Community Center, why he claims it is at Ground Zero, is a Mosque, and discusses why he can understand claims that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and we wonder what the remaining troops in Iraq will be doing.

–Barack Obama’s “out of Iraq” speech contained few surprises, drew varied and amazing criticism from the right involving George W. Bush, family pictures, and more.

–After almost two years of complaining that George W. Bush is mentioned too much when discussing what Barack Obama is and is not doing, conservative are angry that George W. Bush’s actions prior to Obama taking office were not discussed enough during Obama’s speech.

–During a story about poor treatment of US troops, instead of focusing on poor pay, poor post-war treatment, or sending troops into preemptive dubious wars, Fox News chooses to focus on the unlikely possibility that some troops will not receive their absentee ballots.

–Judge Andrew Napolitano refers to Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann as a well-known expert on the constitution, and we wonder what it says about Andrew Napolitano.

–Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington DC, including Beck’s fixation on Martin Luther King, the overall boring nature of the entire rally, Beck weeping during his speech, and more.

–Sarah Palin showed up at the Restoring Honor rally as well, and we can be sure she did plenty of refudiating, while Glenn Beck thanked God for a $600,000 donation made to the rally.

–North Korea gets a Facebook account, claims to like men, and posts incredible videos including dogs at a North Korean zoo with bizarre music, and incredible techno music over a North Korean cityscape. We wonder if North Korean likes men as a sign of misogyny, or as an indication the country is itself homosexual.

–A New York cabbie is stabbed after being asked by 21-year-old Michael Enright whether he is a Muslim, and we look at the entire story including possible connections to recent media outrage over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, responsible commentary from Joe Scarborough, and the expected denials from Fox News and Laura Ingraham.

–A recent birther poll shows over one in four Americans still think Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and Rush Limbaugh seems to be part of that bandwagon.

–An incredible interview from a listener about the birther Orly Taitz interview, professionalism, and more.

–We call Target for an interview to discuss their large donation to an anti-gay candidate, and do not get very far, but we play both the phone call to Target and the voicemail we received from Target spokesperson Jessica Carlson, as well as plenty of other information about anti-gay donations and opinions coming from the Target CEO, his family, and the Target executive staff.

–Rush Limbaugh and William Shatner debate healthcare in a bizarre interview, and we discuss whether morals can really be removed from the healthcare discussion.

–A hilarious Fox News style ambush gone wrong by Spencer Meads, who cannot seem to stop rubbing his nose, sniffing, and mumbling when confronted by Media Matters employee Ari Rabin-Havt while trying to talk about George Soros to Media Matters employees.

–Senator Ted Stevens is killed in a small plane crash in Alaska, and David Pakman worries about his upcoming small plane flight.

–JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater abandons his job by swearing at a passenger, grabbing a couple of beers, deploying the emergency exit chute, and sliding down it, and we wonder whether someone who cites carryon baggage as a pet peeve should really be working as a flight attendant.

–Sean Hannity suggests that to annoy liberals, he asks for two plastic bags at the supermarket, and Jedidiah Bila complains about the more expensive cost to supermarkets of phasing out plastic bags while not mentioning the additional cost of Hannity’s two bag plan.

–BP claims the oil spill is essentially almost all fixed up, saying three quarters of the oil and dispersants have been cleaned up, and we wonder if anybody believes that.

–Audience emails about the Terry Jones Koran-burning interview, Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s theory about women turning to lesbianism as they age, a racist email in response to a racist voicemail,and more, as well as new stations airing Midweek Politics.