afghanistan

Orozco joins guest host Ed Ott, a longtime labor activist, and Tahir Duckett of the AFL-CIO's Working America to talk about youth unemployment, why it matters, and how it connects to the student activism springing up around the country. Students across California--and the country--held protests on March 4 against budget cuts that are cutting courses and hiking tuition at state universities. In these videos from New America Media, students and protesters speak out about the state's overspending on war and prisons and underspending on education.

This is what must make it hard for people working inside the Obama administration. No sooner does the White House start talking up something good, than it does something bad. Take contracting. As reported here on GRITtv, the Obama's administration's been talking up "High Road Contracting." That's the using of the power of the government's $500 billion purse to reward companies that offer better wages and benefits and disqualify from federal contracts those that violate labor and environmental law. Sounds good right? The debate was just heating up when the second shoe dropped.

The Academy Awards are this weekend, so we invited three of our favorite film critics and pop culture queens to talk: Will Kathryn Bigelow break the Best Director glass ceiling? Is Sandra Bullock going to take home a statuette? Was Avatar all that it was cracked up to be? And why was that Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover so darn white? Kate Clinton is back with some thoughts on Tiger Woods' image rehabilitation, sports fever, women's history month, and the Oscars, as well as Jim Bunning's singlehanded choice to deny unemployment benefits to over 400,000 people.

In Trevor Paglen's new book, Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World, he investigates the "off the map" locations of covert government activity, including the "salt pit" in Kabul where Khaled El-Masri was held.
Ben Wizner, from the ACLU's National Security Project, is El-Masri's lawyer and he joins Paglen in studio with Laura to talk about black sites, government secrecy, and why anything goes when prisoners are taken off the map.