Tonight’s guest Janus Metz, who with his cinematographer Lars Skree, spent six months embedded with a Danish infantry company at Armadillo, a forward operating base in Afghanistan’s Helmand province –part of the NATO-led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force).

The result is Armadillo, winner of the Cannes International Critics Week, an unselfconscious look at war and those who have to wage it; because as the men are told at the film’s beginning, their government has determined a national policy and it is the duty of soldiers to implement it.

At the end of the health care debate, when Obama was desperate to get the final bill passed in the House, he agreed to make a deal with Bart Stupak (D-MI) on the issue of abortion, by offering an executive order that restricted the availability of insurance coverage for reproductive health. The right to abortion for many in need was traded away as a bargaining chip to get that final bill passed.

Last week, as part of the negotiations to get a budget for the rest of fiscal year 2011, President Obama again decided to use abortion rights as a bargaining chip to secure a final deal

When you were sworn in as president of the United States, I had high hopes. I thought: here is a person who would have never become a president if it were not for the African-American fight for civil liberties; he will understand our fight for freedom. Unfortunately, so far my hopes have been shattered. I might have misunderstood. What was it you meant Mr. president? YES WE CAN… support dictators? YES WE CAN… help oppress pro-democracy protesters? YES WE CAN… turn a blind eye to a people’s suffering?

On April 7th, I attended a rally for Bradley Manning on the steps of City Hall in downtown Manhattan.

It is theoretically possible that Obama will only call for applying the payroll tax to incomes above $107,000–that being the only “fix” to Social Security supported by the American people and would give the program near infinite solvency–but I highly doubt it. Most likely, our deficit-hawk-in-chief is going to call for some form of cuts to Social Security benefits.

And so it is that our government clings desperately to one of the darkest chapters of our history to legitimize its current actions. Rather than reflect on what that means–how damning it is that we can point only to Andrew Jackson’s illegal treatment of Native Americans to justify our current conduct–the government says simply, “a precedent is a precedent!”

This week, we are happy to inform our members that we have joined up with Eco-Bags Products, Inc., a company that sells eco-friendly bags and accessories. In addition to great selection of “green” carry-alls and shopping bags, they also offer wine accessories, water bottles, carrying devices, and travel bags. They are longtime members of Green America and a WBENC (certified woman owned business); they “exist to provide products, information and inspiration that help people reduce, re-use and recycle.”

The GOP whining in the Village Daily about their 2012 crop of circus geeks and snake handlers is really quite awesome.

Way back in January 2008, a certain presidential candidate gave a speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church on the “essential deficit that exists in this country.” It’s a good speech. On Wednesday, President Obama is slated to give a speech on deficit reduction. I hope he check out what that other guy had to say a couple of years ago before he steps in front of the cameras.

While I strongly disagree on a policy level with almost everything John Boehner is trying to do, I’m glad that he has at least reminded us that the House of Representatives isn’t the meaningless sick boy of the federal government.