The Bush administration thrived on secrecy; Obama promised more transparency, but has yet to really deliver. What’s more, when information does come out, it seems that accountability is nearly impossible to get: the torture memos were released, but there will be no trials. We ask Daniel Ellsberg, one of the world’s most famous whistleblowers, and blogger Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com if there’s anything the people can do to take the power back.

In the wake of the failed underpants bombing attempt, new airport security rules have been added, and discussion has ramped up of the use of full-body scanners and other invasive technologies. We ask Liliana Segura of AlterNet and Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent if we can scan ourselves to safety, or if this is just more security theater designed to get us to give up our civil liberties.

The hearings on the financial crisis are getting underway, but what good will it really do? Will regulation fix the system, or do we need to radically rethink it? We ask Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved and the new The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation and of the book Meltdown, and Daniel Gross, Newsweek columnist. Join us live on the Web at 12:30!

The year is almost over, and it’s certainly been an eventful one. We’ve seen a new president, some huge bank bailouts, a dramatic election season and we’re closer than we’ve ever been to national health care reform–whether that’s a good thing or not.

It’s also about to be 2010 and the end of a decade that Time magazine suggested might’ve been the worst ever. Hyperbole? We’ll discuss the year that was and the decade that was with a roundtable of our favorite guests, including Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, Mark Green of Air America, Danny Schechter of News Dissector, Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah, Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion, Faye Wattleton of the Center for the Advancement of Women, and Nancy Giles of CBS News Sunday Morning.

With the economic collapse last year, many mainstream voices suddenly started to talk about alternatives to capitalism. The economy seems to be stabilizing a bit, but as we’ve discussed many times, people are still suffering and jobless. Yet Citigroup is getting more tax breaks, and Ben Bernanke is Time’s Man of the Year.

Can capitalism be saved, and is it worth saving? We’re thinking big this Wednesday with Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute and Max Fraad Wolff of the New School.

Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a 31-year-old statutory rape charge earlier this year, and many Hollywood stars immediately rallied to his defense. Earlier this summer, Michael Jackson died and the world mourned despite the shadow cast by multiple charges of child molestation. As Polanski remains under house arrest, we ask Trish Kinney, Michael [...]

As activists make their way around Capitol Hill for today’s day of lobbying against the Stupak amendment, we ask: What will the Senate health care bill look like? Amidst the grandstanding, egos, and filibuster threats, is it possible to come out of the Senate with a more progressive bill than the House passed? Joining us [...]

After the meltdown, what next? We continue our discussion by featuring David Harvey and Alexander Cockburn on reinventing the neoliberal social order. At CUNY not long ago, these two independent thinkers sat down with Laura to discuss possibilities for real, radical change, and we have a special look at that for you.

How much control does the President really have, anyway? Americans voted for change and are getting frustrated with the lack of it, but our guests have both written about the powerful forces holding the status quo in place.

In a special one-hour live stream, we bring back many of our guests from last year’s election day show to discuss what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what we still hope to see happen under Obama. Elections around the country of course saw nowhere near the turnout of the presidential race, yet the corporate [...]