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 Person of the Year.

"The Obama administration now has both the continuing Honduran crisis and a divided hemisphere on its hands, with no solution in sight," reads a new article in The Nation today. The U.S. has decided to recognize the result of the recent elections in Honduras, despite ongoing reports that the elections were boycotted and that the people consider them an extension of the coup.

Suphala joined us in the studio once again to talk about her instrument, her cultural diplomacy, and play a few songs with Mike Block on cello and Hadi Eldebek on oud.

We're in the middle of our holiday planning here at GRITtv, and one of the things we're planning is a special end of the year/end of the decade show for next week, with lots of your favorite regular guests looking back at the year that was--and the decade that was.

Joe Lieberman hijacked news coverage for a while this week, but it was Howard Dean's defense of real health care reform that inspired White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to a snarling personal response. Ben Bernanke was anointed Time's Person of the Year despite a hold on his renomination and a bill passing the house to audit the Federal Reserve. Is the Establishment closing ranks around its own?

Mark Danner weaves together a complex picture of American foreign policy and its effects around the world--as well as on the way we think and feel here at home--in Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War, his latest book. He joins Laura in the studio to discuss the book, and hopes and fears for the U.S. under Obama.

Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones magazine has been in Copenhagen for the climate talks for the last two weeks.

The subtitle of Rory O'Connor's documentary on the Durban II conference is "Israel, Palestine, and the United Nations." Two successive United Nations conferences on racism went down in disarray, boycotted by the U.S. and other countries and causing more controversy than they addressed--mostly because of anger between Israeli and Palestinian supporters. O'Connor takes a look at the way the conflict over Israel took over the discussion.

Mohammed Rezwan told the Washington Post about his floating schools in Bangladesh, a creative solution that looks all the more necessary as climate talks tank in Copenhagen. He stopped by the GRITtv studios to tell us about his organization, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, which brings services to the people by boat.

Joe Lieberman hijacked news coverage for a while this week, but it was Howard Dean's defense of real health care reform that inspired White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to a snarling personal response. Ben Bernanke was anointed Time's Person of the Year despite a hold on his renomination and a bill passing the house to audit the Federal Reserve. Is the Establishment closing ranks around its own?