In a recent article for ColorLines, Seth Wessler reported on one woman's struggle to support her family when cash benefits from the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program--the one that replaced welfare under Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform--run out.  "Selling Food Stamps For Kids' Shoes" was the title of the article, and it creates a stark picture of the impossible choices more and more families are forced to make in the continuing recession.

Wessler joins us in studio, along with Irasema Garza, president of Legal Momentum, Wanda Fossett with Community Voices Heard, and via Skype, Carmen Cordero, welfare rights activist with the Hartford-based group Vecinos Unidos. They discuss food stamps, poverty, and why this might be the best opportunity we have to rebuild the social safety net.

Dean Baker of the Center for Economic And Policy Research, Beat the Press, and author of a new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy, has some words for Democrats and Republicans alike who want to focus on "fiscal responsibility" while millions of Americans still struggle for jobs: they're heading "180 degrees the wrong way."

From our friends at Tactical Technology Collective, this second video in the series shows how ordinary citizens from around the world used basic video technology to record events and corrupt actions and effect change.

Imran Malik has just returned from a trip to Haiti providing medical aid--he went to medical school in Pakistan and got his first experience with emergency relief during the earthquake there in 2005. He also plays drums in Pakistani-American punk band The Kominas, who were featured in Taqwacore, a documentary on Muslim punk bands. He joins Laura in studio to talk about punk rock, Haiti, Muslim identity, and the problems with the U.S. health care system.

Sarah Posner, Associate Editor at Religion Dispatches and author of God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, gives us her thoughts on the Conservative Political Action Conference, the tea party movement, and where the anti-abortion movement fits in.

Two Greenpeace activists in Tokyo, Japan, are standing trial for exposing a corruption scandal in the whaling industry but the United Nations Human Rights Council and many other activists, including Amnesty International, have expressed concern for the way they have been treated. Watch the video and take action!

Finally, Laura has some words about Joseph Stack, the anti-government conservative who last week flew a plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas.