Laura joins Ed Schultz on MSNBC to discuss Eric Cantor's refusal to repudiate birthers in the House Republican caucus.

"We have deified businessmen while denigrating government workers," says Erica Payne of the Agenda Project, and there's no better example of that than President Obama appointing GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head a commission on jobs and competitiveness. Heading into the State of the Union speech, Heidi Shierholz stresses that businesses aren't hiring and creating jobs because there is not enough demand--because people are not buying goods or services.

Budget cuts in care for those with mental illness often go unnoticed, notes mental health nurse Rexanne Darnell, because there is no one to speak for the mentally ill who are affected. It is too often left to legislators and governors, like Jan Brewer in Arizona, are making cuts to programs that keep patients safe and protected--as well as protecting the medical professionals who care for them.

"We have deified businessmen while denigrating government workers," says Erica Payne of the Agenda Project, and there's no better example of that than President Obama appointing GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head a commission on jobs and competitiveness. Heading into the State of the Union speech, Heidi Shierholz stresses that businesses aren't hiring and creating jobs because there is not enough demand--because people are not buying goods or services.

The revelation of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian diplomatic records has shocked the world -- all of it except the US, that is.

As a child, David Helvarg used to look up at the stars and become angry that he was born too early to explore new worlds. But soon he realized that the ocean is a unexplored world. As an adult, Helvarg became a journalist and spent his time exploring the ocean, and founded the Blue Frontier Campaign to help conserve the world under the sea.

When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Congress on Your Corner event was attacked on January 8th, gunman Jared Loughner did more than just go on a shooting spree. John Nichols notes that he attacked the very right of U.S. citizens to peaceably assemble and communicate with their representative in the government.

"It's dangerous to discount as mere theater what the Republicans do," notes Rebecca Dana of the Daily Beast. She points out that a lot will depend on who controls Congress in 2012--symbolic moves to repeal health care reform will be a lot less symbolic if the Senate is under Republican control as well.

President Hu Jintao of China is visiting the U.S., but regardless of what happens, Americans will no doubt keep buying Chinese consumer goods. And while Republicans grandstand, Obama's up in the polls--but for how long? And as the GOP candidates for 2012 begin to move and jockey for position, which ones will make it and which ones will be left holding the mic at Fox News?

In the first week of 2011, the now defunct Tunisian regime made a series of arrests in an effort to silence online activists critical of former president Ben Ali and his supporters. A young rapper known as "El General" was among those arrested. Most Tunisians agree that it was the internet release of the rapper’s song, “President, Your People Are Dying,” that prompted the arrest of young Hamada Ben Amor.