“This freeze would cut the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, bringing this kind of spending -- domestic discretionary spending -- to its lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was President. Let me repeat that...."

Representative John Lewis told us on GRITtv not long ago about his time leading civil rights marches and fighting for justice alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. From leading marches to making impassioned speeches in front of Congress, calling on his colleagues to make the right choices on the Iraq war and continuing to fight for the rights of those often forgotten, Lewis is honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom today, and we honor him as well with some of his most memorable speeches.

In the war of information around WikiLeaks, the story just keeps getting messier. The latest chapter involves Anonymous, the group of hackers who targeted banks that denied WikiLeaks funding, a private security firm called HBGary, Bank of America, the CIA, and our good friends at the US Chamber of Commerce. Spying, data mining, and smear campaigns against progressive bloggers and union members and activists are just part of the mess, which is still unfolding.

"People are perfectly capable of democracy and guess what, without US invasion," notes Hamid Dabashi of the lessons from Egypt's revolution. Iran is just one of the countries that, inspired by Tunisia and Egypt, has seen protests in recent days. In Iran, it's a revival and of the civil rights movement that we saw start in 2009 after the elections, Dabashi notes, but moving to a new phase that is demanding more than just "Where is my vote?"

"People are perfectly capable of democracy and guess what, without US invasion," notes Hamid Dabashi of the lessons from Egypt's revolution. Iran is just one of the countries that, inspired by Tunisia and Egypt, has seen protests in recent days. In Iran, it's a revival and of the civil rights movement that we saw start in 2009 after the elections, Dabashi notes, but moving to a new phase that is demanding more than just "Where is my vote?"

It might be the greatest bait and switch ever pulled on the American voter. For two successive election cycles we've been promised jobs, a recovering economy, attention to the Constitution. After the last one, triumphant Republican after triumphant Republican declared November's to be an election decided on jobs.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is a good place, says Sarah Posner, to "put your finger on the pulse of the conservative movement" in the US. From straw polls for president--Congressman Ron Paul won that one--to tiffs over gay conservatives and Islamophobia, this past weekend at CPAC saw a lot of action, and Sarah was there to report, for Religion Dispatches and The Nation.

"The US has to go back to the drawing board," says legendary journalist Helen Thomas of US policy in the Middle East and North Africa. As Egypt throws off its regime and protests ripple across the region, she notes that the world is waking up to the fact that people under repressive dictatorships can and will fight back--and use nonviolence to achieve their aims rather than invasion.

"I feel reborn," says Egyptian feminist author and activist Nawal El Saadawi. "I am 80, but I feel young, I feel all my energy coming back, I feel my childhood dream coming back."

"I feel reborn," says Egyptian feminist author and activist Nawal El Saadawi. "I am 80, but I feel young, I feel all my energy coming back, I feel my childhood dream coming back."