With prices two times higher than they were when President Obama took office, and up 37% just this year, Americans are feeling an additional squeeze at the pumps. The White House's plan to reduce fuel costs may be a step in the right direction, says Antonia.   However, as we continue to navigate issues like speculative trading and a lack of regulation in the Intercontinental Oil Exchange, true progress may be difficult. Is there a responsible way forward? And, more importantly, is the Obama administration ready to set us on that path?

"People actually want to believe in heroes, so they'll believe in Glenn Beck, they'll believe in Barack Obama, they choose individuals to believe in but won't believe in politics itself," says Walter Mosley, author and activist.  Obama may have been pressured into releasing his "long form" birth certificate this week, but that won't heal the hurt in our politics, Mosley says, until Americans stop trusting heroes and experts and start trusting each other.

Mosley joins us for part one of a two-part conversation on his vision for a truly people-powered America.

Finally, the media is more obsessed with the British royal wedding than the US people actually are, but why should we bother with British royals at all when we have our own royals right here? They're called corporations.

“Royal wedding reminds us why we tossed Brits,” ran one letter to a local paper recently. That exorbitant $80 million spent on a medieval style ritual in time of 21st century austerity. It's shameful. It's old world. It's just what Americans fought a revolutionary war to throw off.

And then there are the folks like Rupert Cornwall at the UK Independent who argue hat people in the US love British royals precisely because they don't have their own real thing.  Gary Younge at the Nation noted that even his liberal friends wanted to know what he, a British citizen, thought of the prince marrying a "commoner." Oh please.

The only serious and in fact actually quite insidious part about this is that it re-inscribes the notion that the US has no  class.

Really? When the top one percent of wealthiest Americans own 34 percent of the country's wealth and enjoyed 80 percent of the total increase in wealth here between 1980 and 2005? No class?

As for ruling class? In the UK the commoners keep their royals on welfare. Here we do the same with our corporations. Billions in tax dollars keep them afloat and keep CEOs in mansions. Why not just give them palaces? At least we could keep them open for tours.

Since the Supreme Court has given corporations free speech rights and personhood -- how about marriage equality next?

Then, we could string up Bunting flags for the next monopolistic coupling... At the Comcast and NBC nuptials we'd all throw money while they stroll down the aisle. And -- with a nod to Jim Hightower -- instead of aristocrats with  coats of arms, the paid off politicians would express their heritage -- in corporate logos on their lapels. At least then we'd know who owns whom.

The trinkets from a corporate marriage might be dreary. And the offspring, who can say? But at least we'd get a day off and one hell of a party. Plus we'd move out of denial.  The more I think about it the more I like it. Monarchies or Megacorps? Why not declare them royal?

Julia and actor Flaco Navaja join Laura in studio to discuss dealing with pressing social issues through humor, addressing the "new generation Latino" and why they moved to create their own media.

The job of the journalist is not to give people a voice, filmmaker Miki Chakarova explains to her students: "People have a voice," she says, "It's just that they don't have an outlet."  In her recent film, The Price of Sex, Chakarova went to great lengths to provide that outlet by embedding herself in the world of Eastern European sex trafficking.  The resulting film is an intimate portrait of the individuals that comprise an industry, and the way that corruption thrives in the context of poverty.

The film is playing around the country at select venues and will have its NYC premiere this summer at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Budget cuts are everywhere we look these days, but they often come right along with giveaways and moves to further enrich those at the top. In San Francisco, students and teachers came out to protest  massive budget cuts in the California State University system, express outrage over the obscene salaries of the dean of students and voice their concern about their financially debt ridden future.

This video comes courtesy of Davey D and OpenLine media.

Finally, a new story in The Nation shows that the Supreme Court's also made it a lot easier for companies to pressure their employees directly about voting.  Laura has some thoughts on the way Citizens United is changing the workplace as well as the ballot box.

Mark Ames and Mike Elk got a copy of the Koch Industries' Washington state election packet, which, they write, was given to each of the company's employees—50,000 nationwide—and included a cover letter from the company's president, a list of Koch-endorsed state and federal candidates, and the company newsletter, which espouses right-wing views.

And after the Court majority effectively rewrote election law, this is all perfectly legal.

What's worse, they note, is that apparently the same employers who are free to propagandize and pressure their workers are also free to ban other information being distributed in the workplace—information about unions, for example.

Anti-union propaganda in the workplace is nothing new—recently a Home Depot anti-union video leaked to the Web, and though it's been removed, its content was much like the content of the Kochs' message here—you don't need unions, your benevolent corporate overlords have your best interests at heart as they fight Big Labor to bring you your meager wage.

Substitute Big Government for Big Labor and you'll have the gist of the Kochs' package. Now imagine people across the country being handed recommended voting lists at the door as they walk in to work, while the union organizers are kept far away and the Koch-supported candidates are cutting union rights in the statehouses and legislatures coast to coast.

It's time to fight back against the money corrupting our politics, before being bombarded with propaganda is just part of the workday.

Smith notes their attacks are largely out of proportion to the real power that Warren wields. Though Republicans spent over two hours attacking Warren when she appeared before Congress last week, Smith points out that Warren's chances of actually being named to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are skinny.

And then there's the question of Bureau power itself. If you dream of a Bureau head with sharp suits who will track down and incarcerate mortgage bundlers and fraudulent foreclosers -- dream again. There's no chance in hell that even Wonderful Warren will be to the Banksters what Elliot Ness was to Al Capone.

After all, this is an administration gearing up for a reelection fight expected to cost a billion—with a B—dollars. Thanks to Citizens United, big business can throw some seriously big money around, and Obama has money worries enough. Way enough to stifle any likely pre-election moves on billionaires. Even if he had the inclination.

I have to wonder, too, if there's an element of sexism in the reactions to Warren. After all, there aren't a lot of women in high places in Obama's economic team—and it was mostly women, you'll remember, who warned and were ignored before the financial crisis first hit.

Nonetheless Krugman seems to think that the unhinged attacks on Warren are a perfect opportunity -- another --  to debate over who's responsible for breaking the economy. The administration may not have the guts for it, but groups like US Uncut, National People's Action, and BanksterUSA just might.

We may not have an Elizabeth Ness with a federal bureau at her back, but we do have popular protest -- from Wisconsin to Ohio to Indiana and back. Maybe we can have the conversation without them.

Laura spoke with Peg this weekend in Madison about the protests, about Walker's phone call, and more.

Michael joins Laura in studio for part one of a two-part conversation about the war on working people in America. He notes that it started in 1981 with Reagan's attack on the air traffic controllers, and it's mostly targeted the poor, as with Clinton's welfare reform. But the attacks on middle class families have finally reached a point where people aren't going to take it anymore.

Watch out for part two tomorrow!

“There clearly are potential ethics violations, and there are potential election-law violations and there are a lot of what look to me like labor-law violations,” says former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager of Scott Walker's response to a prank phone call from "David Koch."

Laura spoke with Peg this weekend in Madison about the protests, about Walker's phone call, and more.

It's been more than two weeks since protesters in Madison, Wisconsin have occupied the capitol building, and John Nichols notes that what's going on there is uniquely Wisconsin--from the politeness to the support and solidarity for union workers.  He spoke to Laura outside the capitol this weekend, as protesters lined up in the freezing cold to get back into the building.

Scot and Cory join Laura in Madison for a discussion of the depth and breadth of the fight working people face in Wisconsin--and to note that they are up for the challenge.