Former regulator, savings & loan investigator, and current Braintruster at the Roosevelt Institute William K. Black says that if Elizabeth Warren isn't appointed to head the consumer protection agency passed as part of the financial reform bill, it will be a clear sign that the agency isn't going to protect consumers at all.  While Warren has done the research in the field for 20 years, he notes, other candidates preferred by Treasury Secretary Geithner have fallen more into the Rubin/Summers camp of deregulators.

Black joins us via Skype from Kansas City, where he's professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, to break down the problems with the financial reform bill and make the case for Warren as the only way for real consumer protection.

We constantly hear about the size of the military budget, what percentage it is of our spending, what it did to the deficit. But numbers that large can simply become numbing. It's hard to fathom billions. So when Paris studio Moustache created this short film attempting to visualize the amount spent on war, we knew we had to share it with you.

Peace process, proximity talks, one state, two state...though these terms are often tossed around the mass media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they have been rendered virtually meaningless. Instead, we see footage of Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama shaking hands, waxing eloquently on the need for mutual peace as the US simultaneously slips Israeli more tax dollars to further cement their occupation of Palestine. A just peace indeed.

Where is this famous peace process? Does it exist? Is peace even a process to begin with? We asked blogger and author Antony Loewenstein and author and co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abuminah about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is reported, what is the role of new media, and how can this start its own viral uprising, independent of mass media banter.

Finally, Laura has some thoughts about Top Secret America: the unlimited budget for contractors and the constant cuts for kids.