"Anything BP does and doesn't do is to preserve their profits and their future ability to operate in the United States, no more, no less." That's according to "Martha," a hazardous waste worker in the Gulf, who joins us via Skype anonymously to report on the conditions workers are facing cleaning up BP's mess.

"Martha" has been reporting on conditions to the blog The Political Carnival, where more of her stories of workers being fired, prisoner labor used in cleanup, improper training and safety conditions, and of course, following the money around the trail of contracts and confusion that is the Gulf Coast post-Deepwater Horizon.

War has become normal, and the wars we engage in have become open-ended enterprises, notes historian and best-selling author Andrew Bacevich.  More importantly, our ongoing state of war is one that has been created by politicians from both parties, and our entire way of life in the U.S. is implicated in its creation.

In part one of a two-part interview, Bacevich joins Laura in studio to talk about his new book, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the moment when he, as an army officer, realized that the story he'd been told about why we fight wasn't the full tale.  Look out for part two next week.

Finally, the Senate can't make up its mind to send money to states to keep paying teachers. But it has no problem paying for war. What are our teachers really worth? Laura takes a look at a new study.