Radio Nation with Laura Flanders Blog

Condoleezza Rice is off to India this week, to "stand in solidarity with the Indian people " in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

The Bush administration says it shares the horror and pain of the Indian people. In fact, it shares a good deal more than that.

Is April the cruelest month? If you're a Republican, you might think your party was breaking apart, starting from the top. If you're on the left, you might wonder why the opposition isn't making more of this moment. Today we go outside the box to get out of the political boxing ring.

We start with ELLEN WILLIS author of, "Don't Think: Smile!" and Director of NYU Journalism School's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program. She and Laura talk about the "Bush Women" and how the right's hijacking the work of the Feminist movement. Then AMIRA HASS, the pioneering Israeli journalist and author of "Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege" and "Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land." Plus GREG PALAST, investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and MARK LEVINE, host of "The Inside Scoop," on WAGE AM-1200, on the latest news. And ELAINE PETROCELLI, owner of San Francisco's Book Passage bookstore, on what's flying off the shelf.

What happened to the secular state? Is America disappearing as arch-conservatives attack everything outside their view of God and country? Is the anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-government domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph more a kindred spirit with today's Republican leadership than Karol Wojtyla? We've had weeks of news dominated by the hard right: Terri Schaivo's feeding tube; Tom Delay's attacks on judges; the Pope 24-7; the Arizona Minutemen's border patrols. Who is standing up for secular society? For NOT taking the law into one's own hands?

Our report from the border of the law and lawless includes Arizona Democratic State Rep. KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona Minuteman Project co-founder CHRIS SIMCOX and Arizona ACLU Vice-President CAROLYN TROWBRIDGE. We check in with "Guantanamo: Honor bound to defend Freedom," the play about U.S. abuses in the war on terrorism and NYC songwriter-singer NORA YORK and her new CD "What I Want."

As praise pours in for the Pope's moral leadership, the contrast with an American president who fabricated the case for war grows sharper and sharper. What price do people pay when political leadership is built on a culture of lies, deceit and inside deal-making?

RAHUL MAHAJAN author of EMPIRE NOTES, tells us the latest from Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. efforts aren't helping to build a civil society or heal sectarian anything. Then ace reporter LAURIE GARRETT picks up on why the private sector isn't the answer to everything. The Pulitzer Prize winnner tells us why she left NY Newsday and the latest on big profits in big medicine. We'll also hear from APRIL JOHNSON, a truckdriver's bereaved daughter on why she is suing the war-profiteer, HALLIBURTON.

Death and dying in America are center stage with the Pope and Terri Schiavo. First, reflections on Pope John Paul II's passing with FRANCIS KISSLING, president of Catholics for Free Choice. Then we'll talk about what we've learned about some people's strange relationship with mortality and we'll unravel the right-wing conspiracy to make the most of the Terry Schiavo case. Conservative foundations, resuscitating Operation Rescue and the Vatican's hidden hand all played a part. Pro-choice protester SUNSARA TAYLOR tells us how she braved the hospice barricades. Investigative journalist FRED CLARKSON describes the religious right's organizing. Finally, extraordinary jazz singer CHERYL BENTYNE on her new CD featuring the swing and bebop music of Anita O'Day.