What Lies Ahead in U.S. Foreign Policy, Wake Up World, and The End of Capitalism

Conservatives are calling it continuity they can believe in. Progressives are searching for one anti-war voice. Can we judge the Commander in Chief by the company he keeps? This week, a potentially hawkish national security team in the limelight.

Tonight on GRITtv, journalist Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, Human Rights Watch Counterterrorism advisor Stacy Sullivan, and William Hartung, Director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation discuss whether Barack Obama's presidency will change the course of American foreign policy. Joining us by phone from Delhi, India is Shabnam Hashmi, of Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD.)

The Pakistan-India question is clearly a big deal. Can the USA be a facilitator in that region? What about Star Wars? Hartung suggests we're in for something more like Star Skirmishes.

Then, Shoot The Messenger comedians Lizz Winstead and Baron Vaughn on the president's regrets, and all the comic opportunity the mainstream media allows them. Last night George Bush told ABC News' Charlie Gibson that the “biggest regret of all the presidency” was the fact that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. Winstead and Vaughn have a few regrets of their own regarding the Bush presidency. Is there enough time to list them all?

Shoot The Messenger's Wake Up World! is the brain child of Winstead, a writer and comedian who was a founding member of Air America Radio and co-creator of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Vaughn is one of the writers and comics in the show.

Finally, an interview with Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or The End of the World? While everyone is talking about what it's going to take to jumpstart our economy, we thought we'd bring someone in to talk about what needs to CHANGE in our economy. Jumpstarting the old one may not do us - or our planet - much good.

Thanks to The Real News for their report on "continuity of government" in tonight's show. Laura's commentary is about Posse Comitatus and the 20,000 or so uniformed troops our military is planning to have stationed inside the United States by 2011.