Tonight on COUNTERPOINT with Scott Harris

This week's guests on Counterpoint hosted by Scott Harris:

• Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, talks about the Obama policy on Iraq and Afghanistan -- and discusses her group's upcoming protest action on Wall Street scheduled for April 4th, anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's prophetic "Beyond Vietnam" speech. There activists will advocate for a new world of equality and justice, a world beyond war.

• Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate, Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, scrutinizes President Obama's pledge to cut wasteful and unnecessary defense spending and challenge the military-industrial complex. This as the just-released overall figure for the 2010 Pentagon budget is actually $533.7 billion; $20.4 billion higher than Bush's last Pentagon budget.

• Nick Nyhart, co-founder, President and CEO of Public Campaign. examines the connection between Wall Street deregulation, made possible by the corrupting pay-to-play system of big money campaign contributions in Washington - and the nation's economic meltdown. He'll discuss the Fair Elections Now Act, public campaign financing legislation, which will be introduced in the House and Senate this month.

• Gilbert Bailon, editorial page editor at the St.Louis Post-Dispatch, and past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, assesses the changing business environment and failures of journalism that have led to the decline and fall of many major American newspapers.

An archive of Counterpoint programs is accessible for free. Technorati tags: WPKN, radio