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The Afghan End Game: the amazing ANN JONES is back from Kabul with a report. For a decade she’s been working in Afghanistan on human rights and women’s issues, and writing for The Nation, Tom Dispatch, and others.  Her books include Kabul in Winter.  What will happen to the women when the US pulls out?  “Afghan women have already been abandoned,” she says.

Also: A spiritual journey into the Himalayas: PICO IYER talks about Peter Mattheson’s exploration of suffering, impermanence, and beauty in his classic book The Snow Leopard — it’s out now in paperback.

Plus: Obama released his budget today, and it includes those cuts in Social Security.  JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation says “the Democrats will break with Obama” on this one.

. . . and Your Minnesota Moment:  Macalester College in St Paul is a target of the new “Kick Wells Fargo of Campus” campaign of United Students Against Sweatshops.

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The legendary hero of late-night radio in New York: BOB FASS has mixed music, politics, comedy and reports from the street on his midnight show on WBAI for 50 years.  Now he’s the subject of an award-winning documentary: “RADIO UNNAMEABLE”–opening Friday at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood, next to the Egyptian.  WATCH the trailer HERE.

Plus: Tripping in Topanga: OLIVER SACKS, the legendary neuroscientist and New Yorker writer, talks about his youthful experiences with hallucinogenic drugs — his new book is Hallucinations.

Also: The Pacific from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush: a world of whalers and merchants, epidemics and plagues, captives and hostages, and the rise of the American empire.  Historian DAVID IGLER explains; his new book is THE GREAT OCEAN: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush.  “Engaging, richly detailed, and full of compelling stories that change our understanding of life in and around the world’s greatest ocean.”–Matt. K. Matsuda, Rutgers U.

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Gay Marriage: The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of California’s Prop 8 yesterday and today – JON DAVIDSON was in the court and will comment on the proceedings.  Jon is Legal Director of Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization working for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people.

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TOM HAYDEN on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, a war “designed to avoid provoking the public”—and yet, a peace movement arose and “drove a stake through neo-conservative dreams of domination.”  Tom wrote about Iraq for The Nation.

Also: MARK LeVINE answers the question, “Why is Obama going to Israel today?”; Mark teaches the history of the modern Middle East at UCI and writes a column for AlJazeera English.

And, when the Senate votes on gun control, will they give up on banning high capacity magazines?   TOM FRANK will comment – his column in the March Harper’s is about “our weapon-saturated world.”