• Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute.
• Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper in the UK; author of "The Age of the Warrior: Selected Essays" for Nation Books.
• Author/investigator David Ray Griffin
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News.

• Was Jefferson right when he said bankers are more dangerous than a standing army?
• The demise of the dollar.
• Everything you know is wrong...is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive?

• It's Money That Matters, Randy Newman.
• Take the Money and Run, Steve Miller Band.
• Land of Confusion, Genesis.
• Midnight Rider, Willie Nelson.
• Breakfast In America, Supertramp.
• Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Don't Cross the River, America.
• You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
• The Mail Must Go Through, Larry Groce & The Disneyland Children's Sing Along Chorus.
• Call Me, Blondie (video).
• Democracy, Leonard Cohen.

"US banks stand to collect a record $38.5bn in fees for customer overdrafts this year, with the bulk of the revenue coming from the most financially stretched consumers amid the deepest recession since the 1930s, according to research. The revenue figure is nearly double that reported in 2000."

"Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.

"Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers."

"Sun Bigan was China's special envoy to the Middle East until March, and in a new essay he said U.S. President Barack Obama's effort to improve ties with Islamic states in the Middle East was a tactical shift that had not removed the potential for friction between Washington and Beijing in the region.

China faced growing risks to energy security as it increasingly relied on imported oil, especially from the volatile Middle East, where Beijing's sway had been limited, Sun said.

"The U.S. has always sought to control the faucet of global oil supplies. There is cooperation between China and the U.S., but there is also struggle, and the U.S. has always seen us as a potential foe," he wrote in the September issue of "Asia-Africa Review", which reached subscribers this week.

"Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable. We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security," Sun wrote in the Chinese-language journal, which is published by the State Council Development Research Centre, a prominent state think tank."

"I love the Thom program. Feels like a Mensa meeting with fart jokes."