Guests: Author and journalist William Greider and comedian and podcaster Marc Maron

FYI – Thanks to yesterday’s interview with Glenn Greenwald blowing up on the internet and the throngs of Marc Maron fans today we have been experiencing a massive uptick in traffic (which is awesome) but it is taking place before our planned server upgrade (less awesome). We apologize for any glitches you may experience.

Sam starts the show with a “Lonely Goatherd” moment declaring the government is run one party that is bent on destroying the middle class while the other party doesn’t seem to care.

Coming off the heals of Sam’s interview with The Huffington Post‘s Dan Froomkin yesterday about the battle of the bad budgets, it seems that it would be better to pass nothing than to pass either of them.

Let the budget proposal amendments begin!

If you missed the Glenn Greenwald interview yesterday on the “ChanberLeaks” story, here’s you chance to catch up:

Listen to the interview

Read the full transcript

Glenn has also uncovered some new information about the scandal in his column in Salon today.

Sam points out that this story is finaly getting some play in the mainstream media. The L.A. Times just published an article.

Next, Sam welcomes the national affairs correspondent from The Nation William Greider to talk about his story on how Wall Street has walked away from the financial meltdown without even an accusation of fraud in the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report. He explains that the investigation of these banks needs to be treated like they are building a case against organized crime -squeeze the little guys for information and then work your way to the top. Unfortunately none of this is happening.

Listen to the interview

Jeffery Sachs on the budget

The Pentagon spending proposal was the highest since World War II at $553 billion – the largest request ever.

Jon Walker from Firedoglake shows how stress can damage the brain – and wonders what The White House’s proposal to cut home heating assistance for poor people will do to their mental well-being.

And on the Member’s Only Post Show, comedian and now media-darling,  Marc Maron finally calls in to check out Sam’s new show (after 3 months). The once co-hosts play nice as Sam tries to figure out if the success of the WTF podcast has changed Marc… and Marc gets jealous over Sam’s fan-donated microphone. It was a great call and fun to listen to them blur the line between sincerity and condescension.

Listen to the interview

Note: Starting this week the listener IM-driven post show podcast will only be available to Majority Report members. Please become a “member with benefits“ so you don’t miss great interviews like the one with Marc!