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On tonight’s Beneath The Surface we begin with Mike Davis who proclaims the end of the planet, and he places a lot of blame on the "CEOs of fossil energy companies [who] know what they are doing and are aware of [the] long-term consequences of continued business as usual." He added that they should, in his opinion, "be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.

We then look at a tsunami of an economic sort with Thomas Mackell – whose new book is When the Good Pensions Go Away: Why America Needs a New Deal for Pension and Health Care Reform. Mackell predicts a tsunami in global markets once the German banks reveal how much money they’ve invested in mortgage backed securities, and that is the tip of the iceberg. It’s not all doom and gloom, there are solutions too.

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As oil and food prices shoot skyward consumers know times are tough, whether we call it a recession or something deeper. Yet pundits, Treasury Secretary Paulson and government officials proclaim the economic crisis has stabilized and the recession has been averted, or that we are through the worst of it. Kevin Phillips unravels the number spinners, crunches the real numbers and says the economic crisis is worse than we know, that we’re being treated with Pollyanna versions of Washington’s ‘no inflation’ hoax. His latest book, Bad Money, tackles the numbers, the deceptions and the big picture.

Paul Edwards, President of the Progressive Democrats of Montana joins us from Helena on the eve of the Montana primary – to talk about whether the purple state will go blue, and much more.

State Senator Mark Ridley Thomas is running for County Supervisor against Bernard Parks to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke in the 2nd District, which stretches from Mar Vista through South Los Angeles and into Compton and Carson. Tomorrow is the election, Ridley Thomas talks to us tonight.

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It is the 40th anniversary of the French May 68, the legendary revolt that shook France and the world in a banner year of revolutionary struggle. Beginning in January 1968 with the Tet Offensive, every month added new struggles in a wave of revolutionary protest, strikes, and multiple forms of action. From Vietnam to France, the US to Mexico and Czechoslovakia (and back), 1968 saw the eruption of creative energy and daring innovation on the part of masses of mainly young people around the world. Stathis Kouvelakis and Patrick Silberstein in Paris join us. Stathis writes about the history of social protest in France, and Patrick is the co-organizer of the “Mai-68 -- It is only the Beginning” Coalition. We’ll talk about the significance of the French May and what it means today.

We begin the hour talking to Mark Engler, author of How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy. Engler considers the ways in which the Bush administration has changed the world economically and what it will mean for the next administration.

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Well-known environmentalist Bill McKibben is so startled by the terminal nature of the world environment that he has started a new campaign, 350.org -- to get back to that crucial number, 350 ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In Bill's latest piece "Earth at 350," Bill quotes from foremost climatologist Jim Hansen's article in Science saying that we must somehow return the planet's atmosphere to 350 ppm (it's now at 385) -- and fast -- "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." Bill will discuss the climate change tipping points that lie in our immediate future -- and he says "We might stop just short of some of those tipping points, like the Road Runner screeching to a halt at the very edge of the cliff. More likely, though, we're the Coyote." Don't miss this interview with Bill McKibben.

But we’ll begin tonight on a more familiar terrain, the Cold War – or rather the Cold Peace, pregnant with perhaps a worse Cold War according to Stephen Cohen. In a recent article Steve asks why the presidential candidates aren't talking about Moscow's impact on our national security. In light of Medvedev's inauguration we'll ask Cohen about the Cold "Peace" with Russia, whether or not Putin will still call the shots, and what we should be hearing from our presidential hopefuls on this score.

And at the end of the hour we visit with Hisham Ahmed, recently returned from Lebanon, where war has broken out again. Hisham will take us bts on Lebanon’s political crisis.

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Indiana and North Carolina vote tomorrow in the narrowing and contested Democratic Primary. Analyst and Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson talks about the white working class vote that eludes Obama and why.

In Britain, the Finance Aristocracy takes over the Finance Capitol – in a huge upset, the Labour Party suffered its worst council election results for 40 years when the aristocratic and colorful Boris Johnson rubbed salt into Gordon Brown's wounds by winning a sensational victory over Ken Livingstone in the election for London Mayor. We talk to Lambeth Councillor and national Equalities Officer for Unison, Pav Akhtar.

We then turn to the economy as we continue our updates and analysis of the epic recession: the press and the Bank CEO’s are saying the crisis is over and that the recession may not even be here. Jack Rasmus joins us to debunk the financial crisis.

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Robert Scheer of Truthdig.com has not allowed Hillary Clinton’s callous and frightening remark about ‘obliterating Iran’ to go unchallenged, even if the rest of the media has let it slip in the maelstrom of soundbites surrounding Rev. Wright – and now the Pentagon joins in the bellicose bluster. We talk to Scheer about the media’s election coverage and Bush’s Iran war plans.

We then turn to the economy. Michael Hudson says The Fed has not acted in the national interest, American banks are driving the dollar down, interest rates have decoupled from the real economy, debt service has made the US uncompetitive, the Euro is headed for US$2.50 unless Europe changes its policies, the alternative to canceling debts is disruptive bankruptcy, and finally, that economists will not be part of the political solution.

At the end of the hour we talk to ILWU executive board member and prominent anti-war activists Jack Heyman and Clarence Thomas about the work stoppage and protest on Thursday, May 1: The usually bustling ports along the West Coast will be still – Container ships will be idle at all 29 ports on the West Coast, shut down from Seattle to San Diego in protest against the wars in Iraq And Afghanistan.

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The Keystone State Primary is tomorrow. We’ll check in with John Nichols and Adolph Reed on the politics, the race – the way it’s covered, as well as the politics of race and its class component.

We then talk to Elizabeth Ramey, a former cattle farmer and current Ph.D. candidate who writes about the political economy of food, the US agricultural system, commodities, food, land and oil prices – and their relation to bubbles, housing and otherwise. With food riots in more than 30 countries, We’ll talk to Elizabeth about what is fueling the skyrocketing food prices.

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Chris Hedges has a new book, I Don’t Believe in Atheists – it grew out of the debate here in LA with Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, and inspired Hedges to continue his fight against the fundamentalist mindset that informed his bestselling American Fascists. In this compelling and beautifully written book, Hedges takes on the new atheists who attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism, intolerance and imperial projects. Chris joins us in studio.

Then, an update on the Italian elections, a wipe out for the Prodi center-left government and a victory for Berlusconi. KPFK Senior Producer Alan Minsky joins us to explain what happened.

In the last part of the hour, Gordon Alexandre and Jerry Kay come in to celebrate 50 years of the Ashgrove, which for 15 years, from 1958-1973 presented music as a major voice for the experiences, beliefs and feelings of communities and peoples.

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The administration, the media, the foreign policy establishment and the candidates distort or do not understand the current situation in Iraq. Juan Cole joins us to shed light on what they all get wrong (with the exception of Frank Rich of the NY Times): In the intra-Shiite fighting in Basra last week it was al-Maliki's parliamentary coalition that sought the cease fire by asking their Iranian patrons to broker it. Cole says the main motivation for the attack on Sadrist neighborhoods in Basra was to ensure that the Islamic Supreme Council wins the elections in that key oil province in October. The so-called successful surge couldn't change the outcome in Basra and the upcoming million man march called by the Sadr movement against the occupation will further embarrass our men in Baghdad … and Washington – where tonight General Petraeus is slated to push the proxy war line, fueling Bush’s bellicosity towards Iran.

We then turn to Marcy Winograd with news from the California Democratic Party Convention held last week. The Progressive caucus’ influence was evident on key issues such as defunding the occupation of Iraq, card check certification, opposition to free trade agreements, sentencing commission to overhaul California's arcane sentencing laws, freezing foreclosures, and prosecuting sub prime lenders.

And finally, Nomi Prins joins us in studio to talk about why Fed Reform Won't Work – the financial regulation system needs overhaul, but the proposed plan is a Band-Aid for Wall Street's mortal wounds. Plus – Nomi has just published a corporate thriller under the pseudonym Natalia Prentice, about a journalist who becomes mired in a deadly embezzlement scheme that snakes through Washington D.C. to Wall Street and beyond.

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