Guests: Scholar Cornel West, politician and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, blogger Markos Moulitsas, writer Jeremy Scahill and TV host Chris Matthews.

On Poverty

We've got 21% of our precious children living in poverty in the richest nation in the history of the world. That's a moral disgrace.  Cornel West

Children in African countries, famine drought, standing on garbage heaps, is the kind of most familiar picture I know. So, when I listen to Americans and other people in the west, you know, talking about poverty here and things being bad in America, I always think, oh, wait until you get to Africa or parts of Asia, parts of Latin America. So, it's very relative, all of that.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

On Food Prices

Could I add one more thing that starves people? Eating meat. Because the amount of grain it takes to feed the cattle, when you eat that high up on the food chain, it starves people lower on the food chain. It takes an enormous amount of resources to make a pound of meat.  Bill Maher

I mean, global food prices have gone up 83% over the past four years. And how can we not see a connection between the policies of this administration, these aggressive, offensive wars that are, in part, over oil, but a lot to do with looting the U.S. Treasury, and the fact that food prices are skyrocketing across the globe.
 Jeremy Scahill