Guests: Bill Bradley, former US Senator; Christopher Hitchens, author; Mos Def, actor/artist; Salman Rushdie, novelist

On the Economy

I think [President Obama] should tell everyone what is their responsibility to get out of this fix. And we all have some responsibilities individually.  Sen. Bill Bradley

One of the things that could come out of this is the destruction of the vulgarity, the degraded vulgarity with which bankers have behaved.  Salman Rushdie

Already, the world is improved, because investment bankers can't get dates.
 Salman Rushdie

In this country, poor people never blame rich people. They want to BE rich people.
 Bill Maher

If something good comes out of this, it might be that we return to a world in which you don't spend more than you have.  Salman Rushdie

On an International Currency

When a good idea comes from Kazakhstan, you know how deep the problem is.
 Salman Rushdie

On Finding Osama

[Osama bin Laden] is a mythical character at this point. He's like Rasputin or some shit.  Mos Def

Could we get New Orleans fixed? I'm sick of Bin Laden.  Mos Def

On Education

Sometimes the way to fix the educational system is to fire bad teachers and not to keep them.  Bill Maher

On Legalizing Drugs

One word: prohibition. Remember how brilliantly that worked?  Christopher Hitchens

Would anyone here do heroin tomorrow because it was easy to get? I wouldn't.
 Bill Maher

If you've got a precedent where people smoke cigarettes everyday; they can drink beer at eight o'clock in the morning; they can watch every stripe of pornography known to man, then why not legalize some drug or weed and make some money?
 Mos Def

You know, in general, I would like [President Obama] to just stop with the bipartisan stuff.  Salman Rushdie

On Nukes

Oppenheimer was right. We should have never built this shit to begin with.  Mos Def

Theocracy plus nuclear weaponry is a terrifying threat.  Christopher Hitchens

You can't get on Iran's back and say, 'You can't have nuclear arms, but we can.'
 Mos Def

War is an environmental issue. Digging uranium and steel out of the ground to create bombs and guns to kill other people is a negative environmental issue.  Mos Def

The nuclear club should be disbanded because America has proven that there's no country who is going to really be responsible with this shit.  Mos Def