The four New York Times journalists who were reported captured by pro-government forces in Libya on March 15, 2011 and later released gave an exclusive prime-time TV interview to Anderson Cooper on Thursday, March 31, 2011.

On Thursday's In The Arena, Anderson told Eliot about their harrowing story.

The journalists are Anthony Shadid, its bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon, and a two-time Pulitzer winner for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban and rescued by British commandos in 2009; Tyler Hicks, a staffer who is based in Istanbul and has served as an embedded journalist in Afghanistan; and photographer Lynsey Addario, who has covered the Middle East and Africa.

Bernard-Henri Lévy –our favorite French philosopher, journalist, activist, and filmmaker—played a high-profile role in convincing French President Nicolas Sarkozy to take the lead in recognizing the rebels in Libya and establishing the no-fly zone.

Levy was in Benghazi, Tripoli and was so moved by the opposition leaders he met, that he phoned the French President, and later visited him in Paris to make the case that France needed to get involved.

Eliot asked him what he told the president.

Ali Tarhouni, Finance and Oil Minister in Libya's National Transitional Council, explains how the opposition’s war is going against Moammar Gadhafi. Tarhouni says Transitional Council is producing more than 100,000 barrels a day to fund the Libyan revolution.

He spoke to Eliot  from Benghazi, Tripoli, where the opposition is headquartered.

Prior to this appointment, Tarhouni taught economics at the University of Washington in the United States.

PENCE: CUT IT OR SHUT IT

NEW YORK (CNN) – In an interview Thursday night (3-31-11) with CNN “In The Arena” host Eliot Spitzer, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), takes aim at Senate Democrats over proposed spending cuts in the FY2011 budget.

“This is a fight with liberals in the Senate. House Republicans have done their work,” said Pence.

Spitzer pressed Pence on the House Republican budget not addressing spending cuts to entitlement programs, like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and defense spending, which leading economists say are the main contributors to the deficit.

“This is not a lot to write home about. Sixty-one billion dollars against a 1.65 trillion-dollar deficit isn’t the big lifting, but its keeping our promise,” said Pence, referring to the Republican “Pledge to America” campaign to cut $100 billion dollars from the deficit. FULL POST

Here's what I'm thinking about today, Thursday, 3-31-11:

1. The Debate: Fat Stigma Epidemic vs. Obesity Epidemic.

     The Debators: The New York Times vs. Sergio Miranda.

NYT Argument (oh, and it’s an argument…subtle…but it’s an affirmative argument): “Fat Stigma Is Fast Becoming a Global Epidemic” / “public health campaigns branding obesity as a disease are sometimes perceived as being critical of individuals rather than environmental or social factors that lead to weight gain”

Sergio Miranda Argument (NYT interviewee from Mexico City): “I’ve always thought it was your own fault” / “people eat things that make them fat, like bread and pizza.”

I don’t think there can be two winners here. CLICK HERE and read it for yourself.  FULL POST

The Center for the Study of the American Dream just released its 2nd Annual State of the American Dream Survey.

Center Director Michael Ford told us, “We discovered that against all odds, the American Dream is defiantly resilient among individuals (62%), particularly immigrant families (70%) who continue to reinvigorate the American Dream for future generations of Americans.”

CLICK HERE to read our OFF-SET interview with Michael Ford, founding director of Xavier University’s Center for the Study of the American Dream.

A number of Facebook users read our blog post and weighed in on how their American Dream was going, and discussed what the phrase meant in their lives. Here are some excerpts:

If you serve your country in the public sector, then I would say the American dream is no longer a reality for you, as you are now considered a "mooch off the taxpayers" by a large number of brainwashed Americans. ~Maggie B.

What American Dream? It's better to sit on your butt and do NOTHING in this country, then you get everything handed to you. I work my tail off and this week, it's a decision between paying the heat bill or eating. ~Susan M.

I say people should wake up from their American Dream and quit trying to get rich off someone else’s hard work and determination while blaming everybody else for their problems and challenges they don't feel any responsibility to face for themselves... it worked for me and I'm nothing special. ~Steve D.

My American dream is based on sane thinking. So I am doing fine. Have a roof over my head, clean water, bed to sleep in, some savings in the bank, car paid for, a body that works, and family/friends who love me. ~Beth D.

Are you serious??? 25% of American children are homeless. It looks like the American dream is DEAD in the water. Even American corporations don’t dream about America anymore. They employ foreign workers NOT American ones. And we can’t buy anything because we are unemployed or underemployed so it’s sort of turned into a nightmare. ~Dawn C. Y. FULL POST

The Number of the day is $33 billion.

Maybe.

That seems to be the agreed-upon budget cut that will forge a compromise that to keep the government running when the current Continuing Resolution expires on April 8.

Vice President Joe Biden announced late Wednesday that House and Senate bipartisan negotiators had agreed to a spending-cut target in their 2011 budget talks Some reports said the number was $73 billion--others say it’s $33 billion–but who knows?

The bottom line would seem to be—as with so much in life—it’s not over until it’s over.

What does seem clear is that the parties are all working towards a compromise that will prevent a shut-down, but the anger that is brewing—not surprisingly—seems to be in the ranks of the Tea Party— ready take to the ramparts because the cuts are far short of the $100 billion they had been seeking.

More significantly—and don’t wince because you’ve heard this before—but it bears repeating: none of the savings being discussed come close to mattering in the long run.

Still absent from the conversation: real cuts or reform in the Big Four—Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense.

Could those be the subjects of conversations we’re not hearing about? Absolutely.

But if it's so, that conversation would be kept more secret than the president’s supposedly super-secret finding permitting covert CIA operations in Libya. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s seven OFF-SET questions is Anne Kreamer, author of "It’s Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace."

In the late 1970s and early 80s, Kreamer was part of the team that co-produced and internationally distributed "Sesame Street." She helped to launch Spy magazine and later became Worldwide Creative Director for Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite, where she launched Nickelodeon magazine. She was a columnist for the business magazine, Fast Company, and she created the column, "American Treasures" for Martha Stewart Living. Her Yahoo blog is called "Going Gray, Getting Real."

In your view, are the rules for the way men can behave in the workplace different than the rules that govern women?

When equal employment laws were passed in the 1960s, men overwhelmingly controlled the style and protocols of the workplace, which de facto meant that equality for women meant that they had to adapt and adopt male standards for professional behavior – and really the blandest versions of male behavior at that. 

As they entered the workforce and for most of the almost half century since, women have been instructed to “man up” and “whatever you do, don’t let them see you cry.”  FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Marc Morial, since May of 2003, the 8th President and CEO of the National Urban League,  the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization.

Morial been recognized by the Non-Profit Times as one of America's top 50 non-profit executives and has been named by Ebony Magazine as one of the 100 "Most Influential Blacks in America." (More bio below.)

Thursday, (3-31-11) the National Urban League releases a new report: “The State of Black America: Jobs Rebuild America / Putting Urban America Back to Work.” The report includes contributions from noted economists, public figures—including First lady Michelle Obama (on creating healthier school environments)– scholars, policy experts and journalists.

Within today’s report is a 12-point plan to rescue those most profoundly affected by the ongoing economic emergency and to create new jobs. Ideas include restoring the Summer Youth Jobs Program, creating 100 Urban Jobs Academies, creating Green Empowerment Zones and expanding small business lending.  How will these and other programs be funded at a time when states are trying to cut millions from their budgets and Congress is trying to cut billions in federal spending?

Congress, states and cities have to prioritize their spending, and we have to invest in programs that create jobs, not recklessly kill jobs. One can argue that there's no money for everything you're against and there's money for everything you're for. The key is to prioritize.

These ideas will help more Americans become taxpayers, and I think in that way, many of these ideas will pay for themselves. FULL POST

CIA OPERATING IN LIBYA – CIA operatives are providing intelligence from Libya, where opposition forces are on the run and the defiant government suffered the embarrassing defection of its foreign minister Wednesday. The NATO-led coalition, which is enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting civilians from the intense fighting, got no help from the weather in its ongoing efforts to protect the fragile opposition movement.

Angry members of Congress questioned top administration officials Wednesday on why they weren't asked to authorize President Barack Obama's decision to commit U.S. forces to the Libya military mission. A number of hearings are also scheduled for Thursday.  

RADIATION LEVELS IN SEAWATER OFF JAPAN PLANT SPIKE – The levels of radiation in ocean waters off Japan's embattled Fukushima Daiichi plant continue to skyrocket, the nation's nuclear safety agency said Thursday, with no clear sense of what's causing the spike or how to stop it. FULL POST