Americans blame too much screen time and cheap fast food for fueling the nation's fat epidemic, a poll finds, but they're split on how much the government should do to help.

Most draw the line at policies that would try to force healthier eating by limiting food choices, according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A third of people say the government should be deeply involved in finding ways to curb obesity, while a similar proportion want it to play little or no role. The rest are somewhere in the middle.

Require more physical activity in school, or provide nutritional guidelines to help people make better choices? Sure, 8 in 10 support those steps. Make restaurants post calorie counts on their menus, as the Food and Drug Administration is poised to do? Some 70 percent think it's a good idea.

"That's a start," said Khadijah Al-Amin, 52, of Coatesville, Pa. "The fat content should be put up there in red letters, not just put up there. The same way they mark something that's poisonous, so when you see it, you absolutely know."

Continue Reading...

If we do get our Death Star, then perhaps Americans will wage an intergalactic war with the hundreds of thousands of Jedi still using the Force in England.

Continue Reading...

The so-called “leadership” of cash-strapped Detroit has a message for President Obama: We voted for you, so bail us out.

It’s sad, but true. In fact, just this past week Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson was quoted as saying: “Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that. Of course, not just that, but why not?"

He then quotes Ronald Reagan on how dependency leads to dictatorship and then monarchy. And if you make it to the end of the email Akin has just one more thing to add:

P.S. – We still have a little ground to make up on our campaign debt retirement. I would be incredibly appreciative if you could click here to donate $5 or more today.

Continue Reading...

While progressives rail against CEOs' seven-, eight- and nine-figure pay packages, Republicans reliably attack unions and the far more meager salaries of public sector workers. Public vs. private sector pay is a charged and unresolved partisan issue, but a few state employees who abuse the system or get lucky can be a more potent talking point for conservatives than more fundamental problems in how states take in and spend money.

While workers in Michigan fight to maintain union protections, Bloomberg has a scathing piece that illustrates how public sector unions in California are draining state coffers. While the piece, the first of a six-part series on state payrolls (Drool!), could provide plenty of fodder to Tea Party types, the takeaway is more complex than the usual left-right tug-of-war:

Continue Reading...

The figure, first reported Friday by the social conservative news website CNS.com, has immediatly gained traction on the right. It hits all the right buttons of demonstrating out-of-control government spending while exposing the sham that is the supposedly improving economy. And it does it all in a nifty little eye-popping statistic: First there was the 1 percent, then the 53 percent, followed by the 47 percent, now we have the 73 percent. The one problem is that it's total baloney, but we'll get to that in a second.

Continue Reading...

The SEC does not endorse investment offers, assist in the purchase or sale of securities, or participate in money transfers.  SEC staff will not, for example, contact individuals by telephone or email for purposes of:

• seeking assistance with a fund transfer;

• forwarding investment offers to them;

• advising individuals that they own certain securities;

• telling investors that they are eligible to receive disbursements from an investor claims fund or class action settlement; or
• offering grants or other financial assistance (especially for an upfront fee).

Continue Reading...

Although the interview started out casually, it soon took a bizarre turn when McAfee defended himself against claims of eccentricity:

FRANK: John, you're an unusual guy. You know, we see pictures of you with a lot of guns, the spikey hair, the tattoos. A lot has been made recently about the young girlfriends you've had there. You know, a report now that you've even played Russian Roulette with a bullet. Is that report true?

MCAFEE: OK, well first of all, let's address the photos. When Wired magazine sent the photographer down, you've been in the press long enough to know that when a photographer says "Well let's take your shirt off. Why don't hold the shotgun?" well you simply do it. You have no clue what's happening. That's what I did. Do you think I run around shirtless carrying a shotgun on my property? That's utterly absurd. As for the Russian Roulette, absolutely. But it was not true Russian Roulette, if you read the story. Put a bullet in the chamber, put it to my head, clicked it dozens of times, walked outside fired into the sand, the bullet fired. My point was, life is not exactly what you see.

McAfee also said that he will resist the Belize government "as long as I'm still breathing." Sullivan then asked McAfee, "Are you prepared to die?" McAfee responded, "Well obviously that's what I think will happen if I am detained, and that is certainly a possibility."

McAfee remains in hiding.

Watch the full interview below:

Continue Reading...

Anatoly Serdyukov has been widely unpopular in the ranks because of his reforms that radically cut the number of military officers and army units, but Putin had staunchly backed him in the past and his dismissal came as a surprise. Some observers say that Serdyukov's successor may take a less radical approach to the military reform.

Putin made the announcement in a meeting with Moscow regional governor Sergei Shoigu, whom he appointed as the new minister.

Putin's comments appeared to connect the decision to a probe announced by the country's top investigative agency last month into the sale of military assets, including real estate, at prices far below market value.

The Investigative Committee says the state suffered damages of 3 billion rubles ($95 million) in just a few cases reviewed.

Putin did not give specifics in his televised remarks, but said he made the decision "in order to create the necessary conditions for the objective investigation of all issues" regarding the situation in the Defense Ministry.

Continue Reading...

Here’s the campaign's new attack line: Obama said something that shows how much he loves bureaucracy and doesn’t understand business. “[Obama] wants to create a new ‘secretary of business,’” vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan said on the stump in Colorado yesterday. “We already have a secretary of business. It’s actually called secretary of commerce. That’s what this agency does. Let me ask you a question: Can anybody name our current secretary of commerce? You know why? We don’t have one! It’s been vacant for over four months.”

"I don't think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street," Romney himself added in Virginia later in the day.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Ryan is less likely to say that his family’s construction business, Ryan Central, has benefited from government largess that free market purists, like Ryan, don't support. Businessweek explored some of the most attractive projects:

Continue Reading...

The 293-150 vote to expel Gennady Gudkov from the State Duma also removes his immunity from prosecution, and his supporters fear he could face arrest. Gudkov, a KGB veteran like Putin who once represented the main Kremlin party in parliament, helped stage a series of street protests against Putin's rule last winter.

Gudkov called the vote "political revenge and extrajudicial repression," and described the accusations - that he was involved in a business in violation of parliament rules - as a sham.

The vote to expel Gudkov came a day before the first major opposition rally after a summer break, a Kremlin signal to the opposition that it will take an increasingly tough line against dissent. Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political consultant, said it moved against Gudkov out of fear that his example might encourage other members of the ruling elite to join the opposition.

Continue Reading...

"The thing I don’t understand is that you’re arguing that the government sector is struggling," Paul said. "Are you arguing that there are fewer government employees under Obama than there were under Bush?"

"Of course. That’s a fact. That’s a tremendous fact," Krugman replied.

"No, the size of growth of government is enormous under President Obama," Paul returned.

Via ThinkProgress.

Continue Reading...

“No matter how big or small," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said, "all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place."

Google is facing additional privacy violation charges in America and Europe.

Continue Reading...

The Justice Department does not rule out charging executives. However, a government enforcer official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Times that in many cases it's too expensive and difficult to gather the evidence needed to prosecute high-positioned individuals.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

A lot of anti-porn crusading.

Tifatul Sembiring, communications and information technology minister of Indonesia, hates porn.

He hates it so much that he told the Jakarta Globe two years ago that frequently checks porn sites on his mobile phone to ensure they are adequately blocked.

He hates it so much that he likened an Indonesian pop star's appearance in a leaked sex video to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

But Tifatul especially hates porn during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. For the second time in two years, Tifatul has vowed to purge Indonesia of online pornography during Ramadan. He told the Jakarta Post that the government is now on "high alert" to make Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, "free of porn."

Continue Reading...

For example, Bloomberg published an interesting article today detailing bankers' resistance to the White House effort to help underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages. Much to nearly everyone's surprise, the most recent revamping of the administration's homeowner rescue plan is actually showing some healthy signs of progress -- at least if you compare it to the woeful performance of the stillborn White House initiatives prior to the new rollout. Bloomberg reports that by May of this year as many homeowners had already taken advantage of the new rules to refinance their homes as did in all of 2011. A little late in the game to change perceptions that Obama hasn't been doing all he can for homeowners, but still, better late than never for the people who are finally getting some breathing room.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

But I have noted some signs that the housing market just might be carving out a bottom.  And that said, I’ve also noted that any improvement in prices will help ameliorate one of our serious outstanding problems: negative equity in your home.  So, it was with great interest that I read this today, from CoreLogic:

Continue Reading...