The media giants have taken interest in America's obesity epidemic - recently sponsoring a three-day conference - but the food industry appears to be calling the shots when it comes to dealing with the issue. "What I found most striking at the [Time/ABC News Obesity Summit] was the utter lack of leadership from our federal government officials," writes Center for Informed Food Choice's Michele Simon.

"A private British firm that won a $293 million contract from the Pentagon for coordinating security in Iraq is headed by a retired British commando with a reputation for illicit arms deals in Africa and for commanding a murderous military unit in Northern Ireland," reports Charles M. Sennott. The firm is owned by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British military officer.

When it comes to acknowledging the widespread anti-American anger in the Arab World, the Bush administration refuses "to engage in self-criticism," according to James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. "The fault, they insist, must be elsewhere. And so they maintain that Arabs are only angry at us because they are being taught to hate us and their regimes use that hatred to deflect from their own inadequacies. ...