today is gonna be an important day for us.

you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. i use bounce outdoor fresh sheets because they're just that much fresher and they help keep static off in the cold so my clothes will never embarrass me. mommy, i dressed the snowman! how do you get your bounce? less static year-round. right now on the cycle, it is all about the brandle edition. i for one always lean forward. >> welcome. i'm toure. president obama is hoping for a

little divine intervention back in d.c. if you think the democrats were preaching to the choir, let's say the devil is in the details. >> it is not quite a sin tax, but the court is telling mayor bloomberg to stop playing guard. >> today we'll talk religion outside of the catholic church. learning about the highly seekive arab culture by invading their bedrooms? >> oh, all that plus go tell it on the mountain. i'll bring you a sort of political bible for weary democrats. think of it as the book of s.e. >> everyone out. and with that the election of the 266th pope has begun. only in "the cycle," does the

nonbeliever lead our coverage. the 115 cardinals are now enjoying dinner after the first day of the papal conclave. they've already voted once but the smoke was black meaning no new pope and back at it tomorrow morning. with the rainy weather expected to last a few days, there is concern it might be hard to make out the smoke's color. so just in case, the vatican will also toll bells when the pope is selected. there will be four votes tomorrow and every day following until a new pope is in place. he will need a super majority of 77 votes. he'll then pick his new name, change into the traditional white vestment, of course, pray for a ploem and then be introduced over the balcony on st. peter's scare to call habemus papam. how long will we wait? the shortest was only a few hours in 1503. steve remembers that. the longest took nearly three

years. that was back in the 12th century. >> toure remembers that. >> the nine most recent conclaves averaged about three days. msnbc's chris jansing is in vatican city. you also covered the 2005 conclave that elected benedict xvi. describe the pomp and circumstance of today and leading up to this? >> reporter: well, first, let me say, few do pomp and circumstance as well as the catholic church. but look where we are. if you look behind me, the spectacular dome of st. peter's basilica. that's where the cardinals started their day. not just the 115 voting cardinals but those over 80 as well because they had mass this morning. it just looks absolutely spectacular. then they have that polling chapel which is gorgeous and then they progress into the sistine chapel, one of

michelangelo's master pieces. and they are looking at the altar which is underneath the last judgment which again, another work of really unparalleled art. so the pomp and circumstance has been extraordinary. and we saw them one by one, all 115 of them go out to the bible and to swear, not just to secrecy but to fidelity, to the oath that they're about to take. and once they all made that oath, they close those magnificent doors. they are sealed. and it took them about two hours, two hours of voting. they do it one by one. each of those ballots is folded lengthwise. each is looked at by three different people. two of them silently. the third one announces them. and so that entire process is go through when they finish announcing the ballot, they poke a hole through it. they have to count them. but now it is clear there is no pope today. and can i just tell you as a

veteran of the last conclave where we kept saying, is it white? is it black? it looks gray. there was no doubt about this. maybe the vatican was tired of all the jokes over the last eight years and said, we're going to put enough chemicals in there that we are going to make sure we know what the color is. although you wonder, one of our an lists was saying i hope it is not all filling up the sistine chapel because there is so much of it. it is very different than it was eight years ago. >> cool. your coverage has been great. stick around for us. i want to bring in nbc news vatican analyst, deep reform in the 21st century church. so george, talk to me for a second about one of the front-runners, angelo scola of milan. what would it say if the cardinals selected an italian pope and one that you say is sort of the current model of pope? university professor turned

bishop turned pope. >> i think it would say that the italian veto which may be in work in this process this time, has been overcome. there is a real feeling of anti-italian sentiment in this conclave because of the difficulties in the vatican bureaucracy. so scola would have to overcome that. he is, as you say, in the model of john paul ii and benedict xvi. as he colonel evening joseph ratsinger and with one of his colleagues from quebec. the former archbishop of quebec, the prefect for bishops here. so scola would be in my view a kind of continuity figure.

perhaps that's what the cardinals are looking for. i think he'll have a pretty good run tomorrow. whether he can get to the magic 77, i'm not so sure. >> lets talk about two other people who have been discussed as potentially toward the front of the pack. the american sean o'malley and peter. >> the candidacy of the cardinal, a man i consider a friend, is a complete media creation. it has no traction in reality in this conclave. cardinal o'malley on the other hand has some real support from latin america. he spent a lot of time in latin america. what support he gets in the following days will be led by his supporters in latin america. >> chris, we've been hearing

about these blocks and factions in the internal politics. how does this actually work? do the cardinals go in undecided? have some of them decided? some of them not? is there actual politicking and strategizing going on? >> reporter: well, the politicking you would think, which is, i guess, technically frowned upon but definitely happens. is mostly over. i think what a lot of people don't understand, when they go into the sistine chapel, it is not like you're having a debate. it is not like you're standing up and giving a speech. what happens inside the sistine chapel is that you vote. however, now that they're heading out of the sistine chapel and they go back, they have a chance to talk about it. and remember, the votes have been announced. they know exactly how many votes each of these cardinals received. and so they're starting to talk. and there is no doubt that they've started to form sort of groups or alliances, whatever phrase you want to put on it. that could be in some ways geographic but not necessarily

so. you can't say for example that all the european cardinals are of like mind. they have a chance to talk to each other and you realize how fluid it can get. when they're in there, they have an opportunity to size up what is going on. but not until they're out and back at the hotel that is on the vatican property. they have a chance to assess where it's going and how they might like to move forward. so it is a fascinating process. and we'll probably know maybe some months or years down the road what happened. but while it's happening, they are under penalty of excommunication. so we do not expect to hear anything leaking out of the conclave. >> that's quite a threat. you're going to hell if you talk to the media. chris, i wonder, what has the mood been around there in terms of benedict? this is the first time in hundreds of years that the former pope is still alive and

is still around for a vote as a successor is taking place. has he been a factor? do you think he is a factor in this vote in any way? >> he is a factor in the sense that 67 of these cardinals were appointed by him. so he has actually made his mark on who will be the next pope. in terms of actually intervening, not at all. it is something that he has said very clearly he wouldn't do. although we did get word today that he was actually following the election. so you have this vision of him sitting channel surfing. i'm not sure that is an accurate assessment of what's going on but he wanted to be very clear that now he is going to lead a very private life. a very prayerful life. there was some controversy. some pictures surfaced of him in a baseball cap walking through gardens with a long lens as if he were brangelina or something like that. so he has said he would and he

has up until this point kept an extremely low profile. his influence is being felt simply by the fact that he appointed a majority of the these cardinals who are in that conclave. >> well, chris jansing, george weigel, we know you'll be watching and keeping us posted so thank you very much. straight ahead, paul ryan is out with his new budget. i think i hear the sound of the left sharpening a thousand pitch forks. the cycle rolls on. let's look at rome. there and here we wish for better weather. we're here! we're going to the park! [ gina ] oh hey, dan! i really like your new jetta! and you want to buy one like mine because it's so safe, right? yeah... yeah... i know what you've heard -- iihs top safety pick for $159 a month -- but, i wish it was more dangerous, like a monster truck or dune buggy! you can't have the same car as me! [ male announcer ] now everyone's going to want one. let's get a jetta. [ male announcer ] volkswagen springtoberfest is here and there's no better time to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering.

right now lease one of four volkswagen models for under $200 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. the longest 4g lte battery in a razr thin profile. with 32 hours of battery life that turns an all-nighter, into a two-nighter. the droid razr maxx hd by motorola. droid-endurance. droid-powerful. so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? and with all the points i've been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot even on a holiday weekend. ♪ things are definitely looking up. [ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply.

i'm your hot water heater. you hardly know i exist. that's too bad. 'cuz if my pressure relief valve gets stuck... [ booooooom! ] ...we hot water heaters can transform into rocket propelled wrecking balls. and if you got the wrong home insurance coverage, it's your bank account that might explode. so get allstate. [ dennis ] good hands. good home. make sure you have the right home protection. talk to an allstate agent. ♪

to come together to fix these problems. >> that is house budget chair paul ryan this morning unveiling his plan, calling on senate democrats to pass their first budget in four years. just moments ago, the president finished the first of his three-day voing to capitol hill where he met with senate democrats. over the next two days he'll meet with republicans as well covering a much broader agenda from the sequester to gun control. will he find any friends out there along the beltway? from what we've seen already, three months after this election, still business as usual in washington which of course means not much is getting done. back in the guest spot today is howard fineman, the editor director for the "huffington post" media group. we'll callett "huffington post." >> talk about shortening things.

>> we were trying to come one a nickname for you howard fineman. >> then how fine. >> actually, al franken gave me that one but it hasn't stuck. >> we'll make it stick. >> that's because al franken was allowed to be funny. >> i'm curious about this paul ryan budget. the republican plan leading up to the election would be that the economy would cost obama his job, we'll get the senate and we'll be in place to implement the paul ryan budget. we'll have the votes and the momentum them lost the election, they lost ground in the senate and the house. and yet they are basically, they are proposing radical reduction in income taxes, voucherization of medicare, getting rid of obama care, although keeping the medicare cuts to help bring this to balance. i kind of wonder, what is the point of this thing if it has no chance of passing?

>> you're right it has no chance of passing. you're right it is a carbon copy of what paul ryan was talking about in the campaign. i think you have to view it at best as a negotiating document. as the opening bid of republicans and what could be negotiations over a grand compromise. i think if they start way they did with paul ryan, i question whether there will be any negotiations at all. the president can go every day of the week. he wasn't talking to the members. he is trying to do that now. if when he gets back, the sum total of it is paul ryan, i don't see anything happening at all. >> and how five, the last two questions. the last two times paul ryan put on a budget he was really greeted with a lot of deference

among the sort of beltway media. he was the serious guy. he was sort of the golden boy. and it seems like this one has been greeted with more skept civil. you had chris wallace saying, really? you are still trying to repeal obama care. you've had a lot of talk about the fact that you mentioned it is the same blueprint as what he and romney ran on and lost on. so is the balloon sort of off the rose, is the bloom off the rose? >> well, first of all he lost. second they didn't win any of the states that some people thought paul ryan would help them win in the midwest like ohio and so forth. so nothing affects your clout in washington like being seen as a loser. so there is that on the laur electoral side and there is nothing new that attracts people's attention. and because he is not doing even

one drop on the revenue side, because he is basically dismantling medicaid which is a key element here that is maybe somewhat under appreciated, he is completely dismantling medicaid, it is seen as ezra klein wrote, a if i wiphilosoph statement. the mood in 2/12 is let's get something done. let's get something done practically. that's what the spirit of the members retreats were in the winter. they want to get something done and this is seen as more of a political document after they lost the political campaign. >> how fi, i want to talk about the democrats and i want you to help me out. i feel like we're about to get screwed. believing in safety nets is a key part of the liberal ideology. democratic voters are not as punitive as republican voters

are and i feel like the president and the dems are about to give in on entitlements and we'll feel screwed even though we won the election. what do you think? >> i think the, in terms of the architecture of entitlements, toure, in terms of social security, medicare, medicaid. let's talk about those three. medicaid really not being an entitlement but sort of viewed that way. i think actually, paradoxally, the biggest threat may to be social security. i think the president already put on the table this notion of altering the formula for cost of living increases for social security recipients. is so-called chain cpi. i think that is on the table. over the long term it does get you a bunch of money. i think he will give on that if he can get some revenues. on medicaid, i don't see how he can do it. because obama care, the core of obama care in terms of extending coverage to a lot of new people

is 16, 17 new people on medicaid. i don't see how he can give in on that. especially after a lot of republicans are coming to accept obama care because they want the pled indicated money. so i would say number one threat is social security. number two threat is some monkeying around with medicare but i think medicaid will survive pretty much intact. >> all right, how fi. >> it's already getting old. >> there's a hash tag happening right now. >> it is now trending. we can talk about how horrible and terrible and really bad the republican budget is. but for their part, at least, they've been producing one with some consistency and democrats will come to the table with various democrats from the senate side. but let's talk about president obama. for the first time in 92 years, congress and not the president is kick starting this budget process. president obama hasn't even set a date for the release of his budget and it looks like he is

waiting for the house and the senate to sort of hash it out together and fight this out. and then he'll present his own. is that sort of a leading from behind strategy? is that leadership on the budget? >> no, it's not. i agree with you. i'm frantically trying to do the arithmetic. are we talking about harding? >> 92 years ago? >> he is not leading from the front on this. they have been cautious. the president in fairness to the president, s.e., he has said he wants more revenues. he has laid that mark he down. that's sort of key difference between where he and the democrats are and where the republicans are. but no, he hasn't been specific. this is the way he's played the game all along. he plays his cards very close. he waits until the last minute. he lets other people make the commitments. this is what he did on health

care. this is the way we ended up with obama care. this is how he operates. even though he is going to the hill, it is a funny passive aggressive thing where he is going up to the hill. he is meeting with all these people but he is not laying down exactly what he wants. he is not selling them his proposal. he is waiting to hear what they say. that's not going to change. that's just the way he is. we'll see if it results in anything. i'm not convinced based on the opening bid that we're going to have a deal. i know everybody is saying now is the time. we've got march 27th. another debt ceiling. i'll believe it when i see it. i don't see a grand deal here. i just don't. >> 92 years ago takes to us 1921. so it was wilson for the first few months and then -- who said harding? who said wilson? >> the quick question, we are low on time. you are all over the ashley judd story in kentucky. you used to cover kentucky. i think the story at this point is national democrats have decided, she is unelectable. they do not want her to run. do you think they're going to

get their way and keep her out of that race? >> they have to get somebody else. i was in kentucky last week at the big democratic dinner of the establishment. they don't have a candidate to stop her. if they want to stop her from getting in or from winning the democratic nomination in the kentucky senate primary a year from this may, they need to coalesce around an alternative. they don't have one now. most likely as the secretary of state, allison grimes. if they can get her in, fine. if she gets in, if she clears the field, we'll see. i know the obama people don't want judd. the kentucky establishment don't want judd but nobody else wants to run. all the establishment democrats want to wait for the governor's race in 2015. >> kentucky has become such a red state. it is so hard to unseat. >> but democrats still win the governorship. they have a shot, a long shot. >> howard fineman, i won't use the nickname again. >> let's kill it.

>> you are what you like. that would make me a fedora. you'll find out in a minute, i think. the intriguing new facebook favorite. when did you know that grandma was the one? when her sister dumped me. grandpa was my dad a good athlete? no. oh dad, you remember my friend alex? yeah. the one that had the work done... good to see you. where do we go when we die? the ground. who's your girlfriend? his name is chad. and that's where babies come from. [ male announcer ] sometimes being too transparent can be a bad thing. this looks good! [ male announcer ] but not with the oscar mayer deli fresh clear pack. it's what you see is what you get food. it's oscar mayer.

mommy's having a french fry. yes she is, yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. 100% vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? thank you. that's three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put 'em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris' small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase every day. great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. read back the chicken's testimony, please. "buk, buk, bukka!" [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. told you i'd get half.

what's in your wallet?

big brother is watching. well, not big brother but facebook. a newly released study looked at facebook likes from over 58,000 members and found that those likes can reveal a whole lot about users' traits and backgrounds. 95% of the time, the team of british researchers was able to predict a user's agendaer and ethnicity. 85% of the time they could tell whether someone was a democrat or a republican. and here's where things get weird. they claim likes can also predict i.q. apparently an afin for curly fries, motorsart, the godfather

and the colbert report mean you have a high i.q. while liking harley-davidson, jason aldean, tyler perry show a low i.q. i love jason aldean. >> it's telling! >> you also love curly fries. >> i do. maybe they balance each other out. >> i love the godfaert, colbert, curly fries. so you love jason aldean. we're learning a lot about each other today. >> well, there was a margin of error. we should point that out. >> 1%. interesting things from the study, people who like big mamas movies are likely to be drug users. that's a bit weird. but tyler perry fans are very christian. people who like pau gasol and milk shakes and swimming are drug abstainers which is so weird. but even more, 95% they can figure out if you're black or white from your likes. so you're black, you support the

president, you like tyga who i don't like. >> what's that? >> an r & b singer. you are so white right now. you probably heard of love and basketball, a pretty good movie. if you're white you're into halloween. >> i love halloween. >> which i hate. >> you're into the aspca. you're into animals. up bonfires. you're into road trips. no good on road trips. see in you're so white right now! it tells me like, we aren't really this blended society that we think we are. we're sort of like living in segregated associate universes. black people like this stuff and white people having no idea. i even noted the other day that deangelo, i ran into him. he watches "the cycle" and all three of you were like -- >> that's not true. >> i didn't. >> this is the guy who couldn't tell the difference between four

tops and the temptations. >> no, no, no. >> who knew? >> just got real. >> by the way, he is a great sandwich chain in massachusetts and in new england and every time i go back there, if he is affiliated with that in any way, i like deangelo. >> there's divide. the legendary modern soul singer and the three of you have never heard of him. >> and he owns a sandwich chain, too. so you want to profile everybody. here's what i say. i put him up on the screen. these are my likes on facebook. build a profile. white, black, man, woman. i like, here is what i like. salon, proof that i'm an employee of salon. "the cycle." proof that i get a pay frequent from "the cycle." and then the hat thing, casa de rodriguez. i had a beer there once and i think i liked it. what does that mean?

it means nothing. >> it seems like you have to give you a paycheck to get liked. >> yes. family or paycheck. >> a high bar. >> is that a polish thing? i don't know. >> what i'm saying -- >> a whole different category of stereo types. >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> one of the concerns that people have been raising with this is how much marketers can get from this information, that they can know our i.q. and all these specific things. even like whether your parents separated before you were 20 years old was one of the thing that they looked at and they were able to determine 60% of the time which is crazy. but i have to say, as someone who announced the gender of her baby on national tv before i got a chance to tell my own mother. the whole privacy thing doesn't really faze me, to be honest with you. if marketers are taking this research and doing a better job of advertising products that i actually want to buy, i'm fine with that. i'm going to look at them any

way. >> was mrs. ball upset to find out the gender on the slow. >> they were fine. >> everything was fine. stop talking. okay. we want you to like us on facebook. i wonder what that says about you. while you're there, get in on the conversation about another big story today. big in the dunkin' donuts extra large coffee with sugar sense of the word. a state judge has truck down mayor bloomberg's ban on sugary drinks calling it arbitrary and capricious. of course, bloomberg is ready to appeal. but our friends are weighing in. joan says this is not important, who cares? mayor, stick to banning guns. joan, you had me at first but then you brought up guns. we've got lots to say on sugary drinks, up next to join the conversation, the author of a new book making some bold claim about food giants, hooking us on salt, sugar and fat. grab a snack.

there's more ahead. zap technology. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. you don't decide when vegetables reach the peak of perfection. the vegetables do. at green giant, we pick vegetables only when they're perfect. then freeze them fast so they're are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. ♪ green giant

i can't believe your mom let you take her car out.ck! this is awesome! whoooo! you're crazy. go faster! go faster! go faster! go faster! no! stop...stop... (mom) i raised my son to be careful... hi, sweetie. hi, mom. (mom) but just to be safe... i got a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. there's a lot i had to do... watch my diet. stay active. start insulin... today, i learned there's something i don't have to do anymore. my doctor said that with novolog® flexpen, i don't have to use a syringe and a vial or carry a cooler. flexpen® comes prefilled with fast-acting insulin used to help control high blood sugar when you eat. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. no drawing from a vial. you should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes

after injecting novolog® (insulin aspart [rdna origin] injection). do not use if your blood sugar is too low, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoms such as sweating shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life-threatening. ask your health care provider about alcohol use, operating machinery, or driving. other possible side effects include injection site reactions and low potassium in your blood. tell your health care provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. flexpen® is insulin delivery my way. covered by most insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay cost at myflexpen.com. ask your health care provider about novolog® flexpen today bacon?! bacon? bacon! who wants a beggin' strip? meee! i'd get it myself but i don't have thumbs! yum, yum, yum, yum, yum... it's bacon!!! mmmmm...i love you. i love bacon. i love you. [ male announcer ] there's no time like beggin' time.

new york city mayor mike bloomberg's campaign to get the city off a sugar high has hit a sour patch. a judge threw out the ban on sugary drinks claiming it would have eviscerated the separation of powers and created an administrative leviathan. but there would be no sugar crash for the mayor. he called it a temporary setback and today appeared at a manhattan diner whose owners have volunteered to enact the ban whether the courts mandate it or not. >> not a setback for me. this was seatback for the people who are dying. in case you hadn't noticed, i watch my diet. this is not for me. i am 100% confident that just like smoking, this is an issue that the public has finally come to understand.

>> amen, mayor mike. the proposed law was widely unpopular among new york city voters and at the table. but lawmaker in other cities have been considering similar bans because obesity is an american public health epidemic. according to the cdc, 36% of americans are obese. government has stepped in to do preventive work in other public health areas like constraining the right to smoke to limit contact with secondhand smoke and mandating seatbelts and airbags to mitigate fatalities and injuries in cars and punishing bartenders who serve inebriated customers. so should government play a role in the preventive side of public health given that the processed food giants are doing all sorts of thing to get us looked on their sugary products or is this nanny state politics infringing on our right to do whatever we want as long as we're hurting others. our next guest is the author of salt, sugar, fat. just by seeing the title i feel hungry. should government play a role in mitigating our exposure to

processed food and drink and is it a fair fight between consumers' appetites and big food? >> i was really struck by the judge's wording on the bloomberg position being arbitrary and capricious. there is nothing arbitrary about the food industry marketing, formulating and marketing its products to us. and researching and writing this book for me was a bit of a detective story. you get inside these companies and it is really clear that salt, sugar, fat, are the three pillars. they're their holy guardrail and they know when they get the amounts perfect, they'll send us over the moon. their products will fly off the shelves. we'll buy more, eat more and they being companies, they will make more money. >> i get it. obviously this stuff is sugary food, sugary drinks, it is bad for you and i get the impetus behind the attempts to ban large soda by bloomberg in new york. it is a good health measure to be sending out. but bloomberg was on letterman

last night and he tried to make a joke but the joke was, i'm for cutting down on this stuff but i don't want to ban cheese-its because they're my guilty pleasure. isn't that the point? everybody has a guilty pleasure. whether it is sewed, a cheese-its, this doughnut thing that i got in my has not here. everybody has their guilty pleasure. isn't it overkill? if you want to put the information out there, that's one thing. if you want to ban sodas, that's overkill, isn't it? >> i hear you on that. apply own guilty pleasure is the potato chip. i am unbelievably in love with potato chips. you have to remember, the industry makes a point. a really valid point saying we are not evil empires here intent on making people obese or otherwise ill. the problem is their collective zeal in doing what companies do. which is to sell as much product as possible. and their reliance, and their own dependence on salt, sugar fat to make their products ultra convenient, ultra low cost and

ultra irresistibly tasty is the matter at hand. >> unresistibly tasty. i could not agree more. mmm. so good! >> encouraging the obesity of america. >> so good. this was a victory for freedom lovers everywhere. i just want to push you a little more. you talked about the collective zeal on the part of these corporations. that might be true. that collective zeal is also part of the free markets. what about the collective zeal of folks like mayor bloomberg who aren't just trying to ban these things for a select group but for everyone. even people like me who eat and drink responsibly. i take care of myself. how is that fair that he is imposing his will on free citizens like myself? >> i'm hoping this book is a wake-up call. both for the food industry but also for consumers.

you walk in the grocery store and it is anything but a level playing field. again, the formulas, the marketing, the advertising, the shuttling you to the center of the store where the most sort of loaded productsful are i have to say i was most struck by spending time in poor neighborhoods where people are dependent on corner stores. and kids especially, and the markt that goes after them. because the soda companies and the snack companies know that winning brand loyalty among kids is the thing that they need to do. and that just struck me as being a huge issue here for everybody to think about. >> well, michael, one of the fascinating things from your book, you say there are some changes happening from inside the industry out. and you talk specifically about kraft. i was hoping you could elaborate on that. >> senior officials at kraft have been playing a heroic role in this matter, going all the way back to 1999 when they tried to engage the entire processed

food industry into an anti-obesity initiative. they got pushed back. they went out on their own starting in 2003. did some remarkable things. they changed some of their marketing of the most sugary products to kids. they changed their labeling to be more honor and forthright with people about what is in the packages. and they put caps on their formulas of salt, sugar, fat. so hats off to them for at least trying. >> hats off to you. your book is excellent. how the food giants hooked us. i learned the number one cookie of all time is the oreo. congratulations, your book is selling well, deservedly so. >> good luck to you. >> up next, from sweets to sex, yeah, an indulgent cycle today. we've seen political unrest erupt in squares and streets across the middle east. there is an equally important revolution happening in the arab world in the bedroom.

we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta®(eszopiclone) can help you get there. like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. lunesta should not be taken together with alcohol. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness, and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as fifteen dollars at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta.

all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers.

[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do.

bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button? we've all watched the images of the revolution sweeping across the arab world. our next guest has delved deeper than anyone before. it is groundbreaking in its own right but it is the location of her focus, the bedroom. according to her, marriage is the center of the arab universe

and everything else revolves around it. so she changes in the sex lives of those in the east because that's where the real revolution has to happen. joining us now, she has a ph.d. in molecular immunology and serve. she had the award winning journal. she writes about sex and the citadel. intimate life in a arab world. thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> what can we learn about the transformations in the arab world from their sex lives? >> well, the sexual and the political are intertwined. and so for example, the patriarchy, just because we got rid of the father of the nation in egypt or tunisia doesn't mean that the patriarchy has gone away. and so it is much harder to stand up to the father of the family. and you see this reflected in sexual life. so for example, many of the

wives i met were longing for more romance, more communication, more spark in the bedroom. yet they felt inhibited to actually express this to their husbands. many young women, for example, would love to see that their bodies are their own. that they're not the question of the family's honor under the control or the supervision of their father or their uncle or their brother. the patriarchy is alive and well. and what i argue in the book is unless we can start to change these attitudes in the bedroom, it will be very hard to change them outside the bedroom in political, economic, social and cultural life. >> you talk about the patriarchy. we know there is systemic violence meant to perpetuate the patriarchy throughout the middle east. is that sort of violence declining in the wake of the arab spring? >> well, it is interesting you use the word decline. if you look at the headlines, it appears to be increasing. we've had the reports of terrible cases of rape in

downtown cairo during the protests. the rapes in the syrian civil war. it is hard to tell exactly as the violence increasing or decreasing. in egypt there is much less security on the streets for both men and women. what i can say is interesting though, a real 10 forward is that women are now emboldened to speak out. when women have been attacked on the streets of cairo, ten years ago if that happened, would you stay silent. it is not just my honor as a woman. it is the honor of my family at stake. now women are saying no, this is not right. this is against islam. against my right to protest and what is most important now is that men are standing alongside them. their fathers, their husbands, tlb brothers and saying you know what? this is not acceptable. it is a step forward. >> well, in the midst of those step forwards, putting rape aside, what about systemic violence against women? there is this idea that in the midst of these arab springs around the middle east and northern africa, there has been

a back lash. where for example in egypt, the muslim brotherhood and the salafis are female circumcision to come back and be sort of mainstreamed. are you worried about that backlash as a result of the arab spring? >> if you're talking specifically about female genital mutilation it's alive and well in egypter respective of the muslim brotherhood. women married under the age of 50 in egypt has been circumstance size circumsized. we are concerned conservative policies that may become government law, official law, may affect that. i think what's interesting now is all these conservative currents around the role of women, et cetera, have been happening under the table in the arab world for generations. now because of the arab spring and the rise to political power of islamic groups like the muslim brotherhood, they're on the table. we're now seeing a discussion, a debate about, you know, who

speaks for islam, is this the only interpretation we can have about the role of women or sexual life? this is now on the table happening and this is one of the truly revolutionary aspects of the events of 2011 and beyond. >> you talked about, you know, husbands and fathers starting to speak up on behalf of women a little bit right now. i wonder if you could talk a little bit more about sort of the concept of family in arab society. it tends to be insular with clearly defined roles and people sort of build their lives around their families in a way maybe we don't here in the west. can you talk a little bit more about that concept of family and, you know, maybe how that had not been the best thing for women until recently? >> i'm going to speak specifically about egypt because the arab world is a vast and varied place. if you look at egypt and in particular look at the situation for young people, when they were down in tahrir square protesting, it was very often with their families, or they had their mothers on the line on their mobile phones asking where they were. the family is very important.

and it's important for two reasons. three, actually. religiously in islam we respect our mothers and fathers. also economically speaking, jobs are so hard for young people to get. this is one of the drivers of the arab spring that you're financially dependent on your family so they call the shots. but the other big problem, and what we're hoping will change in the years to come, is that under the old regime, and, you know, it's essentially business as usual, even with the new figures in power, that the state doesn't really recognize or respect my rights as an individual. so, for example, if i get into trouble in cairo, i can't rely on the government or the police to respect my rights. i'm going to have to call my family and help, and hope they can get me out of trouble. and what this means is the family has a really big say in your personal life, but also your sexual life. and so all of the sexual rights that we talk about, justice and freedom, and dignity and the ability to access information and control your own body, it's

going to be hard to realize those until we have structures that recognize and respect individual freedoms. but as i said, getting those in your personal life and in your sexual life is going to reinforce those changes on the bigger political, economic and social scene. >> well, you get into some really fascinating and thought-provoking stuff here. shereen, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. up next, left word with s.e. cupp. t ready for spring. well let's get you ready. very nice. you see these various colors. we got workshops every saturday. yes, maybe a little bit over here. this spring, take on more lawn for less. not bad for our first spring. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get three bags of earthgro mulch, a special buy at just $10.

back in 2006, kirsten gillibrand was getting her feet wet in state politics. she was a moderate democrat who campaigned as a common sense

centrist. she had no in order to win her congressional election in the largely rural upstate new york district 20 that had been a republican strong hold for all but four years since 1913. and elected george w. bush twice. well, serving her upstate constituents on immigration and guns she sounded more like a texas conservative than a new york liberal. she opposed efforts to extend state driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and earned herself an "a" rating from the nra. sponsoring a bill to dwleet gel background check information after 24 hours. then she was appointed to hillary clinton's senate seat in 2008. on the day of her appointle, mayor michael bloomberg publicly criticized her for her staunch opposition to gun control. suddenly the moderate kirsten of 2006 needed a makeover and quick if she was going to make it in bloomberg's new york. so a new and improved kirsten, one that was more politically palatable to new york liberal