Notes on Politics: Jon Stewart Sharply Critical of Senate Goldman Sachs Hearing

Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Goldman Sachs execs at a Senate hearing. Expletives and questionable nicknames.

Watch.

Discuss.



Oh, and be sure to check out the in-your-face front page of the New York Post today. Few people seem to be mincing words on this story.

Former High-Priced Escort Turns Relationship Columnist

We've all read the grim news, day after day as more professionally trained journalists and columnists are losing their jobs in the mainstream media, particularly in the newspaper business as newspapers close or go online only, shedding jobs along the way.

So when I saw that former high-priced escort Ashley Dupre -- whose dalliances with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer made her famous (and cost him his office) -- had landed a gig as a columnist for the New York Post to write about relationships it made me so very sad for my journalist colleagues.

If newspapers are going to go this route, maybe they should consider giving Bernie Madoff a column where he can answer readers' questions about investments/finances from his jail cell? Maybe Tiger Woods could be the male counterpoint to Dupre, writing a relationship column for the Post? Jon Gosselin could write a parenting column.

Poor Silda Spitzer.

Image credit: Victoria Will/New York Post.

What Will the Gosselins Do With Their Free Time Now that ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8’ Has Suspended Filming?

The New York Post reported this week that, in the wake of Jon Gosselin’s demand that his kids no longer be featured in a TLC reality show (the one that made the Gosselin's a household name), it's entirely likely that we've seen the last original episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8. "This is the last episode for which we have completed filming," a TLC spokeswoman told the Post. "We remain suspended."

The Post reporter read between the lines and offered this: "It's believed that, behind the scenes, neither the network nor Kate are pushing Jon to rescind his ban on filming the kids."

That leaves the separating/divorcing Gosselins with some extra times on their hands. What should they do with that time?

While one of Jon’s girlfriends, 22-year-old Hailey Glassman, has told The Insider that Jon already spends a good bit of his time having “mantrums” (man tantrums), taking his temper out on her and lying (“Sometimes he has trouble with the truth and he will dance and dance around his lies,” Glassman said), it’s being rumored that Jon will go out on a date with the Octomom as part of a reality show. (And if they brought all their kids along on the date, they'd have the equivalent of the population of Rhode Island in tow.)

Meanwhile, Kate has told the media that she doesn’t think anyone would want to marry into her situation and is contemplating returning to her nursing career. (Wonder how her bedside manner would compare to Edie Falco's Nurse Jackie?)

In case Jon and Kate are looking for something to help them to fill their days, which were once spent in front of TLC cameras and promoting the show and their "happy" family, I've got some suggestions for them:

Jon could try to improve his reputation as a devoted father of eight young children by writing a book about how challenging it is to be a divorced father while in the glare of media spotlight (at the same time he's courting said spotlight . . . but he doesn't need to mention that.). When he’s done, he can have his publicist arrange to hold his book launch party poolside at a Las Vegas hotel next to svelte bikinied women, seeing as though “hosting” a party at a similar locale earlier this year did so much to boost his loving daddy image.

Or Jon could take a page from the father of Sarah Palin's grandson and give a tell-all, scathing interview about his soon-to-be ex-wife to Vanity Fair, pose for photos while holding a photo of Kate’s head on a stick with the eyes cut out (as Levi Johnston did with a photo of Palin),  then offer to pose naked for Playgirl, continue to give interviews where you taunt the person who you now loathe (in Jon’s case it would be Kate who he’s already trashed on ABC by saying he “despises” her) and say that you’ve got “huge” stories about that person that you've yet to reveal, as Johnston did on CBS' Early Show this week.

Given that Kate has told the media that she feels comfortable in front of the camera, maybe she could consider becoming a third co-host of the 47th hour of the Today Show, accompanying Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. Kate and Kathie Lee can take turns rolling their eyes, cracking wise and making exaggerated arm motions as they discuss the news of the day.

Do you have any suggestions as to the next career moves for Jon and Kate?

Image credit: TLC via the Examiner.

It's Coming . . . 'Mad Men's' Third Season

And here's the AMC art to prove it.

Image credit: AMC via the New York Post.

Parents of Teen in the Infamous "Leering" Photo Reportedly Furious

The parents of the 17-year-old high school student who appears to have had her behind ogled during the G8 summit last week by Nicholas Sarkozy and maybe/maybe not Barack Obama (you've got to see the video tape before making a call on Obama) are livid that their daughter, who they described as "timid and ashamed of her body" and "dedicated to helping the poor, not to seducing world leaders," is at the center of an international booty scandal.

The New York Post caught up with her parents, who are seriously steamed. The Post quoted her father as saying: "Why are they looking at her like that? This is a girl who is articulate and intelligent and just wants to to the right thing. Instead, they are forcing her into a negative light."

He added, "That photograph has ruined my whole family."

She's collateral damage in a tabloid world.

Image credit: New York Post.

Go Coach Taylor: 'Friday Night Lights' Gets Two More Seasons

The New York Post and Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello are reporting that the critically acclaimed yet ratings challenged Friday Night Lights has been approved for two more seasons.

How great is that that we FNL fans don't have to wonder, as we've had to at the conclusion of each season, whether the season finale is actually a series finale?

The show has consistently provided gritty, realistic portrayals of life in a small Texas town dominated by high school football and populated by people who need a distraction from their lives. The disintegration of Buddy Garrity's life, including his recent estrangement from daughter Lyla, and the struggles of Tyra Collette to break away from a life where she's judged by her looks and whether she's got a good man, have been outstanding. The storyline for high school senior Matt Saracen, including how his demotion from the first string QB to back up has a negative impact on whether this kid will get a college scholarship, is one of the primary reasons why this is the football show that's not really about football.

Last week's scene where Coach Eric Taylor walked in on his daughter Julie in bed with her boyfriend Matt, made my husband squirm. Later, when Julie's mom Tami Taylor had a tearful conversation with Julie about how she wished she'd waited before having sex made me grab for the tissues. Gotta love the Taylors.

Image credit: NBC via EW.

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Catchin' Up, Caroline, Blago, Corp. Jet$$

I'm just getting back into the swing of things after having spent the week with my family and parents in the grips of the magical world of Disney, where, in addition to enjoying the worst Florida cold snap in many years, I was told by a Disney World "cast member" in a Goofy hat that I could not watch the inauguration at Epcot because Disney is about "fantasy, not reality." Therefore, I trudged to an ESPN bar with my dad to watch President Barack Obama's inauguration speech and hear the inaugural poem. So other than skipping some Epcot rides with my kids in order to catch the tail-end of the inauguration, I've been out of the news loop for the past week (radical, I know, to be unplugged!), so I've got some catching up to do:

Another Senator Kennedy? Not So Fast!

So Caroline Kennedy pulled out (was pushed out?) of contention to be appointed to the U.S. Senate. New York Gov. David Paterson named another female -- younger -- to fill Hillary Clinton's seat. And then we were treated to conflicting reports about why Kennedy did an about-face and whether she truly had "personal issues" which prevented her from seeking the post. The New York Times portrayed sniping and excuse-making on both sides, describing Paterson as of the belief that Kennedy wasn't ready for the job.

Now 42-year-old Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, a two-term centrist Democrat from upstate New York, has been tapped for the post. She has a 5-year-old and a six-month-old baby and, according to the Times, worked up until the day she gave birth, causing House members to give her a standing ovation . . . which is prompting several to compare her to fortysomething mother of an infant Sarah Palin, some positively and some negatively.

Senator Oprah?

Good God. Rod Blagojevich is spending today basking in the bright lights of the New York City media circuit, rather than in Illinois where his impeachment trial is commencing. He's doing the rounds on the TV networks pleading his case and categorically denying attempting to sell Obama's U.S. Senate seat, while complaining that he can't bring his witnesses to defend him.

In an interview on ABC's Good Morning America, he said he considered asking Oprah Winfrey if she wanted to fill Obama's seat, saying, "She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators."

On The View -- where Barbara Walters bizarrely conducted the interview from Los Angeles while Blago was in New York, and Walters appeared on stage inside a little TV located next to the seated Blago instead of opting for a split-screen -- he said the case against him has been sensationalized by the media and that the conversations captured by federal wiretaps were taken out of context. "I'm an innocent man who hasn't done anything wrong," he said. ". . . I'm going to fight to the finish."

Blago resisted Joy Behar's attempts to goad him into doing a Richard Nixon impersonation and doing "I'm not a crook." Surprisingly, Blago declined the offer.

Corporate Jet$$

Someone -- hello?! -- needs to put an end to the wild orgy funded by taxpayer money intended to help rejuvenate the American economy not provide luxury items for a few people who ran their companies into the ground. CitiGroup got $45 billion in federal bailout money -- your money and my money -- and just wasted $50 million of it on a 12-seater luxury jet, reports the New York Post:

"Even though the bank's stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it's burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue, the airhead execs pushed through the purchase of a new Dassault Falcon 7X, according to a source familiar with the deal.

The French-made luxury jet seats up to 12 in a plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center, according to Dassault's sales literature."

Where are the D.C. fiscal watchdogs? We should get that money back. Pull a Palin, and put the jet up on eBay. Stuff like this should not be allowed to stand.

Image credit: Rep. Gillibrand's web site.

High on 'Mad Men's' Hendricks

Mad Men's Christina Hendricks is one of my favorite actress of the moment. I love how she's completely dissolved into the character of Joan Holloway circa 1962. I love how, in a day and age of stick-figure celebs, she's curvy and proud, and succeeding.

I blogged, at length on the Picket Fence Post, about how much I adored her at the Emmy awards last month and think she presents a good alternative to the likes of actresses who disappear when they turn sideways.

Now the New York Post's Page Six Magazine is all about lovin' Hendricks and has featured her on the cover of its magazine. In the Page Six interview to be released on Sunday, Hendricks discussed how fashion designers only send celebs samples in sizes 2 and 4 dresses and how she doesn't fit into that world.

"I've always had boobs and hips, even when I was 115 pounds," she said. "And here I am much heavier than when I was modeling, and all of a sudden people are giving me positive feedback. Sure, I'd be happier with 10 pounds off -- wouldn't every woman?"

Image credit: Page Six Magazine.