Celebrity News

The news that Ed Schultz will be leaving prime time weekday television on MSNBC and move to the weekend is not welcome news in this quarter. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Hayes, who will be moving into prime, is first-rate and will do a great job. But Ed is one of a kind, and he is the kind we need on television because on the single greatest issue of our age, the Les Miserables economy with too many jobless people and too much social injustice, Ed Schultz fights like hell for the people who need more voices fighting for them.

Andy Griffith, an iconic American figure, passed away at the age of 86 Tuesday. He may have disappeared, but hopefully what he represented is still alive and well through the legacy he leaves behind.

Both the character he portrayed on the “Andy Griffith Show,” Sheriff Andy Taylor, and who he was, personally, reminded Americans what the country was like at its best and showed that a simpler, more rural lifestyle could bring out the best in the American people.

The show itself portrayed a simpler time to its viewers amid the roller-coaster decade of the 1960s. Griffith’s show, and his tough-but-fair-minded sheriff of small-town Mayberry, gave viewers a sense of calm and peace in age marked by violence and war.

How about we respect the privacy and dignity of Maria Shiver and her children and focus instead on the 15.9 percent of Americans who are looking for work?

Nobody in Washington seems to give a damn about the jobless.

The Democrats offer minor proposals that will create a few jobs. Republicans offer major proposals that will destroy many jobs. The media treats the American people like salacious idiots, treats the jobless as though they don't exist and treats the Arnold love-child issue as important to the nation and worthy of our time, when it is none of our business and not important in our lives.

It’s a shame the Strauss-Kahn and Schwarzenegger scandals erupted the same week. One was an attempted rape, and the perpetrator ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent. The other, a consensual affair, was the more common of today’s scandals and deserves a closer look.

Frankly, I could care less about the sordid details of Schwarzenegger’s personal relationships. But the frequency with which scandals like this erupt — Bill Clinton, John Ensign, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, David Letterman and Roman Polanski, to name a few — makes it hard not to acknowledge that a cultural shift may be, in part, to blame for such widespread dishonesty and infidelity.

As if Democrats running the House of Representatives don't have enough on their legislative agenda, they now intend to hold a hearing today on immigration and undocumented farm workers and hear from expert witness Stephen Colbert? Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America, the Comedy Central host will appear in character, allegedly, and testify of his own experiences working in the hot sun on a farm. What a joke. What an insult to the congressional process of holding hearings to inform lawmakers on what laws are necessary.

This past Sunday, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hollywood star Brad Pitt appeared on “Meet the Press” discussing his affordable and environmentally advanced houses in New Orleans.

Pitt's work on this was truly brilliant. He worked with leading architects, civic leaders and investors and in making a major contribution to rebuilding New Orleans. This is the kind of project both liberals and conservatives should respect, citizen action for worthy purposes involving the private sector.

I once met Tipper Gore at a dinner in D.C. and was surprised how normal she was. Al seemed like an invention of himself. In fact, the phrases kept coming up with the Clintons and Gore, “deconstructing” things and “reinventing oneself.” She was from a place. He was from a generation. That generation was always reinventing itself as you would Mr. Potato Head. But Tipper wasn’t like that. She was normal.

It is all over the Web today: Like they said in the ’60s, Paul McCartney is really dead. He was killed in a car accident in 1966. And that English-looking fellow going around playing football games and bar mitzvahs and advising President Obama is a double (named “Faul”) put in there by Her Majesty’s Secret Service or something to prevent mass suicides.

Two established bloggers from either side of the political spectrum sound off on the week's topic in original commentary.

Imagine a young black man accused of drugging and molesting a 13-year-old girl. Imagine it is even seriously suggested that a month in a rehabilitation facility is the sentence he may face. Imagine that before his sentencing he jumps bail and flees the country. Imagine he is found many years later and pleads, let bygones be bygones. Imagine him living in a fine chalet for months while teams of his lawyers plead for his freedom. Can you imagine this scenario?