There is nothing ’silly and ridiculous’ about Eric Massa’s flameout departure from Congress. All the White House needs is Ramin Hedayati , the Daily Show’s famous Fox-News watcher, to know that Eric Massa is as serious as a case of flesh-eating clap

(Jeremy Binckes contributed to this report.) Hundreds of protesters and labor activists descended upon the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington today to try to make things a little more difficult for the health insurance lobbyists and executives gathered inside.

When news broke last Thursday that a deranged gunman had opened fire outside a Pentagon security checkpoint, wounding two officers before being stopped by return fire (the gunman later died from his wounds), the reaction from some oddly giddy right-wing bloggers was swift. They wanted everyone to pay attention to the story.

Liz Cheney has been under fire from both left and right after she tried to paint Department of Justice attorneys as terrorist sympathizers for working on the defense of Guantanamo detainees.

LOS ANGELES — Villainous roles snatched the supporting-acting prizes Sunday at the Academy Awards: “Precious” co-star Mo’Nique as a contemptible mother and “Inglourious Basterds” co-star Christoph Waltz as a sociable Nazi fiend. Both performers capped remarkable years, Mo’Nique startling fans with dramatic depths previously unsuspected in the actress known for lowbrow comedy and the Austrian-born Waltz leaping to fame with his first big Hollywood role. “I would like to thank the academy for showing that it can be about the performance and not the politics,” said Mo’Nique, who plays the heartless, abusive welfare mother of an illiterate teen (Gabourey Sidibe, a best-actress nominee in her screen debut) in the Harlem drama “Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ by Sapphire.” Mo’Nique added her gratitude to the first black actress to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 supporting-actress winner for “Gone With the Wind.” “I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to,” she said, adding thanks to Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, who signed on as executive producers to spread the word on “Precious” after it premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Isn’t it ironic? A Hollywood movie focuses the media away from Kate Gosselin’s hair extensions and into a belated frenzy of soldier interviews and Iraq War fact checking. If only this determination to get it right had preceded the invasion.

SAN DIEGO — The disappearances of 14-year-old Amber Dubois and 17-year-old Chelsea King illustrate a sad fact: not all missing children cases are treated the same. Chelsea disappeared Feb. 25, last seen in a park with running clothes.