Yes, you read that correctly. The movement for a strong, independent consumer-protection agency has officially reached quasi-celebrity status. Heidi Montag, the reality TV mainstay and failed pop singer, is in a new, tongue-in-cheek video stumping for an independent consumer-protection agency as Congress' financial-reform talks slog on. The video, put together by the online humor site Funny or Die and Americans for Financial Reform, shows Montag poking fun at her recent plastic-surgery marathon while decrying the predatory practices of credit-card companies at the same time ("With hidden fees and standard interest-rate increases, that $11,000 jawline could end up costing you upwards of $50,000"). Now, I'm no celebrity gossip fan, and have no patience for people famous for no discernable reason whatsoever, but this video is clever, pretty damn funny, and worth watching. Here it is:

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As President Barack Obama hits the endgame for health care reform, is he making a ploy to associate price-gouging insurance companies with Wall Street greed? Goldman Sachs recently released a report encouraging investors to buy up shares in two large insurance firms and thereby profit from the industry's soaring premiums. Now, the White House is making that brief the centerpiece of Obama's closing argument for overhauling the health system. It appears that Obama is subtly using the Wall Street titan's toxic reputation to demonize the insurance industry and rally public support for a comprehensive bill. 

In a health care speech in Pennsylvania on Monday, Obama delivered a broadside against profiteering insurance firms. As an example of the industry's greed, he highlighted a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs. "An insurance broker told Wall Street investors that insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep raising premiums," Obama said. But, he added, the lack of competition allows insurers to keep premiums high for their remaining customers. "And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it."

Obama's reference to the Goldman Sachs paper was no isolated incident. The White House press operation highlighted the report in a PR barrage targeting unfair insurance practices. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer called attention to the study in a blog post on Sunday, while deputy press secretary Bill Burton pushed the report in a press gaggle and on Twitter on Monday morning.

The White House's emphasis on the Goldman brief is especially intriguing considering that the administration has previously come under fire for its relationship with the Wall Street investment bank. Goldman Sachs was the single largest private donor to Obama's presidential campaign, and a number of high-ranking administration officials are Goldman alums, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's chief of staff, Mark Patterson. Over the past year, Goldman has been attacked for profiting from everything from AIG's collapse to the Greek financial crisis. But although Obama has recently revved up his rhetoric against Wall Street buck-raking, he has generally trod carefully when it comes to the big financial firms, whose cooperation he needs to pass his financial reform package. Last month, for instance, Obama said that he didn't "begrudge" Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein for taking home a $9 million bonus, noting that some professional baseball players made more money.

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On Friday, the White House crowned its latest czar: Edward Tufte was named to the newly created Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, making him the Obama administration's unofficial data visualization guru, at least for all things stimulus-related. That's exciting news for graphics and data geeks, who generally revere Tufte as an evangelist of clean yet complex information design, the inventor of sparklines, and the sworn enemy of chartjunk and slideware. For non-geeks who need a translation: He's good at drawing charts. Plus, Tufte has some experience cutting through visual bureaucracy: He did risk-assessment work for NASA following the Challenger and Columbia explosions, concluding that the agency's unthinking reliance on bullet points and PowerPoint helped bring down the Space Shuttles. So what can E.T. (as the faithful call him) do for an administration that, for all its messaging failures, is pretty good at tooting its horn in chart form? His advisory panel is tasked with explaining the use and abuse recovery funds. On his website, Tufte is vague, saying that "I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency." At the very least, let's hope Tufte uses his time in D.C. to drum up some support for bipartisan chart reform so we never again have to see an abomination like this:

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California Senator Roy Ashburn has always been staunchly anti-gay. He's voted against establishing Harvey Milk Day, expanding anti-discrimination rights to cover sexual orientation, and allowing homosexuals to wed.

So it was somewhat surprising to hear him announce he's gay.

Ashburn came out after an arrest last week for driving drunk on the way back from a gay bar in Sacramento. Following the admission, he stated, "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long."

Infuriating hypocrisy. But also kind of sad.

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