• Eric Massa is leaving today. You will have to add former to Eric Massa’s name today because he’s stepping down from his gig as representative of New York’s 29th District. He admits to cussing at his staff, but denies anything else happened. Anonymous sources are saying he made unwanted sexual advances toward a male aide (oh, those prissy staffers!). UPDATE: Massa explains the incident that brought the ethics investigation–looks like too much booze was the cause–and blames the White House for his downfall. Come on Eric. Man up and stop putting your mistakes on someone else.

• It’s not funny but it is.  Working for the Pope and hiring rent boys? Really? Would love to know how Angelo Balducci and Thomas Chinedu Ehiem justified their boss’ anti-gay rhetoric with their activities with hourly men. I also want to know if these two are tops or bottoms? I’m guessing selfish tops. They are the worst.

• Congrats to Hudson Taylor. Not only did the University of Maryland wrestler win the ACC wrestling championship in the 197-pound class, but he was named outstanding wrestler. Why should you care? Because he’s straight and a vocal ally. I’ve forgiven him for beating a UNC wrestler for the victory.

• The Oscars. Nothing to add because it’s an award show. Would rather watch kittens play with string. Can you honestly trust a group that gives a statue to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman? Or Crash (booooooooooooooooo!!!)? Any special Oscar moments you want to share?

• Being anti-gay and anti-immigrant doesn’t mean you can’t hanker for some hot brown booty. Republican State Senator Roy Ashburn supported anti-gay and immigrant legislation. However, when he got stopped on a DUI while leaving a gay bar, it looks like his “passenger” was Latino. Ashburn only likes gay Latinos when they are giving him the sweet sweet love.

• I am Sarah your God who brought you out of liberalism, where you lived as slaves. You shall have no other gods to rival me. Give Sarah Palin credit. She knows how to milk her base. Sure scribbling notes on your hand is weak sauce, but as the ex-governor says: if it’s good for God, she can do the same.

• Sure the Olympics are over, but a picture lasts forever. Where does the US Bobsled team train and do they need a scribe? I’m cheap and available.

• According to NPR, Experts are now saying that the devastating tsunami that followed the Chilean earthquake may have done more damage than the quake itself. The tsunami wreaked havoc along a 435-mile stretch of Chile’s Pacific coast, and most of the 800 people already known to have lost their lives were in those communities.

• I don’t know about you, but I’m mildly obsessed with cards and stationary. I would leave school to take a part-time calligraphy class in 7th grade, just saying. So when I saw these greeting cards, I basically died. Except ugph, am I the only who hates the word “partner?”

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined a study on how to best begin allowing gays to serve openly in the military on Tuesday. In a letter sent to senior staff, Gates detailed clear objectives for the change, and noted that it “can only be successful if it is managed in a way that minimizes disruption to a force engaged in combat operations.”

• In effort to woo the giant tech company’s operations to its city, Topeka, Kansas has changed its name to Google, Kansas. Seriously. It wants to become of the company’s fiber-optic broadband test cities, and has gone so far as to change the city’s official logo on it’s website to a Google brand.

• The first same-sex marriage licenses were applied for in D.C. today, with actual licenses being issued on March 9th.

• Sarah Palin made her comedy debut on The Tonight Show last night, and of course talked about Family Guy and all the problems with the mainstream media. Then, wait, give me a second. Then, she actually did a stand-up comedy routine. She came out, and did a monologue, about congress, and botox, and LA. I’m still confused and disturbed by it.

HOT TV NEWSER OF THE WEEK:

ROB MARCIANO

Fey said this week that “it’s inevitable that we’ll try it, at least.” She says “we’ll see if it makes it to air.”

Officials at the NBC show aren’t talking. “SNL” generally doesn’t discuss upcoming sketches because plans change often.

Fey’s performances as the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate were an icon of the 2008 campaign and drew huge ratings for “SNL.” They also helped earn her the title of 2008 AP Entertainer of the Year.

Fey also stars on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock.” She says the “SNL” hoopla was “the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

The photos of Levi Johnston – the 19-year-old former fiance of Palin’s daughter – were a huge hit last fall on the magazine’s Web site. The publisher expects the same results with other photos from the same shoot running in the newly resurrected print version available on newsstands Feb. 22.

Johnston fathered a son with ex-fiance Bristol, the 19-year-old daughter of the former Republican vice presidential candidate who resigned as Alaska’s governor last summer. The young couple broke up after the birth of their son, Tripp, in late 2008.

The upcoming Playgirl print spread includes an interview with Johnston, who discussed his strained relationship with the Palins, said Daniel Nardicio, a spokesman for the magazine. An hour-long behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot also will be available on cable-on-demand programming from Friday to March 11.

Bristol Palin, who is in a child custody battle with Johnston, has called the Playboy shoot “risque” in her legal petition. Claiming he made more than $105,000 last year from media interviews and modeling assignments, she is seeking $1,750 a month in child support and $18,350 in back child support.

Palin’s spokewoman, Meghan Stapleton, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Johnston initially agreed to do frontal nudity when negotiations began for the fall shoot, according to Nardicio.

Johnston backed away from baring all after he was criticized for taking the job and some called Playgirl a magazine for gay men.

Nardicio said he considers the magazine appealing to both men and women, although the audience is predominantly male.

Some people believed posing nude was a mistake for Johnston, according to his attorney, Rex Butler, who disagreed.

“I think it was the right decision,” he said, adding that other media opportunities were in the works but not finalized.

Ultimately, Johnston was strategically posed, revealing only his backside.

“There are a lot of sexy and suggestive shots,” Nardicio said.

“The cover is a good shot. I didn’t know how handsome that young man is,” Butler said.

Two rounds of photos have already run on the Playgirl Web site. At their peak, the photos were drawing hits from about 800 paying consumers daily. Nardicio said 70 percent of the consumers used male names and the rest used women’s names.

“Due to the popularity of that shoot, people wanted a print version” and helped fuel a decision to bring back the print version, Nardicio said.

The magazine officially returned to newsstands in December with a special that was already planned. Johnston, however, is the first cover in the regular editions to be published quarterly. Nardicio said 112,000 copies are being printed for the Johnston edition.

• Retarded for me, not for thee: Dear former Gov. Palin:  please treat us like adults. Just admit you give “Rushie” Limbaugh a pass on the word “retarded” because he’s an ally. Anything else you spout is moose manure.

• RIP Brendan Burke: The youngest son of Maple Leafs’ GM Brian Burke, died in a car accident on Friday. The father and son received recent media attention when Brendan publicly came out.

• DADT News: Read the Military Times today. It has a survey showing that troop opposition to gays and lesbians serving openly has sharply decreased since 2004. Twenty bucks says Sen. John McCain will never cite this study.

• Reason 639 to support Gillibrand: Unless you are a Log Cabin Republican, it’s time to get behind New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with money and volunteer time. At this weekend’s Human Rights Campaign dinner, she announced her plan to offer an amendment to defund DADT. She’s carried our water. Time for us to do the same for her.

• Everything is going to be okay. Sade has a new album: After 10 years, Sade is returning with new tunes. Please forgive as I do the dance of joy.

• New additions: There are 24 new members to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Rosie Perez and Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, are part of the incoming group.

• Who dat on Bourbon Street: If you have money, take your butt to New Orleans this week. The Saints marched into the  Super Bowl and Mardi Gras is around the corner. Get your party on Big Easy!

‘Tis the season for another hot-topic-worthy ready shot of RuPaul, and this time she’s “Going Vogue!” Watch out, Grandma Palin. Ru’s got on her red anorak and she’s ready to govern! And I’m guessing Ru knows her way around a lumberjack. Plus, I’m sure Ru also knows all about laying some serious Alaskan pipeline.

But to continue the “Going Rogue” knock-off theme, shouldn’t this image have said “Going Vogue: An American Legend?” No matter.

Meanwhile, Season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race is violently hurtling towards us as we speak, debuting on Logo on Monday, February 1st at 9pm ET. You can check out all the 12 new contestants online now.

And don’t even think about making a joke about a pit bull in lipstick. Ru will be coming for you.

I’ll make this short because the point has been made before and if you don’t get it you are slow. Whenever an article pops up at 365 about a woman who is  conservative when it comes to gay rights (Carrie Prejean, Sally Kern, Sarah Palin, etc., etc), folks will type out their furious anger. No biggie there. However, in the missives of moral outrage people feel a need to use the word “bitch.”

Fine. People get carried away. Press send before they think. But then when they get called out on their use of  a sexist term (and yes sweetie if you are talking about a woman you are using the language of bigotry), instead of showing  shame and apologizing folk double down. “I’m a gay revolutionary returning hate for hate,” “How dare you tell me how to act,” or, my personal favorite, “I adore women and only use the word for those who despise us”—a line of thinking used by an intellectual giant.  Meh. Meh.  At least have the freaking guts to admit there is not a whit of difference between you and the Rush Limbaughs of the world who routinely use sexist language when describing liberal opponents who happen to be women.

Let’s say intestinal fortitude is difficult for you. What about this? Women, who are no fans of either Prejean, Palin, or Kern, read this site and might find it slightly disturbing  for folk to  blithely throw out “bitch.” If  right now you feel a need to share how your bestest female friend from high school uses the  word also, leave now. There is no help for you.

Write whatever messages you need. Call me a coward who doesn’t understand the level of hate out there. Repeat some mush how you are tearing down the walls of oppression for your gay brothers with sexism (which sounds as fatuous as black folk moaning about American hegemony and jumping on the “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” rubbish); this is my last word on the topic. If you call a woman a female dog and get all emotional over gay liberation, your freedom tears are crocodile.

HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Tuesday that just two weeks after publication, Sarah Palin’s memoir has sold 1 million copies. The print run for “Going Rogue” has been increased again, to 2.8 million copies. The original printing was 1.5 million, then moved up to 2.5 million.

“Going Rogue” joins a select club of million-selling political memoirs that includes Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope,” Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Living History” and Bill Clinton’s “My Life.”

Newsweek. Oh, Newsweek, Newsweek, Newsweek. What were you thinking? Were the interns in charge when you made the decision? Has the media meltdown forced you to get rid of some of your best minds, people who would have said the cover of Sarah Palin was 17 steps past wrong?

I’m no fan of the Wasilla terror but have no problem with her being covered in the news. She is a major player in the GOP and attention must be paid. Also reliable sources inform she has a book out (while we are on the topic of books, I hope you do a major  review of  Teachout’s Pops). But your cover? Really? Her in running shorts? Come on! That’s soft and weak, and you know it’s bad when a commie pinko queen  takes up for “Mrs. Real America.”

Yes she was a beauty queen back in the day, and yes a few straight men want to know her in a familial way. Heck some conservative writer described his moment of bliss when she winked during her debate with Joe Biden. However, she ain’t a waitress from Hooters and we all know you would have never taken the same shot if she were a man.

Thanks much for making me defend someone I don’t like. Appreciate it.