Hello everybody, as we're already into August and the dog days of summer.

We begin first up with the economy in turmoil yet again. It started when President Obama signed the twice-modified debt relief bill into law earlier this week, only to receive a very bad 50th birthday present from Wall Street on Thursday: The Dow Jones dropping 512 points, the worst in nearly three years. That was followed on Friday with the unemployment rate for July now at 9.1 percent, which is slightly up from last month; that's some good news.

Also on Friday, the bad news: Standard & Poor's had downgraded the government's credit rating from AAA to AA Plus for the first time ever. House Speaker John Boehner said this could be a wake up call to the Democrats, while S&P defended their decision saying they have lost their trust in Washington's ability to work together to address its debt.

So...will we get back that AAA rating? Probably not, and it will not be upgraded again for the foreseeable future. But downgrading from AAA to AA? That's as if your car had one too many!

One person who already hit the big 5-0 earlier this year is George Clooney, and after his recent split with Elisabetta Canalis, it wouldn't be long before he was back on the prowl. But when we learned who his current lady love is...I tell you, it generated more buzz than Shark Week or the new season of "Jersey Shore"!

So, who is it? Stacy Keibler!!!! For the last few weeks or so, the former WWE Diva and "Dancing With The Stars" alum has been spending some downtime in Europe...and so was George. According to published reports, Keibler has been staying in Clooney's Lake Como, Italy villa last month after a mutual friend introduced them to each other. That would be followed by this cryptic tweet from her saying that she's "in heaven."

Okay, now...I don't think he's ever seen her in action, but what does George really see in Stacy anyway? I know this won't hit Justin Bieber/Selena Gomez status anytime soon, but as someone who was once married and has since hit on the likes of Krista Allen, Lisa Snowdon, and Canalis, Keibler as the latest one came out of thin air. For Stacy, this appears to be an upgrade from when she once dated fellow wrestlers David Flair and the late Andrew "Test" Martin, considering the fact that she's been the object of many men's fantasies (particularly masturbatory) for over a decade.

But will the one-time "Sexiest Man Alive" and the woman with the "Legs of Mass Seduction" take things to the next level? I guess not. But one thing is for certain: Stacy Keibler's finally getting the press coverage she's so richly deserved...even if she's not Lindsay Lohan or Casey Anthony!

And last but not least: Months after Jerry Lewis announced that this year's Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon will be his last came this: MDA has let go of him as their chairman after many decades and that last year's telethon was indeed his last.

Now this comes to no surprise to many, as the longtime Labor Day weekend tradition will now be a bite-size six hours on September 4, down from the usual 21 hours that lasted till Labor Day. Of course, the changing face of television with over 500 channels has finally caught up with MDA, whose telethons since 1966 have raised over $2 billion for the organization.

But once upon a time, MDA's was the Super Bowl of telethons. Growing up, there were a slew of them, including Easter Seals, United Cerebral Palsy, March of Dimes, and Children's Miracle Network. All of them happened on holiday weekends, which were an excuse to pre-empt regular programming for up to 20 hours. And in the late '80s and early '90s, Britain's ITV telethons lasted a few more hours than Jerry Lewis: 27 HOURS!!!!!!

Then there are local telethons that, unlike the national ones, didn't take up that much time (usually three to four hours in primetime). And of course there are those that were organized right on the fly, including after September 11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Haiti earthquake; all of them were created by George Clooney with our favorite celebs manning the phone bank and broadcast on various networks worldwide. The "Tsunami Aid" telethon in 2005, also by Clooney, was only on the NBC Universal family of networks.

And then, there are telethons that, for particular reasons, didn't work out. Case in point: The Democratic Party, who in the early 1970's were so in the red that they've decided to hold annual telethons to pay back mounting debts stemming from the 1968 election. No such footage from them happens to exist anywhere especially on YouTube, but from what I've read, the productions and final totals made us weep.

Their last chance came in 1983 with what was going to be a star-studded affair on NBC; but when the final timpani rolled after things didn't turn out as planned, only $2.75 million was raised. OUCH!

But could this year's MDA telethon be its last as well after 45 years? I'm afraid so, but MDA will still move forward, and you can still donate to them even without the telethon. Besides, most of today's generation don't know who longtime staples Tony Orlando, Norm Crosby, or Charo are anyways. And with Jerry Lewis now out, we're going to need someone fresh to help get hope for those "_______'s Kids." So long and stay strong.