Arizona has been at the forefront of national concerns about how we treat minorities in this country, which is a euphemized way of saying that it has developed a reputation for serious ethnic problems. State Rep. Cecil Ash‘s proposal that a Latin American celebratory holiday be accompanied by a statewide “Caucasian Day” is really not helping. Plus, don’t we already celebrate white people on July 4?

Over the weekend, CBS’ 60 Minutes offered an in-depth profile on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, a man who is, very likely, best known for his role as CIA Director — a role that saw him presiding over the covert operations that resulted in the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden. As Secretary of Defense, Panetta is the person who would be responsible for launching a nuclear missile from the so-called “Doomsday Plane” should the President give the order.

CBS’ Lara Logan granted an exclusive interview to the NY Daily News, opening up about the aftermath of the brutal attack she sustained in Egypt nearly one year ago, including her struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder.

First Lady Michelle Obama spoke with CBS This Morning host Gayle King to address some image issues she’s had to deal with during her husband’s time in the White House… and his possible role in that.

After spiking The Early Show and starting from scratch in favor of a newsier format (or, in their own words, “a more substantive alternative”), This Morning debuted with much of the same content that most likely would’ve been featured on the old show.

Congress is set to return later this month, and one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation it will be facing is the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill was authored by Republican Lamar Smith, and has received bipartisan support and opposition in the House. There has been a lot of talk about internet- and technology-based companies that support the bill, including GoDaddy (up until recently) and the video game industry.

As Iowa continues to drive everyone out of his or her everloving mind today, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has dug his claws into rival candidate Mitt Romney. The gloves are off, and the hair would be flying if it wasn’t all so perfectly molded in place.

On CBS’s Face The Nation, Bob Schieffer asked Kentucky Senator Rand Paul if he thought his father could win. “Your father is a very polite and decent man,” Schieffer said. “He’s very nice to deal with. Everybody seems to like him, but I don’t know a single impartial observer who thinks that he could wind up getting the nomination, let alone winning in a general election. Does he think he could win?”

Oh, man. If you aren’t in the holiday spirit after watching this video, nothing’s gonna do it for you. CBS has posted a mash-up video of every performance the great Darlene Love has done on The Late Show with David Letterman. Every year since 1986 (with the exception of writers’ strike year 2007), Love has appeared on the last episode of the calendar year and performs her “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and every year it’s amazing. This video captures all the appearances with the many different back-up vocalists, saxophone entrances, and hairstyles and it’s all great. Enjoy!

Every holiday season, many news outlets put together inspirational and heartwarming stories to fit the season. They’re always a joy to watch and, as we watch so many here at Mediaite, it’s hard not to start picking favorites. Last year, the best may have been a delightful tale from The New York Times and it looks like we may have an early favorite for 2011. CBS wrapped up the evening news tonight by recounting the tale of a little girl from North Carolina who asked Santa to bring her father, a contractor in Iraq, home for the holidays.

Ben Stein, he of multi hyphenates and mono tones, appeared on The Early Show this morning to talk all of the big stories of the day. He spent a lot of time discussing Herman Cain’s many problems right now and ended up defending the candidate. Perhaps coming from experience as someone who worked with a president who may not have been a great guy personally (Stein was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon), Stein stressed the importance of looking at a candidate’s policies rather than gossip. “If you concentrate on economic policy that will give a man or a woman a job, that means something,” he argued. “To concentrate on a person’s gossipy love life, that doesn’t mean a darn thing.”

With Rep. Ron Paul consistently near the top of Republican polls since the presidential campaigns started at full speed, the Congressman’s libertarian policies are receiving increased scrutiny. On tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly and Brit Hume discussed Rep. Paul’s appearance on Face the Nation, where host Bob Schieffer took him to task on his position on a nuclear Iran. Rep. Paul’s answers, O’Reilly contended, were “dangerous stuff,” for someone who would want to be President.

Rep. Ron Paul was on the receiving end of some of the hardest questions he has taken since the 2012 campaign for president began, perhaps not in small part due to his recurring appearance at the top of Republican polls. On today’s Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer pressed Rep. Paul to explain how his attitude towards American foreign policy did not amount to “saying Americans caused 9/11,” and how he would deal with Iran in a way that would guarantee safety.

Last night, Herman Cain paid a visit to David Letterman‘s Late Show, where talk eventually turned to his “9-9-9 plan.”

Letterman admitted he doesn’t quite understand what the plan is all about… right before informing Cain that “you don’t even know what it means:”

As the Penn state child rape scandal continues to develop, the main characters involved have gone surprisingly public, with Jerry Sandusky admitting to “horsing around” with children on NBC last night and private emails from alleged eyewitness to Sandusky’s crimes Mike McQueary giving the media a glimpse of how he felt he was being treated by the media. On CBS tonight, McQueary in fact confirmed that he was very concerned for his personal life and safety, and the scandal was taking an emotional toll.

In case you missed last night’s Commander-in-Chief debate co-sponsored by CBS News and the National Journal, CBS has posted the full-length debate online.

Perhaps the most dominant running theme to emerge from this year’s slate of Republican presidential debates has been the reactions of conservative audiences to things like executions, letting the uninsured die, and a question from a gay US soldier. At tonight’s CBS/National Journal Republican debate, the audience sort of had it both ways, wildly cheering both sides of the issue of whether the US should waterboard terrorism suspects.

Here we go again– live from South Carolina, your favorite (only*) Republican presidential candidates in 2012, on Saturday night. Tonight’s debate, hosted by CBS and National Journal, will focus on foreign policy and national security. The show is on live at 8 PM, and with tonight come all the requisite plotline questions: What will Rick Perry say next? Will Mitt Romney finally explode in an angry rage? And will Scott Pelley or Major Garrett throw Herman Cain the hardball: what does he really think about Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan?

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned today after seventeen years in power. After announcing that he would step down earlier in the week, he came to the state house and handed in his resignation, exiting cheerfully while crowds alternatively jeered and made celebratory noises.

Television host and seasoned interviewer Charlie Rose joins radio and television personality Gayle King as two of the newest editions to the revamped edition of CBS’ Early Show.

Broadcasting legend and 60 Minutes fixture Andy Rooney died Friday night in a hospital in New York City. Rooney had only made his final sign-off as a weekly commentator on the CBS show just over a month ago, and was reportedly in stable condition following complications from minor surgery last week.

As the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations continue to monopolize the news cycle, allegations, particularly from conservatives, that the allegations are race-based continue to fly. On CBS today, however, one prominent black conservative went out of her way to warn that race was not the way to fight these claims. In an interview with The Early Show, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in, expressing disgust at the entire idea of talking about race at all. “I don’t care much for incendiary language,” she sighed, warning that “it’s not good for the country” for anyone– left or right– to “play the race card.”

Walter Issacson‘s latest biography might be the most historically significant, at least for the very moment in which we now find ourselves. Over the last year or so, Apple founder Steve Jobs granted 40 interviews recorded for a biography, the publish date of which has been moved up since the Jobs died this month as a result of pancreatic cancer. 60 Minutes sat down with Issacson for a two-part feature on Jobs, both of which you can view below, courtesy of CBS News:

Rep. Michele Bachmann seems to have lost her entire campaign staff in New Hampshire, but if her workers resigned, they seemed to neglected telling her. The Bachmann campaign’s former New Hampshire campaign director, Jeff Chidester, confirmed the resignations as Rep. Bachmann herself denied them, leading to more speculation as to the future of the Bachmann campaign.

Bill O’Reilly appeared on David Letterman ostensibly to promote his new book Killing Lincoln, but the conversation turned to a variety of items in the news:Occupy Wall Street, The Tea Party Movement and $16 muffins all got some airtime in a spirited and light back-and-forth. But the most tense part of the exchange was a surprisingly dramatic high-five between the two influential television personalities who have not always seen eye-to-eye, but put aside any previous tension for a symbolic demonstration of agreement. The harmonic convergence is now upon us!