Health care

Tea Partiers & Birthers continue to claim their Tea Party movement is not based on racism, dispute all the evidence to the contrary.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing lately that gets at the point that Americans are poorly informed about substantive issues in politics and that further laments the lameness of our political institutions. I don’t like to write too much about such negative things, because it tends to bring me down and piss me off at the same time. So I’m not writing anything more on it for a bit, but I am giving you a few fun–and well-written–things to read. Is it an echo chamber? Perhaps. But I like the sound my thoughts make when they bounce off of smart people.

Politifact already named Sarah Palin’s “death panels” claim its lie of the year — prompting an indignant response from the former Alaska governor. Now Factcheck.org has followed suit, calling the claim that health care reform would lead to euthanasia for the elderly and disabled a “whopper of 2009.” The non-partisan group, however, pinned most of the blame on longtime reform foe Betsy McCaughey .

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest. “Death panels.” The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn’t made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page. More on Sarah Palin

We’ve gone from the Teddy Kennedy health care bill to the Joe Lieberman bill. The Senate proving it’s a failed institution if the Democratic majority can only support legislation that does nothing close to what it’s original intent was meant to be. With senators unwilling to stand up on principle rather than the holy writ of getting any win, no matter what it means. But the anger directed towards Joe Lieberman is off by a branch; where this failure lands is on Pres. Obama’s doorstep, an executive who can’t bring himself to lead. Pres.

Yesterday, John McCain launched an attack on the health care bill before the Senate, calling it “monstrous” and an example of “Enron accounting.” This may sound like just another of the hysterical, nonsensical, fact-free rants that have become the foundation of the today’s Beck/Palin GOP. But on this point, you have to pay attention to the Senior Senator from Arizona. After all, if anyone knows Enron accounting, it should be John McCain . Sen.

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin signed a book outside Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids on Wednesday evening.

There was no shortage of drama at the nation’s Capitol Saturday as House Democrats narrowly passed their final version of the health care reform bill — and the Illinois delegation was right in the thick of it. While every Illinois Democrat supported the bill, Reps. Dan Lipinski and Jerry Costello were key backers of the controversial amendment that secured its passage but has since deeply divided the party.

Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Asia on Wednesday to share her views from "Main Street U.S.A." with a group of high-flying global investors.
Grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable. Sarah Palin was all of that in Hong Kong yesterday. And more. Dressed in a cutesy virgin-white blouse and black skirt with the infamous bee-hive hairdo, she was a blessing to every predicting spectator.

Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, holding a local newspaper with her picture printed on, arrives at the check-in counter at Hong Kong airport Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 as Palin is leaving Hong Kong for the U.S.
Ex-Gov. Sarah Palin made a decorous debut on the international stage Wednesday with a long speech to investors in Hong Kong.