The Internet still can’t get over Chatroulette – that semi-anonymous video-chatting service that allows you to connect to strangers all over the world and (more often than not) see their genitalia – despite the fact that we’ve seem to have hit a wall in terms of interesting things to do with the service. Much like Google Buzz, it seemed to be a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon that people would take a novelty interest in, and then forget about. But then Merton showed up.

So there can be healthy debate between the two parties without devolving into slurs and name-calling. Who knew? Today on NBC’s Meet The Press, David Gregory sat down with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to talk about the recent health care battle and the nasty attitude that people on both sides of the political spectrum have adopted in this fight.

President Barack Obama made a surprise trip today, touching down in Kabul, Afghanistan to visit the country for the first time since he took office. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was notified about the American President’s arrival just an hour before he showed up, and the trip has been kept under such tight secrecy that reporters were only allowed to write about the event after Obama departed. CNN’s Candy Crowley quickly rounded up a bunch of pundits for speculation on State Of The Union, though with so little information flowing out, it’s mostly a guessing game.

While Congress is in recess, President Barack Obama is using this time to appoint 15 new members into key positions in his administration, including “extremist” pro-Union lawyer Craig Becker as the newest member of the National Labor Relations board. Becker’s nomination – and what it may mean for Big Business – is going to stir up a lot of GOP outrage.

February’s numbers for unemployment in New York State saw them actually decreasing .2 percent from January, which is a good thing, right? New York is also one of nearly half the states in America that is currently adding jobs, though Florida remains the only state that was able to employ over 6,000 new workers. So what’s the bad news?

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Sunday Routine section of The New York Times: It’s self-indulgent, highlighting the lazy days of the rich NY celebrities that we already see too much on our television. This weekend defines for me the crux of its problem when it chronicled dorky vegan electronica musician Moby around as he complained about people who eat meat, not being able to sleep in, and making smoothies. Oy.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush was admitted into Methodist Hospital in Houston Saturday morning after she claimed she didn’t feel well. Over the past year, Mrs. Bush has suffered from several health scares, including a hardening of her arteries and open-heart surgery a year ago. A spokesperson for the Bushes said that Barbara’s doctor was just being “overly cautious” in admitting the octogenarian when she started feeling ill. The day before, she had been reading to children at a public school in Texas, which doctors take as a good sign that the condition isn’t serious.

Well no one can say Sarah Palin is slacking off: Directly after speaking at a rally with John McCain out in Arizona, the upcoming reality TV show star and Fox News pundit sped directly to Searchlight, NV, home of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a tea party rally that some are calling “the Conservative Woodstock” but which Palin herself referred to as “the Showdown at Searchlight.”

Okay, this one just steps over the line of good decency: Last night on HBO’s Real Time, Bill Maher not only compared John McCain campaigning with Sarah Palin to the Senator’s time in a Vietnam POW camp, but said that the latter was favorable.

Well this is interesting: If the readers of CBS’ website are any indication, despite passing a historic health care bill this past weekend, President Barack Obama has failed in every “subject” of his presidency, according to the latest online poll.

For the second day in a row, Sarah Palin is stumping for John McCain, her former running mate in the 2008 elections. Then, along with thousands of Tea Party members gathered to protest the (already passed) health care law, the former Alaskan governor plans to descend onto Sen. Harry Reid‘s hometown of Nevada later today. Meanwhile, at least one heckler has been forcibly removed from the premises.

There’s no love lost between Wall Street Journal and News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and just in case you thought that newspaper men played fair, today’s issue of the WSJ should easily dissuade you of that notion.

As if the verbal abuse against politicians wasn’t enough this week, the horrible news that former Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found shot to death in their home this morning was another shocking reminder. Schaefer, a prominent Republican at 73, was watching her husband suffer from cancer, and the duo apparently frequently talked about a suicide-pact.

Citing that his outburst during the Congressional passing of the health care bill was outrageous, but that his explanation for the “baby-killer” remarks were “downright nutty,” Salon has named Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer their mascot for “This Week in Crazy.”

“The one crime we can’t think of without vomiting, that’s the one crime the Catholic Church wants wiggle room for,” intoned displaced journalist Christopher Hitchens on last night’s Real Time With Bill Maher. Hitchens, who admitted he was on the program to “gloat” about the recent scandal involving the Pope and his knowledge of child molestation in the Roman Catholic church, wasted no time in condemning the entire institution of the Vatican, both political and “as the head of a giant cult” for the coverup that was recently uncovered in a Wisconsin School for the Deaf.

After Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown delivered an unusually defensive response to the Facebook-originated claim that MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was running for office in his state, the left-leaning host (who has admitted she feels “attacked” by Brown) decided on her show tonight to help him out a bit and create her own smear ad…against herself.

“A fight not joined is a fight not enjoyed” Republican Senator John McCain said tonight on CNN’s John King, USA. At the same time, when asked about the increasingly ugly incidents revolving around the passing of the health care bill, the one-time presidential hopeful condemned the actions of Republican Congressman Steve King for “slapping” or “wiping” a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a rally saying, “Of course that’s uncalled for.”

Not quite as exciting as the original, but no less important, the House ended Barack Obama‘s legislative action on the health care reform he signed into law on Tuesday by voting on a number of changes to the original bill earlier today.

Before Ann Coulter ever stepped foot into Canada, there was already controversy and debate about her speaking engagements at three of the country’s colleges. Tonight on The O’Reilly Factor, Coulter argued that the Canadian college administrations all knew what they were getting when they asked her to speak on their campuses, and that by threatening her with legal action before she ever spoke, it was the colleges’ that were looking for a free publicity ride, not her.

There’s a lot to be said about Hollywood nepotism in New York. In the case of James Franco, it means making the most of this lavish praise, the most recent example of which would be having his short fiction from his MFA get optioned by Scribner for an October release and having excerpts printed in this month’s Esquire. So how is the Pineapple Express‘ star’s writing? It’s exactly what you’d expect.

NBC’s Chief legal correspondent (and our boss) Dan Abrams appeared on Today to talk about the tragic death of whale trainer Dawn Brancheau, who died several weeks ago when she was pulled into the tank with (the latest incarnation of) Shamu. Now a Florida judge will decide whether or not the footage of Brancheau’s death [...]

It’s hard to discuss the passing of the recent health care bill without getting heated arguments from both sides. The media would like to make it easier for you: “Democrats = happy! Republicans = crazy, frothing at the mouth racists who are about to take up arms against Capital Hill.” Either way, here is your Daily Obsession on the ugly side of the health care discussion, courtesy of Newsweek.com.

So all that stuff about Bart Stupak holding out on the health care bill until Barack Obama agreed to sign an executive order prohibiting federal money to go towards abortions? Well it turns out that that language was already in place in our current legislation. So when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked today whether or not the order just reiterated a law that was already in place or whether the president actually acquiesced to a new restriction on federal funding, his answers got kind of…murky.

Tonight Bill O’Reilly took on Canadian editor and playwright Susan G. Cole on the differences between our two countries’ educational systems. O’Reilly’s point: Students should be educated on every viewpoint possible, and no one was forced to see Coulter.

Cole argued, “We believe…universities are not the place for provocateurs and people who target certain minorities.” Below, CNN’s video of Coulter’s comments, and The O’Reilly Factor segment.

Mediaite founder and NBC Chief Legal Analyst Dan Abrams was on Today this morning, discussing the insanity plea being considered for Amy Bishop. Bishop was a biology professor at the University of Alabama accused of opening fire on a classroom and killing three other professors on February 12th.