News about Sarah Palin‘s much-anticipated memoir is slowly trickling out. The AP has apparently got its hands on an early copy and can confirm some of the rumors: it was not smooth sailing between Palin and McCain’s campaign staff; Palin still harbors some ill-will towards Katie Couric. But there’s also a new one.

The eagle has landed! Translation: the Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey interview is a wrap. The much-anticipated interview was taped yesterday in Chicago; later in the evening Palin posted an update to her Facebook page, and Oprah spoke about it via video. Both after the jump.

There is still a week to go before Sarah Palin’s much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey next Monday. No doubt Oprah has been working on her interview questions for quite some time now but it will be interesting to see which way, if any, Palin attempts to point the headlines ahead of her headline-making interview. As of today, the money appears to be on “death panels.”

The last time we saw Dick Armey he was giving the cold shoulder to Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press, but he has returned in all his glory as a feature subject in this week’s Times Magazine.

Sarah Palin has done only a handful of interviews since she and McCain lost the election last November. Moreover, it’s been a while since she’s been put directly on the hot seat (read: Katie Couric) so there’s certainly plenty to talk about! In an effort to help Oprah prepare for her interview we’ve compiled a top ten list of of outrageous questions about Sarah Palin that will need to be addressed.

Betsy McCaughey (the former Lt. Gov. of New York and “Death Panel” term originator) debated Rep. Anthony Weiner about health care last night in New York City, and they went for an encore performance today on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting.

But one thing they didn’t factor in – host Dylan Ratigan. Weiner was left in the dust while Ratigan and McCaughey went at it for more than 12 minutes.

“The time for bickering is over. The time for games have passed.” President Obama struck a tough tone tonight in his address to a joint session of Congress about Health Care — and got a little of that back courtesy of a heckle from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who shouted out “You lie!” during Obama’s speech, succeeding in getting himself in the first graf of pretty much every story on the matter.

Just how effective is the right wing media at hijacking a topic, blasting controversial sound bites, and stirring widespread outrage, all without a shred of context, debate, or discussion of salient issues? Incredibly, as I found out the hard way.

Sarah Palin has found a new home for her health care, death panel rantings: the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal! What exactly qualifies the former, sometime Governor of Alaska, and failed running mate for John McCain to speak on the issue of health care remains unclear.

Unless, of course, it’s the democracy of linking that’s really at work here.

A week or so ago I suggested that the health care debate was a great opportunity for the beleaguered mainstream media — newspapers, network news — to prove “in a slow and deliberate way” it was still relevant. Have they managed to do so in the interim? If they have there’s certainly no evidence of it.

Meet the Press convened its own panel today to discuss this week’s angry town halls and the death panel, Nazi, Tree of Liberty assertions that have accompanied them. Today’s panel consisted of three middle-aged white men and Rachel Maddow (with a drop-in from Charles Rangel). For his part, Dick Armey appeared tolerantly amused that Maddow had been allowed on the panel at all. Until she started grilling him, at which point he seemed to turn a cold shoulder, literally

Looks like Senator Arlen Specter learned a little something from that feisty health care town hall he held last week — at least on Twitter, where rants are at least limited to 140 characters. Specter’s target: Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who has emerged as a voice promoting the “death panel” myth.

In honor light of all the coverage health care town hall meetings are getting, Mediaite decided to hold a town hall of its own. We wanted to know what New York had to say about the proposed health care bill. Alas, New York has not been one of the states blessed with an exciting Town Hall (and New Jersey doesn’t count). So, we did what we could.

Ever find that sometimes when you’re talking with friends or co-workers that a certain word keeps getting repeated over and over again? Maybe it’s a flashy one or just a really useful one, but it just keeps making the rounds in e-mails or chit-chat? Well, you’re not alone – the media also loves to reuse and recycle (not so much reduce). Welcome to Mediaite’s Meme Watch, a compilation of the media’s most talked-about words… literally. This edition? Death panels!