Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC’s The Ed Show, will be marking the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by hosting a free clinic for the uninsured at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on August 29. The event will be just the latest of the liberal firebreather’s efforts to lend a hand to the community’s [...]

Republican Senator Rand Paul is proving himself to be a loud and persistent critic of President Obama and all of his policies. Speaking at a Senate hearing yesterday, Paul expressed his strong disapproval of universal healthcare, even repeatedly comparing the right to healthcare as being similar to slavery.

In tonight’s State of the Union Address, President Obama spoke about about many large, aspirational goals, but also spoke specifically on one issue that doesn’t seem to go away: healthcare reform. Obama began the topic by winning the crowd over momentarily with a joke: “now, I’ve heard rumors that a few of you have some concerns about the new health care law.”

Senator Chuck Schumer appeared on Face the Nation to discuss the Republican effort to repeal healthcare reform. Convinced that the American people want Congress to focus on jobs and the economy, Schumer defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid‘s decision not to waste time bringing the measure up for a vote.

Congressman Steve King appeared on Fox News today and was adamant that he wants President Obama’s entire healthcare reform bill repealed. When host Bill Hemmer suggested Democrats were demonstrating a willingness to compromise and adjust certain provisions, King quickly dismissed the idea, emphatically declaring repeal is the only option he would accept.

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher pressed Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on whether Virginia federal judge Henry Hudson, a Bush-appointee had a conflict of interest that should have prevented him from deciding yesterday’s healthcare case. The alleged conflict relates to the judge’s investment in a Republican consulting firm that worked against health care reform. Gibbs, surprised at how narrowly the case was decided was confident the decision would have “no practical impact at all as states move forward in . . . implementing the law that Congress passed and the President signed.”

Earlier today a Virgina-based federal judge Henry E. Hudson declared that the newly passed Health Care reform law passed by Obama is unconstitutional. But as is the case in most judicial decisions, the story is far from over. During today press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert GIbbs averred confident that the law is constitutional. Meanwhile, the partial ownership of a GOP consulting firm has brought the federal judge who made the decision under scrutiny.

Last Friday, while the cable news world watched Rick Sanchez’s career end in a spectacular crash via an undisciplined and unhinged radio interview, Glenn Beck was blaming the evils of slavery on government regulation, then asked if, via increased insurance rates, “are we creating slaves?” Only in the tortured and hyperbolic world of opinion media can someone get away with this sort of analysis

First, Rick Barber told you to gather your armies against the oppressive IRS. Now, he wants you to see healthcare reform for what it really is: forcing one man to work for another.

In other words: slavery.

On last night’s Countdown, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs left host Keith Olbermann shaking his head like a tourist who’d just lost his fun money in a game of 3-card monte. At issue was the contradiction between the President’s call for the Senate not to push anything through in advance of Scott Brown‘s swearing in, and Gibbs’ assertion that the House voting on the Senate healthcare reform bill was still on the table. Gibbs explains, but Keith is still muttering about it long after the pre-taped interview.

This is what I get for watching The O’Reilly Factor.

I’ve found that there are two kinds of people in the world: Those who hate “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” (like me), and those who don’t. I’ve also found that members of the latter group are really, really amused by it. It is for them that I post Ray Stevens’ latest ode to mythological Grandmomicide, “We the People.”

I finally got around to watching the now-famous (thanks to Drudge) video of Democratic Montana Senator Max Baucus’ tirade on the Senate floor, which the right has touted as evidence of the Senator’s intoxication. That’s a pretty serious accusation, and one that would normally require better corroboration than this. In my search for another explanation, I discovered an alternate theory that actually springs from the left: Baucus’ speech has been affected by a head injury.

A number of conservative websites are claiming that Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) was guilty of orating under the influence on the Senate floor. A newly viral video depicts Baucus speaking on the Senate floor, while making irregular gesticulations, odd pauses and slurring of words. Some are claiming that the recent torrid pace brought about by the Health Care vote has exhausted the Senate body, and is the reason behind this, and other odd behavior.

Liberal blogger and Firedoglake publisher Jane Hamsher has come under heavy fire for an appearance on Fox & Friends in which she promotes a petition to kill the current health care reform bill. Liberal critics paint her as a “useful idiot” being exploited by the right, and point out Hamsher’s own distaste for those on the left who appear on Fox.

Hamsher has responded to the criticism, but she’ll have to convince a tough critic: Jane Hamsher from July. That Jane Hamsher seemed to have a different set of priorities.

On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann ran a segment attempting to debunk the story that the White House had threatened Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) with the closure of Offut Air Force Base in order to secure his vote on healthcare reform. The White House and Ben Nelson categorically deny the charge. Who’s right, and who’s wrong? Plus, Mediaite has exclusive reaction from Lewis and Goldfarb:

On Wednesday, Business Insider reported that Facebook users were being plied with virtual cash (for games like Mafia Wars) to email their Senators to oppose a public health insurance option. The health insurance industry-backed website to which the ads directed users, Get Health Reform Right, is down today. We contacted the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, who runs the site, to find out why.

At today’s White House press briefing, Robert Gibbs was asked if the President’s support for the latest healthcare reform compromise, a gumbo of increased Medicare availability, access to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and a trigger for the public option, constituted a “second-best” to the robust public option that the President has favored all along. His response was not what you would expect from an administration whose party holds both houses of Congress.

In the course of writing about a new anti-Obama ad that features opponents of healthcare reform (sarcastically) declaring “I’m a racist,” I noticed an elegant parallel to the current brouhaha over Harry Reid’s slavery comparison. The Republican legislator who appears in the “I’m a racist” ad has, himself, previously used the slavery comparison with regard to health care. Do slavery and racism have a place in the healthcare debate?

220-215 may sound close, but given the sad, elusive nature of Universal Health Care in years past, it’s hard for me to see yesterday’s House vote on health care as anything but a massive victory for President Obama.

After President Barack Obama spoke to a joint session about health care reform last night, Senior Adviser David Axelrod appeared on “The O”Reilly Factor.” Bill O’Reilly asked Axelrod about a number of issues surrounding the debate, and finished by asking him to extend a welcome for Mr. Obama to return to his show. While Axelrod demurred at the suggestion, a long-form, unedited and civil conversation is exactly what President Obama should do to change the tide of the debate.

Turns out that the proliferation of Obama as Joker posters were not a purely viral movement, but rather a result of a contest held by the designer of the poster – a conservative radio host. So far at least one individual has been interviewed by Orlando-area police under suspicion of vandalism.

As the debate over health care reform continues to dominate the news, there is the inevitable criticism of media bias from both sides of the aisle. Aside from their editorial pages, the Wall Street Journal is well known for its unique focus on reporting facts, keeping its reputation as an unbiased source of news untarnished. But since its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. two years ago, has the WSJ succumbed to the alleged bias that has afflicted other News Corp. properties Fox News and the NY Post?

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!

Watching a few hours of Fox News these days amounts to a non-stop infomercial opposing the Obama Administration’s effort to reform Health Care. While there is always room for a healthy debate on the issues, please don’t look to FNC for a measured discourse – they rarely, if ever, present a constructive solution to the current health care problems (though there is the occasional admission that there is need for reform.) No single entity seems more entrenched in the opposition to the health care reform than Fox News.

Yesterday, Mediaite’s Robert Quigley posted a list of 8 gaffes (later reduced to 7) by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, along with the assessment that Gibbs “largely gets a free pass from the media for his many blunders.” Via an e-mail exchange with Tommy Christopher, Gibbs claimed to have “no real response,” and that he was “happy to get the criticism,” but he did have a few factual corrections for us.