Besides throwing almost every applicable political buzzword into his assessment of President Barack Obama's recent health care summit, RNC Chairman Michael Steele managed to offend nearly every left-wing viewer of The Situation Room today when he called the recent Capitol Hill discussion a "death panel" for the Democrats' health care proposal. Not that he doesn't make some good points. But still...yikes.
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video On Fox & Friends, an emergency heart procedure for an ex-president is a perfect opportunity for an ultra-partisan hypothetical situation: "If the Democrats' health care reform had gone through would President Clinton have received the stents?" The two stents the former president was given on Thursday provided a jumping off point for a highly convoluted (and perhaps insensitive?) undermining of health care reform plans, the stimulus package and Obama's budget director Peter Orszag. (more...)

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."

Seriously, I know people who laugh at "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" every single time!

If I didn't know any better, I might think that Stevens is making fun of wingnut opponents of healthcare reform. While the whole thing smacks of self-parody, what I really love is how Stevens warns against the infringin' of our right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I guess the operative word here is "our."

Watch and enjoy, if only for the knowledge that opponents of healthcare are being led by a guy who wants to let Joe the Plumber "crunch the numbers."

PHOTOS Mediaite editor-at-large Rachel Sklar has done an excellent job of pointing out what Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project isn't, but activist Alex Lawson, who was at today's 9/12 rally in DC, is doing a great job showing what it is. (more...)

video I'm no stranger to losing body parts as I am a one-eyed guy. That's why part of me sympathizes with 65 year old Bill Rice who had the tip of his pinkie finger bitten off at a Health care rally last Wednesday. Course it was only after he punched out some mystery pro-health reform guy in the face a second time. According to Bill the guy called him an idiot. More in a Washington Post article here. However, in the small town where I come from in Canada, if you punch a guy in the face twice you had best be prepared for some retaliation. But even in Belleville, Ontario biting a dude's finger off is a bit much. A bite much? (more...)

video Add one more personality to the increasingly disturbing game of rhetoric surrounding the current Health Care debate. In response to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's comment of "What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing," radio host Montel Williams upped the ante in a shocking reply during his program on Air America. Listen for yourself after the jump. Earlier this week U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann railed against the dangers of health care reform and other Democratic initiatives, warning the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever.” “This cannot pass,” the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.” Williams takes this "colorful comment" and turns it into a shocking call for the congresswoman violently stab herself to death.

video Its no mystery that the Health Care debate has raised passions on both sides of the aisles: the conservative movement has cried socialism; the progressive movement has accused the right of no-so-subtle racism. Well the claims of race baiting are about to get a bit louder with news of Kansas Rep Lynn Jenkins comment that the Republican Party would soon embrace a "Great White Hope". (more...)

Media Matters has really outdone itself with this organized, fact-based post, "Myths and falsehoods about health care reform," that brings clarity to the misrepresentations and obfuscations about the Health Care debate over the past few weeks. (more...)

Yesterday, bloggers Peter Feld and John Carney had a heated back-and-forth about health care on their various Tumblrs. Among other points, they debated death panels, the relevance of police tasering to the discussion, and just how good the U.S. Postal Service is.
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A corollary to Godwin's Law states that "as an Internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler increases, and whomever makes that comparison has automatically 'lost' whatever debate was in progress." Extending this axiom to the current public discourse of health care reform begs the question: should critics of the Obama Administration who evoke Hitler and Nazis be considered losers? Absolutely. (more...)

VIDEO 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! We're resisting the urge to say, "We told you so," but we totally told you so. (more...)