Republican gets booed and mocked during town hall for trotting out the old lie about death panels.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Constituents at a Florida town hall that Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) hosted erupted when another Republican official made the long-debunked claim that Americans are subject to so-called death panels under the Affordable Care Act. 

Bill Akins, the secretary of the Republican Party of Pasco County, made the claim during the town hall on Saturday. 

“Here’s the problem I have with the affordable healthcare act. Number one, there is a provision in there that anyone over the age of 74 has to go before what is effectively a death panel,” he said, prompting immediate screams and boos from the audience. “Yes they do, yes they do, it’s in there folks.” 

Akins went on to label the audience childish for calling him out on the lie. “OK children, all right children,” he said.

I can't believe he called them children.

You just KNOW that will be showing up in political ads in 2018, and probably 2020 as well.

And for him to resurrect Sarah Palin's 2009 Lie of the Year, is simply unconscionable. 

Clearly this is a well informed audience, and they simply were not going to allow these assholes to lie to them anymore.

Republicans being fact checked and called out on their lies in real time.  Whatever will they do?

Sarah Palin finds yet another opportunity to play the victim while falsely claiming she was right about "death panels."

So that tweet shows up on Twitter and of course is brought to the attention of the Wasilla Wendigo, who quickly takes to Facebook to post a kind of victory lap/pity party:

After I spoke of Obamacare's Death Panels, the President deceived the nation in his State of the Union address, claiming I was the liar. (Actually just about everybody concluded you were a liar.)

Barack (That's "Mr. President" to you lady): tell that to patients now being refused health care. 

The backlash from the President's continued attacks on my integrity remains immense (The President rarely spoke about you Sarah, the backlash came in response to your own stupidity.), but it's nothing compared to the tragic hopelessness that formerly disillusioned Americans now feel. Ironically, Obama and Congress could have proved me wrong. (Oh they did.) Granted, the President and media's obstinate clinging to the failed Obamacare boondoggle was a given, but an incalculable disappointment in this is knowing Congress held the purse strings for this disastrous government healthcare takeover, yet funded it anyway. 

Media: why no accountability on this? Why ignore Hillary's role in supporting Obamacare? 

 - Sarah Palin

What Palin is referencing here is the story of a  terminally ill California woman whose insurance company refuses to pay for a different chemotherapy drug that "might" buy her some more time.

Instead, due to California's new End of Life Option Act, this woman learned that a drug that would let her die with dignity at a time of her choosing WAS covered by her health insurance.

The woman, a Roman Catholic, was of course horrified, and this has become the cause celebre among the Right to Lifers.

So what does this have to do with Sarah Palin's famous "death panels?" Not a damn thing.

What Palin was talking about back in 2009 was this: 

"As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we're saying not just no, but hell no!" Palin wrote. 

"The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's ‘death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Essentially what Palin was saying was that "death panels" would portion out health care to those deemed worthy, and that others would be left to die on their own.

THAT was the lie that she was called out for, and it has NOTHING to do with this California woman's case.

NOR does it have anything to do really with Obamacare.

Insurance companies have always made choices over which medicines and treatments they are willing to pay for, and that is typically based on it's positive impact and yes its cost.

And Obamacare has actually fixed some of that by forcing insurance companies to provide insurance for many who would not have qualified for it in the past, and by not allowing them to kick clients off of their insurance once they became ill.

In fact the argument could be made that without Obamacare this woman would likely have lost her insurance already. 

The medicine that this woman's insurance company is balking at "might" extend her life, but then again it might not.

So the insurance company on their own, with no "Death panels" involved, has decided that it is not worth the extra cost to spend the money on a drug that might have no effect whatsoever.

Remember this woman's cancer is terminal, there is no cure, only the possibility of a few more years or months.

It may seem harsh, and if it were your loved one you would almost certainly feel that it was, but it has nothing to do with Obamacare, "death panels," and certainly nothing to do with Sarah "Look at me, look at me, look at me now" Palin.

In news that is certain to frost Sarah Palin's hindquarters, it turns out that Americans love them some "death panels."

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Despite the best efforts of politicians like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), more than 8 in 10 Americans think it's just fine for Medicare and private health insurance companies to pay doctors for end-of-life counseling, a new poll shows. 

According to survey results published Wednesday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 81 percent of respondents believe Medicare should pay for these discussions, and 83 percent think health insurance companies should do so. 

 Man I just love any news that is guaranteed to drive a certain batshit crazy half term governor out of her ever loving mind.

Well you knew it was coming, Sarah Palin resurrects her famous Obamacare death panels.

Courtesy of Nurse Wretched's Facebook page:

DEATH PANELS STILL NOT DEAD 

(Okay who predicted this? I did that's who!)

Politicians just don't get it. Their "Death Panels" still won't die. Last night Obamacare masterminds decided they'll pay healthcare providers for vulnerable patients' "end-of-life” plans. Remember that's the strange, intrusive, unaffordable, and unnecessary scheme that was actually stripped from Obamacare five years ago, once we "found out what's in it." (Actually she means "lied about what's in it.") So now that part of this socialistic healthcare takeover is back, but yesterday's decision isn't the entire point here. 

Be clear, media. Think. Do your homework. Remember when coining “death panel” I focused on the dangers of rationing healthcare services – as it's the inevitable result of any government takeover of healthcare. I was right about this then, and I’m still right about it today. Do your dang homework – you've even admitted I was right, so don't claim I'm "universally discredited" on it. (No they did their "dang" homework and you were universally discredited.") Got it? In fact, even democrats now agree about “death panel" dangers they've found in Obamacare – specifically in the role that unelected, faceless bureaucrats on the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will play in determining who will get government's limited supply of care, whose care will be covered, and they'll dangerously decide who will be denied. (Okay so here Palin is conflating two separate issues. Yes there is a point past where medical insurance will not pay for procedures deemed hopeless, and in the old days some insurance carriers would make that decision when the survivability of the patient was still quite viable, but the end-of-life plans are to pay physicians for their time helping a person accept that they have come to the end of their lives, IF they ask for that service, and providing support for them and their families in coping with that fact. It is not about cutting off funds, it is about providing funds.)  

Media coverage of my position on this is skewed; as usual they got it wrong.  (Nope, They are, if you'll pardon the pun, dead right.) I'm calling you out, L.A. Times. You underestimate the wisdom of the people with your claim that I'm "discredited." 

(Okay now hear Palin is referring to this article by the LA Times pointing out how she was wrong about the "death panels."  And bizarrely Palin then conducts an interview WITH HERSELF on behalf of the LA Times to answer questions she claims to have received from them.)

Here's my response to one of your colleague's questions last night about the death panels: 

Ms. Reporter - thanks for asking. On the record ("On the record?" How can it be on the record if there is no reporter to put it on the record?): 

There's no denying that the ultimate fix for Obamacare's unsustainable, unaffordable promises is rationed care. Rationed care decided upon by a panel of faceless bureaucrats who, rational people like me will argue, will measure a person's worth using disagreeable criteria as they justify doling out limited government-controlled care. That, my friend, is a death panel. 

1. Does this still concern you as possibly leading to death panels or encouraging doctors to deny care to save costs? 

It doesn’t just lead to “death panels” it confirms even further that this “Affordable Care Act” is nothing of the sort, and more importantly it just affords government permission to deny care. (Nope, that is false. And if there were an actual reporter here they would call Palin on this lie.) This decision does not take into consideration the importance of every individual, nor the sanctity of life, as many of us have said for years. Certainly, all patients and families should be advised of options, but we engage in that today and we don't need government bribing any party to do so. (Actually insurance companies have been denying services to patients for years, THAT is why there has been such a outcry for the government to step in and regulate them so that people with preexisting conditions were not denied coverage and people with chronic illnesses were not kicked off of their insurance policies. THAT is what the Affordable Care Act helped to rectify.) See, Obamacare is about unnecessary government intervention and, ultimately, it's all about government control. Government needs to stay the hell out of our "end-of-life" discussions. I'm so angry at democrat and republican politicians who just rolled their eyes when I, and many others, rose up with warnings that each step forward taken by champions of this socialist program would jerk back two steps from every free American and our God-given rights. (There were no "God-given rights" when it came to insurance coverage. There were "insurance company rights" and now with Obamacare people have a whole lot more of them.) Life is not about the almighty dollar and someone's arbitrary decisions about who deserves rationed health care; life is sacred because it's provided by our Creator and in itself deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. Speaking of dollars, a bloated bureaucracy and weak-kneed politicians sent millions of Americans into financial distress, unseen in history, with this leftist scheme called Obamacare. (Also not true. In fact some insurance companies even refunded money to customers due to a provision in the Affordable Care Act which forces them to do so if they are not spending 80% of their premiums on actual medical care.)

2. Do you have any concerns about doctors and nurse practitioners being paid or encouraged to have end-of-life planning questions? 

Concerns? More than concerns! For anyone who's had health issues – from welcoming the blessing of a new life, to the frightening and unfortunate aspects of life – answering a government questionnaire that will be judged by faceless bureaucrats just doesn’t cut it. The Hippocratic Oath taken by our care providers is one of the oldest, most sacred binding oaths, and through any iterations it has never condoned the taking of innocent life through lack of care, and certainly not via direct action. If you've recently received care then you know the many intrusive, personal questions that government mandates a provider probe. Be aware that most of these questions are for the benefit of a far-away, bankrupt government, they're not for the benefit of the patient. It is happening in our assisted living facilities, our nursing homes, hospitals, doctors’ offices, and schools, despite many providers who disagree with the mandate but are forced or coerced to provide answers to the death panel of the fed. (Okay now if there had been a REAL reporter conducting this interview, this would be about where she snapped and went "What in the fuck are you babbling about? I can't hand this in to my editors! Their first question to me would why did I conduct an interview with a person who was clearly high on methamphetamines!".)


- Sarah Palin 

Palin then links to this video which she seems to think proves her point.

Yeah how do you like that for seizure inducing editing? (Did she actually have Stephen Colbert on there making her side of the argument? Maybe she should watch his show before including him in her clip.)

Wow first it was crosshairs, and now it's death panels, I feel like I'm trapped in some weird Palin time warp.

So is this what happens when Palin loses her spot on Fox News and TAPP kicks her to the curb? Just endless summer reruns?

I will assume her next post will be one arguing that "Dammit! I was too pregnant!"

"Death Panels" are back! Cue the Sarah Palin outrage machine!

I know a lot of you were worried I did not see this yesterday, but I did.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Physicians would be paid to discuss end-of-life options with Medicare patients who want their wishes spelled out in advance under a regulation proposed by the federal government Wednesday. 

Medical societies and seniors' groups like the AARP have long supported so-called advance care planning as a way for patients to consider whether they want intensive medical care in the event of a life-threatening illness near the close of their lives, and to make their preferences known to their loved ones in writing. But Medicare has never had a mechanism with which to pay doctors for this counseling, except during a physical exam when beneficiaries first enroll in the program. 

“Today’s proposal supports individuals and families who wish to have the opportunity to discuss advance care planning with their physician and care team, as part of coordinated, patient- and family-centered care," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chief Medical Officer Patrick Conway said in a statement. "CMS looks forward to gathering public input on this proposal.”

The article goes on to point out that an earlier version of this option was derailed due to Sarah Palin's  histrionics over the so-called "death panels" which earned her Politifact's "Lie of the Year" back in 2009.

You may remember that back then Palin's ghostwriter wrote this on her Facebook page:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Which is so stupid that you actually risk losing brain cells by reading it.

Well fortunately today cooler, less ignorant, heads are prevailing and this end-of-life option is being reintroduced.

Which I think we all realize means at some point Palin will fire up her ghostwriter and post yet another brain cell murdering diatribe on her only remaining media outlet, Facebook.

I am sure reporters and pundits have their itchy fingers hovering over their keyboards in anticipation.

Sean Hannity interviews Sarah Palin about "Obama doctrine." Update!

Hannity interviews Palin at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

Of course the first questioning Hannity asks is about the VA scandal.

Let the word salad begin!

"I think there's a lack of understanding on our commander-in-chief's part, what the mission of the military is, and why it is that we owe a debt of gratitude that's manifested in benefits paid to those who already earned them. When it comes to what our military's all about. And you know that was really evident in his speech the other day to the cadets at West Point. Weak speech where truly it was...it was illustrated by his words that he just doesn't understand why our young troops especially are those who would volunteer to sacrifice all for the freedoms in this country."

Yes, of course it is the PRESIDENT who does not understand the military mission.  You know the guy who ended two wars and is trying to get our troops home to their families, and out of war zones that they had no business being in in the first place. (For a much better take on the President's West Point speech I refer you to this article over at Slate.)

And by the way you lunatic, cadets do not enter the military to "sacrifice all." They really hope to survive their military careers, and someday retire with a chestful of medals and some stories to tell their grandchildren, NOT to bleed out on foreign soil so that America can gain access to their oil.

Next Hannity asks the moron about the "Obama Doctrine."

She starts with a snide comment, "What is the Obama Doctrine? And do you believe in it?" Which brings laughter from the crowd, at which point she asks them if they remember that, alluding to her 2008 interview with Charlie Gibson (Whose name she forgets. "Mr. Reporter, from wherever.") and her terrible response to the question about the Bush Doctrine.

Then another helping of word salad.

"No it's beyond isolationist even. Again he not being a believer in American exceptionalism. In what it takes to remain a superpower. And not for any kind of arrogance in our country, but to actually be that shining light, that...that beacon upon a hill that other countries can look at and count on to be an example, they wishing to emulate it, and that was the Reagan Doctrine."

Hannity then brings up Dick Cheney's remarks about the President being weak, whihc of course Palin is happy to chime in on.

"Yeah and that was a great interview with the former Vice President when he said that..uh..this is a very, very weak president, and it's not that we are weak as a country, but we are so unreliable now under Obama. But even more than the effect that it has on other countries, my concern is the effect that his doctrine, his policies, his attitude has on those volunteering to serve this country. To those whom we owe a debt of gratitude."

Of course this leads to talk about the VA which allows Hannity to ask the question that Palin has been waiting all night to answer, "Is the VA a death panel for many?"

"That's a great point!" (Well of course it is.)

 Hannity then asks for a show of hands among his handpicked audience as to how many think it's  death panel, and of course hands shoot up all through the crowd.

Of course Palin is loving this.

"Well that is what government run health care will result in. It's inefficient. It takes away choices. And isn't it ironic that that those who are willing to sacrifice all, to put their life on the line, to allow the freedom of choices in health care, and economic decisions, and everything else, our soldiers, our airmen, our Marines, they're the ones getting screwed by the VA and our commander-in-chief is in charge of this ultimately."

Wait, the military is killing people overseas, and risking their lives, so that we can have better healthcare choices, and so that we can decide whether to open an IRA or not? Has anybody told them this?

Hannity and Palin then agree that the prisoners at Gitmo and illegal aliens in this country are receiving better benefits than the veterans, which of course is nonsense.

There is more to the interview during which Hannity and Palin discuss upcoming primaries and their vision for the Republican party moving forward, but seriously it is all bullshit, that I do not feel like transcribing.

The nicest thing I can say about this interview is that at least Palin managed to shower and get her wig under control for this one.

Update: By the way the President just, very reluctantly, announced the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

Sarah Palin uses recent revelations about the VA falsifying records to once again try to defend her "death panels" lie.

Since when do injured soldiers wear their uniforms while lying in a hospital bed?

Courtesy of ole Death Panels Facebook page:

 I love this American Awakening when finally more voters can’t say they weren’t warned. Stamped with the media’s “Lie of the Year”, I had the sticky label on my back for years used as convenient “proof” that commonsense conservatives just don’t know what we’re talking about.  (Yes, becasue they don't.) Denouncing from the Orwellian Left and a squishy Right ensued. But the truth stares us in the face and pocketbook, especially as we see the unworkable Obamacare. 

What happens next is the Left will subtly suggest moving America toward a single-payer system, which was their intention all along. (Really? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I can hardly wait!) Watch for this gradual, but driving, descent into statism.

So, are you still relying on Obamacare to help and not hurt you? On the Democrat’s watch, health care in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats proves Reagan’s adage that government is not the solution; government is the problem. (Well under Republicans, sure.)

And speaking of the VA scandal, we’ve seen how Obama merely gives lip service to his bureaucrats “investigating” his bureaucracy, so don’t be surprised if he finds nothing wrong in the government’s VA health system – “NOT EVEN A SMIDGEN”! 

- Sarah Palin

Okay well you know this whole VA thing IS a real scandal, and somebody needs to get a public spanking over it. And probably fired as well.

According to journalist Dana Milbank that choice is clear:

Eric Shinseki has served his country honorably as a twice-wounded officer in Vietnam, as Army chief of staff and finally as President Obama’s secretary of veterans affairs. 

But his maddeningly passive response to the scandal roiling his agency suggests that the best way Shinseki can serve now is to step aside.

Sounds about right.

However despite Palin's claims, what is happening at the VA is by no means an indictment against Obamacare, or even government run healthcare in general.

After all Medicare seems to be doing well, and the Medicaid expansion seems to be going well. (In the states that adopted it of course.)

Besides the facts are that the problems at the VA started happening well before Obama took office: 

Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a veterans’ advocacy group that sued the VA in federal court, said attempts by the White House to portray Bush as an advocate for veterans is beyond shameful. 

“Bush is the worst failure for our veterans since Hoover,” Sullivan said, expressing shock that the President “would shamefully continue his legacy of lies to the American people as he and his political cronies are forced to leave office on Jan. 20.” 

Sullivan disputed some of Bush’s claims as misleading, such as the assertion that he doubled funding for the VA. “However, President Bush failed to disclose that the number of veterans seeking VA healthcare doubled, from 2.7 million to 5.5 million, and that rising healthcare inflation actually resulted in a net decrease in spending per veteran by VA during the past eight years,” he said.

Yes President Obama promised to fix this, and he selected General Shinseki to do just that. And I don't think it is appropriate to make excuses for the number of patients who waited months to see a doctor, and the information destroyed to cover that up.

However as bad as this is, and yes it's bad, it does NOTHING to change the fact that Sarah Palin absolutely earned that 2009 Lie of the Year for her death panels BS.

She was wrong then, and she remains wrong today.

Now about that photo at the top of this page which Palin included with her Facebook post. Did you notice something off about that photo?

Here is the President visiting various wounded vets in their hospital rooms.

Now this is the President of the United States, and yet these soldiers did not bother to climb out of their beds and put on their uniforms in order to show respect for their commander in chief.

And yet when Sarah Palin visited a vet, he was all dressed up like he had was going to the Commissary to buy some groceries.

Now I'm not saying it's fake, but remember this IS Sarah Palin we're talking about.

Finally found those Obamacare "death panels."

Courtesy of the Daily Kos:  

Despite the catastrophic launch of the Healthcare.gov web site last fall, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on pace to hit and surpass the CBO's most recent forecast of 6 million private insurance subscribers by the March 31 enrollment deadline. All told, at least 13 million people will obtain insurance coverage as a result of Obamacare, including 3 million young adults under age 26 added to their parents' (a majority of them Republican) policies. As with President Bush's Medicare Part prescription drug plan 8 years ago, ACA approval is climbing. The markets, too, have spoken, with stock prices for major insurers surging as their CEOs signal their pleasure with the total number and age mix of their new customers. 

But given the unprecedented four-year Republican war to smother it in its cradle, Obamacare's recovery is all the more remarkable. A seemingly unending torrent of court challenges by state Republicans and right-wing front groups has held up ACA implementation in many states. (If they succeed in Halbig v. Sebelius, they will effectively undo the Affordable Care Act in 34 states altogether.) A misinformation campaign about make-believe deficits, mythical "death panels," a pretend "government takeover of health care" and a supposedly simultaneous insurance industry "death spiral" and "bailout" left Americans—especially the uninsured—fearful, confused and shockingly ill-informed. 

Yet as damaging as that uncertainty and chaos has been, the Republican Party's scorched-earth opposition to Obamacare is producing something far worse: a body count. That's not hyperbole, but a grim reality. Due to what might be the greatest act of political spite in modern American history, Republicans will needlessly leave millions of people uninsured, many hospitals on the edge of financial ruin and thousands of Americans dead, mostly in the states the GOP itself controls.

So do I owe Sarah Palin an apology now? 

Or is this not quite what she meant?

Here is more from the Health Affairs blog:  

Nationwide, 47,950,687 people were uninsured in 2012; the number of uninsured is expected to decrease by about 16 million after implementation of the ACA, leaving 32,202,633 uninsured. Nearly 8 million of these remaining uninsured would have gotten coverage had their state opted in. States opting in to Medicaid expansion will experience a decrease of 48.9 percent in their uninsured population versus an 18.1 percent decrease in opt-out states. 

We estimate the number of deaths attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states at between 7,115 and 17,104. Medicaid expansion in opt-out states would have resulted in 712,037 fewer persons screening positive for depression and 240,700 fewer individuals suffering catastrophic medical expenditures. Medicaid expansion in these states would have resulted in 422,553 more diabetics receiving medication for their illness, 195,492 more mammograms among women age 50-64 years and 443,677 more pap smears among women age 21-64. Expansion would have resulted in an additional 658,888 women in need of mammograms gaining insurance, as well as 3.1 million women who should receive regular pap smears.

So yes Sarah Palin, there ARE death panels, and they are overseen by Republican pieces of shit who put politics before the needs of the people whom they were elected to serve.

Mark your calendar kids! Tomorrow is the big day where Sarah Palin replaces the "Jersey Shore" reality series as the most embarrassing thing in the state. Well they DID survive Hurricane Sandy.

Source

Okay I swear that is the creepiest poster ever!

Both Lonegan and Levin look like creepers just waiting for Palin's jacket to lose a button or for her to bend over to pick something up. Gross.

Currently Lonegan is 14 points behind Corey Booker and if he really thinks that some radical Right Wing talk radio guy and a disgraced political albatross are going to help him move up, then he is even more ignorant than his critics believe him to be.

Speaking of the disgraced albatross she has also had her ghostwriter put up this bizarre Facebook post:

Friends, please see the article linked below. Consider this school teacher's assignment which mandates that kids undertake the task of deciding the fate of characters in an exercise that can obviously be considered a numbing lesson in “death panels.” Unbelievable. 

We’ll be in NJ this Saturday to rally for Steve Lonegan for the U.S. Senate to thank his supporters for pushing back against Obamacare and to halt D.C.-inspired nonsense like this. 

We should hope that influential adults could teach the next generation that it is never ethical, it is never right, for our government to take steps towards the destruction of the sanctity of innocent life. And the way to do that is for our culture to condemn and reject the insensitive callus that grows in a society by this kind of thinking. The teacher could hopefully explain how Orwellian and wrong this thinking is. And she'd go on to declare our right to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit if happiness, upon which American exceptionalism was built. I challenge her to do so.

Wait, the school is supposedly teaching the children a lesson that "obviously" numbs them to the idea of non-existent "death panels?" WTF?

She links to an article by Fox News radio host Todd Starnes, in which he takes a high school social studies exercise, examining ethics, and turns it into some kind of Machiavellian manipulation.

Here is what the exercise entails.

The lesson involves 10 people who are in desperate need of kidney dialysis. For Fox News Only For Fox News Only “Unless they receive this procedure, they will die,” the lesson states. 

But there’s a problem. The local hospital only has enough machines to support six patients. 

“That means four people are not going to live,” the assignment states. “You must decide from the information below which six will survive.”

The choices for who, would, or who would not receive the dialysis included a doctor, lawyer, housewife, teacher, cop, Lutheran minister, ex-convict, a prostitute, college student and a disabled person.

The worksheet also included their ethnicity, their marital status, their age, and whether or not they had any children.

I don't know about all of you but I engaged in similar exercises while in high school and in college. They were a part of my philosophy classes, and they were the impetus for some rather interesting conversations among the students, who were also asked to explain and discuss their decisions. And by the way this was back in the late seventies and early eighties, way, WAY before there was any talk of "death panels" and back when Sarah Palin was still a frumpy high school kid with bad hair and low self esteem.

Now the Todd Starnes article links to another Right Wing rag which contacted the principal of St. Joseph Ogden High School in St. Joseph, IL and received this in response:

“The assignment you are referring to is not a “Death Panel” assignment. The assignment is one in the sociology unit of our Introduction To Social Studies class. The purpose of the assignment is to educate students about social values and how people in our society unfortunately create biases based off of professions, race, gender, etc. The teacher’s goal is to educate students in the fact that these social value biases exist, and that hopefully students will see things from a different perspective after the activity is completed. The teacher’s purpose in the element of the assignment you are referring to is to get students emotionally involved to participate in the classroom discussion, and to open their minds to the fact that they themselves have their own social biases. The assignment has nothing to do with a “Death Panel.” 

We encourage parents to contact their son/daughter’s teachers if they have any concerns about an assignment in the classroom. That line of communication typically clears up any potential misunderstanding.”  

However apparently that very reasonable and measured response was not good enough for the Whack-a-Doodle from Wasilla, who simply could NOT let an opportunity to talk about "death panels" slip by without vomiting forth some response.

Oh yeah, I think she is going to do wonders for Steve Lonegan's chances in New Jersey. Just like that iceberg helped the Titanic quickly make it to its destination.

Apparently having used up her contractually agreed upon time on Fox News this week, Sarah Palin fires up the ghostwriter and heads on over to Facebook.

Courtesy of Wasilla's very own black hole of despair:  

I don’t believe America has ever seen such a thing. The leader of the free world just followed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s honest, visionary, and serious U.N. speech (Does she mean the one where Netanyahu said that Iran is a bunch of liars and that Israel doesn't need the United States to blow their asses to hell if they even suspect that the Iranians are working on nuclear weapons? That speech?) with a speech of his own in the Rose Garden. More like it, President Obama just recorded essentially an infomercial on the disastrous Obamacare rollout. In a speech full of unserious claims and low-level false accusations against those who disagree with his liberal, unworkable policies, this president engaged in doublespeak without even blinking. It was unreal. (Of course all things perfectly real are unreal to those that do not understand reality. Did I lose anybody there?

Obama just proclaimed all our predictions about Obamacare were wrong. The economy is doing great, he claimed, though he dare not direct that to the millions of people who are being kicked to part-time employment, to bankrupt cities, to shuttered Main Street businesses, and to conscientious taxpayers suffocating under a $17 trillion debt. (NONE of that is even remotely true!)

Obama just claimed for the umpteenth time there will be no health care rationing (aka “death panels”), but apparently Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, and Obama’s own former director of Medicare and Medicaid (and anyone who read the IPAB section of the monstrous bill) didn’t get the memo on that one. (Seriously? Death panels again? Does this crazy bitch not know ANY other tunes? Just in case there are any of you who "did not get the memo" this might straighten things out for you.)

Obama just claimed that the last government “shutdown” in 1996 hurt the economy, when in fact he knows the stock market boomed. (That is propaganda from the Daily Caller.)I guess he thinks he can furlough reality too. He’s also claiming that he cut deficits in half. In what alternate universe? And if that’s the case, then why does he insist on yet another enormous debt ceiling increase? 

The White House is now condescendingly comparing Obamacare’s numerous “glitches” to Apple software updates. The difference is we can CHOOSE to buy Apple products; no one forces us. (Who is this "us" she keeps referring to? Her entire family gets free healthcare from ANMC. Which is single payer, government funded health care by the way.) And Obviously the comparison is ridiculously unserious as we find out the harsh, life-changing punishments this new arm of the IRS will hit us with if we don’t buy Obama’s forced product. (Life changing punishments? The penalty is $95.00, whose life is changed due to ninety five dollars? And then imagine the possible life changing benefits with access to affordable health care.)

Among so many other distorted things, Obama just declared that “Obamacare is open for business” – well, aside from all the “glitches” I guess. His infomercial sent people to broken websites and a hotline that seems permanently on hold. (Which is due to the incredible number of people trying to call in all at once, on this its first day of operation. Does not seem like a long term "glitch" to me.) And this same bureaucracy will now be in charge of our health care, which is 1/6th of our economy. Nah, surely nothing could go wrong with that. (Actually things are going better than expected.)

The majority of Americans are against Obamacare despite all of the rhetoric fed into Obama’s teleprompter. (Ah, a teleprompter shot. She really is bringing out the oldies isn't she?) And amazingly, of course, Obama blamed fiscal conservatives and tea party patriots for the problems and even for this partial government shut down that he and Harry Reid drove. (I always wonder what would happen if Palin had to speak something that was true. Do you think she would melt away like the witch in the Wizard of Oz or would her head explode like that guy from Scanners?) He declared he would NOT negotiate a solution with them, but then in the next breath he said he’s open to hearing from anyone with a better idea. Doublespeak. 

Bottom line, sadly our president passes the buck and cries that he has no responsibility in all of this. He acted as if he, the leader, didn’t have any responsibility to pass a budget either – even during his first two years in office when he enjoyed total Democrat control of Congress and the White House. (That last part is a common lie told by Conservatives. The President only had control of both houses twice, and those were both quite short. Of course those are nothing more than facts and we KNOW how Palin feels about those.)

 What a difference in leadership style and substance we witnessed today on U.S. soil. The two speeches said it all. A Warrior unifying his nation and their allies, and a Community Organizer un-organizing and dividing his own. (Or more accurately the difference between a warmonger and a man desperately trying to keep America out of another conflict and keep our military home with their families.)

- Sarah Palin

You ever hear an annoying sound over and over until you think you might go insane?  Well if you spent any time on this blog today you certainly have now.

I cannot help but notice the aroma of desperation that seems to waft off of these articles, interviews, and Facebook posts. Almost as if with every one she sees the sand running though the hourglass of her relevance, and realizes that after Obamacare is widely accepted that she will forever be the face of "death panels" and Affordable Care Act misinformation.

And it could not happen to a more deserving puppet.

After being completely off base about Syria, Sarah Palin decides to release a video which doubles down on her "Lie of the Year" from 2009.

Courtesy of Miss "Never Admit a Mistake's" Facebook page: 

Enough of this foreign fiasco distraction. Get back to work. It is time to bomb Obamacare.

Yeah enough of this stuff that I simply don't understand, let's go revisit another time that I was horribly wrong and try to gloss it over. 

For those of you who are confused by the quickly edited imagery and seizure inducing flashing lights, here is a good explanation as to why Palin was wrong in the first place, and why nothing has changed.

Personally I think it is funny that she is going back to this while labeling the biggest news story going right now as a "foreign fiasco distraction." Methinks somebody wants to get noticed, but NOT bitchslapped for being an idiot when it comes to Middle Eastern affairs.

Somehow I don't think this is any safer for her.

A blast from the past. Why Sarah Palin knows all about "death panels," and why she is throwing stones from the most fragile of glass houses.

It is at times like this that I REALLY miss Keith!

I found it interesting that Shannyn was absolutely correct that Sarah Palin does not "register guilt" whihc now, four years later, is beyond debate. Shannyn was also correct that Palin would never allow HER massive screw ups keep her from attacking the perceived, and sometimes manufactured, screw ups of the President. 

Here is was Politicususa had to say about this back in 2009:

In the case of Sarah Palin’s accusation against Obama, I guess I’m gonna have to go with all three (stupid, lying, and lazy), with a strong emphasis on #2, because during her administration, the state so mismanaged Medicaid that over 250 people died waiting for the program. Hundreds more did not receive treatment. Over eight lawsuits were filed against the state division, bringing the attention of the state auditors, who notified Alaskan officials on June 26 that the entire program was being shut down due to mismanagement. In fact, the Supreme court ruled last year that the state had improperly cut off or reduced services to more than 1,000 needy people. 

“State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found. 

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements. 

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

In the meantime, frail and vulnerable Alaskans who desperately need the help are struggling. One elderly woman is stuck in a nursing home, for lack of care at home. Another woman, suffering from chronic pain and fatigue, said she’s so weak, she often can’t even pop dinner into the microwave. 

The moratorium is expected to last four or five months. State officials estimate about 1,000 Alaskans will be affected. 

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help… 

The programs cost about $250 million this year, with the federal government currently paying 61 percent of the bill.”

We knew Palin was the TRUE overseer of death panels back in 2009, and before conservatives start jumping on the Palin death panel bandwagon perhaps we should remind them of that fact.

Sarah Palin does victory dance over death panel vindication on Fox Show.

Click blood libel red blouse to play video. (Warning takes you Right Wing site.)

First Eric Bolling suggested that Palin take a victory lap now that Howard Dean and a few other Democrats were talking about their concerns about the Independent Payment Advisory Board in the Affordable Care Act which Republicans have said vindicates Palin concerning her "death panels" charge back in 2009.

Her response was rather muddled:

"It was a pleasant surprise and I don't think we should condone them for finally trying to jump off the Obama train wreck that is coming down the pike here. I appreciate that they acknowledge it, and of course there are death panels in there. But the important thing to remember is that's just one aspect of this atrocious, unaffordable, cumbersome, burdensome, evil policy of Obama's, and that is Obamacare." (I think she meant to say "condemn instead of "condone."  But seriously who can tell WHAT she means?)

Bolling then asks the Wasilla Wendigo what the Dems motive might be for coming out on her side now?

"Well it's in black and white, in the law that there will be rationing of health care. They..they couldn't go forever and not acknowledging that or they would look like complete buffoons, And they would be..uh..deemed incompetent, having not read the law to understand that death panels are a part of this atrocity. So I think it was just a matter of time, and the twenty two Democrats who have now acknowledged part of the problem with Obamacare again, as I say, they should be thanked and not condo..uh..condemned. And..um..I think that..that as more and more of our Congressmen and women actually read the law, and as more of us bring to light more things in the 20,000 pages of rules and regulations accompanying Obamacare, more of them will try to jump off the train wreck that's coming."

Bolling then asks about the fake scandals.

"Yeah I'm still disgusted with the mainstream media having the opportunity to do some followup questions and really pinning down our President and asking him, because as you point out, this is the third week running now where he still pooh-poohs the Benghazi scandal, and the..um...'government snooping on us' scandals, and nobody's asking him which scandals are you characterizing as being phony? And I wish that the press would do a better job at really pinning him down, making him answer to the people whom he is serving. (Ahh another lesson on journalism from the "can't name what newspapers she reads" lunatic herself. I am sure the press really appreciate her helpful critiques.)What does he mean when he says that these things that we are SO  concerned about. He pooh-poohs them and acts like its no big darn dill." (They put up a Fox News poll here which unsurprisingly shows that Fox News viewers take all of the scandals VERY seriously. In other news most children think their parents are mean for not letting them stay up past their bedtime.)

Then Bolling shifts gears and asks Palin about security versus transparency as it pertains to the NSA/Snowden debacle.

"There is no balance at all in this struggle for security and liberty when we have an illustration going on today with our government having lied about it. Our government actually spying on innocent Americans and gathering data on us based on our communications. which really is a violation of our fourth amendment. There's no balance there at all. That is stomping, trampling, a boot on the neck of our liberty, that's not balance." (Of course when it was discovered that Bush secretly started this program, with NO judicial oversight, there was not one word spoken against it by Palin or her Right Wing hypocrites.)

Then Palin decides to directly defend Snowden.

"Well not only that but messenger then, he who told us what was going on in that department, that is resulting in our finally awareness of our government spying on us, and that's Edward Snowden. He's the BAD guy in all of this? You know they really want to 'shoot the messenger' instead of dealing with the problem, the problem is trampling on our liberty, trampling on our fourth amendment rights." (You know there is a great, and informative article from Dana Priest of the Washington Post, that really refutes quite a few of the assertions made by Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden. Not that Palin will read or understand it.)

Finally Bolling asks Palin who she favors in the dust up between Chris Christie and Rand Paul?

"Team Rand Paul."

Well that is certainly good news for Chris Christie.

I cannot tell you how unhappy I am that Palin feels vindicated on that whole Death Panel thing, but I guess every dog has their day.

The rest of the interview was textbook Palin-speak, with plenty of stumbles and misused words to keep English majors bashing heir heads against their desk for hours.

After being mocked on Fox and Friends, a humiliated Sarah Palin is now simply phoning her interviews in to Fox News. Update!

I like how Hannity has one big question for Palin, a set up for her to get a little payback about Death Panels, and she didn't bother to read the article he is talking about, saying that she didn't "waste her time on it." So Hannity is left to change the subject to the Republican's numerous failed attempts to stop Obamacare just to keep the interview going.

Of course Palin is all for the Republicans pointless attacks, because she is all about going for the jugular these days.

Personally I think this phone in answer approach for Palin interviews is a good idea.

After all this way they can avoid showing how badly her looks have faded in the last five yeas and instead show her older, more youthful photos. Perhaps after awhile people will start to believe she still looks like that and she can lure back some of the horny old men who have gotten tired of hearing her caterwauling.

Update: Oooh the SarahPAC numbers are out and it does not look good for Granny Grifter!

This from USA Today:  

Sarah Palin's leadership PAC spent nearly $500,000 during the first six months of the year, and made just one donation to a political candidate, new campaign filings show. 

Much of Sarah PAC's money went to operating expenses, including more than $217,000 paid to consultants and more than $124,000 on postage and mailings. More than $48,000 covered airfare and other travel expenses. 

The political action committee made a single campaign contribution during the first six months of the 2013 — a slow period in the political calendar. It donated $5,000 to Republican Jason Smith, who won a special election in Missouri to fill former representative Jo Ann Emerson's House seat. 

"The PAC has the resources ready to contribute to whomever the governor decides to support and endorse during the 2014 election cycle," its treasurer Tim Crawford said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Yeah right Timmy!

As Todd would say "What's in it for Sarah?" After learning THAT, then the PAC just might be willing to make a donation, but ONLY after that.

So now the PAC is taking in LESS than it is paying out? Hmm, it looks like the beginning of the end for little Miss Nasty Britches.

Update 2: Here is actual FEC filing.

As you can see Palin only brought in $460,537. but spent $496,505. There is still just under $1, 500.000 on hand, but with new donations dropping off so precipitously how much longer can that really last?

Glenn Beck offers you the opportunity to see a person have a psychotic break on camera.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

Every once in a while, Glenn Beck goes so far off the deep end that any attempt to coherently explain what he is talking about is rendered futile, so all we can do is post a clip and let it speak for itself. 

It happened again last night, as Beck's current theory is all about how the plan to have the IRS target Tea Party groups emanated directly from the White House and was entirely rooted in the work of Cass Sunstein, of course. 

This culminated in this segment from last night's program during which Beck imagined just what the conversation laying out this plan must have looked like ... by talking to himself while wearing a wig and a mustache and sounding eerily like Tim the Bear.

You know when I was younger I used to wonder if crazy people realized they were crazy.

The answer to that question is "No," and the proof of it is in this segment.

I have worked with a number of truly disturbed individuals and I have to say that even the MOST deranged knew better than to act out the voices in their heads for other people to see. Apparently Beck did not get that memo.

Sarah Palin accuses the government of instituting the "death panels" that she has been warning us about, when in fact they are doing the exact opposite.

So this was posted on the Wasilla Wendigo's Facebook page as about nineteen hours ago:  

The government will bend the rules left and right to harass targeted taxpayers, conservative patriots, selected journalists, etc., but it will strictly exercise inconsistent and subjective rules to deny a child a shot at life. And they called us liars when we spoke of “death panels” – faceless bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor to make life and death decisions about a loved one’s survival. It doesn’t sound so far fetched anymore, does it? 

- Sarah Palin

After that she links to this truly heartbreaking story about a young girl in  Philadelphia who desperately needs a new lung, but due to policies in place is only in line to receive a child's young but not in line to receive an adult lung if one becomes available.

In this hospital there are three other children just as sick and also in need of a lung transplant, and if an exception were made, and this little girl was put on the adult list, she would jump ahead of 40 adult patients also waiting for a lung transplant.

Now look as a parent I find this story incredibly upsetting and if I were this girl's parents I would be moving heaven and earth to save my child, and begging for preferential treatment to save her life, because THAT IS WHAT PARENTS DO!

I do not fault he parents at all.

However for Sarah Palin to take this and turn it into an opportunity to attack the administration is incredibly low, especially since what she is suggesting is to do the EXACT thing that he accused the Affordable Care Act of doing!

This was how Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded about this case:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a congressional panel Tuesday that medical experts should make those decisions.

Get it? She said that the medical experts at the hospital make those decisions, NOT the Obama administration of government types.  So IF she intervened as the parents are asking her to do, she would be moving this little girl to the top of the list and essentially moving everybody else down a slot.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't THAT be the government choosing who lived or died, due to political pressure rather than following the guidelines that are in place to provide equal access to care for all?

And isn't THAT the very definition of the "death panels" that Sarah Palin warned all of America about?

The government choosing who lives and who dies. Now where have I heard THAT before?

Just a brief peek inside the minds of the Sarah Palin supporters. Subject: Death Panels.

Courtesy of The Incidental Economist:  

In this month’s Medical Care there’s a great study by Brendan Nyhan and colleagues: 

Context: Misperceptions are a major problem in debates about health care reform and other controversial health issues.

Methods: We conducted an experiment to determine if more aggressive media fact-checking could correct the false belief that the Affordable Care Act would create “death panels.” Participants from an opt-in Internet panel were randomly assigned to either a control group in which they read an article on Sarah Palin’s claims about “death panels” or an intervention group in which the article also contained corrective information refuting Palin. 

Findings: The correction reduced belief in death panels and strong opposition to the reform bill among those who view Palin unfavorably and those who view her favorably but have low political knowledge. However, it backfired among politically knowledgeable Palin supporters, who were more likely to believe in death panels and to strongly oppose reform if they received the correction. 

Conclusions: These results underscore the difficulty of reducing misperceptions about health care reform among individuals with the motivation and sophistication to reject corrective information.

So in other words those Palin supporters who were paying attention to politics, most likely through the filter of Fox News, were FAR more likely to reject the corrected information about death panels, and suspect that the information was liberally biased, than the people who did not care for Sarah Palin or who did not pay much attention to politics or Fox News.

To put it plainly, if Sarah Palin says it, MUST be true! If one of those atheist scientist guys, or liberal democrats, say it, totally obvious attempt to attack her family and take away our freedoms!!

I think that is a pretty accurate description of the kind of die hard Palin supporter that continues to look for the day when the Grizzled Mama rises from the ashes like a frostbitten phoenix and suddenly becomes relevant in American politics again, or...dare they hope...runs for office.

Pathetic.

Where do we go from here?

We have all seen this before.

It is the end of the movie, the big bad has been dispatched, and the comforting music begins to waft from the speakers as the house lights slowly come up.

Then, just as the audience begins to gather their belongings and prepare to exit the theater, Mike Myers suddenly sits up despite multiple bullet wounds, Jason Vorhees reaches a moldy hand up from the depths of the deceptively placid lake, or Sissy Spacek suddenly reaches from the grave to grab hold of Amy Irving's hand. Next thing we know we are all plastered in our theater seats, hearts pumping miles a minute, and eyes opened wide with terror.

"Jesus! I thought we were safe!" we exclaim.

Now I am NOT suggesting that Sarah Palin has anything in common with inhuman killing machines like Mike Myers or Jason Vorhees, after all THEY are only fictional characters, and can't really harm us.

However I AM telling you that if you are celebrating the end of Sarah Palin, then YOU have not been paying attention.

Yesterday everybody was dancing a jig while giving virtual hugs to bloggers and authors they felt might have been partly responsible for Sarah Palin's decision NOT to run for the GOP nomination.

Champagne bottles were uncorked, excited calls were made to loved ones, and people even played "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead" on their I-Pods in celebration.

Not so fast my friends. Don't you feel like we have all been here before?

Well you should, because we have.

It was July 2009, and Sarah Palin had just resigned as the Governor of Alaska. Do you remember now?

Oh how we celebrated that day! ESPECIALLY in Alaska!

By the end of that first weekend my back was sore from the multiple pats, my head was swimming with undeserved praise, and there was a feeling of unrestrained jubilation in the summer air.

But Gryphen wore no party hat that day, nor threw confetti, nor drank himself into his happy place. No he did not!

You see I had only heard ONE Naughty Red Monkey Pump drop to the ground.  I knew that there was another one still dangling from one of Palin's withered claws.

I went to a party a few days after her resignation, where I was asked repeatedly what I would blog about now that Palin was history.

History?  History was still decades away, and we were still very much in the present. A present with unperceived events that were still unfolding around us.

Many of my fellow bloggers were effusive in their declaration that they hoped to never write about that crazy bitch again, but not me. I knew that things were JUST beginning.

Now that those events really ARE considered historic, you all remember what came next. Death panels, the rise of the Tea Party, the shooting of Gabby Giffords, the complete gridlock in Washington, can ALL be traced back to a certain half term Governor, with a hateful middle school attitude, and a Fox News studio built right into her house.

No my friends, this is not my first rodeo.

Granted Palin's reputation is damaged MUCH more today, than it was three years ago. However don't forget that when she quit her governorship most political pundits said that she would never be a viable political presence ever again. How did THAT prediction work out?

Here are some things you CAN relax about.

• Palin will NEVER seriously run for President.  She never really was, because honestly she simply does not want the job. It's hard, she hates hard.
• Palin will NEVER campaign as a third party candidate! That's a lot of work, she hates work.
• Palin will always be her own worst enemy.  She is too ignorant, and self destructive, to listen to the advice of those who could actually shape her into a less antagonistically divisive public figure. Therefore she will always be marginal. (EVEN if she shows up as a pundit on CNN.)

However having said that, it does NOT mean she will not continue to have a detrimental effect on politics, journalism, and our future in this country. Because, trust me, she will.

So I feel it is my responsibility to continue to bring forth the lies, and obfuscations of Sarah Louise Palin until such time as we have the clearest possible picture of EXACTLY how she pulled of this incredible hoax, who helped her, and who is continuing to provide cover for her.

Toward that end I will continue working on my post concerning the truth about Sarah, Levi, and Bristol. As well as digging up as much information as I can to help explain exactly how this lunatic gained so much power and influence in this country. A country it should be worth noting that we all love and wish to protect from people just like Sarah Palin, who care nothing for our future yet take advantage of the fears of the undereducated to further their own nefarious goals, and line their own bulging pockets.

Like I said in my tweet to you last night Sarah:

@SarahPalinUSA Good choice. But you know there are still truths yet to be told. Your decision will not change that. 

If I may borrow and modify a certain ridiculously over used phrase, "Game STILL on!"

"Death Panels, Obamacare, Iranian nukes, oh my!" Sarah Palin gives bizarrely hyperactive interview to Newsmax.

One of the great things about being irrational and non-reality based like Sarah Palin is that you are never wrong and you can keep right on talking about your refuted claims of "death panels" in the health care bill as if real and not just a figment of your overly Red Bull stimulated brain.

(The hair is really bothering me, and I am now all but certain it is a wig.  Also while I am being shallow, Palin literally looks like she is shrinking before my eyes. Her outfit is hanging on nothing but skin and bones and I am wondering if she is overly stressed about something or even perhaps ill?)

Okay talk about projecting, is she really suggesting that President Obama is the one who has people pulling his strings? I mean REALLY?

As for her "concerns" about Iran.  Make no mistake Palin is not worried that Iran WILL use nukes to attack Israel or their other neighbors and usher in World War lll, she is worried they won't.  Because if Iran developed nuclear energy, and even nuclear weapons, and did not do anything more than provide energy for their people and protect their nation, then there would be no hope for the Fundamentalists who believe that warfare in the Middle East is vitally important to usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ.

At the end of this, somewhat spastic, interview Palin once again plays coy about running in 2012, Here is a transcript of her answer this week: "It isn't my call, it is the people of America, whether they were ready for somebody a bit unconventional, out-of-the-box, umm being use'ta taking on the establishment on both sides of the aisle or if they want someone a little bit more conventional, maybe a little bit more ELECTABLE and that's..thats' who they would support..umm..I just wouldn't close the door to the idea but..uh..very, very focused on the midterms."

Yep she is definitely running.

Keith Olbermann shares the very personal story of his father's battle for life and destroys the myth of "death panels" once and for all.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I cannot tell you how impressive I find Keith's unselfish decision to share this incredibly painful episode in his life with his viewers. As much as he is personally suffering he still realizes that what he is going through gives him a unique perspective that will help others understand the truth behind the Republican lies and obfuscation.