Back in April, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart offered some sound advice for frothing at the mouth Tea Baggers, "I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing." Now five months after their Tax Day outburst, thousands of vein-popping Obama opponents descended Saturday on Washington for Tea Party II. But while Glenn Beck's furious followers alternately slandered the President as a "fascist," a "communist" and worse, they remained unencumbered by either the thought process - or the truth.

Here, then, are 10 Lessons for Tea Baggers:

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes
2. The Stimulus is Working
3. First Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt...
4. ...Then George W. Bush Doubled It Again
5. Republican States Have the Worst Health Care
6. Medicare is a Government Program
7. Barack Obama is Not a Muslim
8. Barack Obama was Born in the United States
9. 70,000 Does Not Equal 2,000,000
10. The Economy Almost Always Does Better Under Democrats

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes

As in April, the Tea Baggers continued to display their fundamental misunderstanding of U.S. history and the American Revolution. Apparently, the right-wing zealots are outraged by no taxation with representation.

As promised, Barack Obama in the stimulus package delivered on his pledge of tax relief for 95% of American households. Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) didn't only jump start gross domestic product and refill empty state coffers in the second quarter of 2009. As Nate Silver thoroughly documented, "Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households."

Nevertheless, raging Tea Baggers spouting Republican Tax Day lies took to the streets not to thank the President, but to blame him for the tax cuts they received.

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John McCain embraces his former running mate Sarah Palin's "death panel" rhetoric on Sean Hannity's show last night and throws in a little fear mongering about socialized medicine for good measure. I want to know when McCain is going to give up his government health care since he thinks it's so scary.

HANNITY: Senator, your running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, came out with a very hard-hitting posting on Facebook, which I agreed with especially in light of what we've seen in Great Britain and Canada and elsewhere.

And then we had the Obama administration that brought back this book that the Bush administration had gotten rid of, "Your Life, Your Choices." They go through a series of scenarios with veterans at VA hospitals and nursing homes, which basically says, well, you know, you don't want to be a burden to society, to your family.

Is that the kind of death panel that maybe people were afraid of when they read pages 425 to 430 of the House bill?

MCCAIN: Yes, but I think they're also concerned because they're well read, they're well informed, they're knowledgeable. They know what's happening in other countries where basically there is a rationing of health care particularly when people reach a certain age as to what kind of treatment they can and if they can get it.

The incredible delays in acquiring that kind of care, so I think it's and not just that, I think it's the example of government-run health care in other countries which is not — America is not ready for that.

Jon Stewart takes on fear monger Betsy McCaughey who brought her great big prop of a bill with her to appear on the Daily Show. It was more of the same from McCaughey with the government wants to kill grandma type nonsense.

Part 1

Extended Interview Part 1

Extended Interview Part 2

And lookie here: ‘Death Panel’ Myth Creator Betsy McCaughey Resigns From Medical Board:

Betsy McCaughey — an outspoken proponent of the myth that Democrats’ health care reform proposals will lead to the creation of “death panels,” as well as a former lieutenant governor of New York and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute — has stepped down from her position as a director of Cantel Medical Corp., which bills itself as a “leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market.”

Updated with the on air interview.

From The Daily Show:

Sam Bee fights for private death panels, John Oliver believes in universal death panels, and Aasif Mandvi wants whatever scares the public most.

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John McLaughlin uses Pat Buchanan's fear mongering framing for his question on end of life counseling to begin this segment. Buchanan claims that to save money, a government official is going to visit your house if you're ill, and suggest suicide to you. Of course nitwit Monica Crowley is happy to chime right like the good little right winger that she is and agrees with him.

Eleanor Clift attempts to inject some sanity back into the conversation, but isn't helped by her supposed "liberal" (cough) on the panel, Mort Zuckerman who starts railing about whether people ought to have a right to kill themselves if they're in chronic pain, thus throwing a little red meat back to Buchanan and Crowley. Pat literally goes into a hissy fit about the government wanting to kill people to save money before the segment is over.

Does anyone else think that Pat Buchanan has just had a complete mental meltdown since President Obama got elected? Watching this guy is like looking at a car wreck in slow motion. I keep waiting for his head to literally explode on the air one of these days.

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Just what part of the Rabbit Hole did Chris Matthews' memory bank have to go down for him to have made this statement? Does he think that none of us have access to the transcripts or video of his show for the past week? After spending a good deal of the last week fear mongering and promoting the Betsy McCaughey talking points on end of life counseling, Matthews actually has the gall to call it "Dr. Death rumor mongering".

Chris, if you actually believe this statement and that the "deathers" rhetoric is fear mongering, how about you start by not doing it on yourself on Hardball?

Matthews: First up, President Obama's biggest hope has turned out to be a scare to a lot of Americans. Horror stories and rumors about health care are out there. This week they seemed to throw the President a bit off balance at a town hall.

[.....]

Well this week, brand new NBC/Wallstreet Journal poll has a dramatic finding on what the President's persuasion has accomplished. The poll suggests that the people who've changed their mind since April had decided reform would make their own future care worse. There is no positive movement or whatever in people saying their personal care would improve or even stay the same. Some Republicans are picking up on those doubts.

[.....]

Howard this talk about rationing and this Dr. Death rumor mongering, all this stuff since April has turned people against the President's push.

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John Amato: When did a living will become a bad thing and one that marks you for death? This is insanity. I've had a living will for ten years already approximately and I had one drawn up for legal reasons as well as medical. I remember when people were running to be able to sell loving wills to make a few bucks.

On one hand Tweety can debunk Glenn Beck and the birthers and on the other hand he can sound just as nutty.

C&Ler Jolynn emailed me this: If Terri Schiavo had an End of Life Consultation and a Living Will, she could have saved everyone a lot of money and heartache. Matthews is an idiot.

Why is Chris Matthews carrying water for the "deathers" -- as Rachel Maddow aptly called them on her show -- and conflating end of life counseling with abortion, and something to fear, while his network has allowed Maddow to do a thorough debunking of both those talking points and where they came from?

Matthews went so far as to conflate end-of-life counseling with the government paying for abortions, and called them both "social policy". So Chris, are you now trying to find a nice way to call the President a "socialist" without coming right out and saying so? And why is it something to be afraid of if someone under the age of 65 is allowed to get some help with making a living will?

Matthews: It's a provision that allows you to get counseling every five years or so. I wonder what the hell this provision's doing in a bill that's aimed at people who are younger. It's not Medicare recipiants, people over sixty five. Why do we want to be visited every five years by somebody to talk about how you want to die? I think it's crazy this in in there, but your thoughts.

Romano: But it's not in there. I mean basically...

Matthews: It is in there!! (crosstalk) It's in the bill, in the Dingel bill..

Romano: Chris, first of all, it's an extension of a 1999 bill that was enacted during the Bush administration and it's a self determination and a patients' rights bill, and all it really says is that Medicare will pay if somebody wants to go and have a consultation. It doesn't sa you have to have a consultation...

Matthews: It's not about Medicare Lois. You already have that in Medicare. This is about people under sixty five, younger people. This is not about Medicare, we've got it in Medicare coverage. I'm not saying that. This is about a health care bill to help people in their middle years and their younger years. Why would you have this conversation with them?

Uhhhh..Chris, because maybe people under age 65 who are ill might want access to this sort of counseling? Matthews goes on to fear monger about the counseling and compare it to something that goes on in...gasp..Europe.

Matthews: I just have a sense this is put in by a lobbyist who wanted this in for hospice care. Somebody pushed this in there. It's the kind of social policy dynamite that sounds like Denmark or Scandanavia, and it's that kind of mind set that drives a lot of moderates and conservatives crazy.

Politico's Jonathan Martin does his best to continue Matthews fear mongering. Nice job with helping out the likes of Virginia Foxx there Martin. Matthews gets in a shot at the "lefties" and then does this bit or mental acrobatics:

Matthews: I think it's like the abortion issue that's been jammed into this thing, there shouldn't, we have the Hyde amendment Lois that says the government will not pay for abortion. People were talking about putting that into the bill here. Pro-choice that want the government to pay for abortions. There's a lot of social policy being jammed at us on what is essentially a financing issue.

I've got news for you, Chris. This doesn't drive moderates crazy. It drives crazy people to be even more crazy, and you're not helping the situation with this kind of talk.

Thankfully Rachel Maddow added some sanity to the network's coverage for the day, and reminded everyone just where this "deathers" rhetoric came from. Video below the fold.

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