Just read Steele's weekly (he seems to have concluded that Wednesday's are good reach-in-your-pocket days) fundraising plea/hypocritical rant/bullsht "facts" e-mail.  More Republican Orwellian crap (what'd you expect?). 

This time, he cleverly agrees with Pres. Obama that we should get rid of rumors and b.s. in the debate.  "There is no place for outlandish rumor or outrageous rhetoric in the debate for the affordable and accessible health care reform we all want," he unequivocally states.  Then, he immediately proceeds to equivocate all over monitor.

He gives three examples of the Democrats' (and don't forget their "liberal special interest groups", mind you) "dishonest rhetoric" being disseminated "to silence dissent" (such an alliterative fellow), and he gives his readers the "facts".  Problem is, all of his "facts" fall flat.

"Fact" 1:  "Analysis Shows Over 88 Million People To Lose Current Insurance Under Government Health Care Takeover."

--B.S. Alert:  This "fact" is actually an "analysis" BY AN INSURANCE COMPANY, and the "anlysis" just happens to be at odds with the CBO report that Steele uses for "fact" 2.  The Lewin Group acknowledges in its first footnote in the linked document that it is owned by United HealthCare.  Their "analysis" actually doesn't state what Steele purports it states - rather, it hypothesizes that those 88.1 million people will actually be on the public plan with their employers paying a share of the premium.  No basis for this guess, and it is wildly contradicted by the CBO's estimates.  (Hmmm, why would an insurance company want to overestimate that?)  Not a fact, and not even a substantiated opinion, from a biased source.

"Fact" 2:  "Mayo Clinic Says Government-Run Health Care Will Force Doctors To Drop Patients."

--B.S. Alert:  The article doesn't actually say that, and Steele's excerpt inexplicably "ellispses out" a key portion of the sentence.  When he quotes the part (in the strangely one-sided article) about "lawmakers are on track" to reduce payments to hospitals, he snips out the part that the reductions are "reflecting a deal reached recently by major hospital groups, the White House and Senate Democrats."   Not a "fact", and not even an accurate portrayal of an opinion.

"Fact" 3:  "Democrats' Plan Imposes 2.5% Tax On Uninsured Individuals."

--B.S. Alert: Misleading on its face, it is a 2.5% penalty of A DIFFERENCE (between AGI and tax-filing threshold), on people who can afford coverage but choose not to get it, and it is capped at what it would have cost to get coverage. (Rush would not be penalized more than I would, despite the slight difference in our AGI's.)  Bonus B.S.:  The CBO's comment was nowhere to be found in the link Steele helpfully provided;  I had to find it elsewhere. (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10430/House_Tri-Committee-Rangel.pdf)

Conclusion:  Steele unsurprisingly achieved an(other) oh-fer - zero for free on presenting facts to dispel rumors.  My opinion:  The all-blatant-lies-all-the-time format screwed McCain and Palin in the election when enough of the non-Koolaid drinkers caught on.  The Republicans continue that strategy, and it will continue to blow up in their face.  IF we continue to repeatedly expose their b.s. for the crap that it is.