Politifact analysis:

Taranto of the Wall Street Journal said PolitiFact was "less seeker of truth than servant of power", after it ranked as "Lie of the Year" Sarah Palin's claim that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would lead to "death panels".[1][2] A Wall Street Journal editorial criticized the ruling, saying that the legislation would "convert insurers into government contractors in the business of fulfilling political demands... All citizens will be required to pay into this system, regardless of their individual needs or preferences. Sounds like a government takeover to us."[3]

In truth, PolitiFact was more vulnerable to the charge of lying than Palin was, for its highly literal, out-of-context interpretation of her words was at best extremely tendentious. What she wrote was this: 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.


US Navy Fighter Aircraft

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Designation Years Active Original Manufacturer Current/Final Manufacturer Picture Notes
Curtiss Model D 1911-1914 Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
 
First carrier takeoff and landing
W-2 Chief warrant officer two CWO-2
CW2 (Army)
 
U.S. Army chief warrant officer 2 rank insignia
 
U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer 2 rank insignia
 
U.S. Navy chief warrant officer 2 rank insignia
 
U.S. Coast Guard chief warrant officer 2 rank Insignia
 
USMC chief warrant officer 2 rank insignia
W-3 Chief warrant officer three CWO-3
CW3 (Army)
 
U.S. Army chief warrant officer 3 rank insignia
 
U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer 3 rank insignia
 
U.S. Navy chief warrant officer 3 rank insignia
 
U.S. Coast Guard chief warrant officer 3 rank insignia
 
USMC chief warrant officer 3 rank insignia
W-4 Chief warrant officer four CWO-4
CW4 (Army)
 
U.S. Army chief warrant officer 4 rank insignia
 
U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer 4 rank insignia
 
U.S. Navy chief warrant officer 4 rank insignia
 
U.S. Coast Guard chief warrant officer 4 rank insignia
 
USMC chief warrant officer 4 rank insignia
W-5 Chief warrant officer five CWO-5
CW5 (Army)
 
U.S. Army chief warrant officer 5 rank insignia
 
U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer 5 rank insignia
 
Established
2002

Established
1994;
not
implemented
 
USMC chief warrant officer 5 rank insignia
Established
1992
  1. ^ 'Death Panels' Revisited, James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2011
  2. ^ PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: 'Death panels'; PolitiFact.com; December 18, 2009
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference politifiction was invoked but never defined (see the help page).