YR NEW FAVORITE CONSPIRACY THEORY/BAND NAME: DEATH PANELS!

And now, I rant to entertain you. Prepare yrselves.

ITEM [via Def Agent lorilori ]: Sarah Palin tries to add some common sense to the healthcare debate by posting a Facebook note blathering on about Obama creating “death panels” to decide who gets healthcare and who dies.

ZOMG! DEATH PANELS!



Ha ha. Good one, Sarah. Death panels. I especially like this part:

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

Which is fun since (1) Bachmann was essentially quoting a column from Betsy McCaughy (go here and/or here to see why I find this amusing), (2) the column quotes Emanuel out of context (and fails to mention Dr Emanuel is actually on record opposing euthanasia), and (3) Bachmann is the GOP’s leading distributor of batshit conspiracy theories.

I also like the part where, after the predictable kerfluffle – where even David Brooks said, “No, see, that’s f***ing crazy talk” – Palin did a follow-up post calling for everyone to “stick to a discussion of the issues and not get sidetracked by tactics that can be accused of leading to intimidation or harassment. Such tactics diminish our nation's civil discourse which we need now more than ever.”

Which is awesome as she was apparently referring to the town-hall meetings across America which have been getting a little rowdy for no real reason, apart from those intolerant liberal union thugs who go around beating up anti-reform activists with no health insurance when all they were trying to do was engage in their First Amendment right to civil discourse. (And c'mon, where does it say in the Constitution that you can’t exercise yr First and Second Amendment rights at the same time?)

Civil discourse!

Yes. They’re having a lot of “civil discourse” on death panels over on Fox News.

Whatever. The healthcare “debate” jumped the shark long before Palin thought up her “death panel” catch-phrase. The “ObamaCare = Socialist Death Sentence” meme has been running for a long time now. And as the Birther movement has demonstrated, once the idea is planted and enough people accept it as truth, debunking doesn’t help.

Which just goes to show that civil discourse and RATIONAL discourse are not always the same thing. And sadly, there’s no room for the latter in the Kingdom of Fear.

Death panels!

Great band name, mind.

Meet the Death Panels,

This is dF

YR NEW, NEW FAVORITE CONSPIRACY THEORY: IT’S PEOPLE! OBAMACARE IS PEEEEEEEEEOPLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE!

ITEM [via nebris ]: I guess if yr going to go with ZOMG DEATH PANELS as an argument against healthcare reform, you might as well up yr game by comparing it to Soylent Green.

Take it, Neil Cavuto.

I confess, my first thought was: “I wouldn’t have used that clip. I’d have used the Undertaker Sketch from Monty Python.”

Because it’s funnier. And the phony outrage at the end seems appropriate.

Still, Charleton Heston was a Republican, and Cavuto knows you’ve got to play to the fans.

I’m just saying, I’d have done it differently.

Nibble nibble nibble,

This is dF