Results filed under: “teabags”

Sarah Palin (and lots of other people):

"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."

There are many ways you could rebut this, such as the fact that every word of it is a lie bearing no resemblence to anything being discussed, but let's face it, the research is clear that debunking a lie doesn't actually change people's minds, even if they accept that the charge was entirely incorrect.

So let's just pretend it's true for the sake of discussion.  All expectant mothers will be forced to testify in front of a panel of bureaucrats to determine if their child will be eligible for medical treatment.  There'd have to be at least three, and more fairly five panelists for these.  Each one would only be able to handle maybe four cases a day (two hours per life seems reasonable).  With the number of cases we're talking about, that means there's going to be a huge need for new bureaucrats willing to make these calls.  These will be tough, you don't know if these babies are going to be a burden or a productive member of society like Evan from So You Think You Can Dance. 

Perhaps this is the secret plan to solve unemployment, but finding enough applicants willing to do the work seems tough.  Does being an Obama donor give you an advantage in the interviews?  If they're actually called "Obama death panels", I'd imagine so.  Who makes the hiring decisions, Obama himself?  Rahm Emanuel's physician brother (this is a real accusation I've read)?  How do you keep ideologically motivated applicants who'd vote 'live' or 'die' to every case out?  Who'd be monitoring for bribes, since it seems like a process ripe for purchase?

Who actually believes that the spineless Democrats in Congress, who've been completely unable to get things they actually want, like a public option included in their own bills, would instead put language to MURDER YOUR GRANDMA AND UNBORN CHILD.  What politican would think, "hmm, this bill is decent, but it could use some spice.  Staffer, throw in some forced euthanization of the elderly in there"?  Just imagine the attack ads!  Oh wait, you don't actually have to imagine them because they'll be on your TV in a few weeks.  What kind of person actually hears this and doesn't think it's laughably insane, aside from Glenn Beck?  At least lies like 'they'll raise your taxes to pay for illegal immigrant's botox injections' might have a tiny connection to the real world.

In case you haven't been keeping up on cable news or Glenn Beck's on-air descent into insanity, tomorrow is Tea Party Day, the day when incoherent right-wing outrage is marshaled into protests by conservative movement leaders.  I say incoherent because nobody can quite explain what they're protesting.  It probably involves taxes though, given the choice of day and name.  Which is actually pretty interesting since dissatisfaction with taxation rates is actually at a record low, with a 61-35 majority of people feeling their taxes are fair.

So what is it actually a protest for?  Explanations I've seen include the 39% tax bracket, bailouts, bankers, budget deficits, the idea of a progressive income tax, and the very idea of an income tax all together.  Their mission statement: "The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, set out on a rant to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed 'Stimulus Bill' and pork filled budget."  However others like one host in San Antonio claim: "We're tired of the government spending all our money. We're not anti-Obama, we're not anti-Republican or anti-Democrat, we're anti-arrogance. We don't approve of the fact that the government thinks we're stupid."

The real answer?  People are very angry about the economy in general, and Glenn Beck and the friendly friends at Fox News are whipping them up specifically against Obama.  Meanwhile,  former majority leader Dick Armey, now with Astroturf group FreedomWorks, has been using them for his own purposes.  In fact, the idea originated out of the ashes of the Ron Paul campaign before getting coopted by the usual conservative movement suspects.  Say what you want about the Ron Paul people (personally I like to point out that they favor an endless cycle of human misery and death), but at least they stood for something. 

But all this is really an excuse to post this amazing video clip of what David Schuster said on MSNBC last night.  Watch the whole thing, but the punchline is priceless:

"If you are planning simultaneous teabagging all across the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey."