It’s whopper time. As Romney critics in the Twitterverse have suggested, the “death panel” trope has returned.

Mitt Romney during the presidential debate at the University of Denver. (Rick Wilking / Pool / Getty Images/ October 3, 2012)

By Noam N. Levey

October 3, 2012, 8:02 p.m.

Mitt Romney repeated a number of erroneous claims during Wednesday’s debate about President Obama’s healthcare law, including that it relies on a board that will decide “what kind of treatment” patients can get.

This is a myth advanced repeatedly by critics of theAffordable Care Act and debunked consistently by independent fact-checkers.

The board – known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board – was set up to recommend ways to reduce Medicarespending if it increases too rapidly.

The panel of independent experts is empowered to suggest cuts to how much the federal government pays healthcare providers. These cuts would go into effect unless Congress votes to overturn them.

But the panel is explicitly prohibited from cutting benefits for people on Medicare.

And there is no provision in the law that empowers the advisory board to make any decisions about what treatments doctors may provide for their patients.

“Keep your government hands of my Medicare!” - Tea Party sign

You know what I noticed on Fox News last night, that was on Fox News

(Source: kayliehooper)

Pamela Geller drags out the anti-Semitic canard that so plagued Sara Palin six months ago. The scary thing is that Sarah Palin trotted this out in the wake of right-wing terrorism  that took place here in the good ole’ USA. Dog whistles anyone?

In an appearance yesterday on Janet Mefferd’s radio show, Geller said that she is under attack because she is one of “the most effective voices, freedom-loving voices,” and said that she is victim of a “blood libel,” a term which refers to the accusation that Jews steal the blood of Christian children for their religious rituals.

Geller: We must provide some semblance of a counterweight to this über-left, Islamic media machine. I mean look, what the media is doing now, the murder has become beside the point interestingly enough and they are going after the most effective voices, freedom-loving voices. I mean everything that I work towards is the opposite of what this man did; I mean I consistently stood for human rights, for the rule of law, for the dignity of the human person, for free speech, freedom of conscience and the equality of rights of all. There is absolutely no incitement to violence in my work or my colleagues like Robert Spencer, Ibin Warraq, in any of our work, we call for yes, discourse, intellectual discourse and dialogue, and attempting to get our ideas out there. But never do we—this is what we rail against. It’s a blood libel of the worst kind.

I wish I could say “I do not think that word means what you think it does.” Perhaps there is nothing so true as what is so vigorously denied. It looks like it’s time for another lecture on tolerance.

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Yes, Sarah and Bristol are in the process of trademarking their names. 

Thank goodness she can’t trademark nicknames
I get that the Palins are trying to censor their critics, says Gryphen at The Immoral Minority. But “unless Sarah also plans on trademarking ‘Granny Grifter,’ ‘Snowdrift Snooki,’ ‘The Grizzled Mama,’ and ‘Klondike Kardashian,’” her war on snark is doomed.

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This semester, in an assignment about the hypothetical enactment of HR 808, establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace and Nonviolence, several of my students recommended picking Sarah Palin on account of her being involved with the ‘gubmint. Yeah, I suppose… Gotcha professor!

stfuconservatives:

cognitivedissonance:

Nope, it’s not The Onion. Sarah Palin quits something halfway through. Again:

Amid diminishing media interest, Sarah Palin has quit her high-profile bus tour halfway through and returned to Alaska with her family, according to RealClearPolitics. The move puts a damper on widespread speculations that Palin’s “One Nation” bus tour… was a precursor to a potential White House bid for 2012. Palin never made it to her scheduled stops in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

RealClearPolitics…reported Wednesday on Palin’s “extended hiatus.” The remaining legs of her trip, according to Scott Conroy, are “in limbo” as “Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska.”

I’m so shocked! I guess “restoring America” was too hard. I can just see her whining about wanting to go to “real America…”

Y’know, honestly, I think we have Weinergate to thank for this. While yes it sucked away airtime from many other vastly more important stories it also took away Sarah’s soapbox. Once that story got rolling nobody cared about Sarah and her bus (Paul Revere and his bells may have helped as well). If a bus-shaped tree falls in the woods…

-Joe

Palin’s “gaffe” matters because debate and discourse—not fixing the facts around the candidate—matter in a democracy.

I really believe that the biggest problem in this country is willful ignorance, particularly on the right. At this site, you can see debate — between those who support Obama and the Congressional Democrats and those who feel neither is doing the best job.

But on the right — if a politician’s statements don’t fit reality, well, then, reality must be wrong.

Palin — who proclaimed that what that led her to her Paul Revere idiocy was a gotcha question — cannot admit error, and instead has doubled down, saying she is right. So, since Palin says she’s right, her legions of followers have determined she is, and are rewriting source material to match what she said.

This has set off a debate between the wiki editors and the loons about what is appropriate. The wiki editors are saying, “you can’t just add stuff in that has no support in sourcing.” And the loons are saying “a prominent politician said it, and a TV station said it too, so it has to be included.”

Of course the “TV station” cited was simply running a report on Palin’s idiocy, but these folks have decided that amounts to support of her argument.

So, how to deal with it when all the sources say one things, and Caribou Barbie says another? You say exactly what they say about evolution versus creationism: you teach the controversy.

That’s right — Palin’s fans are now arguing that the facts of what happened with Paul Revere are now in dispute, since historians say one thing and bubblehead said another.

It is quite astonishing to me. Rather than simply say “uh, Sarah…sorry, but you misspoke there,” the real world has to be changed in the minds of these people. This is what happens when you have people who are encouraged to believe that education is suspect (scientists don’t know what they’re talking about — they’re just libruls, so ignore what they say about climate change and evolution), that anyone with advanced schooling is an elitist ( I don’t, but wish I had that kind of education) and that schools should be teaching all God all the time.

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The armies of the night are out to change history for Sarah Palin.

Right wing alternate history

 Charles Johnson
WINGNUTS • Sun Jun 5, 2011 at 11:02 am PDT • Views: 107,529

Man, you’ve gotta almost admire the sheer blind dedication of Sarah Palin’s wingnut acolytes.

Now they’re trying like crazy to edit the Wikipedia page for “Paul Revere” to make it match Palin’s botched version of history. Here’s the Revision history of Paul Revere; check out the edits that are being reversed.

Also see the discussion page for an entertaining exchange between Wikipedia editors and a would-be revisionist.

Hat tip: BoingBoing

Sarah Palin must have thought we were talking about Paul Reverse!

One palm is not enough.

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press – Sun Jun 5, 4:56 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin insisted Sunday that history was on her side when she claimed that Paul Revere’s famous ride was intended to warn both British soldiers and his fellow colonists.

“You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don’t you?” “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace asked the potential 2012 presidential candidate.

“I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere,” replied Palin, a paid contributor to the network.

“Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have,” she added. “He did warn the British.”

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