Osborne Ink || News that's fairly liberal, but never unbalanced.

The Palin camp responded to the AP fact-check of Going Rogue by playing the politeness card. Teh Librul Media™ is just discriminating against Alaskan-Americans:

“Imagine that,” the post read. “11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to ‘fact check’ what’s going on with Sheik Mohammed’s trial, Pelosi’s health care takeover costs, Hasan’s associations, etc. Amazing.”

Thank God we’ve got Faux Noise to investigate these nontroversies very thoroughly, as they — along with the entire body of media — recently fact checked Palin’s absurd claim about American currency. Did I mention that she’s considered a serious contender for the 2012 GOP nomination? Yes, thank God we have Faux Noise to play old Palin rally footage while reporting on her book tour:

MSNBC interviewed people at one of her book signings; the results are a study of cognitive dissonance in action:

That’s Sarah’s base: low-information voters. Faux Noise consumers. Idiots. It’s not like they’re affected by fact-checking; indeed, the Samsara of Wacky™ makes if fodder for their narrative of Teh Librul Media™.

I was catching up with Bachmann news today when I came across an Andy Birkey story in the Minnesota Independent about her involvement with a Christian punk-rock organization that fools schools into thinking their program is secular, then springs all kinds of wacky religious-right nonsense on their captive audiences. This is the money quote that sent my tinfoil-hat meter buzzing:

(Founder Bradley Dean) says that the ministry is being targeted by the government because it tells the truth. On his April 11 radio program, he recalled an incident a week earlier which he claimed an employee of the ministry was chased by a helicopter.

“There was a blue and white helicopter that flew down on top of her van as she was going to this [Wright County] Republican party convention. And then he swooped back down on her again.”

Bradlee said that helicopters frequently dive-bomb their tour bus with “helicopters flying up to the bus and pulling off.” He said, “What they are trying to do is criminalize the righteous.”

In the parlance of military fire missions, Bachmann is a soft target. That’s not because of her piety — it’s Teh Crazy™ that comes from her piety, and these insane friends she keeps. Here she is yesterday sounding out some bizarre theory that in-school clinics will turn into abortion field-trips:

You can’t engage this kind of Crazy™. Trying just makes you part of her Samsara of Wacky™. There is absolutely nothing left to do with Michelle Bachmann except make fun of her.

Yesterday I described what John Dingell ought to have done when confronted by a shouting constituent. In truth, I’ve been waiting for a Democrat to give America that “enough is enough” moment, and Barney Frank has finally delivered:

Memorandum to Democrats: DO NOT ENGAGE TEH CRAZY™. Attempts to discuss the irrational as if it were rational inevitably wind up trapping you in The Samsara of Teh Wacky™, the cycle of insanity wherein all information is transformed into “proof” of their insane scenarios.

Frank’s response should be the template for responding to all future wingnuttery: ridicule, marginalization, and dismissal. If you absolutely must give these freaks the time of day, do it with disdain.

Responding to a wave of Teh Wacky™ over health care reform, the White House put the following on its website yesterday:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

When I read the text above, I consider it an invitation to let them know if I see or hear of a new rumor. That way, it can be debunked as loudly as possible. In other words, it’s an example of open-source intelligence.

But Jeff Emmanuel at Redstate read the post very differently:

(T)he term “disinformation” is used by the Obama White House as a catchall to describe any opposition to the President’s push for single-payer, government-run health care — meaning the White House wants to be informed of any forwarded emails or blog posts or any “casual conversations” that could be taken as opposition to their health care overhaul plan.

“Push for single-payer, government run health care” is a projection of Emmanuel’s mind. So is his paranoia about “casual conversations” being reported to the White House. The meme quickly appeared on Faux Noise’s answer to Huffington Post, Fox Nation. Then it was Rush Limbaugh’s turn, for the acknowledged leader of the Republican Party was not to be outdone:

There’s a parallel going on in the world right now to this bunch that’s running this country, and the parallel is Iran. They supposedly had a fair election. The people of Iran didn’t think it was fair, they think it was a fraudulent election, and they started protesting in the streets. They — even the people of Iran, this was too much to swallow.

The mullahs were just putting one over ‘em. They wanted a reform candidate to win. They didn’t think any of this — they didn’t think Ahmadinejad was the legitimate winner. They started protesting, and what was the result? The government went out and started cracking heads. Started putting people in jail. Some people have died as a result of government treatment when they were in the protests.

And now, you’ve got the White House asking people, its groupies, to be informants?

Did you catch that? Limbaugh has siezed on the birthers’s central theme of illegitimacy. Birtherism may have died with the Orly Taitz meltdown, but its legacy lives on, hurrah!

To fully appreciate the meta-wackiness going on here, you should know that the White House website post was prompted by this Faux Edit™ video posted by Matt Drudge with a blaring headline about Obama’s “plan” to “eliminate” private insurance:

Here’s what the video says Obama said:

I would hope that we could set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out

And here is Obama’s quote in context:

As I indicated before, I think that we’re going to have to have some system where people can buy into a larger pool. Right now their pool typically is the employer, but there are other ways of doing it. I would like to — I would hope that we could set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out where we’ve got a much more portable system. Employers still have the option of providing coverage, but many people may find that they get better coverage, or at least coverage that gives them more for health care dollars than they spend outside of their employer. And I think we’ve got to facilitate that and let individuals make that choice to transition out of employer coverage. (Emphasis mine)

Sounds an awful lot like the public option, doesn’t it? No socialist single-payer universal health care in there at all — until you put it in there. Just like there’s no call to report your friends and neighbors to Big Brother until you put it there. Wingnuts begin with Teh Wacky™ and apply it to everything that follows.

It’s Teh Samsara of Wacky™.