Now that the death panels nonsense has been played out, you have to wonder what absurd lie the Republicans will run with next. Suzy Khimm has one possibility– some good-old gay bashing (via):
Your tax-dollars will pay for preferential hiring of homosexual hospital administrators, who distribute $50,000 grants to gender-confused activists for unneeded elective surgery to mutilate their own genitals, (and force Christian doctors to perform it.)
And while that will have some appeal with the nutter base, I doubt it gets much mainstream traction. The next card to meis obvious, and I was talking to DougJ earlier about it. My guess is some solid xenophobia. Since there is some significant overlap between the teaparty activists, the patriot/border control nuts, and the deathers, my guess is the next lie will be something along the lines of “Democrats are going to tax hard-working [white] Americans to give universal coverage to illegal immigrants.” This TPM story about how Kent Conrad will vote against any public option ends with the following:
Conrad also said he’ll oppose a health care bill that provides government funds for abortion, or care for illegal immigrants.
I give it two weeks before this is the next line of attack.
HyperIon
I think this has already been a wingnut meme.
You’re falling behind.
John S.
Our own resident wingnut BOB has been harping about this for a while already.
PaminBB
Yeh, two weeks is too long. Next week’s news.
I’m surprised that the old “welfare queens” line hasn’t been given a lot more play.
JK
Republicans will never run of lies and Mark Halperin, Politico, and others in the MSM will treat these lies with reverence and respect.
OT
This week’s guests on Meet the Press- Rachel Maddow, Dick Armey, Tom Coburn, and Tom Daschle.
grimc
The no-help-for-aleyuns thing has always seemed to be in the on deck circle. It’s just been drowned out by the deather stuff.
General Winfield Stuck
Well, conrad had better say that from ND. They’d been burning his effigy if not. Especially abortion/ But it is largely meaningless due to it being law already that fed money can’t be used for abortions (Hyde Amendment) and I believe it is also codified somewhere that emergency med care can’t be denied to anyone. I think this is true, but could be wrong.
There was never a chance that a PO would include express language covering illegal immigrants, other than the ER kind.
I’m looking for wingers to go after street people next. I don’t know how, but I think it should be about their turn.
jwb
I think abortion coverage is a likely target as well.
Eric Dondero
It’s us Libertarians who are most fearful of Obama socialist health care. The Republicans are being a bit squishy at the moment mostly being mum.
If they don’t start standing up to this Fascist 1930s Hitler’s Germany style Health Care bill, it’s the GOP who will lose the most in 2010, and 2012. The entire libertarian wing will bolt.
Note in that special election for Congress in California last month, the Libertarian Party candidate polled 5.3% in a 3-way, without even campaigning!
If the GOP doesn’t start standing up to the Naziism of the Democrats, the Libertarian Party will step up to the plate and take their place.
MBSS
OT
golf fans: the pga championship is really exciting right now. tiger is leading, with a great leaderboard.
sophronia
This is already a big meme in the Southwest. The radio screamers have been pushing stories that everyone in Mexico will illegally enter the country to take advantage of our universal healthcare. Don’t ask me (or them) how this is supposed to work.
Unabogie
My neighbor, who is otherwise seemingly sane, is a wingnut.
The birther variety.
Here is what he wrote me about the healthcare bill.
So there are the memes from this week.
BombIranForChrist
I have it on good authority that Obama wants to use your tax money to give illegal immigrants not one, not two, but three sets of male genitalia which they will use to impregnate all white, God-fearing Christian women while all the God-fearing men are forced to sit in the corner and eat fish tacos. The immigrants will then TAkE THEiR jOBz.
MBSS
i would be willing to mutilate my precious genitals, if i could force a christian to do it.
well worth the price of admission.
General Winfield Stuck
@Eric Dondero:
Go fuck yourself dondero, and take your hyperbolic Nazi shit with you.
MikeJ
Ahem.
Violet
The ‘no healthcare for illegals’ meme dovetails nicely with the birther movement. They’ll be saying that President Obama shouldn’t have any health coverage because he’s an illegal immigrant. It would already be out there except that “death panel” is much catchier. And there’s a lot more juice in “they want to kill grandma.”
Seebach
Democrats are going to tax hard-working [white] Americans to give universal coverage to illegal immigrants.
Yeah, BOB’s already there.
Meyer
If they don’t start standing up to this Fascist 1930s Hitler’s Germany style Health Care bill, it’s the GOP who will lose the most in 2010, and 2012. The entire libertarian wing will bolt.
I know the republicans have been losing ground recently, but even so, how will they know that this has happened?
MBSS
@ dondero
here’s what i think of libertarians:
Ahh (4.00 / 6)
libertarianism. The belief that consenting adults have the right to do anything they want except organize.
I was a libertarian once, too. Then I turned 17, and started making friends.
If you liked Bush, you’ll love McCain
by: Sadie Baker @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 at 17:30
[ Parent | Reply | ]
MikeJ
And I should point out that Hannan, the nut referenced above, is not a member of the British parliament. He’s an MEP.
And even though his name is different, when I read of him I want Hamantashan.
R-Jud
@Unabogie: Heh. That “Member of the British Parliament” (actually a Tory member of the EUROPEAN Parliament, but whatever) is being loudly and repeatedly disowned by… David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party.
bvac
There is and always has been a racial element to anti-healthcare reform protests, similar to the myth of the lazy cadillac-driving welfare queen who has babies to get more government money from white tax paying Americans. The public option is all about hard-working white Americans paying into a system so lazy black people can get more free shit from the government. This also goes back to the shit you’d commonly hear before the election about Obama paying absurd favors to the black community, because they are black and so is he (he’s racist against white people, also.) This is why they “want their country back,” and who they want it back from.
This kind of talk will come to the forefront soon enough, once they feel that they have the momentum against reform to introduce the more blatantly racist/xenophobic rhetoric. Given the sheer numbers they’re up against, I don’t think it will gain them much traction with anyone but the birther/deather/patriot crowd. But then again I didn’t think a lot of the bizarre lies they tell would gain any traction either.
Seebach
Health care in Mexico is provided by either public or private institutions. Private health care operates entirely on the free-market system, i.e., it is available to those who can afford it, and is provided by private institutions. Public health care, on the other hand, is provided to all Mexican citizens as guaranteed via Article 4 of the Constitution. Public care is either fully or partially subsidized by the federal government, depending on the person’s employment status.
If anyone else is interested.
JK
@Eric Dondero:
More often than not, libertarians are completely full of shit.
Unabogie
@MikeJ:
Nice, he got a bit perturbed by my response, but if he writes back again, I’ll send him that.
cleek
illegals ? they’re already on it.
jenniebee
I seriously think that we should do exactly what BOB et al have been accusing us of doing all along – planting the silly stuff they buy into just to make them look bad. So here’s my contribution:
The health care bill will fully fund Free Ice Cream Tuesdays for violent felons
The health care bill will take kittens from shelters and use them for medical research – (source on this is Bill Frist)
The health care bill will penalize doctors who do not create jobs in their offices for recovering drug addicts.
The health care bill will quarter Squeaky Fromme in your house. Squeaky will use your toothbrush and drink milk straight out of the carton.
The health care bill will send a government bureaucrat to your house to help you with your yardwork, but he will refuse to use chemical weedkillers and instead subject you to a lecture on the benefits of hardwood mulch.
The health care bill will make the cast of Leverage do a drag show episode. However, it will also give Joe Scarborough his own night club act.
freelancer
Wow, crazy thing about this column in the Guardian?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/aug/14/nhs-healthcare-america-britain
No wingnuts. Not even in the comments. No one freaking out about Fascism. No support for our status quo. Just general bewilderment and embarrassment for their fellow English-speaking country across the pond. There are undeniably some stupid issues in the European press, but wtf? This is out of hand, and the comments below that article make me ashamed of and embarrassed with America right now.
MikeJ
@JK: More often that that, they don’t actually believe any of their nonsense, they’re just trolls.
cleek
@Eric Dondero doesn’t know history, politics or human nature.
the perfect libertarian!
MBSS
someone spewed that b.s. about the NHS on firedoglake, also. too. also.
Morbo
John, if it’s true that this is the line of attack in two weeks, then your site has an excellent bellwether. If we just keep an eye on BOB maybe we can get advance notice of the talking points. He’s like Tom Friedman only without the moustache (maybe, I dunno).
Zam
@bvac: I believe Beck and others are already saying health care reform is reparations
BDeevDad
Not allowing medical services to illegals was one of the issues deemed unconstitutional in CA prop 187 battle.
I really want someone to ask one of these guys if Jesus would ask for someone’s green card before healing them.
bvac
@Zam: Then it shouldn’t be too long before some numbnut outside a townhall shouts something like “I’m not paying higher taxes so some ni@#$r can get free obamacare.” That’s what it’s all about. Obama spreading the wealth around.
lutton
you mean like this:
http://j.photos.cx/donttreadonwhitepeople-d25.jpg
oh really
In an shameful defeat for sanity…
Calouste
@R-Jud:
I wonder how long it will be before said MEP is going to defect/get his ass kicked to the UK certified nutjob party, the UKIP.
Cameron has been working hard to pull the Tories to the mainstream on social and environmental issues and he won’t allow a few nutters to thwart his ambition. I wonder at the moment whether he would even accept an invitation to speak at a GOP event, despite long-standing ties between the Tories and the GOP, with the shitstorm that has gone up in the UK about the NHS comparisons.
The Moar You Know
@Eric Dondero: Please God let this happen. Can you imagine? Dick Cheney shooting quail in a cage would look positively sporting compared to any Dem candidate taking on some Asberger’s-impaired, acne-riddled knowitall “Comic Book Guy” libertarian who will agitate in the nerdiest way possible for the immediate closing of all public roads and schools.
Enjoy your five percent there, Eric. It’ll be the most you ever get. Six if you can stick with the Paultards.
kay
@BDeevDad:
The House bill excludes undocumenteds from the mandate to purchase health insurance, and, of course, from health insurance.
Right wingers are taking that as a net benefit to illegals, because they’ll still receive medical care if they present at an emergency room, because we don’t yet let human beings bleed out on the street.
So that’s how they get there. It’s not that illegals are covered under the House plan. It’s that they’re NOT. Get it?
They’re bewildering. Just these elaborate, convoluted lies and misrepresentations.
Calouste
@Eric Dondero:
4/10 for spoof quality, must try harder.
Comrade Kevin
Dondero is practically a caricature of a glibtard.
Amanda in the South Bay
A small nitpick: its transphobia, not homophobia. Some trans people get genital surgery; for trans women, SRS certainly isn’t 50k.
donovong
@Eric Dondero: How does it feel to be a dues paying member of a useless excuse for a “political party.” Douchebag.
donovong
@John Cole: The legislation (House version, I believe) has very specific exceptions for illegal aliens, and even Obama has confirmed it in interviews. Not that that will stop them, but it’s alot easier to call bullshit on.
FlipYrWhig
John, this is old news. The “ObamaCare gives illegal immigrants free stuff” talking point has always-already been tied for the top spot in opposition to the health care proposals. Its only other rival is “ObamaCare is soshulist, fascist, and/or Nazi, because it takes away my freedom in some unspecified but tear-jerkingly real-feeling way.”
FlipYrWhig
very specific exceptions for illegal aliens
Their complaint is that illegal aliens will get health care later if they become legal. The way I see it, once you’re legal, what’s the problem? But that’s not how conservatives and panderers think.
celticdragon
@Amanda in the South Bay
Hi! :)
Haven’t seen you at Lawyers, Guns and Money for awhile.
Being the one and only actual transgendered woman here (as far as I know), I will say:
1. There is no way in hell I would have an unwilling surgeon touch me in any way, shape or form…particularly in something like genital re-assignment surgery.
2. I actually like Libertarians, but if Eric Dondero is going to sling Nazi nonsense in here, he can go fuck himself with my mutilated and confused genitals…
Amanda in the South Bay
Hi celticdragon!
Correction: other than me you are the only trans woman here!!!!
Mandy
celticdragon
Correction: other than me you are the only trans woman here!
heh! ;)
I remember that you would argue over at LGM about military history, which was funny because…I was doing the same thing! :)
If you of a mind to do so, you can catch me at Facebook. My actual name is Annemarie Dickey.
Evinfuilt
@Amanda in the South Bay:
About 18-20k here in the states. Probably a lil more if you get from the uber surgeon in California.
Can go to Thailand and pay about 10-12k. Most of the savings is actually in hospital stay costs. Surgeon price isn’t too different.
Evinfuilt
@celticdragon:
You’re not the only one here. I’m the TG, former Republican from England, now in Texas.
celticdragon
About 18-20k here in the states. Probably a lil more if you get from the uber surgeon in California.
I think Marcy Bowers in Trinidad, Colorado is around 18 thousand now, but I know some gals have had some problems, especially with post op care.
We really should save this for another thread, though…lol!
celticdragon
You’re not the only one here. I’m the TG, former Republican from England, now in Texas./em>
Well, hello :)
Amanda in the South Bay
Oh, I’m well aware of the prices :) My desire is nothing more than an orchi. Got an extra 3-5k lying around? ^___^
celticdragon
Got an extra 3-5k lying around? ___
Eeek! Not just at the moment, sweetie. :(
I’m saving for a few things myself. (Not to mention trying to finish a degree some twenty years late. Meh.)
celticdragon
Who were you planning on seeing for the orchi, btw?
Amanda in the South Bay
Actually, a local urologist back when I had the money. Alas, I’m a little poorer now :(
Back when I was ripping the government off of BAH, I almost decided on Bowers; OTOH I couldn’t make up my mind between that and a trach shave either.
celticdragon
Hmm. You may be better off just trying to do several things at once in Thailand. It’s the saving up for it that is the bitch.
It’s just perversely amusing to hear fundie agitators actually speculating that tax dollars could go to sex change surgery…
Christ, we should be so lucky.
unabogie
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I had to look this up. What is the purpose of this procedure? What is it supposed to change for you?
Amanda in the South Bay
A trach shave or an orchi? A trach shave gets rid of the adams apple. An orchiectomy is castration; removing almost all of the source of testosterone in the body.
unabogie
@Amanda in the South Bay:
So is that why someone might do it? To remove testosterone? That makes sense. I had just never heard of this before so I thought I’d be cheeky and ask.
I always assumed it was all or nothing.
oh really
Anyone stupid enough to write nonsense like this probably can’t tie his own shoelaces without help. It’s hard to believe a party of these guys represents a threat to anything but themselves.
Following Grover Norquist’s call to arms, I can imagine the Libertarians taking office (no I can’t, but for the sake of argument…) and then each one individually climbing in the bathtub and drowning him or herself.
bob h
In two weeks August will be over, and the Town Halls media spotlight will be too.
Where do the mobs go next? I say to DC in a million man march. They will just say they are following the liberal playbook from the 60’s.
JMG
Without white racism, the Republican party would be smaller than the Libertarian party. They HAVE to make this line of attack. It’s their identity.
matoko_chan
I predict abortion.
Palin can’t demagogue death panels anymore so I think abortion will be next fake-issue to whip up the teabag demographic.
Sean
Sorry, but its not pithy or blurby enough. It takes too long to say and it won’t fit on a cardboard sign. How about:”Your tax-dollars will pay for homo-genital mutilation!!!!”
Its got Homos. Its got Genitals. Its got violence. And its got exclamation points!!! Can’t get more ‘Merican than that.
-S
Mike D.
It’ll probably be immigrants, but that’s better I think than it being abortion. That fight is one we want to avoid in this context if at all possible (short of caving on crucial women’s health provisions).