ObamaCare: Gay Conspiracy Edition

The totally whacked out insanity of the town hall protesters (and the GOP operatives who are inciting them) has taken yet another insane twist with one group of far right nutcases - "The Pray In Jesus Name Project" - spreading lies and falsehoods that the Obama health care reform package would result in a gay and transgendered takeover of the entire health care system. One cannot but wonder what kind of mind altering drugs these folks have taken or whether they have suffered some non-repairable head trauma. It's lunacy taken to the outer limits. Fortunately some in the MSM are finally calling these folks for what they are: crazy liars. Or in the case of Senator Charles E. Grassley, deliberate liars. Finally, the New York Times seems to have finally grown some balls and rather that just repeating the lies has now called the misinformation for what it is: LIES. Here are some highlights:

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WASHINGTON — The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama's health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.

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Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day viral Internet campaigns that dogged Mr. Obama last year, falsely calling him a Muslim and questioning his nationality.

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But the rumor — which has come up at Congressional town-hall-style meetings this week in spite of an avalanche of reports laying out why it was false — was not born of anonymous e-mailers, partisan bloggers or stealthy cyberconspiracy theorists. Rather, it has a far more mainstream provenance, openly emanating months ago from many of the same pundits and conservative media outlets that were central in defeating President Bill Clinton’s health care proposals 16 years ago . . .

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There is nothing in any of the legislative proposals that would call for the creation of death panels or any other governmental body that would cut off care for the critically ill as a cost-cutting measure.

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As for the gay and transgender take over of the health care system, here are highlights from The New Republic on the insane allegations coming from far right religious wingnuts (again, what mind altering drugs are these folks taking?):

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"The Pray In Jesus Name Project." It suggests that ObamaCare will not only pull the plug on grandma, but also result in a gay and transgendered takeover of the entire health care system. Among the bogus claims in the group's petition: 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.)

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As for the gay takeover of hospitals? The section of the Senate bill that's cited--requiring the "participation in the institutions' programs of individuals and groups from ...different genders and sexual orientations"--actually refers to government grants awarded to students doing research in mental and behavioral health. I suppose that such a dangerously diverse group of students could decide that they, the gay mafia, should run the nation's hospitals,whose names will be "changed from ‘St. Luke's Memorial' to the ‘Obama Government' hospital" when atheists strip all Christian icons from the buildings, as the email predicts. But, then again, that's absolutely crazy.

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I truly worry for the future of this nation when I see such utter ignorance and stupidity among so many people. Much of the rest of the world must look at this country and say WTF is wrong with the Americans? It is nothing less than scary. And people wonder how Hitler was able to come to power - the far right seems ripe for embracing a fascist dictatorship.