Sarah Palin has gone beyond even the extremes she has often lowered herself to, today joining the frothing, paranoid, hate-filled ranks of those who spread lies of such unbelievable magnitude that they’d be nothing more than pathetic jokes–if there weren’t so many addle-headed sheep among the right-wing who actually believe this pornographic drivel:

“[W]ho will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. 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. Such a system is downright evil.”

These statements are so deranged that they truly do defy belief. Not belief in the statements, but that a major American political figure could actually be uttering them. This is the kind of thing you’d expect from extreme fringe crackpots. “Death Panel” euthanizing Down’s babies? Do I even have to point out what would have happened if a liberal of Palin’s stature had said anything even close to that about Bush?

More frighteningly, this could be more than just a simple case of a deranged political attention-whore trying to score a quick media flash. It might even be more than right-wingers trying to scare Americans before the upcoming vote. We have conservatives sending angry mobs to break up Democratic meetings, and Republican politicians joking about Democrats being “lynched.” And now a prominent Republican is sending a clear signal: Obama has a “Death Panel” which is going to kill your babies and put your grandparents down. This is exactly the kind of talk that O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and Randall Terry spouted before a right-wing extremist shot and killed Dr. George Tiller.

I’m probably just being a bit paranoid myself, but these people are truly getting into scary territory–shock troops to disrupt the opposition, reports of violence emerging, zealous followers weeping in rage at fictional claims–it really is looking more and more like violence is coming, and certain elements within the Republican Party are driving things closer and closer to that outcome.

Now, under other circumstances, I would be saying that Palin should immediately retract those remarks and apologize–but I am all too aware that Palin would never do so. This was not a mistake, her words were written, not spoken off the cuff–it was exactly what she wanted to do, and she will not be apologetic. Nor would the Republicans pressure her to do so. She would just reiterate the same vile trash and claim it’s true.

Hopefully, however, there are enough Republicans among the populace who have enough decency to reel back in shame and denounce Palin. Not that I’m expecting it.

Postscript: it has been pointed out that Palin is not only horrifically demented in her lies, she is also ironically wrong as well.

With current private insurance, babies with Down’s syndromes are often considered having a “pre-existing condition” and so are denied health care.

Obama’s health plan would actually forbid the use of “pre-existing conditions” as a means of denying people insurance–thus Obama’s plan would give health care to Trig while the private plans Palin is fighting for would deny him that same health care.

This is the polar opposite to what Palin claims: that Obama would deny her baby health care, when in fact he would force insurance companies to do the reverse. Since she considers any agency which would refuse such care to be a “Death Panel,” Palin is clearly labeling private health insurance companies as “evil” baby-killers with said “Death Panels.”

Amazing what you can wind up admitting to when you’re an unhinged pathological liar and a complete imbecile at the exact same time.

Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how ’bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin’ things up.

—Sarah Palin, July 27

Indeed.