Speaking of dead, the death panels canard is another one that refuses to disappear, helped along by the antics of cynically manipulative politicians. Somehow, the notion of having Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions has morphed in the minds of opponents of health care legislation into evil cabals killing the elderly. It is, as Jackson says, a “complete misrepresentation.” He adds, “Hip replacements are covered by Medicare, but they aren’t mandatory.”

Of course, it’s not as if the right has a monopoly on misinformation. While Obama has said repeatedly that health care reform will pay for itself, that isn’t the case with versions of the bill drafted thus far. And Congress hasn’t helped with what Jackson calls the “untransparent” approach it has taken to putting the legislation together.

Have you every wondered just what exactly is in Barack Obama’s massive government spending plan, now estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to end up costing over $1 trillion?

The creators of StimulusWatch.org have taken the Obama proposal and broken it down by project, and the sheer amount of high-cost, low-job creation pork-barrel spending is amazing.

Log on to www.StimulusWatch.org for yourself and browse the bill.

Via IPR.

And that’s what happened on this thread on a Modern Whig Party forum. Basically, it’s a regurgitation of the Obama-isn’t-a-Citizen complaint that’s making the rounds. It’s all factually disproven bullshit, of course. Not that it matters, because no matter what argument is made against this theory, the response is that, well, it’s a conspiracy and if you look deeper, you will find the truth.

Hey, Whigs: You have GOT to keep this conspiracy crap off your forums and blogs. These people do not give a FIG about building your party or its platform. They see the MWP as a forum to spread their fantasies. The more this stuff appears on YOUR forums, the more the public assumes that is what the MWP is all about.

My advice: Delete these posts and comments as soon as your see them. Be merciless. If the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party want these idiots, let them have ‘em.

It’s almost as if the Constitutionalists want to remain a tiny, unimportant fringe group that will never have any hope of having any influence at all. Why not just run on a platform of ending the CIA’s mind control program and uncovering the moon landing hoax?

Which is why the Modern Whig Party is wants nothing to do with conspiracy buffs.

Several points:

He has not stated that he would veto a new Fairness Doctrine.

He might be willing to trade his opposition to the Fairness Doctrine for something else, or simply might not be opposed enough to fight to keep it from becoming law if it’s attached to another bill.

And as the article points out, there are other ways to skin a cat:

Obama has called on Henry Rivera, who was a commissioner in the 1980s when the Fairness Doctrine existed, to oversee the FCC transition process. Rivera is a supporter of bringing back the provisions. And heading Obama’s overall transition team is John Podesta, head of liberal think tank the Center for American Progress. Last year, the CAP issued a report called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.”

While the CAP stopped short of advocating a return of the Fairness Doctrine, it did support more stringent adherence to so-called localism, which critics consider a back door to requiring that stations ditch some of their conservative hosts.

The FCC is considering the matter now, weighing such questions as whether to require stations to create “community advisory boards” made up of “local officials and other community leaders.” The boards would tell radio executives whether the content they broadcast is adequately addressing the needs of the community, subject to the board’s interpretation.

In other words, Obama isn’t going to demand that stations like WMBD1470 gut their profitable programing by requiring the station to hand over free air time to anyone who disagrees with an opinion Rush Limbaugh states.

No, what Obama and his minions on the FCC are going to require that the station — ALL stations — let volunteers from the community decide what programing to air.

In other words, fairness and equity will be mandatory.

Here’s another idea: Just demand that the FCC finally free up those low-power FM licenses that they’ve kept on hold at the behest of Big Media for years. Let these new license holders — presumably members of the local community — compete in the free marketplaces of both commerce and ideas.