I was going to add these as updates to my earlier post but they just became too voluminous!

No one could have predicted that rightwing nutjobs would use the recent concern over the outbreak of swine flu to attack Obama:

Exhibit 1: Fred Thompson jumps into the fray with a poll asking whether Obama is overreacting for political gain! C’mon Fred — let’s get a real juicy question up there; how about “Did Obama’s secret gay underage boy muslim sex harem infect us with swine flu?”

Exhibit 2: Rush Limbaugh sees an elaborate conspiracy to get Americans to “respond to government orders.”

After the break, Rush attacked the UN for issuing a warning for a worldwide flu pandemic, claiming that it is “by design” to get people to respond to government orders. The media fall right in line with this stuff, Rush said, amplifying the nature of the crisis. Rush — in his capacity as public health expert — added that “the flu’s a common thing.”

Exhibit 4: The president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America echoes Blubbering Beck:

“Some people think that declaring a state of emergency about the flu was a political thing to push the Sebelius nomination through,” said Wright. She pointed to news stories that ask whether the slow-walking of the Sebelius choice will hurt the response to the flu. “If there’s even a hint that [Department of Homeland Security] is manipulating the health situation to push a political appointee through, well, it almost defies imagination that they’d be willing to that.”

Wright said that she’d heard the speculation “on talk radio,” and wanted to be skeptical, but “there’s too much of a basis in that argument to easily dismiss it.”

I can’t imagine why no self-respecting person would consider calling themselves a Republican these days.