Two stories caught my attention this week, and reminded me that US Republicans are not making any more sense than they did two years ago. They’re actually getting worse.

One was that Iowa Republicans still think Obama is a secret Muslim.

Frank Luntz was back on Hannity last night (2/7/11) with another suspect focus group. This time, Luntz made no pretense of balance. He told us up front that the sea of white faces was a group of Republican Iowa caucus voters. But even he seemed taken aback when a majority of the group agreed that President Obama is a Muslim.

The other was that 51% of Republicans are birthers.

In a shocking finding, more than half of GOP primary voters believe President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, according to a new poll.

Fifty-one percent of 400 Republican primary voters surveyed nationwide by Public Policy Polling said they ascribe to the controversial birther conspiracy theory — despite the fact that the state of Hawaii has posted Obama’s certificate of live birth.

Here are two things that are manifestly not so, and which are heartily believed in alternative right-wing reality.

But I wouldn’t call this ‘shocking’. Why should it be, when an entire news network is entirely given to spreading misinformation and deceiving its viewers? I think Fox News should be running this graphic: