DERPThe amount of hatred directed at First Lady Michelle Obama by the right wing is disturbingly amazing, and no wingnut is more deranged than Jim “Dim” Hoft (aka “the Internet’s dumbest man”).

Yesterday the Prince of Derp stoked the outrage of his even dimmer readers by blatantly making up a story, and linking to an article that didn’t support what he wrote (but none of his readers noticed).

Michelle Obama’s incognito visit to a Target store has whipped these loons up into a complete frenzy, and Hoft breaks the big story of the day: Figures. White House Tipped Off AP Reporter Ahead of Michelle Obama’s Target Photo-Op | The Gateway Pundit.

Don’t you see it? It’s a conspiracy between the White House and the media to make you think Michelle Obama shops like a normal person!

Another staged moment in the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Michelle Obama just had to get out to Target to do a little shopping last week. But, before the shopping run the White House tipped off AP photographer Charles Dharapak so that he would be at the store to memorialize the moment.

At least she wore a shirt that is reportedly from Old Navy(?) and not a designer T-shirt like she wears out when she paints community centers.

So where’s the evidence that the White House “tipped off” the AP photographer? Jim Hoft don’t got to show you no steenking evidence!

To back up his shocking scoop, Jim Hoft links to a page that contains the photos of Michelle Obama at Target, and a page at Politico about the photographer: Michelle Obama’s Target trip.

And the Politico article, of course, does not back up Hoft’s claim:

A matter causing some suspicion about the trip is how an Associated Press photographer happened to be in position to catch the first lady — in baseball hat, sunglasses, flowered top, with tan purse and shopping bags — leaving the store.

“Good source work,” said Paul Colford, a spokesman for the wire service in New York.

The pictures were taken by Charles Dharapak, a veteran White House photographer for The Associated Press. The well-regarded Dharapak cheerfully declined to give POLITICO an exclusive on his exclusive.

That’s the patented Hoft technique — just make up a conspiracy theory out of nothing, then link to random pages that don’t prove anything like what he claimed. It’s a technique that’s very popular these days in the right wing blog echo chamber.

In this case, however, there’s a blogger even funnier (albeit inadvertently) than Hoft: Michelle Malkin’s co-blogger Doug Ross, who has ferreted out the deeper conspiracy going on here: Completely Unrelated Soros / Obama Headlines o’ the Day.

Mission accomplished: (a) damage control for all of the negative publicity surrounding FLOTUS’ $40,000 diamond bracelet, her crazy-expensive wardrobe choices, and $10 million in taxpayer-funded vacations over the last year; and (b) free advertising for Target, of which George Soros (coincidentally) owns $26 million in stock.

They’re just beyond parody at this point; all you can do is laugh at them.