Marcelas Owens: Conservatives Pile On 11-Year-Old Whose Mother Died Without Health Insurance

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy's account of his mother's death as a "sob story" exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a "kiddie shield" to defend their health care legislation.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[Chris3131]

11:36 AM on 03/21/2010

Give me a break. Where do I begin with what's wrong with this exploitation theater? Firstly, its terrible that his mother died but its almost as terrible the way the democrats are using this boy to fuel their agenda. Secondly, people seem to either gloss over the whole story or are just too lazy or stupid to bother researching it for themselves before jumping to the conclusion that conservative = evil = hate poor people = dead mothers. The mother WAS treated even though she didn't have insurance (the only part of this that is actually true) because contrary to what the liberals tell you, there are plenty of ways to receive treatment without insurance. After treatment, she started having symptoms again but didn't go to the doctor and subsequently died as a result of her condition. No amount of free government health care will help you if you don't bother going to the doctor. People die every day; it's a fact of life. The fact that the democrats are claiming this woman died as a result of a lack of health insurance is an outright lie, plain and simple. Why don't you people actually look to the truth behind these claims before just assuming the politicians are being honest with you? Another thing is, do you think the democrats just found this woman's story and decided to tell it? Hardly. The woman's mother works at Health Care for American NOW. Coincidence? Please.

[Zaydin]

08:39 PM on 03/21/2010

And Republicans haven't used kids to shield their initiatives from criticism? I distinctly remember a picture of Bush signing No Child Left Behind with some children at his elbow. They might not have used them as signs why No Child should pass, but they were still used as props. Just like Sarah Palin uses her kids; they are props to her, to show up to the right and say 'Look at what I made!'. Both sides use children like that. Get over yourself.

[BabaLou7]

08:16 AM on 03/22/2010

No Child Left Behind was an unfunded mandate. The result in our inner city Philadelphia Schools is that teachers are being directed to give C's to failing students so schools do not measure up below certain standards.

What is worse; using kids to launch a debacle like No Child Left Behind, or using kids to provide REAL insurance at the end of the photo op?

[Witchitalineman]

09:14 AM on 03/20/2010

Despicable!

[Alfredo Zapata]

09:08 AM on 03/20/2010

"Malkin also suggested there were other programs that could have helped Tifanny Owens, adding, "It's not clear that additional doctors' visits in the subsequent months would have prevented her death."

So now the pug faced pundit is a doctor? Did she review Owens' medical records? She needs to crawl under a rock with the rest of the cockroaches, preferably a rock in an internment camp.

[protagonia]

11:42 AM on 03/20/2010

Though I agree with your statement, please exclude facial features that a nationality connotes. It only arms your opponent when you resort to that. You are fr too good for that tactic. Let the animals use that one. Prove we are superior in ever way, even that one.

[Angelaaaa]

07:20 AM on 03/20/2010

So, how does this terrible situation fit into the "Right to Life" principle the conservatives love to espouse. Unless, of course that principle only applies north of the cervix.

Feel free to speculate.

[Scriobhaim]

06:43 AM on 03/20/2010

The Audacity of Lies - I guess that's the best way to sum up this article. I mean, there's not even any subtlety about it. They might as well have started with, "Hey, folks, try out this pack of lies...." I suppose a lot of the Loony Left wouldn't mind; they'd say, "Sure, as long as it's the lies we like!"
If McClatchy had any interest in the least in being a respectable source of information, they might try exercising... oh, I don't know... human intelligence, a bit of fine thinking, perhaps the ability to READ. Then they might have (maybe) hesitated before totally lying about what those commentators are saying. But I suppose that wouldn't serve their interests.
Limbaugh and the rest clearly have not "gone after" or "piled on" or in any way attacked an 11-year-old boy (or that 18-year-old). They quite openly, clearly, understandably, in plain English (ah!; maybe that was the problem for McClatchy!) attacked the ones exploiting these children and their tragic situations for deceptive ends.
I guess fine distinctions like that don't count when they stand to ruin a good headline and whip up hate.
The biggest paradox is how the condemners of so-called "hate radio" are the biggest proliferators of deception, obfuscation, distortion and hate. Now they'll have scads of Liberal Sheep all frothing at the mouth (yet again...) over something that (yet again...) didn't actually happen. "I'm shocked! I'm appalled! I'm frothing on command!"

[Scriobhaim]

06:59 AM on 03/20/2010

And a PS to my own post. Just to see how effective the Demagoguery is, simply scroll down and read. Take a sponge along to soak up the vitriol. Knee-jerk, unreflected, unexamined, unscrutinized, hate-on-command. Clearly, the actual substance of whatever Limbaugh and others SAID plays no role in the least in the alacrity of the pilers-on to hate, hate, hate.
Evidently, they really NEED an object of hate ot make sense of their universe, and their manipulators (the composer[s]) of the above article, for instance) are happy to oblige.
What's particularly telling and illuminating is how poster after poster below froths and vituperates at all the outrageous and vile things Limbaugh and company have said about this boy... never actually MENTIONING the presumed outrageous and vile things they said (why stop for details when you're on a roll?) . I mean, the headline says it all, right?
Yeah, "says it all"... for sheep.

[cybersense]

09:01 AM on 03/20/2010

The just don't attack the Dems, the cry foul on the boy too (and his grandmother) and there is no doubt they don't really care about what really happened here - only to equally use this boy's story to grind and maliciously discredit what happened to this boy and his mother.

Here is the point that you seem to be missing: They can't do better then to attack a story about a boy's mother? They have to go that low? They couldn't find someone else testimony (there are many, btw) to drag thru the mud to make their point? No. The Dems allowed this boy and yes - showed this story, but the idiots that went after this story tried to dehumanize it for their own purpose. Malkin said that "Owens" was a "lobbyist" (the young boy) and was goated by is grandmother. Rush said to M. Owens "Your mom would still be dead, because Obamacare wouldn't kick in until 2014". And his point was to this boy?

You know, you say that this isn't about attacking the boy, but it is and they are doing it. They take no responsibility for what they say and then blame it on something or somebody else. From a political point of view - this was just plain stupid, and stupid is, what stupid does. From a moralistic point of view, it was disgraceful and cheap. These three can't find another way to make their point? Obviously not.

[daisycat]

09:03 AM on 03/20/2010

I'm not frothing. I think people are upset because this is just the latest in a number of bullying tactics that the pundits have been using. Granted, this is a weaker example (I'll give you that), but it appears to be a callous course that the right is taking more and more, leaving themselves open to indignation by the other side.

[Foxrocks]

06:05 AM on 03/20/2010

So it's conservatives faults the left is using this kid to prop up a program that would not have helped his mom anyway?

[Scriobhaim]

07:54 AM on 03/20/2010

Well put, but such clarity is generally shunned and reviled in this neighborhood, Foxrocks.

[cybersense]

09:03 AM on 03/20/2010

The point is here - Malkin, Rush and Beck used this story about the boy and his mother in a matter that was disgraceful. They just can't get it thru their own heads that doing this in this way, only shows abuse towards the boy and their claims are really childish.

[protagonia]

11:43 AM on 03/20/2010

Hiw does fox rock, in your estimation?

[klandish]

06:03 AM on 03/20/2010

"They have an Artichoke where their Heart should be". Bette Davis.

[NJProgressiveIndie]

05:30 AM on 03/20/2010

First the bullying against the man with Parkinson's, then the born-again "Christians" spewing their brand of religious hate at the funeral of a Marine who happened to be gay, now this. Bullying an eleven year old boy whose only crime was losing his mom and trying to draw attention to his plight which is the same as that of MILLIONS of Americans--and not a pack of cowardly, ignorant, rabid ignoramuses, their bullying ideologues, bought-and-paid-for politicians and piss-poor excuse for a political party.

I am REALLY getting SICK of these people--and I am being way too generous when I use the word "people."

[islandleogirl]

08:46 AM on 03/20/2010

NJP, you stated your disgust which mirrors mine very well......thank you!!!! Feeling SICK of them is quite an understatement for me, and you're right, to consider them as people is a huge stretch! They have no sense of what humanity is about.

Fanned!!!!!!!!

[islandleogirl]

08:48 AM on 03/20/2010

NJP,

I fanned you because I happen to agree with everything you said......that comment is pending because I added a few thoughts of my own.......

[NJProgressiveIndie]

12:02 PM on 03/20/2010

Fanned back, islandleogirl!

I'm supposed to be getting less angry in my older years, but apparently what now passes as the GOP and their sycophants, has other plans...

[centerdem06]

05:03 AM on 03/20/2010

I'm disgusted by the Republicans and especially these 'pundits'. They are nothing but selfish jerks who also call themselves Christians?! I used to live in Washington and know several families who cannot afford or get access to health care unless one person quits their job to qualify for Medicare/Washington Basic Health. It's amazing to me that it is okay to offer health insurance to our children (SCHIP), elderly (Medicare) and to the very poor (Medicare) but not okay to offer affordable health care access to regular, working people who pay taxes! The rationale against this is beyond me.

We are the wealthiest nation who spends over $1 trillion dollars on a war in Iraq but can't give working, tax paying Americans access to affordable health insurance? Meanwhile, insurance companies are raising premiums, cutting people out who get sick.

[MichaelMcKLA]

04:59 AM on 03/20/2010

Conservatives are flaunting their cruelty and obnoxiousness at the tops of their lungs. I imagine there are a lot of people like me who wonder what in the world happened to compassion and caring and decency. Do these characters really think this is the way to sell a political viewpoint to those not already beholden to it?

When I read the article, the first thing that came to mind was: "You people are monsters."

[pterack5]

04:01 AM on 03/20/2010

it is a cancer spreading fast, even old friends are falling for the stupidity. . .strange days indeed.

[ShamballaJones]

03:54 AM on 03/20/2010

Beating up of grieving children to protect the wealthy.

Classy.

Did they get the warm thrill of a job well done?

[petef59]

02:38 AM on 03/20/2010

Conservative. compassionate 'Christians' no doubt.

[Funkylicious]

01:57 AM on 03/20/2010

in these types of posts ..I really have not much to say except sympathy for the one in this type of situation and a quote I like to use from the movie gladiator ..

'' your time for self worshipping shall soon come to an end *'

goodbye repubs...November awaits
Funky

[laddieluv]

02:04 AM on 03/20/2010

Kudos on the GLADIATOR reference. grins.

So love that movie.

And to add, "What we do in life, echoes in eternity" - Maximus Decimus Meridius.

'Course, the rethugs are too filled with hubris to even understand what that means.

[Funkylicious]

02:09 AM on 03/20/2010

DING DING DING
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
YOU HAVE JUST WON A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF GUINNESS!
AND YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!
.----. .---. .-. .-..----..---. .--. .-----..-. .-..-. .--. .-----..-. .---. .-. .-. .----.
| }`-'/ {-. \| \{ || |--'} }}_}/ {} \`-' '-'| } { |} | / {} \`-' '-'{ |/ {-. \| \{ |{ {__-`
| },-.\ '-} /| }\ {| }-`}| } \/ /\ \ } { \ `-' /} '--./ /\ \ } { | }\ '-} /| }\ {.-._} }
`----' `---' `-' `-'`----'`-'-'`-' `-' `-' `---' `----'`-' `-' `-' `-' `---' `-' `-'`----'
An Irish Friend :)

[laddieluv]

02:08 AM on 03/20/2010

And I gotta' fan you for the GLADIATOR reference alone.

And for saying "bu bye" to the wing nutz.

"Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men." - Proximo (GLADIATOR)

[Creeker11]

12:47 AM on 03/20/2010

Were they really blasting on the kid, or the people exploiting him for their agenda

[istvan13]

09:23 AM on 03/20/2010

If they were blasting for an appearance of exploiting the child, they would show compassion to an 11-year old boy who just lost his mother. They did not do that.