Reading The Pictures: Grandma Must Die!

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Yes, we already probed the Joker fairly thoroughly (but then, major points for the guy having that creepy eruption!).

But the killer element here (pardon the pun) is this dear lady's pullover. Honestly, the whole "Death Panel" thing was so "out there," it didn't resonate with me until I came across this Newscom photo today. As Rachel Maddow well elaborated, the radical right has been scaring seniors based on the picayune but otherwise perfectly sensible fact health care reform proposals encourage people to create living wills.   

So, here's what I'm wondering. Do you think Dottie Kennard, from Peoria, AZ, really thinks that Obama and/or the Dems want to waste her and her husband? Or, do you think Dottie is smarter than that but she's picked up Sarah's shouting point just to emotionally terrorize more vulnerable members of her demographic?

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(image: Newscom, August 8, 2009 via TPM)

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Comments

[userw014]

Sure, it's probably just that she's looking into the sun that gives her a scowl ferocious enough to put a rock in fear of its life.

And, sure it's unfair to discredit an argument based on the looks of the presentor.

But she surely looks like she planted the Ugly Tree, nurturing it from her heart.

----

I recently had a politicial discussion with someone who as much as admitted that the word "socialism" terrified her. On the other hand, she was honest enough to admit that she'd prefer toll roads over publicly paid for roads. She did admit that there were some things that might be better done by government, but we didn't let the "discussion" get far enough along to actually explore that topic. We were more interested in good company than in recaping college aged beer arguments.

My point is that there are people out there for whom anything successfully tagged with "socialism" is anethma - just as there are people find "capitalism" - or a whole host of other words similarily charged. Sadly, once something is tagged with one of those charged words, it is very hard to revisit whether the tagging is just or just a political ploy.

--- Signed: Wishy-Washy Liberal

[GinnyW]

While I lost job, insurance, and home after major surgery at age 62 (serverance pay kept me from the public option -- AHCCCS [AZ Medicaid]), at age 65 I was able to get on Medicare, HUD Senior Housing (ending 5 months' homelessness). Thank goodness for the probability of an expansion of the public option -- thereby spreading the cost; I pay $96.40 for Part B Medicare -- across a broader spectrum of the working poor or newly disenfranchised.
In Michigan and Kansas I have worked for Public Health, as did my physician father after WWII, which used to provide clinics for the indigent and uncovered. Public Health Clinics provided no cost immunization, VD and family planning, as well as many other health assists, that did not clog our emergency rooms with high costs passed on to all. Public Health may be socialist (for the good of society), but here's an hooray for socialism from this Granny, whom capitalism tried to kill.

[rainbowblue]

So do they want the same health care Congress has, because isn't that part of a government health plan?

[ayc]

I just love seeing seniors protesting government health care.

[LiberalBuzz]

And what is hilarious is they don't even see the irony.

Hilarious.

[Aylah95]

They need to organize burning their Medicare cards, some of them might actually think twice before joining in.

Nah!

[ZDuck]

I am so glad that my 79 year old father has more smarts than all these old people. He knows that there are NO DEATH PANELS. Even his Kaiser care has had discussion about Living Wills etc. I love my progressive, smart father.

[GrainneKathleen]

you need to get him to talk some sense into his peers! ;o)

[SamEllison]

I think Dottie would make a stone look smart.

[LoudmouthLime]

Dear Protester,

Will this administration eventually murder grandmas, the disabled and physically challenged. Is that in the tarot cards for this country ? Having lived in this country for some years, do you and thousands of irate and politically inconvenienced believe that this will happen if we reform an inefficient Health Care system.

There are 79 days left until Halloween. Please refrain from frightening yourself until then.

[lostmypassword]

Of course Dottie is lying just like her idol Sarah Palin. Was there ever any doubt ?

Republicans lie. Is what they do.

[Luschnig]

At first I totally dismissed these people with their nonsense about 'death panels'. But the more I hear them yell about it, the more I've come to agree with them and somebody better kill grandma pretty soon, because the old lady is really getting on my nerves.

[liviapeacock]

LOL! Best comment yet.

[GrainneKathleen]

hah! cheeky and funny.

[Ducksworthy]

This is the most excitement she's felt in 35 years of marriage to Herbert, the guy with the joker sign behind her.

[GrainneKathleen]

herbert looks orgasmically happy back there!

[Carl Caroli]

These people are not only pathetic but totally disingenuous in the fact that they are either completely stupid and malleable or are intentionally using absurd, inaccurate information as a basis for placards to flaunt their racism. They, their families and their friends should be ashamed and someone should either educate them or tell them to crawl back under the rock they come from. Either way, they are a national disgrace.

[knoxblox]

What scares me is the fear of socialism and the inability of these paranoid demonstrators to differentiate between the various types of socialism (utopian, guild, or state socialism vs. say, National Socialism, i.e. Nazism). Their own homegrown Fascist attempts (suppression of freedom of speech, hate speech, death threats) to fight a system proposed as a remedy to the violations caused by free market enterprise -- is in itself a denial of the democratic process, and I don't think they realize it.
We need to make more of an effort to provide a politically non-biased system of education to prevent certain sectors of the population from being swayed by emotional arguments, false causes, and weak analogies that are so easily set up by propagandists and promoters of disinformation. Skepticism is an attitude that every citizen must be able to learn and practice on his or her own, rather than accepting false arguments from pundits pushing questionable "facts".

[sardan1972]

What scares me even more, knoxblox, is the blatant acceptance of socialism, by other individuals, as an acceptable form of government. Historically, a socialist state tends to degrade into communism or worse, a dictatorship.

I understand that an intellectual conversation would be the best form of discourse to iron out the differences of capitalism vs. socialism, but most of the people simply don't have the capacity to supress their emotions and verbalize their concerns. This will never change. Their cause isn't false, by the way. They do feel that their freedoms are being encroached upon, and, in my opinion, they are justified in this belief.

I read the house version of the health care bill. I downloaded all 1,018 pages of it and scoured and studied it. Through all the legalese and political speak, as the bill is written right now, the document does indicate that some 'end of life care' would be determined by a "Health Choices Commissioner" (section 141).

So just because they're not literate orators with a gift of gab doesn't mean that they don't have a point.

[cmfrey]

Except that they don't have a point. It's totally illogical. This oh so scary "Heatlh Choices Commissioner" is currently your giant for-profit private health insurance company. They actually have incentive to withhold services that might lead to an individual's death--money.

How does public health care create a "socialist state"? I've read the bill as well and there is nothing in there that changes our system of government or constitution. Every other industrialized nation has some form of public health care except the USA. Social services have not lead to a communist state or dictatorship in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Austraila, New Zealand, etc...

[jhw22]

Yes, the bill will provide for a doctor to be paid by Medicare to provide information about end of life care. Do you know what that means? It means four years ago when my grandpa was dying, the doctor was able to tell us the options for life support, hospice, pain management. My grandpa already had a living will but we needed to know where my grandpa was on the spectrum of end of life. We took him home with hospice care. I helped bathe him and was the one who found him when he died. ALL the bill does is allow the doctor to be paid for that discussion without the family or patient being billed. THAT'S ALL! So if you want to read anything further into that, then you accuse me, my mom, my aunt, my grandma and his doctor of being his death panel.

Shame on you for reading the bill as if it's a piece of fantasy science fiction. It's not that complicated to understand what is written if you don't pretend it says something it doesn't.

Jennifer

[LiberalBuzz]

Excuse me but if you expect me to believe you read that bill (and I have after about 4 days of slogging through it) there is NOTHING in it about ending people's lives.

So prove or admit you lied.

Section 141 says NOTHING or indicates NOTHING about "that some end of life care would be determined by a health choices commissioner." All it has to do with is the fact the president would choose someone to run the organization with the advise of the congress.

I got it right in front of me....so put up or admit ....you're just blowing hot air.

[GrainneKathleen]

That's great, but they don't actually have a point at all. How many times must we say it, there are NO death panels!
And by the way, most modern industrialized countries are socialist to some degree. If you really loathe socialism, then don't go to the public library, send you kid to public school, have a picnic in a town, state or national park, call the police if you get mugged, or accept the services of the fire department if your house is on fire. We don't admit that to a degree we are already socialists, but the truth is obvious. And you are also wrong about socialism always leading to communism or a dictatorship. Europe has mostly social democracies and is a pretty darn stable and successful continent. I have lived there for a time and have been amazed and envious of their cradle to grave care.
We are all entitled to our first amendment rights, but not at the expense of others. Why are these seniors not thinking about ensuring the health of their children and grandchildren and so on? If we don't vote in reform, we won't even have the same corrupt sick-care system we have now years down the road. It will get worse and our options and freedoms (that favorite gop rallying cry) will narrow. I wish grandma and grandpa would do the harder work of being part of the solution instead of parading their ignorance and pervading the health care problem.

[ikeyboy]

Just look at the picture. This is ignorance personified. A real Palin follower!!!!

[jhw22]

I am having a rather heated debate with a "friend" of mine. He's a smart guy in a lot of ways, he really is. But he is willfully accepting this death panel BS. Here's the thing about my "friend": he's racist, sexist and a second amendment exaggerator. As smart as this guy really is in some ways, he is allowing his ignorance take control. This guy is college educated, works in advertising, making good money, lives in a nice home and has nice cars and motorcycles. The scary thing is that not everyone who bashes Obama as a Socialist Nazi, thinks Sotomayor is a racist activist judge, thinks Sarah Palin is the bomb and perpetuates the death panel lie is like the lady in the photo. The scary thing is that people who SHOULD be smart enough to put the BS aside, are the ones spreading the BS the fastest and loudest. One of my "friend's" favorite sayings is: "You can't put 10 punds of s..t in a 5 pound bag." Unfortunately, he is trying to put 100 pounds in a 1 pound bag and it's getting all over the place.

Jennifer

[elsie900]

Agreed, my two best friends have drunk the Evil Health Care Kool-Aid and I can't get them to even stop raving about it at odd moments. Meanwhile, I've just lost my job and am about to be without insurance for the first time in my life.

[jhw22]

So sorry! Good luck. :)

[Edward Current]

There's something I'll never understand: Doesn't she WANT to go to heaven?

[TucsonEd]

Edward C. I've often wondered the same thing. If these fine Christian people really believe, WHAT are they afraid of if the "Death Panels" do want to do away with them? Either you're a true believer or not.