Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 19, 2012

The beginning of the American oligarchy.

Jimmy crow’s back again

It seems to me we have a lot of similarities with the Roman Republic, and the transition to the Roman Empire. How do you folks feel with the likes of Chaney or the Kochs as Nero or Caligula? I don’t see much liklihood of any good coming of that sort of thing.

We’ve already got “cases” like Guard SGT saying, America isn’t a democracy; it’s a republic. He’s never heard of a democratic republic. But facts don’t matter to a “case” like that one.

Honestly, if ANYONE’s been acting like an “Emperor” lately it’s her haughtiness “Empress Michelle”

Repub spokesmen do not appear in media til they demonstrate they can say anything with a straight face – Jimmy’s not quite ready for the big time

I “actually, sincerely believe it IS about fraud”, among a lot of other things. Like the Dubya-Condoleeza team lying about WMDs in order to drag us into a disastrous war with Iraq (for its oil, which BTW we’re not getting, not in the way the neocons “sincerely believed” at the time).πI hasten to add, not voter fraud, but other fraud: Like the fraudulent Wall Street financial oppression of the American people.

As a poll watcher I saw a voter turned away who was trying to use another person’s name. He was actually turned away, by a Democrat election judge, 3 times. She told him to bring some identification. The reason she knew he was using someone else’s name is the whose name he was trying to use had already voted.

The reason he was trying to use other names to vote? It didn’t have anything to do with party affilliation for him. Instead, he wanted to collect the $5 per person voting straight Democrat ticket that was being paid by the county Democrat party.

“If GW Bush was Caligula Jr, Obama is Septimus Severus.”GW Bush is more akin to a Commodus, I would say.Obama (in DT’s ‘speeded-up’ version) is more of a Julian the Apostate – not in any religious sense – but in the sense of a reformer, making a valiant effort to turn the tide, but eventually overwhelmed by the relentless momentum of the Decline.

Trustworthy? I think Jimmy’s eyes bear a strong resemblance to those of Mr. Butts.

It’s much easier to sign a law making illegals legal so they can vote for your party. And with the DOJ banned from asking people if they are in the country legally they don’t even have to be legal to vote.

One of our founding fathers, one revered by conservatives especially, George Mason said that any man who is going to have to live under a set of laws has a natural right to a voice in the making of those laws. Those who truly are concerned about voter fraud advocate a national system of identity verification applied equally to all voters in all federal elections, and phased in over a sufficiently long period to make certain the bugs are worked out. What is happening now is selective. In Texas, a gun license is acceptable ID, a (photo) student ID is rejected. Voters have always had to ID themselves at the polls, the question is about how. ID that which was acceptable in 2008 with be rejected in 2012, when it will be too late to do anything about it. This is being done only in states with Republicans in control, and the procedures being established are neither impartially applied nor easy: though the final issuance may be “free.” In Colonial America, as in Australia today, voting was regarded as a responsibility, and failure to vote carried a fine. Voter turnout was much higher then. (Just an interest thing to consider.)

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. If Romney wins in November and there is even the slightest hint that his win was aided by Republican voter suppression laws, there will be rioting in the streets of America the likes of which haven’t been seen since the ’60’s.

This is sincere. Although I read Doonesbury more as a comic strip, I do see other things in it. I especially like the history postings. I will sometimes take notes on names and them look them up later.

To GuardSgt, if I have that wrond I appologize. I too served. We both took an oath to defend the Constitution. I am out now but I think the oath is forever. I do not agree with you on all of your posts, but I do not believe that you should be flagged. If some people resent what you say or do not agree with you and don’t want to answer you, that is their right, but then they should just don’t read what you write. It’s like a lot of thing such as TV., If you don’t like a show, don’t watch it.

Come on folks… I now have to show ID to buy cough syrup. Why not to vote?

Instead of a ID card, how about a IQ card, proving you are smart enough to vote based on the issues, not the $5 you are given for voting a straight ticket.

@leftwingpatriot

America has always had an oligarchy since before the signing of the constitution. Those in charge in an oligarchy could be voted in or put in by some other power, but the point of an oligarchy is that a limited number of people make most of the decisions. If the US was a true democracy, every single law and legal decision would be voted on via election of all the people. Now, it might make things more fair to everyone, but it would make for a lot more campaigns. The stupid attack ads would never stop! shudders

“The beginning of the American oligarchy.”? More likely the beginning of the American "ugly"archy! Racism IS the ugliest idea every spawned!

Cheney has said he worships the ground Ryan walks on. voter fraud? why is it that the story of how easy it is to hack our “new!” “modern!” computerized ballot boxes has been put not on the back page but on no page. hanging chads were an improvement on this ever-so vulnerable robotic election, and those to come. oh dear oh dear.

There are few problems with the story about bribery to vote a straight party affiliation, such as the fact it could not be verified that one did in fact vote that way, since we do not show our ballot to anyone, but rather punch the ballot and put it in the box. As most us have learned in high school Civics class, we are entitled to a secret ballot, therefore, that is the way it works. Also, it was stated that even if someone did try this, it was not allowed. Also, as Americans, we tend to not want to vote as part of some evil plan. It is rather a responsible act, getting out to vote, and often it involves jury duty soon afterward, not something that your average evil doer is interested in pursuing, whether you are a member of the Democratic or Republican party.

Sadly another distraction to fire up the angry white fearful based vote. In 25 years they will be asking for protection from voter suppression when they are a minority.

Show the link.

Dude, get a life – you’ve just made up stuff so you can throw it out there. But it is utter hogwash.

“Folks – do ANY one of you SERIOUSLY believe there is no voter fraud?”π86 cases out of 300,000,000 votes cast is not “no voter fraud”.

And we’re back to this?! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yes, we are back to this and it seems far more important than many other subjects. The working class and elderly have far too many barriers to voting as it is. They don’t need anything to be fabricated as a problem so that it can be harder for them.

You Progressives are a sad bunch. You have learned some big words but you can’t do math worth doo doo. Doonesbury makes the claim that there were only 86 fraudulent votes out of 300 million cast. Well, in the 2000 election there were 101,485,989 votes cast and counted. A little math tells you that almost 200,000,000 votes were cast fraudulently OR Trudeau doesn’t know what he is talking about. What a dope.

Shouldn’t he interview the Black Panthers in full military regalia who “guarded” the polls in Philadelphia for Barack too?

Note that the Senators who rid themselves of both Caesar and Caligula did not restore the Republic, so having damned themselves wherein lies the blame? With the very class that claims to honor democracy abrogating it. This didn’t start with Bush, this started with Clinton when the Senate abrogated its responsibility to convict even when at least one element of the charge was proven beyond any conceivable doubt, that he lied on the stand under oath.

When the House and Senate tolerate the odious behavior of the executive, they endorse it. Small wonder Obama now feels bold enough to override the stated wishes of Congress by ordering federal agencies to ignore those sections of federal law he disagrees with not only in foreign affairs but domestic as well. If he can order those he favors immune from arrest then he can order those he disfavors arrested and held on any law or regulation he cares to create with the stroke of a pen.

Right now he has to bother with elections, and I’ll bet that this, more than the intransigence of Congress, vexes him.

I thankfully live in a state where we don’t have voter ID laws trying to turn away legit voters. What we do have is all vote by mail so there are no long lines to stand in for hours on end. The Republicans know they can’t win on there merits so they try to suppress votes & rig elections

The real pity is those working class that really believe repuglicans are trying to help THEM.

Absentee balloting is rife with fraud. Why go to all the trouble of showing up at the polls for an impersonation when you can literally “mail it in”? These ID laws have been openly touted by Republicans themselves as a Democrat-vote-suppressing ploy. Vote ’em out, in person.

Crows are blue now?

Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000. The SC selected Bush although the voters elected Gore.

@ James Lindley – If, as a poll watcher, you know for a FACT that any party was offering money to voters, why did you not speak up to SOE about filing a criminal complaint. Otherwise, your comment is purely conjecture and biased at that.

2 BP members were standing outside one polling place and that makes up for everything the GOP is currently trying to do to steal the election now and what they have done for the 2 elections before that. Right.

In Tennessee, DMV will issue an ID, without driving privileges for $5.00. Requiring this type of ID (or any other) to be presented at the voting polls does not constitute an undue burden. Unless you live in Chicago, where a death certificate might suffice.

It may present an undue burden for the poor and the elderly to have to obtain a photo ID. Until you walk in someone else’s shoes, you may not know this. Chicago is a great city. I will say this even as a Cards fan, and even though they have those stinkin’ Cubbies. I am getting tired of hearing the right criticize the great city of Chicago. The old stereotypes of Chicago don’t really apply unless you are talking to someone who doesn’t understand English. Then, you might say, “Bang, bang. I am from Chicago. You know, Al Capone and all that?” Chicago is no more guilty of not being on the up and up than many other places in the country.

The controversy about the voter ID law is not just about showing ID. There is a push to show photo ID, not just ID, which many of the poor and elderly do not have since they do not as often drive as others who are not poor or elderly.

Garry – time to come clean and be honest for a change.Amen

Rich white guys have nothing to worry about. Everyone else, look out.

Re: @LeoAutodidactI believe Leo’s only error was in not specifying Michelle who. Naturally, many would first think of Michelle Obama, one of the most elegantly grounded first ladies we have ever had. But my thought with the label “empress” runs first and foremost to Michelle Rhee, in which case the shoe most certainly fits!

while doing research for a city election in 2009 i found of the 70 people i know in my precint who voted in 11/08 were 2 dead people [02/08 and 07/08] that is only 3% of course no was charged because no one knew who did it so no action was taken

A Social Security card, or number, is essentially today your “National I.D.”. It is FREE. Showing the card, or providing your number, which is PROVABLE as authentic, is all that should be required. Vote by mail calls for a matching signature that is on file with county clerks, it’s “checked”.

The real FRUAD in “voter fraud” is Republicans claiming the cost of securing a photo I.D. doesn’t equal a “poll tax”, it DOES! Even if it only costs a dollar, it’s illegal to impose a poll tax, period.

As to “security” of the system, we already have a viable system, especially as fraud claims, are themselves fraudulent, with very minor exception.

Considering nuclear folks in the military only have “secret” clearance, I highly doubt our local supply REMF ever got above that. Which DOES have something to do with the wild “asp” claims of so many on “the right”. False claims to support “photo I.D.” are far more prevalent, than “voter fraud”.

I don’t agree with the “throw all the bums out” mentality that some have expressed. I do see Obama as a far better alternative to Romney. I won’t say throw all the bums out just to placate members of the GOP, it just doesn’t work that way, sorry.

“Something is seriously wrong when many localities (even the state of Utah) have more registered voters than they have residents.”πI doubt this claim. What’s your evidence?

@Spaghettus1“Even without voter ID laws, a person would first need the name, address, SSN, and possibly more info from the one they intend to impersonate”

I don’t know about the police state you live in, but a few years ago, here all you needed to vote was a name and address. The poll worker had the printout on the table in front of you. If you could read upside down, you could read it from the source. There were even marks on who had voted in person and absentee.

Jimmy Crow should be the keynote speaker at the GOP con.

It continues to surprise me as to how many on this thread don’t even seem to like Doonesbury. If I thought GT was a guy who would commit fraud to vote for someone multiple times I wouldn’t read his strip or bother with this thread!

Many voters are supposed to lose their right to vote because of a made up, minuscule problem. This is the only way the GOP seems to be able to win elections anymore so this is the kind of stuff they do. I wonder if they have had these issues in England, France, Canada, other places? On the Daily Show the other night, Jon Stewart mentioned several countries, including Rwanda, which had impartial election oversight.

There is two things that really puzzles me as a foreigner. 1. How do you dare accept a vote without proper ID2. Who is able to get beyond voting age18 and not have a proper ID card? My kids get them from their bank at age 13.

“I am SO sick of you . . . .”πOkay, I can understand your sentiment. But you do the cause of maintaining/restoring democracy where it really really counts — at the voter level — by losing control (as I admit I have done, and been appropriately reprimanded) and attacking with obscene-implied language a fellow citizen. May relieve internal pressure, but ain’t no way to “win”, don’t work anyhow, an’ only raises sympathy for yer enemy.

I have been reading all these comments today with great interest. Aside form some ( to quote Samuel Clemmons ) lies, goddamn lies and grand falloons, the discussion has been, by and large enlightening. I have lived in Florida for approximately 14 years and have always been required to present a drivers license ( or other state approved form of picture ID ) when voting. Prior to that, I spent over twenty-five years in Arizona, where I also had to ( if memory serves me correctly ) produce some form of proof of identity. I agree that the Republican party has deliberately set out an attempt to disenfranchise a segment of the population. Aside from voter suppression, they are attempting to make it as difficult as possible for those voters who would traditionally vote Democratic, to cast a ballot in the upcoming election.But instead of whining about it; Instead of breast-beating, and weeping and gnashing their teeth; The Democratic Party should get off its collective a$$ and do what was done in the 60’s to break the Jim Crow laws. I’m not talking about protests and freedom rides. I’m talking about voter registration and voter education. If they spent some of that PAC money on assisting the poor and the elderly get proper identification, instead of on the Negative B.S. that passes for campaign advertising, then they’d be assured that their candidates would be elected or reelected.But unfortunately, that would require a real grass roots EFFORT on the part of the party and I don’t see that happening. Please Democrats, Prove Me Wrong !

I have spent many years in Missouri and Kansas and never had to show photo ID to vote until recently. I am sure there will be an even greater get out the vote effort. However, it may be too late for some to get registered if they have not already done so. I think it is a bit unrealistic to expect everyone to get a photo ID if they do not have easy access to transportation. Lots of times people seem to think that there is this big army of people who can mobilize to make it easy for others to have this access, but I am not sure that that is true.

the most tiresome cartooning out there…can’t seem to keep it about ‘funny’. Been hangin’ around Liberal Jane too long.

The deadline for registering to vote in Missouri is October 10. The deadline for registering to vote in Kansas is October 21. For some, there will not only be an issue with photo ID, but if they haven’t done so, they must register.Doonesbury is the best cartoon out there in my opinion. I don’t really read any others. No others are all that interesting.

Maybe someone can provide a link with all the state deadlines for registration for voting?

Sorry, Kansas has a poorly worded law regarding voter registration deadline. The actual deadline is Oct. 16, which is 21 days before the election. It is always apparently 21 days before the election.

Ok, the link to check states deadlines for registration to vote:www.longdistancevoter.org/voter_registration_deadlines

Some will need to work on getting photo ID and are already registered. Others will need to work on both. We Democrats are ready to do everything we can to help…

um, there just MIGHT be a difference between “a single case of impersonation fraud” and reality if their definition includes only “reported, prosecuted and convicted” of the fraud, versus, say, “unreported” or “unnoticed”?

Critical Thinking is dead.

I currently live and vote in Arizona. I’ve been here for 17 years, and during that time I have never been asked for a photo ID at the polls. We do have a voter ID law, but there are many ways to prove who you are. Whenever I vote, the registrar takes my name, checks it in his book and sends me to the appropriate line. There, they find my name in the book and I sign for my ballot. Signatures are checked and verified. Someone trying to vote as me would have to know my signature and be able to reproduce it satisfactorily.

Poll watchers are divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats. There is no voting location anywhere that does not have both Republicans and Democrats. Anyone who says differently is lying.

I have voted since 1968 and have never been asked for a photo ID (Washington, Colorado, Arizona). I now absentee vote, which only requires that I sign the ballot (which will be checked against my signature in the voting books, just as if I went there myself).

Given the hysterical nature of the right wing, I am sure that if a voter were to fraudulently attempt to vote for a Democrat, it would certainly not go unreported… Witness the BP guys hanging out a polling place incident. This was one incident, and it was cited and reported over and over and over…

As soon as GT brought politics back into the “comics” people are coming out of their cocoons wanting to get their 2 1/2 cents in. Seems like both sides of the fence (including my side) are really misinformed. We only know what we read or hear. It’s just not worth squabbling about. Just vote for what you feel.. no amount of dickering is gonna help. If Obama wins in 2012 America loses and dies. My opinion. FOO!!

And if the new right had any honor, they wouldn’t pay shills to spout for them on websites.

Please note that the “Fall” of Rome was accompanied and speeded up by the Roman Emperor’s refusal to let the barbarians come, as they had for hundreds of years…to WORK and gain citizenship in Rome./

Sounds very damn familiar to me. When the cowards get power, like today’s reepuglicans, they block off advance for the poor, weak, and striving.

And the Empire falls when the people come back and knock harder…

Similar to apartheid, suppression is the only way the minority can hold onto power.

1) Here’s my anecdote: a Republican African-American I knew went to the polls and was told, "But, Mr Brown, you’ve already voted! "(The party didn’t trust him, apparently).

2) in Georgia, with a photo ID requirement, we are now required to bring a passport or certified birth certificate, neither of which many people will have.

Go back and look at the statistics. Yes, there is voter fraud, but at such vanishingly SMALL rates that it would not affect the outcome of the elections. One or two cases, miles, and years apart don’t affect the election. We get more effect from the election fraud, the changes to peoples vote AFTER they are cast, or the disenfranchisement that the GOP is trying to do, than we get voter fraud. Or have you forgotten that the official in Pennsylvania stated that the voter laws they passed were to ensure Romney got elected? Not to ensure that there was a fair election, but that Romney would win it. THAT is a FAR greater cause for concern than the the scant voter fraud cases.

The incident that you refer to was two members of the “New Black Panthers”. In fact, the ONLY two members. They have NO connection with, and have been disavowed by the original Black Panthers. It happened at ONE precinct, and was broken up after less than two hours. If you watched something other news besides the lies on Fox, you’d have heard this already.

Cite proof please, or it’s just another vague anecdote. And even IF he sponsored terrorism in Israel, or against Egypt, isn’t that the business of Israel or Egypt? Why should American lives be sacrificed for them?