Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 28, 2012

Romney’s inauguration should be fun.

The one on January 20, 2013.

Interesting!!! Obama voted early in Chicago and had to show ID!!! Hmmm!!! I guess voter ID doesn’t disenfranchise after all!!! I’ll bet Trudeau voted for Putin and Bi Laden too!!!

wait wait, didn’t that guy bush get in that way? nothing happened much, riot police? oh yeah big deal, what riot?

The right to vote is an important one, worth defending. However, voting will not produce an answer to the global capitalist crisis of overproduction. Only revolution will cure the madness.

massive voter fraud is a myth. voter suppression is not. and, didn’t the gop in 1972 used voter fraud to get nixon re-elected.

There’s always The Declaration of Independence. I know people with more firepower than the police in the towns they live in. Maybe the US will be in for some interesting times. I don’t think th US government can count on the military.

Fortunately, courts all over the country have been striking down the Republican voter suppression laws. As President Obama said, we should be making it easier to vote, not harder.

As per Romney, as I said on another web site yesterday: Anyone who thinks that Romney hasn’t been cheating on his taxes for the past decade is a fool. Anyone who makes less than 250K/yr and thinks Romney will cut their taxes is a bigger fool. Anyone who thinks Romney is a man of peace is insane. If your idea of the American Dream is 25% unemployment and a 40% poverty rate, then Romney is your man.

Here’s another fun thing to consider. If you have Voter ID laws that require photo ID, then you HAVE to provide those IDs at no cost – otherwise it’s a poll tax. If you require the state to provide those IDs at no cost, it becomes a huge addition to the state budget. If the Federal government were to require them, it would be an unfunded mandate. Who knew Republicans were for MORE government spending?

“They say it can’t happen here, but it has happened here.” – Phil Ochs

When WILLARDWORLD gets worked up on one of his stump speeches, with his hair coming unmoored, he does look like he’s losing his composure, if not his mind.

You may not care for Obama, but at least he stays calm. That’s reassuring to me. It means he’s not going to fly off the handle at other nations in the world (Iran, China, Russia, Syria, Pakistan, . . . .) that don’t happen to agree with him in his cozy Cabinet meetings with the likes of Karl Rove.

WILLARDWORLD. Get used to it, cuz it won’t be so easy getting past it.

Back in 1775, here in Virginia, the franchise was limited to free adult white male property-owning protestants (preferably episcopalians). The revolution eliminated the “protestant” requirement only. George Mason, one of the founding fathers wanted to get rid of the property requirement, too. Any man who was going to be governed by a set of laws has a natural right to a voice in how those laws are made, he thought. Nobody much listened to him. But one other interesting aspect is that, in those days, voting was considered a duty, not merely a right. Eligible voters who did NOT vote were considered shirkers, like those who did not show up for militia musters or jury duty, and were subject to a hefty fine. I think about this stuff whenever I hear people talking about going back to the principles of the founding fathers.

Don’t get me wrong. I support Israel. I do not support illegal occupation-and-settlement of Palestinian lands. I know it’s a huge problem. I know Ahmadinejad is a buying-last -turd who inflames his own people by saying Israel doesn’t have the right to exist. I know he’s a Holocaust denier. But Obama is dealing with him — severely — on the diplomatic front, with “crippling” sanctions to provide teeth.

Obama will find a way to prevent Iran from getting nukes.

Willard won’t. Willard will invade, first by air, next by sea (offshore bombardment), finally by boots on the ground. Mark my words — Willard will blunder us into WWIII. And WWIII will be no repeat of WWIII. Because we won’t be fighting an over-extended 3rd Reich and an over-extended Japan.

We will be fighting, potentially at least, Iran + China + Russia + Pakistan = billions of thermonuclear-armed people.

Nor expect India’s billion to “come in on our side”, either. Those folk will prefer to “sit it out” and “see who wins”, then “join the victors”.

In WILLARDWORLD this great nation will follow the example of the decline and fall of the Roman empire.

Wie

troll alert. flag as needed.

DNFTT FTT = Do Not Feed The Troll, Flag The Troll.

Why not? He used to do his own driving until he ran for president.

I heard that Romney voted early in Utah and DID NOT have to show ID!

“Waking up on a beautiful morning with 100 million LESS … breeders … will certainly give the Blue Bird reason to sing his sweet melody.”

These may be the words, potentially, of a mass-murderer. Or at least they tend to incite terrorism. In this instance, then, flagging is appropriate.

pbarnrob,where did you get your cap?

Today’s strip would be funnier if it was not so serious.

I’ve never seen or heard so many kool-aid drinkers since Georgetown.

Geez, what’s wrong with you Americans? Mexico has REQUIRED photo ID since 1996. It was enough to get the PRI out after 70 years!

And the ID’s were supplied by the PRI dominated government, too.

What happened in Benghazi on September 11 Mr. Trudeau? I guess it wasn’t funny enough for you.

Jeez oh pete. It seems to me the Dems are more united and voting in higher numbers than ever. Keep the faith, rhetorically speaking.

I’m not sure that a cartoonist has a lot of info on an international incident that happened only a month ago, several thousand miles away. Get a grip, righties.

If the right wanted a real mandated election, they should never have started the whole “voter ID” nonsense in the first place. The GOP never had the same numbers as the Democratic Party. They will continue to lose numbers as the population shifts. Therefore, they have resorted to Jim Crow shenanigans of old.

“I saw a news report that showed a black man saying they were aall going to riot when obama loses! Is this the kind of people we want supporting a President, or our country?!”

You sound racist. Please disabuse me.

Voter ID laws are disgusting to all who remember the Jim Crow laws of old. Years ago, African Americans were denied voting by having unaffordable fees attached, or they were asked unanswerable questions. Nowadays, the GOP would seek to disenfranchise students, poor, elderly, and blacks by requiring a photo ID. Photo IDs are available on driver licenses. Many of those in the above groups do not have driver licenses. My 90 year old mom does not have a driver license, since she does not and should not drive. She does have a quick mind and she is well informed, She reads the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from cover to cover everyday, one of the best newspapers in the country. Mom was a kindergarten teacher for 45 years. She is a well informed, intelligent citizen and she deserves the right to vote. She is only one of many who would be denied the right to vote under the recent voter ID laws enacted. Interestingly, in the Sarah Silverman PSA, she alludes to the fact that some states allow gun permits as a form of ID, but not veteran’s ID cards. Incredible.

What a load!

Obama wins, he’ll have to blame his own “previous administration” for all the problems he will face.

Naah, he’ll do an FDR.

Who is the bird named Jimmy in today’s strip?

I am so ashamed. In my state of Iowa, our “previously known as liberal” Des Moines Register endorsed R’money. We are in shock. They must have been bought off.

As voter fraud is not a problem, recent changes in laws (some of which have already been struck down by Judges as Unconstitutional) must have a different purpose than to solve a problem that does not exist. The purpose is voter suppression designed to make it harder for the poor, the young and the non-White to vote. Beware those who would suppress democracy, dismantle the safety net, deregulate Wall Street and ease the way for the worst polluters to further foul our nest.

I’m only a humble European not wanting to intrude, but if there is even a grain of truth in this strip your election is in serious trouble over there, isn’t it?

Is the electoral process really so dysfunctional that it is so dominant over whatever views the candidates may espouse?

To me, its’ obvious this is Jim Crow since the push only started shortly before the election, when it would be too late for many to get the documentation needed for photo ID.

I missed that story, Radish, but it certainly sounds like my swell AG. The same guy who spent millions of dollars to discover seven cases of voter fraud over several years of elections and millions of votes cast.

When was the last time there was an actual headline of anyone but the left suppressing votes?

It is not the left who is into suppressing votes. We want to ROCK THE VOTE, not BLOCK THE VOTE. Blocking the vote we leave to the Republicans. That is what the whole voter ID debacle which is being debated in courts across the country and being discussed in Doonesbury is about. Hello?

Let’s face it. This election next week is going to be a cluster frack especially if there are extended power outages from hurricane Sandy. Lawyers for both Obama & Romney are ready to contest any close outcomes in the battleground states. These voter ID laws are meant to do 1 thing, suppress votes for Obama. This election could be a worse debacle than 2000.

Personally, someone who cannot afford or otherwise obtain an I.D. is NOT someone who I want to decide the future of America. If they cannot control their own lives why in the world would I want them to try to control mine? It would be like letting someone who has never seen a spark plug try to fix your engine problem.

Funny thing is, marijuana prohibition does more to disenfranchise voters than any voter ID requirement, and is a relic of the Jim Crow laws. The primary focus of the laws were Mexicans, Black jazz musicians, and Mormons.

Listen to what Harry Anslinger (top crow of prohibition) said about his motivation for these laws,

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

Today millions of marijuana smokers have sexual relations with white women and no one’s complaining. Does anyone ask themselves the question, “Why on earth would the Obama administration revive these terrible laws and will it get in the way of our portraying other people as Jim Crow racist”?

Obama’ll probably get re-elected but he doesn’t deserve another Peace Prize.

Harry Anslinger died in 1975. He is dead and gone. I am sure that 100% of Rastafarians would agree that pot should be legal. As for mainstream voters, I am not so sure…

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%

in order to have a case you have to grab them in the act when i found a few months later that dead had voted nothing could be done

I’m from Texas, and I like it! By the way, I’m not a Republican either. If you are too lazy, or too Illegal to have some form of ID, then why would we want them to vote, “either side of the spectrum?”

The Repubs won’t even need riot police. Remember 2000? We all went along just fine.

Jim Crow represented by a southern crow. Is he a Dixiecrat? Thanks again Garry Trudeau for being a narrow minded irreverent pinhead.

Dixiecrat? As in George Wallace, who ran for prez back in 1968? This is 2012. GT was depicting 2012. Even in 1968, plenty of Democrats did not support George Wallace or others like him. Many Democrats much preferred Kennedy, Johnson, McGovern, Humphrey and many others, and did not care for George Wallace at all. George Wallace broke off and ran as an Independent in 1968 as a matter of fact. But, I suppose GT could be depicting George Wallace as the Jim Crow in question— I don’t know really exactly who GT had in mind when he drew him. Actually, GT was apparently drawing on the historical perspective of what happened in the Jim Crow South, so he could have very well been thinking of George Wallace, come to think of it… In the meantime, we have had Democrats from the South who many of us have also come to know and appreciate, such as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, but I would certainly not describe any of them as “Dixiecrats.”

What an imaginary world Trudeau lives in. He has so much money he never has to see the real world. Those he manufactures are stranger than truth. Why did the Demos demand photo ID to attend their own convention? Are they racist too?

So now someone wants to equate VOTING with attending a national convention? Sorry, your analogy doesn’t work.

Because he was a just like the rest of us before he became President, State Senators drive themselves as Harry Reid showed us this past week with the accident he was in while driving in Nevada. Depending on your state your license can last years before you have to get a new one. Where I live it’s 6 years

Locally, 2 Republicans are accusing a candidate of voter fraud, claiming he won’t be able to serve. He hasn’t been convicted of anything, but the 2 babblers don’t understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. To them, his real “crime” is being black.

“Who could be a better judge of reasonable and unreasonable than Doonesbury fans?”

You?

Yes if voter supression fails then there is always the riot police…actually the militarized police to quell this uprising of democracy and free speech in our country. Let the plutocrats eat cake!

“Iran isn’t after nukes. They are the law abiding ones and they get all the grief. Israel, Pakistan and India are all nuclear renegades and good pals of the USA. What is wrong with this picture.”

How do we know Iran isn’t after the scientific-and-technological capability to produce nukes? Agree with me that it was the USA who armed Israel with them? If so, then if Iran gets that capability, then the USA will arm Saudi Arabia with them, just as we did Israel. There’s a lot more to the picture, but this is a starter.

Mark is overestimating our ability to be collectively outraged. Even if either party blatantly stole the election and there was absolute, irrefutable proof that the outcome of the election was changed via nefarious means, we’d do no more than grouse about it for a few days. Anybody who still dwelt on the issue for more than a week would be viewed as an extremist crackpot.

Finest riot police are in Chicago — they proved it at 1968 DEMOCRATIC convention.Little aside — last senate election in which Lyndon Johnson was reelected more votes were cast in Alice, Tx than people resided there. Just because it’s not often prosecuted doesn’t mean it is not happening.

All y’all miss the point of the GOP’s voter suppression. Obama LOST the white vote in 2008 and still won the election! That means the white vote alone is no longer enough to win! Since the GOP only appeals to white men, their recipe for winning involves either getting at least 70% of the white vote (McCain got 60%), or stopping minorities from voting, or a combination of the two. Thus the straw man of “voter fraud”.

9/11 would not have happened under Al Gore. Or John McCain, for that matter, because either one would have read and acted on the 8/11 memo titles, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S.”0And even if it had somehow happened, neither Gore nor McCain would have been fool enough to invade Iraq!

00000000000000I would LOVE to see your face if Obama wins the Electoral vote and loses the Popular vote! That would be precious!

And they shoot to kill — remember Kent State.

@Tigger Funny you should mention Gore losing his own state. We are going to see a very similar thing happen in Massachusetts, where the electorate is solidly against their former governor.

A simple solution would be to put your driver’s license picture (taken at the same time you register to vote) on your voting card – but that would be too simple wouldn’t it?

Also wondering why (if we are so concerned about illegal voting) for the first time in the 20 years he has been a registered alien, my husband was sent a voting card. So was one of my friends. If they are so concerned, why are they passing out voting cards like candy on Halloween? Maybe they just want these folks to vote so they can deport them for fraudulent voting.

If Obama wins, he’ll have to blame his own “previous administration” for all the problems he will face

HAHA. Romney should have used that one. Too bad he sucks as much sausage as Obama, y vice versa. The joke is on us all.

“Why did Obama have to show a Photo ID when he early Voted in Chicago? …, they require a Valid Photo ID to Vote, why are you not peeved about this?”

Because I distinguish reasonable photo ID from unreasonable photo ID. Illinois doesn’t try to disenfranchise people who vote Republican.

DFTFTT = Don’t Forget To Flag The Troll

“So, The Photo ID Law in Illinois will tip the win to Obama instead of Romney?”

No.

I know someone has posted incorrect info many times regarding Illinois voting law, a state where some of my family live. Illinois law requires voter ID only for early voting, not on Election Day. It may be that the law was enacted before the Democratic governor took office. I know that George Wallace had been a Democrat before he ran for prez as an independent in 1968. I never said all Democrats were perfect, only a better choice than the GOP.

“’When will Mr. Trudeau draw a cartoon painting The Democrat Governor of Illinois and Democrat Governor of Chicago as resorting to Jim Crow Laws to disenfranchise Votes in Illinois and Chicago?”

There are at least two reasons why Trudeau doesn’t have to depict the governor of Illinois as “resorting to Jim Crow laws” to disenfranchise GOP voters.

First, the governor is not trying to push a Jim Crow law against Republicans.

Second, even cartoonists have a right to a point of view.

Funny how conservatives like to point to George Wallace to defend themselves since they have so many racists in their party even in 2012. George Wallace is gone folks. And he didn’t run for prez as a Democrat in 1968, the Democrat in that race was Hubert Humphrey. Anyway, this is now many years later, in 2012. Nothing like living in the present…

“Funny how Trudeau never paints Democrats in a bad light when their States have Photo ID Laws in order to Vote”

Democrats aren’t trying to disenfranchise Republican voters.

And Illinois does not have a voter ID law on Election Day, a voter ID is only required for early voting, according to FOXIllinois.com

According to FOXIllinois.com, if they did have a voter ID on Election Day, 685,000 people could not vote in Illinois. However, VOTER ID IS NOT REQUIRED ON ELECTION DAY IN ILLINOIS.

My oh my won’t it be thrilling to see the president congratulate the Major-League World Champion Giants at the White House In January? You know Miss Nancy’s going to be jacked over this.

The statement about no voter impersonation is false in some places. As a poll watcher I saw it first hand. The election judge was alert and did her job though. And yes, she was a Democrat election judge, and the person most likely would have voted straight Democrat ticket to collect the $5 that the head of the county Democrat party was paying voters in poorer neighborhoods.

Voter fraud is dead easy to commit with no chance of being caught- who thinks of the legal consequences with the jails so full. See the Veritas project.

Do you even read your own links? From the first article on the right-wing biased Drudge, on irregularities in Virginia:

“None of the cases appeared to involve someone who misrepresented his or her identity at the polls to vote.”

Give it up, guys, There is no significant voter impersonation going on in the US. The ID laws really are about suppressing the minority and Democratic voters.