69 Comments

• eiriamach | Aug 23, 2012, 07:59 PM EDT

  Briano, you cannot overcome this simple fact: there ain't any evidence of voter fraud! Innocent until proven guilty, with the burden of proof on the state, not the already-registered voter. If there's an illegal alien problem, then pass laws requiring proof of citizenship for NEW registrants. I do not understand your final comment. The *possibility* of voter fraud occurring is not *evidence* that voter fraud occurs. Get the evidence and prosecute the case(s). This is my last comment on this topic, but I must say I'm shocked that you adamantly reject the presumption of innocence--a principle on which our legal system depends--in regard to one of the most essential of our rights--voting. ~~Why is it important? My union colleagues and I once dealt with a high federal official who disliked our politics so much that he called us "terrorists" and told us he'd like to imprison us. I assure you, our most potent weapons were words, which we wrapped adroitly around proven facts. Now turn that situation around and imagine a powerful govt officer who dislikes your politics so much that he'd like to imprison you. Without "innocent until proven guilty," he can do exactly that.

• BrianO | Aug 23, 2012, 07:14 PM EDT

  to use your logic is to assume there is no illegal alien problem, I think more accurately the illegal aliens can be rounded up to vote democrat so you assume them to be just fine.To answer your next question, The predominance of the democrat controlled cities and the concentration of benefits to illegals in the cities allow for such voter fraud to occur.

• eiriamach | Aug 23, 2012, 07:02 AM EDT

  Briano, you write, "You assume these people to be legal citizens." YES, precisely! That is exactly what the **presumption of innocence** -- "innocent until proven guilty" --MEANS! The US Constitution supports, indeed requires, precisely that assumption. Why do you not assume already-legally-registered voters to be legal citizens? Especially since, as I quoted below, the State of Pennsylvania had no evidence to offer in court that any illegal resident had ever voted or would vote in November in the State of Pennsylvania.

• eiriamach | Aug 21, 2012, 10:53 PM EDT

  Eiriamach, you are right dealing with intrusive government agencies are a pain in the neck, But if you are legal and some other intrusive government agency wants proof then you deal with it, It is your world of intrusive government. You assume these people to be legal citizens as only legal citizens voting rights can be suppressed, as with any intrusive bureaucratic agency they are concerned with themselves not the Constitutional protections. I would think you would have reveled in the line as you waited for hours as your controlling government had you waste your time and energy in line, that is what big government organizations do.

• eiriamach | Aug 20, 2012, 07:31 PM EDT

  BrianO, just last week I stood in line for hours in a crowded, noisy DMV after a long drive (fortunately I have a car--buses don't go there), waiting to renew my driver's license and slowly passing through a six-point inspection of half a dozen identifying documents. The clerks who have to deal with these crowds are grumpy and unreasonable. Most people I know in their seventies or older could not do that without a free ride and lots of help cutting through red tape to get enough documents. But those are only the practical difficulties. You have not addressed the crucial principle violated by the vote-suppression laws. How do you square these onerous and partisan new requirements of already-registered voters with the high value you place on Constitutional protections?

• BrianO | Aug 20, 2012, 03:07 PM EDT

  Eiriamach, You obviously haven't been to the department of motor vehicles. To get a license you have to produce a birth certificate, to get a birth certificate you go to your town hall. Everyone has a birth certificate. If some one questions my status I shuffle on down to the town hall and get my birth certificate, wtf the problem. Are these people to stupid to do this, I think not. Now if I were not here legally or not registered to vote then the would be a problem.

• eiriamach | Aug 20, 2012, 01:30 PM EDT

  In the Pennsylvania case, the state admitted "There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.” Voter registration officials told the court that they would NOT offer “any evidence ... that in-person voter fraud has in fact occurred in Pennsylvania and elsewhere,” and would present NO evidence that "in-person voter fraud is likely to occur in November 2012 in the absence of the Photo ID law.” There ain't no evidence for depriving any registered voter of the right to vote and no benefit for anyone except the low-in-the-polls R & R team, as Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai boasted in June: the voter ID law "will allow Governor Romney to win Pennsylvania." The most dangerous government is the one you can't vote out of office.

• eiriamach | Aug 20, 2012, 12:36 PM EDT

  BrianO, I do not understand how you can be so fervent in support of Constitutional rights and callous about "innocent until proven guilty." Soon after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, after Congress passed the Patriot Act, this principle so crucial to individual freedom began to erode. I began to hear recent high school graduates say things like "I don't have to worry about federal agents having access to my personal financial records, my phone records, my organizational memberships and my political affiliation because I'm not a terrorist. If I'm innocent, I have nothing to worry about!" They had wholly abandoned "innocent until proven guilty" and approved of government surveillance of their private lives without evidence of wrongdoing. You also abandon "innocent until proven guilty" in favor of an even more intrusive government when you fail to support the right of individuals to continue their "consent of the governed" (voting) without having to prove they're innocent of voter fraud. The burden of proof, of having some basis in evidence for investigating individuals, is the burden of government officials. It is never the burden of individuals to prove their innocence-- unless we have removed our legal system from its very foundation.

• eiriamach | Aug 20, 2012, 12:15 PM EDT

  My point, once again, BrianO, is that these people, young and old, WERE REGISTERED to vote, and the GOP has threatened and in many cases de facto deprived them of their eligibility to vote. Not because they are unqualified voters, but because they lack driver's licenses, passports, other picture ID's, in come cases birth certificates, and that to acquire enough paperwork in time to re-register poses significant difficulties of transportation, document gathering, and fees. I would have no grounds for complaint if the vote-suppression laws applied only to NEW voters trying to register for the first time. But it deeply offends my sense of 'innocent until proven guilty'-- a cornerstone of American jurisprudence-- that the GOP legislatures require already registered voters to now prove they have not been committing voter fraud, in some cases for more than half a century! It's an outrage that only a desperate ideologue can support.

• BrianO | Aug 17, 2012, 03:01 PM EDT

  If they are citizens whats the problem. Are you implying non whites are too stupid to know how to register to vote.

• eiriamach | Aug 16, 2012, 09:33 AM EDT

  Dancing? I'm doing the Tea Party Reel! Yesterday a Pennsylvania court, in effect, told an estimated 759,000 to 1.5 million mostly-non-white, elderly, and poor citizens that they must prove their eligibility to vote before the State will allow them to cast another ballot. Add that to Ohio's voter suppression law, and the GOP has co-opted 14% of the electoral college votes needed to win the presidential election. The GOP record thus far marks a low point not seen since the days of Jim Crow. How many more shocks will send me reeling before election day?

• eiriamach | Aug 14, 2012, 11:16 PM EDT

  eiriamach, dance all you want, let me ask you a question, did the justice department investigate acorn and voter fraud? or did it take a free lancing kid journalist with a hidden camera to expose acorn?

• eiriamach | Aug 14, 2012, 01:19 PM EDT

  BrianO, AG Holder's May 20 speech is available of the Dept of Justice's web site. I cannot find in it any pretext for a charge of racism. He was under severe pressure for having filed only a few lawsuits and objections to state legislatures' moves to suppress voting by college students, African Americans, legal immigrants and other likely-Democrat voters. He replied to charges that the DofJ had been lax. The tone of his speech was consciousness raising, and apparently the consciousness of the Wall St. Journal-- which has never supported voting rights legislation --was raised to the point that the WSJ called the speech racist. Hogwash! Holder said in part, "Yet, in the six years since its re-authorization, Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act] has increasingly come under attack by those who claim it’s no longer needed. Between 1965 and 2010 – nearly half a century–-only 8 challenges to Section 5 were filed in court. By contrast, over the last two years alone, we’ve seen no fewer than 9 lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of that provision. Four of these currently are in litigation. Each of these challenges ... claims that we’ve attained a new era of electoral equality, that America in 2012 has moved beyond the challenges of 1965, and that Section 5 is no longer necessary.... But the reality is that, in jurisdictions across the country, both overt and subtle forms of discrimination remain all too common – and have not yet been relegated to the pages of history."

• eiriamach | Aug 14, 2012, 11:39 AM EDT

  BrianO, Marilyn Buck died four days before she was due to be released on official parole. AG Holder had nothing to do with the parole decision. Buck was white. I do not see how racism figures into anything Holder did in the Buck case. Have you read any of her poetry or translations? She seems to have been clear-sighted for someone who spent most of her life in prison.

• eiriamach | Aug 14, 2012, 11:24 AM EDT

  BrianO, 1. See my earlier comment about the Black Panthers: Neither the Dept. of Justice nor any court in the USA can prosecute such a case without witnesses to provide testimony UNLESS due process means nothing when the accused are black. 2. Speech to the Council of Black Churches: I have not found the entire speech, only excerpts from it. But I see no racism in Holder's words, only bloggers stirring up chants of "racist" without bothering to quote any racism from the speech. What is racist about saying "In my travels across this country, I’ve heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from citizens, who–-often for the first time in their lives–-now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble ideals.” He added that challenges to established civil rights law mean that “some of the achievements that defined the civil rights movement now hang in the balance.” Voting rights is certainly one example! 3) Holder released Marilyn Buck from prison so that she could die of her advanced cancer outside prison walls. She lived three weeks after her release. That's compassion for a poet of compassion: where's the racism?

• BrianO | Aug 13, 2012, 09:14 PM EDT

  Seano achievement has no color.

• BrianO | Aug 13, 2012, 09:13 PM EDT

  very frustrating, as I have tried before when asked for facts the comment wont be accepted, I'll try a shorter version. !. holder and the black panthers. 2 holders speech to the black churches. 3 the us is a coward about race, which is funny coming from a black AG working for a Kenyan American president. Release of Marilyn Buck of the Black liberation Army from her 80 year sentence. There's more, but thats good enough for now

• seanomelb | Aug 13, 2012, 08:00 PM EDT

  Briano you may not be racist but you defend those who are. Doe's that make you a racist???

• eiriamach | Aug 13, 2012, 05:01 PM EDT

  BrianO, I assume you refer to AG Holder as "racist ... in charge of the legal system." You have an obligation to supply evidence when you make a charge of racism against anyone. I've cited evidence on the tea party rabble rousers I named, and I quoted poster slogans and comments voiced at tea party meetings directly from videos widely available through media news and You Tube. What is your evidence for charging the Attorney General with racism?

• BrianO | Aug 13, 2012, 04:39 PM EDT

  Seano as we discuss the different sides of arguments I am what you consider part of the right, I took no insult from that, I was only disappointed by the argument that members of the right dislike obama because he is black, I being from what you describe as the right dislike obama for his agenda, one I feel fights against the Constitution of the United States. One of my fondest wishes is for a conservative democrat to arise from the cesspool of the democratic party, it matters not to me what party, color, sex, sexual tendency, a person be as long as they uphold the Constitution.

• BrianO | Aug 13, 2012, 01:29 PM EDT

  Eiriamach which one of your racist is in charge of the legal system of the USA, you know the department of justice. What does it say about a president that appoints such a racist to a cabinet position, and we could go on, remember vance jones? Yes war mongering neo nazi groups try to infiltrate and recruit th tea party thinking like you they are extremist, They are disappointed as the tea party is made up of mom and dads who believe in the Constitution of the United States.

• eiriamach | Aug 11, 2012, 10:25 AM EDT

  BrianO, you're playing a game of one-upsmanship on racism in the political parties. 'Looks like you know you have a gang of low-lifes in the tea party, but it seems not to matter. Tea party activists include Billy Roper, who took part in White Revolution's 2004 Topeka Rally to protest the 1954 Brown vs the Board of Ed decision, which struck down segregation in public schools. SPLC calls him "the uncensored voice of violent neo-Nazism.... [He] isn't afraid to celebrate genocide and mass murder." He orders White Revolution members to distribute racist pamphlets at "Tea Parties from North Carolina to Arizona" and "to do your part for our race and nation!" Erich Gliebe, who heads the WV Neo-Nazi group National Alliance, uses the Internet to recruit the tea party: "a number of those who turned out [for a tea party meeting] on April 15th are ready to embrace the National Alliance's message." As a result, the tea party mainstreams racist agendas. NAACP Pres Ben Jealous warned the GOP, "You must expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take full responsibility for all of their actions." Their actions include shouting "He's too black to be President," in a tea party video on You Tube, and "I'm a proud racist. I'm white." TP posters depict Obama in Muslim headscarf and Hitler moustache; they declare "White people are p*ssed." A TP teeshirt reads "YUP. I'm a racist." As the Irish would say, an té a luionn le madraí éiríonn aníos le dreancaidí.

• hollabackgurl | Aug 11, 2012, 09:34 AM EDT

  When conservatives tell gay people they're lucky not to be living in the Middle East they unconsciously reveal their own barely suppressed fundamentalism. It's very telling.

• seanomelb | Aug 10, 2012, 08:15 PM EDT

  Just to be clear I stated 'The right will never forgive" etc,etc.

• seanomelb | Aug 10, 2012, 08:09 PM EDT

  It was not an attack on you Briano are you deliberately mis-quoting me or just self centred.

• BrianO | Aug 10, 2012, 02:01 PM EDT

  The constitution of the US was created to limit the power of government. The history of the US is bound to it's break away from the forces of the crown. Government is a necessary burden of society, responsiple for national defense, border control, inter-state commerce. Your reference to the patriot act assumes it was to control the citizenry, I would think FDR's encampment of japanese american citizens would be a more outrageous treatment of rights but he was a progressive so I guess it was right.On Holder******The Obama administration won a default judgment in federal court in April 2009 when the Black Panthers didn't appear in court to fight the charges. But the administration moved to dismiss the charges in May 2009. Justice attorneys said a criminal complaint, which resulted in the injunction, proceeded successfully.***** Now when you don't show up to court you get released of all charges? only in the bizarro world of the Eric holder DOJ. R

• BrianO | Aug 10, 2012, 01:32 PM EDT

  @Eiria "Mindful of how Democrat opposition had forced the Republicans to weaken their 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, President Johnson warned Democrats in Congress that this time it was all or nothing. To ensure support from Republicans, he had to promise them that he would not accept any weakening of the bill and also that he would publicly credit our Party for its role in securing congressional approval. Johnson played no direct role in the legislative fight, so that it would not be perceived as a partisan struggle. There was no doubt that the House of Representatives would pass the bill. In the Senate, Minority Leader Everett Dirksen had little trouble rounding up the votes of most Republicans, and former presidential candidate Richard Nixon also lobbied hard for the bill. Senate Majority Leader Michael Mansfield and Senator Hubert Humphrey led the Democrat drive for passage, while the chief opponents were Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, of later Watergate fame, Albert Gore Sr., and Robert Byrd. Senator Byrd, a former Klansman whom Democrats still call "the conscience of the Senate", filibustered against the civil rights bill for fourteen straight hours before the final vote. The House of Representatives passed the bill by 289 to 126, a vote in which 79% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats voted yes. The Senate vote was 73 to 27, with 21 Democrats and only 6 Republicans voting no. President Johnson signed the new Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964.

• eiriamach | Aug 10, 2012, 12:32 PM EDT

  Cont'd: BiranO, We are all aware of the segregationist history of the Democratic Party. We are also aware that Democrats worked tirelessly to draft, pass, and enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent Voting Rights acts. Tea Party candidates have advocated repealing ALL of that progress, along with the 14th Amendment to the founding document known as the US Constitution. Nothing in the Constitution limits the SIZE of government or expresses a preference for small government. For a nation with the geographic reach, population, and regional diversity of the USA? The "small government" meme is ludicrous! When classic libertarians like Henry David Thoreau and Rbt Paul Wolff advocated a diminished role for government, they mean keeping government out of the private moral choices of citizens! They mean that government must learn to respect individual autonomy, and protect, rather than limiting, "inalienable" rights. That is the libertarian and classic liberal view of LIMITED government, not "small" government as the Tea Party misreads it. BTW, no US President has done more to damage privacy and extend government surveillance into our lives than G.W. Bush. See "The PATRIOT Act."

• eiriamach | Aug 10, 2012, 12:22 PM EDT

  BianO, the New Black Panther Party has been on SPLC's list of hate groups for a long time. The media follow activities of these groups closely. SPLC's description: "The New Black Panther Party is a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers." Why did no one, neither Holder nor any state agency, prosecute two Black Panthers for the 2008 intimidation at the poll? The simple fact is that no voter, white or other, would file any complaint against them! Holder issued an injunction, but without complaints or testimony, could not prosecute individuals. The media folks who keep returning to this event apparently think we should discard "innocent until proven guilty" and just throw people in jail without benefit of trial. Ronald Reagan appointed Eric Holder as judge to Superior Court, Washington DC. Later, Holder prosecuted Democrat congressmen John Jenrette and Dan Rostenkowski. His career has been demonstrably non-partisan and non-racist. BUT what if that were not true? Would racism in the Obama Cabinet excuse racism in the GOP? What is your point? My guys are as bad as your guys? That's not a realistic way to deal with racism. Fact is, no one in the GOP will denounce the racism of those who hate Obama to the point that they grossly misrepresent (lie about) his personal life, decisions and policies.

• BrianO | Aug 10, 2012, 11:49 AM EDT

  Eiriamach, I believe the race card was in reference to @seanomelb saying that I will never forgive the majority for voting for a black president, his implication is that I disagree with Obama because he is black. Childish argument, I don't agree with something it must be because the president is black

• BrianO | Aug 10, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT

  Seano, as always I will defend and repeat what the tea party is. They represent returning to the founding documents of the USA, specifically the constitution and a smaller less intrusive government. I know having individual freedom offends many statist on this site but somebody has to stand up for individual freedom.

• BrianO | Aug 10, 2012, 11:37 AM EDT

  Eiriamch, check out ERIC HOLDER and the black panther party, specifically voter intimidation. On historical note the civil rights act was passed by republicans against democratic opposition, democratic Senator Byrd was the last member of the kkk to be in congress, and the kkk was a southern democratic organization.

• seanomelb | Aug 10, 2012, 02:23 AM EDT

  BigDaddy it's OK to fill the coffers of the rich with government subsidies and denigrate the poor and take away from those who need it.Then there is more money for the millionaires subsidies. BTW I never cast any aspersions on anyone because of their colour,it's your teaparty friends and Fox who hold that mantle.

• eiriamach | Aug 09, 2012, 02:23 PM EDT

  BrianO, I do not understand your comment about playing "the race card." Did you intend to deny that there are racists in the GOP? I'd ask you to imagine a racist for a moment. Is he or she political? Well yeah, considering that the racist wants to dismantle civil rights legislation and repeal the 14th Amendment with its "equal protection of the laws" phrase that helped end legal segregation and discrimination. Well then, which political party is the racist more likely to join-- the Democratic Party with Barack Obama at its head, or the Republican Party, which has been enacting state laws that exclude many minority voters from the polls? Really, it's just plain common sense, not that Republicans are all racists, but that racists who join a political party join the GOP. The GOP could reverse that situation, but they'd lose a lot of far-right-wing votes and many elections if they adopted an anti-racism platform. No one expects that to happen.

• The Waltons | Aug 09, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT

  Stop deflecting Cahir. Please discuss odumbo's record... oh wait.

• BrianO | Aug 09, 2012, 12:11 PM EDT

  On a completely different subject, Cahir how are people of your sexual preference treated by Islam?

• BrianO | Aug 09, 2012, 12:08 PM EDT

  Seano, twas me that penned the comment wrongly attributed to mairint. When you are in doubt play the race card eh seano. I have no problem with obama being Kenyan American, I d have a problem with his deceit, anti capitalist values. I like the home of the free when free stands for freedom.

• BigDaddy | Aug 09, 2012, 09:31 AM EDT

  Would someone please tell me why the GOP NEVER complain. sorry

• BigDaddy | Aug 09, 2012, 09:25 AM EDT

  Would someone please tell me why the GOP ever complain about socialism when it involves the oil depletion allowance, farm subsidies, bail outs, no-bid cost-plus contracts, etc. When the government is shoveling money to the rich, the right acts as if it is their right to get such entitlements. If money goes to health care, day care or food stamps, it's socialism and it is evil. Oddly, Ayn Rand, the current goddess of the right wing, went on Medicare to pay her health care bills after her money ran out. Despite smoking like a chimney for decades (thereby causing her own medical problems) she became the very definition of a hypocrite but that is an oxymoron isn't it? Right wing hypocrite, I mean.

• michaelidaho | Aug 09, 2012, 08:47 AM EDT

  Come on jamcat, everybody knows unions have great benefits. Just about every union I know of grants five weeks vacation after meeting years of service requirements. A close relative of mine was an unskilled labor in the machinists union for TWA and had six weeks vacation. Gee, I wonder why TWA went bankrupt as well as cities across California. Do you think it might have to do with union intransigence and self interest?

• sparklemagic | Aug 09, 2012, 08:40 AM EDT

  Mairint, add the war on Religion to all the other wars. Romney has just released an ad claiming that Obama is making war on the Pope. Add that to the war on Fried Chicken and the war on Apple Pie I suppose. Boy the GOP are under attack on all fronts eh? I admire you for sounding patronizing rather than 'angry.'

• NYCsheridan | Aug 09, 2012, 08:30 AM EDT

  Mairint, are you drunk this early in the morning?

• mairint | Aug 09, 2012, 05:32 AM EDT

  Please note I did NOT write that item to 'Seano'. I did write another item giving a source to back up my earlier comment. There is an error in Irish Central in that my ID is attached to an earlier comment by someone else. Sorry SeanO. I would not write such material as shown below. Irish Central, please correct your problem, and please show the actual comment I sent you.

• mairint | Aug 09, 2012, 04:37 AM EDT

  As an outsider looking in I am usually amused by the angry young man, Cahir O'D. and especially by the equally angry and semi educated comments against people who respect God, their faith, their country. A pity the angry folk do not actually take the time to see what is really and truthfully happening. The angry folk with the bad language and name calling (and, I guess, equally bad temper)flail around most inefficiently while never actually responding to the original content of the article they are carrying on about !! Living in the southern hemisphere I can confirm the onward push of the ever more demanding Islamists. They come here from their own wrecked countries and they demand to impose their laws here. Same in Europe, UK, USA. Prove otherwise. The ball is in your court now - and please, watch your language!

• mairint | Aug 08, 2012, 10:20 PM EDT

  Seano, thank you for your continuing insults and lies, you are very similar to the rest of the democratic smear machine. All things are positioned by what color or race you are, How was Justice Thomas treated by the tolerant left? The ends justify the means by your ilk, lie spread rumor and lie some more. I judge a man by the content of his character and obama's character is lacking to the extreme. Let's see you list obamas good deeds.

• pilib04 | Aug 08, 2012, 10:10 PM EDT

  This happens to all candidates who suddenly realize that it's over. That the electoral vote is out of reach. A little early in 2012, but not surprising given the dismal outlook. Is feidir linn.

• patrickesq | Aug 08, 2012, 08:47 PM EDT

  PLEASE GOD SAVE US FROM MENDACIOUS SLANT-CANT RHETORIC. VOTE DEMOCRATIC!

• sparklemagic | Aug 08, 2012, 08:16 PM EDT

  There's a powerful odor of mendacity coming off you Carlow98, and like the other conservatives posting here I noticed you didn't dispute even one of his points. So there you go.

• carlow98 | Aug 08, 2012, 07:34 PM EDT

  No Cahir, The far right doesn't (not don't) But hey you managed to work in a really good word "mendacious". There you go.

• seanomelb | Aug 08, 2012, 07:21 PM EDT

  The right will never forgive the majority for electing a black American as POTUS. The right is as vile as it is hateful and organisations like "Fox" condone the right wing extremist by there inaction and refusal to condemn these evangelical bigots.Fox gives them succour and is responsible in there silence for any terrorist act committed by the loons and the teaparty which is the extreme right of the GOP.

• hollabackgurl | Aug 08, 2012, 05:54 PM EDT

  ZipZampor, anyone who actually believes that president Obama is a socialist should have their right to vote revoked and then be eradicated. Your comments are too stupid for words. No one but the frothing right buys that b.s.

• sparklemagic | Aug 08, 2012, 05:52 PM EDT

  Well said Jamthecat, then along comes Handsome68 with his witless screech to underline your points.

• handsome68 | Aug 08, 2012, 05:26 PM EDT

  Why don't all you liberal omadhauns just have tattooed "Kick me, I'm stupid" all over your faces and bodies. Yiz are such bloomin' idjits!

• jamthecat | Aug 08, 2012, 03:53 PM EDT

  I wish I could laugh about the stupidity and silliness of the GOP and Tea Party, but it's working too well. Read the comments on this article and you can see how many people just plain ignore the truth when it comes to Obama. "He's a socialist!" He's proven consistently to be anything BUT. "He's a liar." Sometimes, but compared to Romeny, he's a novice. "Unions get 5 weeks vacation." Which ones? I don't know of any except teachers, and half their summer vacations are spent finishing paperwoprk or getting ready for the coming schoolyear, all for a pittance. The ignorance and deliberate refusal to face reality is actually terrifying, because even when the GOP does exactly what we know they'll do, these fools will still blame everything on liberals, Democrats, and Obama. It's insane and self-destructive, but that's today's right-wing.

• ZipZampor | Aug 08, 2012, 03:24 PM EDT

  Well, the man has socialistic tendencies that cannot be denied. The GOP may be over doing it but socialism failed the Soviet Union and it will fail in America as well. Socialism is not good for the people. Only those in charge shall have the best of everything while the common man struggles to feed his family. The Soviets were famous for the long lines the people had to wait in to get basic supplies. Socialim is like smallpox and should be eradicated.

• twalker | Aug 08, 2012, 03:14 PM EDT

  Spot on article. Americans are tired of the fear game. On brighter news I found my Irish ancestors this week through research, a fine couple from Dublin of the Cochran clan. Can I come home? Aloha, Terri

• michaelidaho | Aug 08, 2012, 03:02 PM EDT

  susan724, First, Congress is made up of both Republicans and Democrats and I agree they are pretty lame. Second, the only people I know besides Congress that get five week vacations are government union employees. Third, be specific about my "ignorance." Fourth, it is not the Republicans fault that there is a drought.

• GuinnessGrrl | Aug 08, 2012, 01:51 PM EDT

  Why all the hysteria over the President? In case you haven't noticed (said in a whisper) he's black! Seriously, you racists just need to out yourselves & stop giving excuses other than what you truly feel. Obama 2012!

• Nicomax | Aug 08, 2012, 01:45 PM EDT

  Living my whole life in one 'blue' state or another it irks me that I've been part of a group of taxpayers that pay more than we ever get back in federal spending, while the 'take back our country' states, such as Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, etc, are taker states in the true sense that they get more in federal spending than they contribute in taxes. But this does not stop them from looking for conspiracies and complaining about the federal government.

• BrianO | Aug 08, 2012, 01:44 PM EDT

  The next thing cahir will accuse Romney of killing some poor guys wife. Oh wait they just did, don't check the facts just make the charge. I like in this article above how some of the verification of fact is to posters on a web site, check out posters on this web site, lots of vile stuff. Cahir references chicken reffering to the chick fil a owner saying he believes in God and the biblical definition of marriage. Of course anyone who believes in God must be destroyed both personally and economically, the only problem is it backfired. I write on this leftist site only to remind people that Obama and his ilk believe the ends justify the means, the truth means nothing.

• susan724 | Aug 08, 2012, 01:07 PM EDT

  michaelidahov - your ignorance is so scary! Did you see where the Republican Congress (who appropriates the money, not the President) went on vacation August 1After seven months of short work weeks and near-zero accomplishments, Congress has awarded itself a five-week vacation, deferring a series of tough legislative decisions until the members return after Labor Day even though over half the country is in the middle of a drought! OH those do nothing Republicans, When was the last time you had a 5 week vacation?

• susan724 | Aug 08, 2012, 01:00 PM EDT

  LOL! Your title says it all: "GOP Playbook Goes Off the Deep End." So, what's new?

• michaelidaho | Aug 08, 2012, 12:01 PM EDT

  carollover, An unbridled Obama agenda would be worse. Loads of money to the public service unions, failing schools and wasteful clean energy grants. No mention of reforms to fund Medicare or any other social insurance programs (he actually signed legislation that decreased funding for Social Security). Finally, he has been totally antagonistic to the business community and has done very little to make a dent in unemployment except to extend benefits for 99 weeks. Four more years of Obama = 4 trillion dollars of wasteful spending. No hope and no change.

• DaddyMac22 | Aug 08, 2012, 10:35 AM EDT

  Brilliant stuff Cahir, I find myself checking your articles out weekly now. Keep up the great work.

• mayoman | Aug 08, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT

  carollover: You nailed it! Well done.

• CelticQueenUSA | Aug 08, 2012, 09:52 AM EDT

  give the GOP enough rope and they will hang themselves. They are always sounding alarms that are NOT REAL. I find their tactics laughable but hope others can see through them as well. Vote Democrat all the way.

• knugent15 | Aug 08, 2012, 09:48 AM EDT

  I, like many people, believe that Obama has already "ripped apart the fabric of the nation" with his highly divisive rhetoric and actions. He needs no help from Conservatives. All he needs is a one way ticket back to Chicago.

• knugent15 | Aug 08, 2012, 09:34 AM EDT

  That about sums it up. Imagine if Lincoln could come back and survey the party he created. Wouldn't Honest Abe be so proud? Xenophobia always gets the base pumped up. As we've seen this week, it can get some of them too pumped up.

• carollover | Aug 08, 2012, 09:31 AM EDT

  And this is a surprise? For as long as I can remember the GOP has been the party of blame and fear. They've just allowed Fox News and their bigotry to make them appear even more ridiculous. Unfortunately I think enough Americans are going to succumb to it, and then Mittens, Paul Ryan and company are going to cut taxes for the rich, turn Medicare into a voucher program and cut Social Security, crop subsidies, school lunches, SSI for seniors and the disabled, unemployment insurance, veterans pensions, the EITC and everything else but defense. If you don't believe me go read the Ryan budget plan, which Mittens has signed off on. And heaven help us if this election is close, because the GOP will flat out steal it. They're trying to do so with all the voter ID laws. Hey the Koch boys want something for their $100 million. And if they steal it, we might just have another civil war in this country, only this time rich v. poor instead of North/South.