(the original spelling and meaning of the word).

or am I thinking of brazillion

Democrats are hitting them with the hardhitting in your face style only used by the GOP previously.

LIKE BLUBBERING REPUBLICONS.

Obama to run against him without talking about all the bad Rmoney's done. It's like a beauty contest were Obama is 36-24-36 and Rmoney is 42-48-54 and thinking how dare they talk about our measurements. This is the beauty contest of America, and you lose Rmoney, and it's ALL your fault.

Doesn't this suggest that Reid is lying? At least, the accusations are not on par with one another.

Reid can back it up.Why would Rmoney not provide proof of his taxes ..he cant

That is what concerns me. If somehow someone did divulge the truth about the tax returns, wouldn't that be scandalous in its own right?

Sometimes evidence in court is thrown out because due process was never followed. I'd certainly be pissed if someone was sniffing around in my financials behind my back.

Reid had better be careful. These kind of accusations have a tendency to backfire.

Reid did not say that Romney paid no income taxes for 10 years.

There is a distinction. Reid is not lying about someone credible telling him that Romney paid no income taxes.

There is absolutely no truth in the accusations listed in the cartoon about President Obama but there are a lot of GOPers saying or implying those things - or outright lying - with absolutely no proof or evidence whatsoever.

The truth about Romney's taxes can be very easily proven if Romney submits his tax returns. And even if those returns do show that Mittens paid income taxes, they cannot show that Harry Reid lied about what a credible someone told him.

I guess that I don't really understand what you are trying to say. One side (the GOP) throws out accusations with absolutely no proof whatsoever and in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are false. The other side (Reid) is merely reporting what they were told. If that report was false, then the tax returns can surely demonstrate it.

But even then, Reid wasn't lying.

That Reid's statement is somehow on par with the lies put forth by the Romney campaign.

To me, it says, if they are going to be dirty, then we can and should be too.

I guess that is ok. I think there is more to this cartoon than meets the eye. I'd rather we avoid the gutter of politics if we can.

Big fat obvious difference.

But it also suggests parity. It does not illustrate the factory behind Reid's statements, only the end result.

the lack of parity is sort of a hypocrisy multiplier.

in our totally FUBAR system. So long as we have two political parties only and one side lies and lies with no scruples whatsoever, we must continually combat those lies with the truth - even if it looks to the uninformed as if we are "descending" to their level. This is not parity with their tactics. It is a realistic and necessary response. And, I repeat, Harry Reid is not lying about what he was told.

If we don't, their lies triumph and we are all left with the unscrupulous liars who will run the country for themselves and their "friends". The most recent example of that is Bush II.

I am not willing for that to happen. Never, ever again.

he knows that what he has said is just hearsay. That doesn't mean it isn't true, but it's still hearsay and that's ok. the word "rumor" doesn't mean untrue either, it just means unproven, unsubstantiated.

The spreading of rumors- it doesn't shine highly upon either side. It's dirty, vicious politics all around. I'm not going to cheer it on. It is what is wrong with the system.

a mere rumormonger. Just keep that in mind.

Romney can easily disprove this so-called rumor by releasing his tax returns, which is a much more reasonable thing for him to do than for Obama to have to release his birth certificate (which he did) to dispel totally unfounded and scurrilous rumors about where he was born. After all, every other GOP or Dem candidate for the office of POTUS in recent years has released several years' worth of tax returns. But Romney refuses to do so. So we are left to believe the worst.

It's not parity at all. But if you want to remain above "all that" and lose to the liars, as has happened and will happen again without a counterattack that could indeed be the truth, you can keep yourself totally unsullied and feel totally virtuous about it.

But I'm surprised that you're here at DU at all.

At a bit of legitimate debate?

I've been a member since just after Sept 11th, 2001. That's nearly 11 years, and I still havn't lost the ability to think independently

Having been very much involved with the World of Work abroad and literally having no time to surf the web in other than work-related capacities, I didn't even discover DU until 2004. Even then, I lurked for some time before actually signing up, primarily being a great fan of EarlG's Top Ten and JeffR's DUzys.

I wish that I had discovered DU at its inception. It would have saved me years of angst when, from all US MSM reports, everyone "loved" the Bush Misadministration (except for my close family members and friends). Now that I am "officially" retired (but still work a bit to supplement SS and pension, etc.), I have more time to understand how the US MSM most often get things wrong.

I'm glad that you haven't lost the ability to think independently. But I understood your remarks to make false equivalence rather than understanding the distinction between the lies about President Obama without any foundation whatsoever that are so easily uttered by the GOP and a report from Harry Reid about what a credible someone told him that is, all things considered, very likely to be true.

I am utterly sick and tired of false equivalence passing for objectivity. So I tend to react. If I am wrong, I apologize.

But I'm not saying they are equivalent, I'm just saying that the cartoon could be interpreted to suggest equivalence, or at the very least take away from the credibility of Reid's statements by associating them with Birthers and other such ridiculousness.

Making such a blanket statement like "he paid no taxes" seems quite incredible, even if it were true. It very well might be true, but because it could so easily be framed as highly unlikely, and possibly a lie, during a campaign season that is steadily digressing into a mud fight, having a cartoonist drawing parallels between his statement and truly viscous statements (simply by drawing them both into the same cartoon) might not have the intended effect. Also, much of the birther nonsense cannot be directly tied to ranking members of the Republican party, and I think most people would assume those people are simply crazy.

It was just the feeling I got from the cartoon.. it just seemed, to me, to not have the explosive effect many here seem to think it has. Take it from an outsider (obviously I don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time here... mainly get more interested during the political season).

Thanks for telling me a bit about yourself. I came here after 9/11 ecause it was the only sane place I could find on the internets. Everyone else was caught up in false Patriotic insanity. DU was a life saver / changer for me back then... I experienced the Kerry campaign here... and was quite surprised at the Obama backlash after he was elected. Glad to see people are back on board, for the most part.

The Republicans have made rep out of vicious campaigns. They've dished it out and now they better learn to take it.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]He famously said, "I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

It still works!

"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson

More Vicious..so we simply have to blast the FACTS/TRUTHS AT THEM.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I love that one, too!

When it is attacked it defends itself.

Wolf

Against thsose meanies

Wow.

All of the accusations about Obama require that he prove something that they claim to be true are, in fact, not true.

The only thing Romney has to prove is that he paid taxes. Not a negative.

Waiting... Waiting...

You know what I mean, Vern?

It's been a talking-point since the last election:
Obama is an ANGRY (Black) man. And his wife is angry, too. And his little dog is, too.
He is vicious. Be scared, be very scared.

Another associated talking-point is:
Obama hates you because you are __________________. But basically
because you are white and he is a vengeful, resentful black man.

He hates Christians, Jews, capitalists, wealthy people, the military,
democracy, America, apple pie, baseball, puppies............
(and now farming, appearantly, according to Hank Williams Jr.)

Expect to hear a lot of this veiled racism until November.
Newt was the best at this game.

We're wide awake now, bitches! You're going down.

Love,

The New and Improved, Badass Democratic Party

Yup, David Gregory just said that on MTP a minute ago. More false equivalency from Gregory and his pundits.

It's a campaign of hate of the President--on the part of the GOP/TP.

And for the OP, a kick for the Sunday evening crew...

Since naming Ryan as his running mate, and not getting any bounce in the polls for it, I don't know what Romney is going to do for an encore.

Anne told us to wait until he got unzipped.

But, I think Romney will become unhinged as his numbers go lower and he begins to see the EXIT light at the end of the tunnel.