Brit Hume's Special Report panel on Fox just spent the last five minutes discussing what the supposed "Liberal" on the panel (Jeff Birnbaum, in this case) described as "Democrats really grasping at straws".

The discussion was about Cheney's announcement that America would be attacked again "in a devastating way" if they voted John Kerry into office. (What Cheney said here, BRAD BLOG's video reponse to it here).

So my question is, with a panel that consists today of the far Right Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes and the middle-of-the-road, Right-leaning Birnbaum, all lead by staunch Conservative Brit Hume, where on God's Green Earth is the view from the Left about anything on that show?

Yes, I know that's not a new thought. But Jesus...how do they continue to get away with not only calling themselves "Fair and Balanced", but who are these frickin' Americans that actually believe that nonsense? Wouldn't it at least be honest for them to say what they are, a Republican News Organization?

Anyone who would be purposefully blind enough believe their spin would, I guess, also think George W. Bush is either "conservative" or "effective" as a "President". So there ya go.

By the way, Media Matters for America has been doing a great job of calling out Fox (along with CNN and MSNBC) their a) laziness b) deceitfulness and c) continuous Right Wing slant on just about everything they "report".

The Pentagon announced yesterday that they have "incorrectly detained" a man for two and a half years at Gitmo, without access to an attorney or anyone else, and they will now be freeing him and sending him back to his home country. It turns out he is not an "enemy combatant". Sorry about that! No hard feelings?

That's two and half years in prison without charges, a hearing, or access to an attorney. Presumably we only now know about this because the Supreme Court has finally ordered the Bush Administration to provide some kind of hearings for the people locked away in the black hole of Guantanimo Bay.

Out of 600 held there, they have now held hearings for just 28 of them. So far, at least one of those 28 has been proven to be innocent. I wonder if there are any more wrongly held amongst the other 572 "enemy combatants" that have been charged with nothing, and have had access to neither trial nor attorney all of this time.

As one human rights worker described it: "This is just further evidence of the serious errors that occur when you ignore basic human rights and standards of international humanitarian law."

Bush/Cheney '04: Spreading "Liberty" Across the Globe! One detainee at a time!

To the point. See American Prospects detailed rebuttal to Cheney's bluster about Kerry's record on Defense cuts. Including contemperaneous quotes from then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney bragging about all the cuts he'd made or supported on all of the very weapons systems he's now hypocritically sliming Kerry for "voting against".

See the entire piece for all of the indisputable, point-by-point details of Cheney attempting to shut down the very systems that he's now cynically charging Kerry with not supporting.

Facts can be very troubling. No wonder the Bushies don't bother much with them.

Predictably, the GOP has begun it's latest smear campaign on anyone who dares question to the perfection of King Bush.

Today's victim, Ben Barnes, who has come forward to acknowledge that he pulled strings to help get young Dubya into the Air National Guard, and thus, out of the draft for active duty in Vietnam.

Barnes, a Kerry supporter, has admitted being ashamed of having done so, but felt that the story should be told since Bush is now running as a "War President" (Bush's words), sending thousands of servicemen to their deaths, and sliming John Kerry for his war service wherein he actually went to war instead of avoiding it through Guard service (and then, as it turns out, pulling more strings to get out of that same Guard!)

In classic fashion, the GOP website has released a slime bulletin on Ben Barnes. Dick Clarke-ing him, if you will, as they've done to so many before. The screaming headline on their page reads "WHO IS BEN BARNES? A Deep-Pocketed Kerry Partisan Who Can't Keep His Stories Straight" --- after which they fail to show how Barnes has ever changed his story one bit. Instead, they suggest that Barnes claimed he was never asked "by the Bush family" to help George. And even though he's not making such a claim now (Barnes says he was contacted by a Houston Businessman and friend of the Bush's to help get George out of the draft), they're assuming most of their Attack Monkeys won't much bother with the details.

The Talking Points for these guys is all that matters. Read the link above, and watch for all the repetition of same from the Talking Heads today. Truth be damned. Anything to win.

Thoughts to come later, no doubt, on all this new Bush National Guard business. There's a few items that don't look good. Even worse than usual in regards to this matter this time around.

I'll mention off the top, that Bush's own service, avoidance thereof, commands disobeyed etc. are relevant issues at this time, given that he has built his campaign on being a "War President" and has chosen to use our armed forces in a questionable (being generous here) war of choice. Add to that the far-too-many National Guardsmen that have been deployed overseas and far beyond their expected tours of duty.

The White House seems to be on late-night deep deep damage control (see AMERICAblog's notes here and here) on this one tonight. Even going so far as to try and get out front on a few of these items as well as some of the upcoming dish from Kitty Kelly's new Bush book (rumored to include accusations that he did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and was involved in an abortion a few decades ago amongst other fresh scandals).

More on it all later, but just one question for now; If the continued defense of Dubya's now seriously questionable Guard service --- as his spokesman Dan Bartlett spun tonight on 60 Minutes and so many others have when defending Bush on this matter --- is that "he was honorably discharged by the Guard" and hence that proves all the other allegations are without merit, then why isn't the same thing equally true in regards to Kerry's service? He was given three purple hearts by the Army! Doesn't that prove that any allegations that Kerry didn't deserve those awards are therefore without merit?

In other words, if that defense works for Bush, why do the Bush thugs overlook such conveniences and benefits-of-the-doubt when it comes to Kerry's service?

The answer to that is likely quite obvious. Moral bankruptcy is an ugly business. Anything to win.

A note to all you sissy Democrats out there: SNAP OUT OF IT!

Your man is essentially tied with Bush nationally, and still beating him (though slipping in the wake of the one-two punch of lying Swifties and lying Convention speakers) in the battleground states and electoral polls!

See Zogby's latest national poll, released yesterday --- and again a reminder that Zogby was the only one to get the last two Presidential elections almost exactly right --- showing that Bush leads by just 2% in national polling! Well within the margin of error! He also explains why those Time, Newsweek and Gallup numbers suggesting a huge lead by Bush are largely hogwash.

Zogby also released yesterday his latest battleground numbers showing that Kerry, while slipping over the past week or two is still ahead in the all important swing states and electoral tally.

That said, yes, President AWOL did receive an expected post-convention bounce. And for about a day or two, he seemed to have "The Big Mo'".

But with Kerry finally fighting back, and the news quickly turning against Bush in the past couple of days with yet another record deficit announced yesterday, the media (momentarily sorta) paying attention again to our War on Iraq now that over 1000 US Troops have been killed, Texans for Truth (I need there had to be some!) fighting back with their own video ads, The Boston Globe reporting that Bush did not meet his Air National Guard commitments, and 60 Minutes' exposé on the strings Bush pulled to get into the Guard in the first place and the orders disobeyed once there, and Cheney finally leaping over the line of common decency...well, this thing is just getting lively!

So don't make me come out there and slap you! The White House is yours if you want it! Make some noise, get to work, fight for truth, justice and an America you can be proud of again, and stop all that girly-man simpering! Bullies and liars only succeed if you let them!

Got a bit waylaid yesterday after Cheney told folks in Iowa that the United States would be devasted by an attack from al-Qaeda if American's made the mistake of voting John Kerry into office. After attempting to turn some of my rage into a rapid-response video, the result is, as they say, "Mission accomplished". For now.

And with the news cycles now spinning once every 3 minutes or so, there is much to catch up on. May take a few days.

One item, is a bit of clean-up work, hopefully for the last time (though somehow I doubt it) in regards to the lies at the RNC hatefest in NYC last week.

I just got around to Fred Kaplan's great article in Slate on the "Lies, Damned Lies and Convention Speeches" of Miller and Cheney.

He sets the record quite straight (again) on the nonsense that they suckered poor old Zell into saying out loud for them. And yet, since the Bushies --- which would include all of his sorry slash confused slash ignorant supporters out here in Americaville - don't much care about the difference between reality and fantasy, I guess the bare-knuckle truth needs repeating. Again.

Kaplan's piece is very straight forward (I suggest you read it in it's entirety so you can set your daft Bush Lovin' Brother-in-Law straight between now and Election Day) on the facts versus the fiction in both Zell and Cheney's speeches.

Here's one in regards to the weapons cuts nonsense from Zell's speech:

Instead, Kaplan explains, the references were to cherry-picked items out of omnibus defense appropriations bills back in 1990 and 1995. Back when Dick Cheney, as Secretary of Defense was advocating all sorts of reductions in defense spending!

And one last comical note on one of the several "truly weird passages" from Zell's speech...

Another all-new BRAD BLOG campaign video ad is now available for your viewing pleasure! Check it out right here!...

If you are able to offer a mirror site for the files, please download them, park them on your server, and email me with the URLs where I can link to them! Much appreciated!

Please continue to spread the word high and low! The BRAD BLOG relies on you to get these things to the folks that need to see them!!! Get busy!

And the "Anything to Win" ad is still right here!

From AP:

It's official. Over 1000 U.S. troops now killed in combat in our little "miscalculation" in Iraq. 854 of them were killed after our "Commander-in-Chief" notified us and our armed forces that "Major hostilities are over".

Feeling safer yet? Feel confident in the judgement of your "Commander-in-Chief"? Or have you had enough?

"W stands for wrong", indeed!

Support the troops. Vote George W. Bush out of office!

Perhaps even funnier than Bush's gaffe from the previous item!

See the guy at left? Well, there was an all out hunt for that fine young Republican after he was video taped kicking one of the protesters who'd made it into the GOP Convention last week. We ran a video of the sorry scene in a short item last week detailing some of the "patriotic" behavior amongst the GOP delegates.

But here's a better video of the incident which includes an interview with the guy who wouldn't identify himself to reporters after they'd told him they had video of him kicking the female protester when she was down. That report "kicked off" an all-out manhunt for the guy in the following days.

Well, the manhunt seems to be over! The fine young Republican seems to have finally been identified, according to Jesus' General! His name: Deryk Schlessinger. And guess who's little bunchkin he turns out to be?!!

Apparently, he is his mom's kid after all!

HUGE creds to the Jesus' General Blog for getting the skinny on this one!

Now go take on the day!

Not to toot our own horn, but perhaps the Kerry Campaign is paying closer attention to BRAD BLOG videos than we may have thought!

Today, John Kerry began to focus on a clear new theme...

Well, here's a small version of a rudimentary video that I submitted at the last minute to the "Bush in 30 Seconds" video contest sponsored by MoveOn.org last year.

At the time, it wasn't quite as politically correct to question Iraq or this "President" publically. Things have changed in a few short months, however, and it looks like Kerry is starting to understand that. No doubt it was due to my video!

Hey, John: Here's another BRAD BLOG message that you may feel free to use!

In response today, Bush told a crowd of apparently-gullible believers that "We were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein." The family of the 1000th U.S. Serviceman to die for Bush's "miscalculation" may, however, have a reason to feel differently about that.

11 U.S. Troops were killed in Iraq yesterday (Monday). Bringing the total dead so far to 999.

To paraphrase one of America's war heroes; How do you ask a man to be the 1000th man to die for a "miscalculation"?