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"?

Oh. My. God. Did he just say that?

Yes. Yes, he did.

AP is reporting that Dubya's National Guard record is "mysteriously" missing many important documents...

Read the whole story for more details on the documents that should be there, but aren't.

None of the 600 to 700 troops in Bush's unit in Alabama ever actually saw Bush report for duty there during the time he went missing (other than a dentist who gave him a check-up), and despite a $10,000 reward offered for the last year to anyone who can come forward to prove that Bush served, we don't have an "Alabama National Guard Vets for Truth" group out there to set the record straight.

We do, however, have some very clear hints, and even a Lt. Col. in the Guard as eye-witness as to what happened to those now-missing records. (See this mostly-ignored CNN story for details.) But without the a bunch of veterans willing to make television spots to the effect, the American media apparently doesn't feel it's worth reporting on. During a "time of war" when National Guardsmen are being called upon to serve unprecedented duty in Iraq, for a questionable war --- or "miscalculation" as Bush himself called it --- I strongly disagree.

...is right here! Now also available in RealPlayer and MPG formats! Please keep spreading the word!

7 US Troops killed yesterday by car bomb in Fallujah. 2 US Troops were killed yesterday and 16 injured in a mortar barrage in Baghdad.

The current total of US Troops now dead in Bush's "miscalculation": 990, as best as I am able to keep track.

Never mind the children that the U.S. has managed to kill and/or injure in the last 24 hours. I'll spare you the photos here. For now.

And in other "miscalculation" news, where at least we've "liberated" a country working towards Democracy (please Email me if you believe that, by the way, as I've got some nice land in Tikrit to sell you, if so!), it turns out the "Democracy" taking shape over there may not be so "Democratic" after all!

The interim "miscalculation" government in Iraq has now banned al-Jazeera permanently. Shoring up, I guess, their "Liberated" Freedom of the Press.

And as to their upcoming elections in January? Well, we may have to start putting quotes around the word "election" as well, as it is now becoming possible that these "elections" will be held at the exclusion of some major cities where the outcome of voting may not be quite as favorable as the U.S. and their "friends" in Iraq may like.

According to today's LA Times:

All of this information should be common knowledge to Americans during "war time" if we had a responsible media who were interested in giving us NEWS rather than SPIN and political horse races...Particularly since last month --- August --- was the bloodiest month so far in Iraq! Who knew?

So the "miscalculation" by the guy that wants you to re-"elect" him --- based on his sound judgement and resolute convictions --- continues. But unless you pay attention to folks like me, with blogs like this one, you'd have no idea. And, of course, that's just how George W. Bush would like it to continue.

So do something.

The war rages on. Pay no attention, please..."These aren't the droids you're looking for"...

According to McLaughlin:

Now go take on the day!

1,100 U.S. troops injured in Iraq during August alone! The bloodiest month yet for injuries to U.S. Servicemen and women!

Hooray! We've turned the corner! Vote Bush!

And just in case your favorite cable channel didn't bring you any war news today (or this week, or this month), here's a recap of what happened --- yesterday only --- in the Iraq War. Bet ya didn't know they shot down one of our helicopters yesterday, didja?!

Bring ‘em on: Two Fallujah Brigade members, two civilians killed in fighting with US troops near Fallujah.
Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers wounded in patrol ambush near Tikrit.
Bring ‘em on: Seven insurgents killed, 25 wounded in heavy fighting with US troops near Tall Afar.
Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline ablaze near Basra.
Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers wounded in patrol ambush near Duluiyah.
Bring ‘em on: “Dozens” of Iraqis killed by car bomb at police academy in Kirkuk.
Bring ‘em on: Three Turkish hostages executed near Samarra.
Bring ‘em on: Seven insurgents killed, seven Iraqi soldiers wounded in fighting near Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policeman kidnapped in Basra.
Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline ablaze near Kirkuk.
Bring ‘em on: Green Zone mortared in Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: US helicopter shot down near Tall Afar; two crewmen wounded.
Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed in fighting with US troops near Ramadi.
Bring ‘em on: Associated Press driver assassinated near Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Bulgarian soldier wounded in patrol ambush near Karbala.

Courtesy of "Today in Iraq"

Now you get out there and have a great Labor Day Weekend, Mr. and Mrs. America!

Time for another campaign commercial from The BRAD BLOG! It's been too many month since our "Priceless" ad from months ago.

So please enjoy the all new "Anything to Win" video...

UPDATE: 9/5/04 10:15am PT - Hits are through the roof on the ad! About 100/minute over the last hour or so! Apologies if downloads, or the rest of the site is slowed down because of it! Please contact me if you are able to host the ad files on your server so I can make mirror sites available! Just send me the link addresses, and I'll get 'em posted! Thanks! - BF

UPDATE: 9/5/04 12:48pm PT - Had to take the ad temporarily down! Servers overwhelmed! If you can donate space (only 3.5mb or so are needed), PLEASE contact me ASAP at Brad.Friedman@cville.com! File is small, but downloads have been big and we need to spread out the bandwidth drain! Help appreciated! - BF!!!

UPDATE: 9/5/04 2:31pm PT - Ad back up and online! Thanks to John at the excellent AMERICABlog and the folks at nyc.IndyMedia.org! However, still seeking additional file/download sites to link to so that we don't overwhelm any one server! Please write if you can help!!!

UPDATE: 9/6/04 11:38am PT - Thanks to more generous folks, we now have MPG and RealPlayer Versions of the ad now available! Thanks to all who have helped! Keep spreading the word!