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...of 'a connection between Iraq and 9/11'
By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 9:11pm PT  

Tonight at the V.P. debate...

CHENEY: The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11.

And previously...back in Reality Land...

"If we're successful in Iraq...we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." - Dick Cheney

Source: Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003).

And this...

"We did have reporting that was public, that came out shortly after the 9/11 attack, provided by the Czech government, suggesting there had been a meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker, and a man named al-Ani (Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani), who was an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague, at the embassy there, in April of '01, prior to the 9/11 attacks. It has never been --- we've never been able to collect any more information on that. That was the one that possibly tied the two together to 9/11." - Dick Cheney

Source: Transcript of Interview with Vice President Dick Cheney, Rocky Mountain News (1/9/2004).

DEVELOPING...MORE...

MR. RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. I think it's not surprising that people make that connection.

Source: Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003).

More on the lying Dick from Kerry-Edward's peeps...right here.

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By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 8:10pm PT  

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By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 7:36pm PT  

Thoughts on what you saw now that it's over? Fact-checks? Media spin you catch in the analysis? Who won and who lost? If anyone?

I'll share my thoughts here in Comments. Please share yours as they hitcha!

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Come on in!
By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 5:49pm PT  

Okay, please join us in COMMENTS for Play-by-Play Open Thread throughout the V.P. Debate tonight! Starting now! Come on in, and share your on-the-fly two cents!

Let's hear from ya!

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Paul Bremer Off Ice.
By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 3:22pm PT  

When I heard the story of Bremer's speech to DePauw University late last night, I realized that we hadn't thought about him, seen him, or heard from him since the day he hightailed it outta Baghdad when "sovereignty" was handed back to the Iraqis.

He's been nowhere to be found. Oddly enough, he wasn't even pulled out of mothballs to appear at the Republican Convention Fear-Fest. He was a likeable character and projected some sense of confidence to the American people. So it was strange that they didn't exploit him the way they exploited Rudy, McCain, Arnold and the others.

Perhaps now we know why. Here's part of the statement he made:

"The single most important change --- the one thing that would have improved the situation --- would have been having more troops in Iraq at the beginning and throughout... Although I raised this issue a number of times with our government, I should have been even more insistent."

Ah...not a "friendly". Might go all "Dick Clarke" on 'em I suppose the Bushies feared.

And now, as Atrios reports, the Bushies are going all "Dick Clarke" on him! Apparently calling Bremer a liar, claiming that he never asked for more troops.

Atrios set the record straight, with this July 2003 report from Mercury News:

WASHINGTON - The top American administrator in Iraq, confronting growing anti-U.S. anger and guerrilla-style attacks, is asking for more American troops and dozens of U.S. officials to help speed up the restoration of order and public services.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld was reviewing the request from L. Paul Bremer, U.S. officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Bremer's request underscores how difficult it has been for his small civilian staff and some 158,000 U.S.-led troops to meet the demands of Iraqis for security and other basic needs. It also conflicts with upbeat public statements from President Bush, Rumsfeld and Bremer himself on the progress made on Iraq's political and economic reconstruction.

Enough. Enough lying. Enough dissembling. Enough character assassination. Enough saving their own ass, and not giving a damn about America's ass. We can and must do so much better. It's time for them to go.

UPDATE: John Aravosis points out, in regards to this story, that the folks at the Dept. of Defense who are lying now about Paul Bremer, would be from the same Pentagon also currently telling us that no draft will be necessary. Fool me once?

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By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2004 12:42pm PT  

Stop on by during tonight's V.P. Debate! We'll be having another Open Thread where you can toss in your play-by-play two cents as it happens! We had much fun last week during the first Presidential Debate, and tonight should be even nastier :-) --- So please stop on by during the big show. I'll open up the thread about 30 minutes or so prior to show time! See ya then!

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He's NOT watching out for you!
By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 10:43pm PT  

"The orders have come down - Be as fair as you possibly can." --- Bill O'Reilly, on tonight's O'Reilly Factor

Apparently the orders did not "come down" far enough. O'Reilly tonight opened his All-Spin All-The-Time Zone this evening on how close the race now is. (I differ with that opinion, but that's fine and not the point of this item.)

He assured his viewers in his "Talking Points" segment that, with the race this tight, it's only going to get still nastier, and thus, he will be there to help viewers to sort out what's really going on in the race. He will help sort out the "spin" of the two candidates by examining their ads to expose who's telling the truth and who isn't.

To help us get started, he then showed two of the latest Video Ads from the campaign. He showed this one for Bush, and immediately followed it with this reponse ad from Kerry.

Here's the voice-over of the Bush ad (read carefully...emphasis added for text that also appears on screen during the spot):

BUSH AD: "He said he'd attack terrorists who threaten America. But at the debate, John Kerry said America must pass A Global Test before we protect ourselves. The Kerry Doctrine: A Global Test. So we must seek Permission from foreign governments before defending America? A global test? So America will be Forced to wait while threats gather? President Bush believes decisions about protecting America will be made in the Oval Office, not foreign capitals."

Here's the voice-over from the Kerry ad (emphasis added again for text that also appears on screen as it's read):

KERRY AD: “George Bush lost the debate. Now he's lying about it. This is what you heard John Kerry really say: 'The president always has the right for pre-emptive strike.' 'I will hunt and kill the terrorists, wherever they are.' But here's something new about George Bush – newspapers report he withheld key intelligence information from the American public so he could overstate the threat Iraq posed. Bush rushed us into war. Now we're paying the price. It's time for a fresh start."

Now the Bush ad is demonstrably misleading and/or downright false. The ad referred to this statement that Kerry made during the debate:

"No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.

But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."

And there is not a single incorrect fact, statement or even word in the Kerry ad.

So how did O'Reilly help us "sort out the spin"? He had an entire segment, with an expert who --- surprise! --- agreed with O'Reilly's analysis that Kerry's ad crossed the line because he used the word "lying" in it!

Yes, that's right. Not a single word about the demonstrably misleading and/or false substance in the Bush ad. Not one.

Does it really matter that Fox is so unfair and so unbalanced? Is that news to anyone? Perhaps not. But the fact that they are the number one most watched news channel --- clearly for their pure entertainment value --- and so flagrantly do everything possible to support Bush and while telling tells folks they are "fair and balanced" is simply outrageous.

I'm still waiting for any real conservative (other than our friend and frequent BRAD BLOG commenter Teddy here) to speak up and denounce the appalling and flagrant bias of Fox News. I'm waiting for those same conservative wingnuts who are still bashing Rather and CBS, who actually made a lazy mistake versus out and out partisanship over the airwaves, to speak out against Fox.

Sidenote: Fox News Watch, the weekend show on Fox that claims to "cover the coverage" spent 3 of their 4 segments on various CBS related "controversies". They spent exactly zero segments covering any of this week's many Fox News, um, "digressions". And so it goes.

(If you're new here, read this and this and this and this for an idea of just a few of the outright lies and anti-Kerry bias that Fox News has sold America in just the past few days alone!)

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Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper
By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 8:34pm PT  


Leroy Gordon Cooper, one of the nation's first astronauts who once set a space endurance record by traveling more than 3.3 million miles aboard Gemini 5 in 1965, died on Monday, NASA said. He was 77.
...
In his post-NASA career, Cooper became known as an outspoken believer in UFOs and charged that the government was covering up its knowledge of extraterrestrial activity.

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth," he told a United Nations panel in 1985.
...
He added, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."

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The Emperor Without His Clothes
By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 5:23pm PT  

While Rush brewed up a fresh pitcher this morning for his Kool-aid drinkers, predictably turning on the "Liberal" Media because their polls now show a come-back for Kerry in the face of Bush's disastrous performance last week. To swallow that notion, one would need to ignore all the media's previous polls that showed Bush winning, ignore the poll of WaPo --- one of the favorite "Liberal" media whipping boys --- which still shows Bush leading, ignore the past three and a half years of demonstrably pro-Bush work by the entire Mainstream Media, and a whole bunch of Kool-aid to wash it all down. But Rush has nothing else to rally his supporters with for the moment, so every line old becomes new again.

In the wake of it all, those of us who know the real reason why Bush is heading back to Crawford have had some time to ponder it all.

Here's four enlightening items I think you'll enjoy. All of them very powerful. I suggest you look at each of them. Including the last link with one the best pieces I've seen explaining where we are right now and why the truth about George W. Bush is finally making it through the cracks in the armor.

My buddy, Fin of "What-We-Know", has put together a terrific little video that hits the nail right on the head. He gets it. Most of you already do as well. But this puts a lot in perspective. Check out his "Lone Wolf" video. Especially you Rightwingers.

My other buddy, Jesse, over at the DCCC, has put together a terrific video compendium called "Miserable Failure" detailing Bush's gaffes, lies, misleads, or whatever you want to call them from the first debate. Corrections to Bush's, uh, "misstatements" are provided, along with some great Springsteen music to boot. Check it out. Especially you Rightwingers.

A group calling themselves "Real Voices" puts out an extraordinarily emotional indictment of George W. Bush's war. It's called "A Mother's Tears" and features testimony from the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq - for no apparent reason. It packs a wallop. Please check it out. Especially you Rightwingers.

Finally, Digby puts into perspective precisely why George W. Bush now finds himself exposed and in trouble in a piece called "Two Faces. One Public, One Private. One Phony, One Real." It beautifully sums up the last four years of the Bush scam to a tee and why America may finally be starting to "get it". I can't recommend enough that you give this piece a quick read. (Thanks Bryan for the tip!) You may as well learn the truth now rather than waiting until after the election and wondering what happened. Particularly you Rightwingers!

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4th Largest Coalition Partner Pulling Out.
Done being 'taken for a ride.'
By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 3:43pm PT  

Despite Bush's invocation of Poland twice at last week's debate, only once correctly, it looks like they've had enough of both Bush and Iraq according to this just in from AFP:

Poland said that it aims to withdraw all of its 2,500 troops from Iraq during the course of next year, a major disappointment for Washington which sees Warsaw as one of its staunchest allies in Iraq.

In the first Presidential Debate, Bush had attempted to correct a statement by Kerry...

KERRY: ...Secondly, when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better.

LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.

BUSH: Well, actually, he forgot Poland. And now there's 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops.

Well, actually...he didn't Mr. "President". Poland was not there when you rushed in to find no Weapons of Mass Destruction with no plans on how to win your war. Poland didn't add troops to the effort until after Baghdad fell. (After the "Mission" was "Accomplished").

Poland, who's President told reporters last March, "[T]hey deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride," now becomes the 10th country (if my count is accurate...it's hard to really tell who was ever in or out) to pull out of Bush's "Miscalculation".

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By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 2:08pm PT  

(Thanks AMERICABlog and Counterspin Central for staying on this one!...As silly as it all is.)

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By Brad Friedman on 10/4/2004 1:13pm PT  

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Condoleeza Rice is a National Embarrassment
Please fire this woman.
By Brad Friedman on 10/3/2004 11:28pm PT  

I give up. Just saw Condi on This Week. The blog item it would take to detail the number of lies she told in a single interview would crash my server.

Not only can I not believe that woman is still National Security Advisor, I can't believe she's still employed. At all. Anywhere. Couldn't find a transcript for you, but here's a short article on the appearance that covers the tiniest fraction of her utter and complete soulless continuation of misleading America. Apparently not enough bandwidth over at ABC to cover all her nonsense either.

If I have a stomach for it, I'll try to hit some specifics in the morning via comments. Otherwise, see my previous item on her CNN appearance this morning, and Aravosis' detail of just one of her This Week lies this morning. If you have the stomach for it.

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Bush Lead 'Evaporated' After Debate
Race Now A Tie According to Gallup
By Brad Friedman on 10/3/2004 10:24pm PT  

And if Gallup says it's tied...[fill in own thoughts here].

Favorable public reaction to his performance in the first presidential debate has boosted Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and narrowed the contest with President Bush to a tie, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll.

Bush's lead of 8 percentage points before Thursday's debate evaporated in a survey taken Friday through Sunday. Among likely voters, Bush and Kerry are at 49% each.

[Kerry] Was judged the winner of the debate by more than 2-to-1, 57% to 25%. By 13 points, voters say Kerry expresses himself more clearly than Bush. By 10 points, they say he is more intelligent.

In the 17 states seen by both sides as most competitive, Kerry has a slight lead, 47% to 45%. Before the debate, he lagged by 7 points in those battlegrounds.

...according to Gallup anyway. And we all know that Gallup [fill in own thoughts here].

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By Brad Friedman on 10/3/2004 6:48pm PT  

(Tip of the hat to Fin at "What We Know")

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