If we didn't know better, we might think that someone over at The Colbert Report is reading The BRAD BLOG, as he nailed it from top to bottom last night, on the GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Hoax, the Help America Vote Act, and all that's related.

Now that it's officially made its way into the national joke lexicon, it seems to us this may signal the beginning of the end of the GOP's once-useful "voter fraud" scam. Not that common sense and becoming a national joke has ever succeeded in shaming, or stopping, them before. But still. Enjoy...(and thank you, Stephen!)...

In one of the smartest pieces we've ever seen on his show, tying so many of the Bush Administration's unprecedented crimes together in a single bound, Stephen Colbert offers an out for all them, in one fell swoop. His comments come on the heels of the remarkable statement, made by U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to the American Bar Association in a speech this week, that "not...every violation of the law, is a crime."

Yes, that's what he actually said. Here's what Colbert said in reply last night...

UPDATE: If you have any problem viewing the above video, RAW STORY now has it up in a different video format, along with a few additional details, as well.

Colbert's response to O'Reilly's recently exposed, profanity-laced, uncensored on-camera flip-out from his days at Inside Edition was incredibly funny. Here it is, including both O'Reilly's flip (edit for both time and language), and Colbert's own...

It's the first actually intelligent, respectful discussion/debate on the Iraq War I ever recall seeing on television, certainly with an administration official. And it had to happen on a fake news show. About 6 years later than it should have.

Here's the complete uncut version of Jon Stewart's Monday night Daily Show interview with Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith. Part 1 is 8 mins, Part 2 (uncut) is just over 11 mins. If you saw it on air, you missed a good 6 1/2 minutes or so which were edited out for time from Part 2...

He will, indeed, be missed. At least by those of us here at The BRAD BLOG. See ya in a few years, Mittens!...

After announcing last night (video here) that would not file to be on the Republican ballot, due to the exorbitant $35,000 filing fee ("I am not willing to write a $35,000 check to the Republican Party. ... I understand you have to keep a club exclusive but I paid less for my black-market liver"), Stephen Colbert said that he had filed the $2,500 required to be on the Democratic ballot in South Carolina's Presidential Primary.

The decision about whether the S.C. Dems would then allow him to be on the ballot was to be announced during tonight's broadcast. Politico beats him to the punch, however, with their report today that the S.C. Dems have rejected his application.

As a first announced last night on The Daily Show...

...And then, later in the evening, in a bit more detail, on "a more prestigious show"...

Will he have more of an actual effect on the race than, say, Pat Paulsen, the inveterate comedian-candidate of many a prior Presidential contest? We wager Colbert just might, actually.

New York Times has some details and Colbert himself brought CBS's Jeff Greenfield on for analysis of his impact on the race, "in the last three minutes," as seen in the following video...

And we can't say we didn't enjoy it. Probably a whole lot more than Matthews did...

LATE UPDATE: E&P's Greg Mitchell describes the interview as "worth waiting a decade for."

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Jon Stewart covers the latest ridiculous testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on yesterday's Daily Show. More importantly, Stewart highlights what appears to be an admission by the AG of improper firings of US attorneys:

Whoops.

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

While this may not be one of Lewis Black's better "Back in Black" segments on The Daily Show, he does deliver one great line at the end about Fox "News" and the awful 1/2 Hour News Hour, in which BRAD BLOG has taken far too great an interest. To date, BRAD BLOG's extensive coverage of the alleged Fox comedy show has included a video post from the debut episode in February, a Brad Friedman exclusive interview with one of the stars from the premiere and a follow-up video post when the fake fake news show unexpectedly returned after a long hiatus. Let this put to rest once and for all any talk that BRAD BLOG only provides worthwhile coverage of election integrity issues!

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

The Reno 911 Sheriff's Department tackles many important election issues including poorly written ballot initiatives, race, custody, legality of peeking inside the ballot box and actual election fraud. At a minimum, the ease with which a two person conspiracy can circumvent the will of the Reno voters is extremely disheartening. The video runs 6:46.

Thought from Brad: Not to be a stickler, but Reno doesn't use paper ballots (they use Sequoia EDGE II DRE's with the VeriVote "Paper Trail" printer), but point taken nonetheless.

Sure, these will likely be everywhere today. But for good reason. Colbert hit it out of the park twice yesterday. First when he appeared on O'Reilly's show and then again when O'Reilly appeared on his. Both infinitely worth the watch. And to underscore Colbert's genius, the cover that he shows of O'Reilly's book and the last line of his interview with O'Reilly on his own show. Both nothing less than solid gold...

Editor & Publisher has more...

Crooks & Liars has the second half of the video (wherein Bush pats Colbert on the shoulder on the way out without saying a word.) We'll see if we can get the whole thing soon.

UPDATE: Complete text transcript of Colbert's presentation, along with links to the full video both available here...

UPDATE: Colbert's entire presentation as streaming video now available here...