(Thanks Desi for the tip!)

On the continued Bush/Cheney tactic of taking virtually everything Kerry/Edwards have to say completely out of context. (For background, see FactCheck.org's take on just one recent Bush/Cheney commercial.)

Classic Bush/Cheney-esque sleight of hand in this exchange from tonight's debate...Note Edwards talks about coalition casualties in his statement. By the time it's done, Cheney has pulled the old switcheroo. The same way everything else from these guys has worked...Read, and see if you can spot the rabbit as he sneaks it into the hat...

That slippery Dick.

Tonight at the V.P. debate...

Meanwhile, back again in Reality Land on February 1, 2001...

UPDATE: More pictures from Reality Land of Cheney and Edwards not meeting, along with an ABC News report on at least three acknowledged occasions when they did meet. Ugh. Those god-damned partisan facts again!

Tonight at the V.P. debate...

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

And this...

DEVELOPING...MORE...

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

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!

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!

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:

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:

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?

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!

"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):

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

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

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!)

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!

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:

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

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".

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