FACT-CHECKING THE REPUBLICANS

According the Associated Press, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters "stretched the truth" when they attacked Obama, and praised Palin's credentials to be vice president. There are plenty of great examples in the story (link below) but here are a couple of my favorites:

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

I swear!

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

For the entire story, with plenty more Republican "untruths" from the convention, click HERE.

DEMOCRACY NOW!

raw footage of the Amy Goodman's arrest

While the party hacks and ward heelers fawn over themselves at the Republican National Convention, there is protest on the streets outside the hall that doesn't make it onto the convention Jumbotron--or into your living room.

Amy Goodman, award-winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now!" was arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department Monday, the opening day of the convention. Goodman was asking police about the whereabouts of two of her arrested colleagues, and wearing credentials that clearly identified her as a journalist.

Protesters detained by police outside the 2008 Republican National Convention

A crackdown on protest (and journalists covering the protests) resulted in 280 arrests in St. Paul opening day. In a free society, of course, dissent should be encouraged. Obviously, in this locked down convention town, "democracy" is well-rehearsed and choreographed with tele-prompted speeches and balloons and flags. Meanwhile, real democracy gets busted, and protesters (even credentialed journalists) run the risk of arrest and getting their faces smashed into the ground. It doesn't even make the official news. Imagine if this scenario "leaked" out of some foreign country, Iran say, and how the spin doctors would be tripping all over themselves to support the brave dissenters. Here, it gets a ho hum shrug. We're well trained.


Goodman interviewed about the arrest

For an updated story, see the Democracy Now! website HERE.