Debate Fact Check:

Let's start with the biggest whopper of the evening:

Lie # 1
Cheney: "The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11.

Holy crap, Dick, you must think we're idiots. m Of COURSE you have. Don't you remember all that stuff about Mohammed Atta meeting with Iraqi intelligence?

"it's been pretty well confirmed that [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack." - Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, Dec 9, 2001

"We discovered... the allegation that one of the lead hijackers, Mohamed Atta, had, in fact, met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague." - Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, March 24, 2002

[Atta] "did apparently travel to Prague... We have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer a few months before the attacks on the World Trade Center." - Dick Cheney, on his favorite venue for lying, Meet the Press September 8, 2002

And a year ago, also on "Meet the Press," Cheney described Iraq as part of "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11." - Dick Cheney, AGAIN talking to good puppy Tim Russert, September 16, 2003

Right, Dick, you never suggested that there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11. You just blatantly stated that it was the geographic base of the 9/11 terrorists.

_______________________

Lie #2
"The allies have stepped forward and agreed to reduce and forgive Iraqi debt to the tune of nearly $80 billion by one estimate. That, plus $14 billion they promised in terms of direct aid."

Actually, Dick, they've only pledged $13 billion. They've only GIVEN 1 billion.


Lie #3
"When you include the Iraqi security forces that have suffered casualties, as well as the allies, they've taken almost 50 percent of the casualties in operations in Iraq."

As you well know, Dick, the United States does not track Iraqi casualties, either civilian or in the security services. You decided not to, in a conscious attempt to minimize the impression of the number of casualities on the part of the American public.

Recently, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad estimated that 750 Iraqi policemen have been killed but has no estimate of those wounded. The United States as of yesterday has had 1,061 deaths and 7,730 wounded.

Lie #4
"CHENEY: Gwen, No Child Left Behind, they were for it; now they're against it. They voted for it; now they're opposed to it."

Actually, Dick they both voted for it, and now favor it with modifications.


Lie #5
"The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."

Edwards' campaign later provided a transcript of a February 2001 prayer breakfast at which Cheney began his remarks by acknowledging the North Carolina senator. This is from the transcript:

"Congressman Watts, Sen. Edwards, friends from across America and distinguished visitors to our country from all over the world, Lynne and I are honored to be with you all this morning,"

Here's the photo from the prayer breakfast. Never met before, my ass.

The campaign said the two also met when Edwards accompanied the other North Carolina senator, Elizabeth Dole, to her swearing-in ceremony.

Lie #6
"The Kerry record on taxes is one basically of voting for a large number of tax increases -- 98 times in the United States Senate." Those 98 votes include times when Kerry voted for lower taxes - but not as low as Republicans wanted. Only in the Looking-Glass world of the Republican is voting to LOWER taxes characterized as voting for a tax INCREASE.

Lie #7
Cheney: "We heard Senator Kerry say the other night that there ought to be some kind of global test before US troops are deployed preemptively to protect the United States."

Wildly - and, no doubt, intentionally, out of context.

Kerry: "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."


Lie #8
Cheney: "The fact of the matter is a great many of our small businesses pay taxes under the personal income taxes rather than the corporate rate. And about 900,000 small businesses will be hit if you do, in fact, do what they want to do with the top bracket."

Dick is counting all high-salaried folks who have ANY outside business income, not just small businesses. That's twice as high as reality. The Tax Policy Center's latest estimate suggests that 471,000 small employers would be affected.

That just scratches the surface. We could keep this up all day, but I'm tired.