Checking the facts

Here’s a terrific idea — an independent website that checks the ‘facts’ spouted by US politicians. We could use one of those in the UK. I hadn’t heard of it until Dick Cheney mentioned it during his debate with John Edwards. (He suggested that anyone making allegations about his time in charge of Halliburton should go to FactCheck.org.) Here’s what the site has to say about this:

“Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted “for the war” and “to commit the troops, to send them to war.” He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry’s proposals”

It’s also critical of John Edwards:

“Edwards  falsely claimed the administration “lobbied the Congress” to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, something the White House never supported, and he used misleading numbers about jobs.”