Ousted D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and departing D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee recently made a cameo appearance in one of those animated Taiwanese news recaps. The entire video is comical — Rhee chases teachers out of a classroom with a broom, poor teachers are depicted wearing a clown outfit and makeup, and the daughters of U.S. President Barack Obama are depicted attending "Ye Olde Tony Private School."

Of course a cartoon is going to take visual liberties. And it’s not like NMA, the Taiwanese company that produces the videos, is some indomitable force that needs to be held accountable.

But the video pushes a simplistic narrative about the D.C. mayor’s race, teachers’ unions and education reform — a narrative that has come to dominate national media coverage of the issue. And as Vince Gray is about to win the general election, it's worth revisiting.

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The Facts Machine is fact checking the speakers at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear.

2:37 p.m. - I could spend all day fact checking all the cable talking heads from Colbert's two fear-based video montages.

2:32 p.m. - Judging from the reaction on Twitter, Trekkies approve of Stewart and Colbert's Corbomite reference. No one is disputing their accuracy.

2:25 p.m. - Those are two accurate quotes from FDR/Nixon from Stewart and Colbert. FDR actually died of a stroke, though.

2:33 p.m. - "Every point must have a counterpoint," Colbert says as Stewart tries to start his keynote address. "That's physics." Or bad journalism.

2:14 p.m. - Stewart calls Kid Rock talented. A significant portion of the American public would disagree.

2:05 p.m. - Mick Foley gets a medal! "For exemplifying sanity and reason everywhere but in his day job."

1:54 p.m. - TBD's Sarah Larimer presents SHOCKING photographic evidence that rally attendees aren't listening to Stewart's instructions to clean up.

1:42 p.m. - Stewart presents "Medal of Reasonableness." This is directly mocking Glenn Beck's "Purple Hearts." He's even giving one to a baseball player, Armando Galaraga. (Beck gave one to Albert Pujols.)

1:39 p.m. - Stewart knows a lot about journalism. There are only two options for covering this event: rally is tremendous success, or rally is utter failure.

1:30 p.m. - In terms of keeping this rally non-political, Yusuf (or Cat Stevens) isn't necessarily the best person to bring on. For a variety of reasons, Yusuf is reviled by conservatives. The Weekly Standard once headlined a story "Is Cat Stevens a Terrorist?" This is all you need to read from that story to know what the American Right thinks of him:

Is the singer a terrorist himself? Probably not. Is he an active sympathizer of terrorist groups? Perhaps not as much as he was in the past.

Yusuf, for his part, has condemned acts of terrorism in the past, including the events of Sept. 11. Whether Yusuf deserves to be controversial or not is beyond the point if Stewart was trying to keep the rally non-political.

1:20 p.m. - Is Sam Waterston really the most reasonable man in America? Any arguments against? I don't hear any. He is.

1:03 p.m. - There are not 10 million people there. Also, demographics don't match up to the U.S. (Crowd is mainly white, according to tweets.) I am a "naysayer casting doubt," in Stewart's words.

12:55 p.m. - The Rally begins in unearnest. Jon Stewart is now speaking.

12:41 p.m. - The 3-2-1 countdown visual didn't match up with the speaker. Tsk, Tsk.

12:39 p.m. - The non-musical portion of the rally begins. Do I dare fact check the Mythbusters?

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Bob Ehrlich has lost track of time. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

Bob Ehrlich has lost track of time.

It’s hard to blame the guy. This has been a long campaign. Who can remember when one candidate slandered the other? Wasn’t one of these guys responsible for the Gulf oil spill or something? Did the other have a secret plan to raise tuition? Or was that the same dude? Who knows anymore?

It should be easy enough to remember when the campaign began, though. It was March 31 when Ehrlich officially announced his gubernatorial bid. O’Malley made the inevitable official the next month.

So we were a little puzzled when Ehrlich said at a rally Sunday that he had been the victim of negative ads from O’Malley since March. (He also said this during the first televised debate between the two men earlier this month.) That would mean O’Malley was attacking a candidate who wasn’t even in the race yet.

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Former governor Bob Ehrlich knows he’s tilling tough ground in his race against incumbent Martin O’Malley, and he won’t hesitate to remind voters.

Maryland is "the bluest state in the country," the Republican has said multiple times during rallies, speeches and debates in recent weeks.

No one doubts that Maryland has been unfriendly territory for Republicans. When Ehrlich took office as governor in 2002, he was the first member of the GOP to hold the office since Spiro Agnew in the late 1960s (and the first non-corrupt GOP member to hold it since Theodore McKeldin, who held the office for most of the 1950s). Seven of the state’s eight U.S. House districts -- thanks in part to a friendly redistricting process in 2000 -- are in Democratic hands. A Republican hasn’t been attorney general since 1954. The state hasn’t seen a GOP comptroller since 1900. Democrats hold a two-to-one edge in voter registration, and a massive edge in the General Assembly.

Though Ehrlich convinced Democrats to break party ranks in 2002, he’s having a bit more difficulty this year. Two recent polls have him down 14 points.

Even with all that, Ehrlich’s depiction of Maryland as the bluest of the blue intrigued The Facts Machine. What about Massachusetts? Or California, with liberal bastions like San Francisco and Los Angeles? The Hippie-Farmer paradise of Vermont? Or Illinois, home of the current president and the formidable Chicago Democratic machine?

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As expected, Thursday morning’s debate on WOLB in Baltimore focused on Maryland’s black community. In politics, the black vote is really like a lot of other votes — they’re focused on the same issues as everyone else: jobs, the economy, health care and crime.

But there are also more specific concerns. One of these is the Minority Business Enterprise program, which aims to award 25 percent of state contracts to minority- or women-owned businesses. (The state finally met that goal this year.) Both challenger Bob Ehrlich and incumbent Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley touted their support for the program

“He also, when he was governor, said that the MBE program needs to end,"
O'Malley said. "I don’t believe that the MBE program needs to end. I believe, in fact, that our diversity is our strength.”

Ehrlich, laughed, and called O'Malley's statement a “whopper.”

“Senator,” Ehrlich asked host Larry Young, a former state senator from Baltimore. “Do you think if I would have said the MBE program needs to end, don’t you think that would have been a subject of discussion on your show?”

Each campaign insists the other candidate is lying. So did Ehrlich call for the MBE program to end?

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Most Republican congressional candidates are eager to attach themselves to the conservative Tea Party movement. In certain districts, however, the scarlet ‘T’ can be more of a burden than a blessing.

One of those districts might be Virginia’s 11th, where incumbent Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) is trying to hold off a strong challenge from businessman Keith Fimian (R). The district, which consists of most of Fairfax County, all of Fairfax city and part of Prince William County, is among the nation’s wealthiest. Before Connolly won it two years ago, it was held for more than a decade by Tom Davis, a moderate Republican.

The area has a slight Democratic lean, and most prognosticators consider the race a toss-up. Each candidate is trying to promote the other as an extremist — Fimian says Connolly votes with liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time, and the incumbent charges the Fimian is allied with the Tea Party.

During a debate Tuesday on TBD NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, Connolly said Fimian has "dabbled with the Tea Party."

Fimian was dismissive. "He's trying to make me a Tea Party candidate. I'm one of the Young Guns, one of the top 40 Republican candidates." The Young Guns are a group of candidates backed by the Republican National Committee. Getting their backing means you have the endorsement of the Republican establishment, as opposed to the more outsider-ish Tea Parties.

But the two aren't mutually exclusive. Is Fimian a Tea Partier or isn't he?

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Keith Fimian (R) and U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) debated today on TBD NewsTalk. Our live fact-check of the debate is below, and we'll have more on the debate later today.

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"It's a silly time," Bob Ehrlich declared during his opening statement of Thursday's gubernatorial debate.

The Facts Machine hasn’t always agreed with the Republican nominee's assertions, but he was certainly right about that. The Maryland governor’s race jumped the shark or nuked the fridge or whatever Friday at 11:10 a.m. when the O’Malley campaign sent out a press release with the following headline to reporters: “EHRLICH WOULD ALLOW TOP DONOR SNYDER TO MOVE REDSKINS BACK TO DC.”

Sigh.

Maryland has massive unfunded pension obligations, schools in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County are still lagging far behind their counterparts in wealthier districts, the state faces an immediate budget gap and traffic in the Baltimore to Washington corridor remains a mess.

However, the true problem the state faces is "How Will We Keep A Regional Football Team In Our State So One Part Of It Can Get A Marginal Economic Boost 10 Times A Year?"

The release was spurred by a question WAMU's Matt Bush asked during Thursday's debate at the Washington Post: “Here in the District, the movement is slowly growing and will only increase in the next four years to bring the Redskins back to the city from where they currently play in Maryland. As governor, what would either of you offer, if anything, the Redskins to stay in Prince George’s County?”

As Dan Steinberg points out on D.C. Sports Bog, the Redskins would likely have to offer Maryland something, since they have a contract with the state that runs until 2027. Nonetheless, District leaders have made noise about reclaiming the Skins (Soon-to-be-gone Mayor Adrian Fenty pledged to bring them back in 2008). There are few signs of an out-and-out mass movement to bring the team back to D.C. Many District residents are still upset over the millions they spent on Nationals Park, and it's not like D.C. has a ton of cash lying around to spend on a new football stadium. Combined, these factors make the likelihood of a D.C. taking back the Redskins low, at least for the next four years.

Still, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has such a big Napoleon complex that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium must be aggravating, and he might want a new toy. In 2009, NBC4’s Tom Sherwood reported District leaders had been speaking to Snyder about a new domed stadium on the site of the no-longer-in-use RFK. So maybe county executive-to-be Rushern Baker will need to bat away mayor-to-be Vince Gray’s come-hither looks. (Hand dancing can be rather seductive.) How will each candidate help him?

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Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and former governor Bob Ehrlich (R) both talked quite a bit -- and often at the same time -- during yesterday’s debate sponsored by the Washington Post, WUSA and WAMU.

The Facts Machine would overload if it had to fact-check every last statement, so we selected the top 17 statements. (Why 17? Why NOT 17?) Here they are, in chronological order.

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Both candidates in the Nov. 2 Maryland gubernatorial race have something to gain from the immigration issue.

Former governor Bob Ehrlich, a Republican, needs the support of tea party types who may have backed Brian Murphy, his challenger, in the primary. (Murphy had the support of Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, who takes a hard line on immigration.) Incumbent Gov. Martin O'Malley, meanwhile, will want to drive up Latino turnout — something Democrats nationally are having difficulty doing this year.

The two candidates staked out their respective positions during Monday's debate on WJZ. Ehrlich said he vetoed a bill giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants during his term, and that he tried to block them from getting driver's licenses.

"You have this issue of spending, the CASA de Marylands of the world," Ehrlich said. "If the CASA de Marylands of the world would just follow their original charter, if they were really about assimilation, recent immigrants into this country, teaching capitalism, democracy, teaching our culture, our singular American culture, economic empowerment, I'd be standing on the rooftops, saying 'Good for you, CASA de Maryland, we'll help you, we'll fund you, we'll assist you. Good for you.'"

"Unfortunately," Ehrlich continued, "what groups such as CASA have done over the past few years is take state tax money and print booklets to assist illegal immigrants from the long arm of the law. Our tax money is now going to assist illegal behavior. That's the clear line that really has to be drawn in this campaign."

Ehrlich explained that he supports legal immigration, and said it was OK to be proud of one's heritage — citing his 1996 German of the Year award as an example.

O'Malley didn't directly address the charges against CASA, and said it was up to the federal government to solve the immigration problem. He attacked comments Ehrlich made in 2004 calling multiculturalism "crap" and "bunk."

"We should not blame new Americans for the problems our country is going through right now," O'Malley said. "It's wrong."

Casa de Maryland is reviled by conservative activists, and it has received state funding under both O'Malley and Ehrlich. But is it actually helping immigrants break the law, as Ehrlich claimed?

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It was the tensest moment in a testy debate.

None of the exchanges between former governor Bob Ehrlich (R) and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on WJZ yesterday lacked an edge, but it was when moderator Denise Koch shifted to the topic to K-12 education that the debate reached its boiling point. The two candidates agreed that Maryland has some great schools — especially in wealthy counties such as Montgomery and Howard — but they clashed on who had done the most for the weaker schools, particularly in the poorer areas of Baltimore City and Prince George's County.

O'Malley said he had preserved education funding while cutting basically everything else during the economic downturn, and maintained that the state had won federal Race to the Top funding because of its plans to turn around poor schools.

Ehrlich said he had campaigned on the Thornton education law, which mandated huge increases in state aid to local schools, and took credit for continuing to fund the law even though the General Assembly refused to pass the slots legislation he wanted to use to pay for it. He also faulted O'Malley for fighting a state takeover of several schools in Baltimore City in 2006.

O'Malley shot back: "As a state, we have cut the achievement gap between black and white students in half in recent years. And I'm tired of people putting down the achievements of poor children and children of color."

The exchange only got more heated, as O'Malley accused Ehrlich of downplaying the progress made by "poor children and children of color" in the state, and Ehrlich said he would always focus on the kids who weren't progressing.

Let's go back to O'Malley's original claim. Has the state really shrunk the achievement gap in recent years?

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In which your humble blogger is thrown into the metaphorical arena with two hungry partisans and is barely able to get a word in.

Enjoy.

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Who spent more?

You think it would be an easy question. Add up all of incumbent Gov. Martin O'Malley's four budgets, then add up all of former governor Bob Ehrlich's. Compare the two numbers, and then you have your answer.

Alas, even simple math is subject to politics. As Ehrlich portrays himself as a slasher of government who will cut taxes and bring Annapolis down to its proper size, O'Malley is meeting him head on. Both claim the other spent more in state funds, and during yesterday's debate, Ehrlich laid his argument out in the plainest terms imaginable.

"Gov, you said you cut state spending," Ehrlich said. "Well, we added up your budgets over four years. You know what they add to? $124 billion. Mine? $101 billion. You're $23 billion over, that's not a rounding error. That really counts. That's big-time money."

The Republican has his mostly math right. O'Malley's four budgets total $125 billion, $24 billion more than Ehrlich's four budgets.

Those numbers don't tell the full story. O'Malley's last two budgets both used heaps of federal stimulus money, a consideration that facilitates Ehrlich's attack. Without federal money, O'Malley spent around $93 billion over four years. Ehrlich spent $77 billion if you subtract money from Washington.

That might be a more accurate measure of "state spending," since the federal dollars are a separate source.

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The first debate of the Maryland gubernatorial race takes place today at 10 a.m. at WJZ studios in Baltimore. The Facts Machine will be looking at statements by incumbent Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Republican governor Bob Ehrlich.

11:16 a.m. - And that's the end of the debate. We'll dive further in to some of these claims in the next few days.

11:15 a.m. - Ehrlich: "I'd love to debate you on federal housing policy." For a linebacker, the Republican can be a pretty huge nerd.

11:09 a.m. - Koch brings up another issue we haven't heard much about: immigration. Ehrlich is attacking Casa de Maryland, which is a big issue for the right-wing base. Says they've used state tax money to print booklets teaching illegal immigrants how to avoid law enforcement.

11:05 a.m. - Ehrlich says O'Malley passed the largest tax increase in Maryland history. In pure dollar terms, that's accurate. However, when you take inflation into account, there was an increase in the 1960s that was substantially larger.

11:02 a.m. - Ehrlich: O'Malley began running negative ads in March. He also calls Maryland the "bluest state in the country" twice. Massachusetts is highly offended.

10:57 a.m. - Ehrlich wants to take credit for eliminating the DNA backlog. The candidates are getting into over crime, which is a new issue in the campaign. He attacks some of O'Malley's crime-fighting strategies from his mayoral days.

10:55 a.m. - O'Malley talks about Baltimore's crime record over the past decade. I didn't get his direct quote, but he said the drop outpaced most other major cities.

10:54 a.m. - Ehrlich says O'Malley never served in a legislature. Doesn't the Baltimore City Council count?

10:52 a.m. - O'Malley says Ehrlich cut school construction funding.

10:51 a.m. - Ehrlich says the geographic cost-of-education index is not a part of Thornton.

10:49 a.m. - O'Malley says he's increased community college funding. Community college funding is generally thought to be the relative weak spot in his education record.

10:48 a.m. - Ehrlich: "I've never beat up on state employees."

10:45 a.m. - Candidates arguing about school construction. O'Malley spent more than Ehrlich did on school construction during his term, but he's only pledged $1 billion for his next term, which would amount to a cut.

10:44 a.m. - O'Malley: "In fact, as a state, we've cut the achievement gap in half."

10:41 a.m. - Ehrlich and O'Malley both taking credit for massive increases in state spending on K-12 education. Neither had much to do it. The increases were mandated by the Thornton education legislation, which was passed in 2002.

10:36 a.m. - Ehrlich says fewer Maryland students are attending University System of Maryland schools, which doesn't match numbers provided to us by the system at all.

10:35 a.m. - Ehrlich says the cost of attending the University of Maryland, College Park has increased by 35 percent. It has gone up, but not that much. And the governor has very little control over fees compared to tuition.

10:34 a.m. - Ehrlich says the governor doesn't set the property tax, the Board of Public Works does. That's right, except for the fact that the governor sits on the board, and that Ehrlich voted for the property tax increase when he was on the board.

10:32 a.m. - O'Malley pledges not to raise property taxes, won't do a blanket no-taxes pledge. Says Ehrlich increased small business filing fees by 300 percent.

10:31 a.m. - Ehrlich: "We brought BRAC here. That was an accomplishment of our administration."

10:29 a.m. - O'Malley says the state has created 33,000 net new jobs. That's since January, and after massive job losses in the middle two years of his term.

10:27 a.m. - O'Malley: "Two-thirds out of all jobs created in our state are created by small business."

10:25 a.m. - Ehrlich keeps addressing O'Malley as "Gov." He says Maryland's unemployment rate has doubled, which is accurate.

10:24 a.m. - O'Malley: "I have cut state spending more than any Maryland governor."

10:20 a.m. - Ehrlich delivers the first opening statement, spends most of it addressing the viewer at home. "Governors count," he says. O'Malley also thanks Maryland residents, says Maryland is dealing with the economic downturn better than most states.

10:19 a.m. - And we're off. Moderator Denise Koch is introducing the two candidates.

10:10 a.m. - Ehrlich has arrived, along with his wife and one of his sons. They are conversing (politely?) with O'Malley. Good preparation for tearing each other's heads off.

10:09 a.m. - OK, that was a mistaken assumption. O'Malley is kind of wandering around the debate stage, waiting for things to get going.

9:58 a.m. - An official from the Baltimore Jewish Council is introducing and thanking the two candidates, so we're probably about to start.

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In 2005, former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry (D) pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and admitted he had failed to pay most of his income taxes for five years.

Four years later, he owed the federal government $277,000, and had failed to make required payments to the District. This past March, IRS officials filed a lien against the Ward 8 councilmember to collect remaining cash.

So Barry isn't known for his expertise on tax issues. But last Wednesday, Barry dispensed a little tax advice on TBD's NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt.

"Everybody knows that if you pay more state taxes, it's deducted from your federal taxes," Barry said. "Everybody knows that. ... Really, it's almost a one-to-one situation."

Barry is pushing for the District to close its budget gap using tax increases rather than service cuts, and he was making that case that tax increases wouldn't hurt high-income earners all that much. Is he accurate?

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An early, incomplete version of this story was accidentally posted earlier today.

President Barack Obama wasn’t that far in to his stump speech yesterday at Bowie State University when a lone voice cried out from among the several thousand supporters. “You’re a liar,” the man exhorted. The crowd booed and shunned the heckler, who managed to declare that he thought Obama’s pants were on fire twice more before high-tailing it out of there.

Does he have a point? The Facts Machine can’t check every statement made by the parade of Democratic party officials at Thursday’s event, which lasted a little over two hours. But we picked out three we thought were interesting.

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The Facts Machine wasn’t so hot on the first half of Bob Ehrlich's claims about Martin O'Malley's education record. Let's see if the former governor can improve his accuracy in the second half.

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President Obama is coming to Bowie State University to campaign for incumbent Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in his race for re-election against former governor Bob Ehrlich (R). O'Malley hopes Obama's appearance can fire up the liberal base and trun out African American voters. The Facts Machine will be live fact-checking the rally, and will also be tweeting what goes on.The rally is scheduled to start at 2 p.m., but the fun will start before then.

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Gov. Martin O'Malley released three television ads last week focusing on education. The Facts Machine already examined one of them. Bob Ehrlich's campaign didn't fire back with an ad of its own — O'Malley still has a big money advantage — but it did challenge the incumbent's superiority on the issue on its website.

Education is the second-most important issue in the governor's race, according to a Washington Post poll from last week, and voters trust O'Malley to handle it more than Ehrlich. Does Ehrlich give them a good reason to change their mind? (The website contained a hefty set of comebacks, so we're dividing this fact check into two parts.)

The first part is highlighted by an accusation that O'Malley has a "secret plan" to increase tuition 26 percent. Is this an actual threat to Marylanders?

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There’s a famous book called How to Lie with Statistics. The Facts Machine believes it’s required reading for political operatives. Essentially, it's an introduction to spin.

Spin is part of the game of politics, although not necessarily a savory part. The government keeps track of all sorts of indicators, giving legislators, the media, businesses and regular folk a better picture of what's going on around them. When those statistics are released, political operatives spin them to make their boss look good. Let's say a statistic you want to go up actually goes down. Well, the spinmeister might say, at least it didn't go down as much as it did last month. Or maybe you say it was just a one-time dip, and next month it will be fine.

This is fair game. You can interpret data any way you choose. What you can't change, what you can't spin, is the data itself.

In an ad, former governor Bob Ehrlich's campaign started airing this week in the Baltimore market, the line between spin and statistics seems to blur.

The ad references a pessimistic economic report that was mistakenly posted to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's website in August. If you're unfamiliar with controversy, here's TBD's write-up of what happened.

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