Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? - V (of V for Vendetta)
from ThinkProgress:
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the public with a “political propaganda campaign” led by President Bush, aimed at “manipulating sources of public opinion” and “downplaying the major reason for going to war.” McClellan said Vice President Cheney was “the magic man” who steered policy while leaving no fingerprints.
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“Pentagon figures show 40,000 U.S. troops have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder since 2003.” The number diagnosed “jumped nearly 50 percent in 2007 over the previous year, as more of them served lengthy and repeated combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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“The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index declined for a fifth-consecutive month, to 57.2 from 62.8 in April,” the “lowest reading since October 1992.”
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In an assessment obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, the Pentagon inspector general (IG) estimates that “nearly half of the military’s $316 billion weapons budget went unchecked last year because the IG’s office lacked the manpower.” Auditors are having “trouble keeping pace with the ever-expanding defense budget and combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
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ExxonMobil has “admitted that its support for” climate change denier groups “may have hindered action to tackle global warming,” and it the company announced it will cut funds to many of these groups. The move comes as shareholders, meeting in Dallas today, are expected to “urge ExxonMobil to take the problem of climate change more seriously.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/28/thinkfast-may-28-2008/