VirusHead

I hope that you’ve heard about the study from The Center for Public Integrity in which they collected 935 false statements by eight top administration officials in the period before the March 18, 2003 invasion of Iraq.

We have the searchable database now. Provable, documented lies that can’t disappear or be denied.

Iraq: The War Card – Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War argues that following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

According to the Washington AFP newswire at Yahoo news:

“These false statements dramatically increased in August 2002, just prior to congressional consideration of a war resolution and during the critical weeks in early 2003 when the president delivered his State of the Union address and Powell delivered his memorable presentation to the U.N. Security Council,” the CIJ added.

Bush was the chief of misstatement, with 260 — about weapons of mass destruction and links to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, trailed by then-secretary of state Powell with 254, the study charged.

The center emphasizes the point that its work calls into question “the repeated assertions of (George W.) Bush administration officials that they were merely the unwitting victims of bad intelligence.”

John Cushman at the Washington Post points out that

The database shows how even after the invasion, when a consensus emerged that the prewar intelligence assessments were flawed, administration officials occasionally suggested that the weapons might still be found. The officials have defended many of their prewar statements as having been based on the intelligence that was available at the time — although there is now evidence that some statements contradicted even the sketchy intelligence of the time.

No, they didn’t lie to us a thousand times…. it was just a little under that. But there were spikes – increases in the frequency and intensity of the statements – at politically opportune times. This suggests that they knew they were lying.

The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”

Keith Olberman unpacks it with Rachel Maddow:

Young people should be taught their values at home – and the facts at school.

If you’re serious about reducing abortion rates, you’ll support education on birth control and the realities of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases. All our kids deserve every chance to make informed decisions about their behavior.

Empowering young people to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy is the right thing to do.

I urge you to contact your congressional representatives to ask them to co-sponsor Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s and Rep. Barbara Lee’s Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act (S.368/HR.2553).

(W)e’ll be working harder than ever to make sure young people get honest, age-appropriate sex education that will equip them with the facts they need to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and STDs. But we need your help.

Anti-choice politicians in Congress continue to spend our tax dollars on unproven, ideological “abstinence-only” programs that hurt, rather than help, teenagers. Our kids deserve better – and so do taxpayers.

Honest, realistic sex education is the best way to reduce the spread of STDs and prevent teen pregnancy. The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would set up the first-ever federal sex education program. Click here to take action to support the REAL Act.

Many federally funded “abstinence-only” programs actually censor lifesaving information that would help teens protect themselves. Many of these programs include blatantly false and inaccurate information, and some programs have been shown to actually increase the likelihood that young people will have unprotected sex and get pregnant. That’s why we need the REAL Act.

(NARAL/Pro Choice action)

Ask your representative to support H.R.5052 Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act which requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to:

(1) promulgate rules prohibiting persons from advertising with the intent to deceptively create the impression that such persons provide abortion services; and (2) enforce violations of such rules as unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.

Even if you are pro-life/anti-choice, you should support this bill. There is no reason that CPCs can’t proudly advertise what they do offer. How about something like: “Thinking about an abortion? Come talk to us about the alternatives.”

Thanks to an investigation by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), we know exactly what they’re telling women. Female investigators called, saying they were pregnant, and recorded their conversations. 87% of CPCs provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion.

These centers, which are easily confused with full reproductive health and planning services, use neutral-sounding names and ads – but their agenda is very clear. They spread misinformation (let’s say “misinformation” instead of the more straightforward word, just to be nice) in order to dissuade women from having an abortion. They don’t offer abortion services at all.

It’s a services bait and switch.

Did you know that anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) have received $30 million of our tax dollars? According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are 2,500-4,000 centers nationwide, compared with about 1,800 abortion providers.

Take action to stop these clinics from deceiving women at their most vulnerable moments:

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/crisis_clinics

(Planned Parenthood)