Five Years of War, Truthiness, and Polls

Five Years.
OK. First for the horrendous fact that we've lost 4,000 soldiers in the war. Five years of it. And many thousands more, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Iraqis killed in the last five years in this war. More than 2/3 of Americans think going to war in Iraq was not worth it. And Dick Cheney says, "So?"

On Seeing the Consequences of War.
I saw an excerpt of and discussion about a new documentary called "Body of War" last night on Bill Moyers Journal. It looks to be exceptional--covering the struggles of a severely disabled Iraqi vet as he emerges as a political activist against the war. You can learn about it here.

Now...onto the election...
Last week's good news: Richardson endorses Obama, calls him a "once-in-a-lifetime leader"

Polls:

A Saturday Gallup poll shows Obama retaking lead over Clinton

They also find a striking gap in the public's perception of Obama and Clinton on the issues of honesty and trustworthiness.

Hillary's Truthiness:
Hillary has been saying that Obama had never been truly vetted by the media the way she has...but it turns out that she hasn't been vetted enough...

--her claim that she was against NAFTA from the beginning is now considered "ludicrous"
--her claim (trying to burnish her foreign policy experience) that her trip to Bosnia came under sniper fire is now shown to be outright fabrication, and a new little video showing this example of "truthiness" can be seen here.

The Progressive Fight
Here's a good essay about Obama and the fight for progressive change: "fighting fire with water"

Racism...
And, only for those with strong stomachs: a reminder about the kind of racism we're fighting, about the kind of change we want to see...