Quoting Palin Out of Context
On lots of places on the web and Usenet, I am finding versions of the following:
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God.""
It is, to be blunt, a lie. The full sentence, which can be checked from the original video or any of lots of web pages, was:
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them[U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God, that is what we have to be praying for"
By snipping the rest of the sentence, the AP (which is what I linked to above) and lots of other sources are converting "I hope this is true," which is what "pray that it be true" implies, into "this is true." It's a striking example of how a partial quote can be used to attribute to someone something she didn't say--indeed, in this case, something inconsistent with what she did say.