Defense Department to review policy banning photos of flag-draped coffins

From DemocracyNow:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a review of the Pentagon policy banning media from taking pictures of flag-draped coffins of military dead. The military has said the policy is meant to protect the privacy of the families of the dead soldiers, but critics say barring photographers is a political maneuver meant to sanitize the war.

Related post: What would happen if we freely published the images from Iraq for one week?

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Rachel Maddow says good riddance to Bush’s good-bye

Rachel Maddow says good riddance to Bush's good-bye, starting things off with a few staggering statistics regarding Bush's legacy. I'm wondering whether there a live audience to this deplorable confabulation by George W. Bush.  If so, where they required to remove their shoes before entering the room? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-cZnvyU_k[/youtube] Click here…

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The night of 9/11

From Vanity Fair's oral history of the Bush White House: Richard Clarke: That night, on 9/11, Rumsfeld came over and the others, and the president finally got back, and we had a meeting. And Rumsfeld said, You know, we’ve got to do Iraq, and everyone looked at him—at least I…

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The Emperor’s new shoes

Compare this: But among the crowds a little child suddenly gasped out, "But he hasn't got anything on." With this report from Think Progress: McClatchy identified the man as Iraqi television journalist Muthathar al Zaidi and reports he threw both of his shoes at Bush just after he finished prepared…

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Frank Rich: Rod Blagojevich is a small fry in our metastacizing culture of corruption

Rod Blogojevich is not a big fish by any means.   Most of the big fish remain nameless and free, according to Frank Rich of the NYT: What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have…

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