And Use ALL Your Fingers

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When the president made a whirlwind trip to have his picture taken with the coffins of fallen soldiers, the New York Times accidentally published a little too much truth. They said that "The images...were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste." In other words, he wasn't there for the soldiers who gave their lives...he was there for a photo-op and to use these fallen heroes for his own political cover.

The New York Times, for reasons currently unexplained, quickly pulled that portion of the story and rewrote it (or took dictation over the phone?) so that the online version now reads "The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing." Interesting that the original story is phrased like news...while the revision reads suspiciously like a press release.

There's no punchline today, folks. We just have to say that the collaboration of the White House and the media to use our war dead as props for a staged and cynical photo-op is the lowest depth of obscenity.