The Department of Defense has altered the policy concerning the photography of America’s returning war dead. Now, news organizations will be allowed to photograph and disseminate photos of flag-draped coffins — as long as the families of the fallen soldiers give permission.

While the no-photographs policy has been in place since 1991, the issue became contentious when President Bush put a total ban on the release of photos of coffins returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Opponents contended Bush was trying to hide the true cost of the war while supporters of the policy argued such pictures are too easily exploited.

The new policy seems to be an acceptable compromise. While photos of flag-draped coffins lined up in the back of a plane might be dramatic, I don’t think they serve any notable purpose and don’t inform us nearly as much as the soldier obituaries run in papers across America and released regularly by the DoD. But, if news organizations feel compelled to print such photos and if the families of the deceased soldiers are amenable to having those photos published, I see no compelling reason to prohibit the act. Bush’s total ban always seemed too extreme of a policy.

He’s about scoops, and gets them. But once you realize that the Clintons’ tax returns and the Olympics ceremony boycott stories came from the Clinton camp, do you still believe that photo of Obama in a turban fell off a turnip truck?

Hillary’s team has been giving Drudge “secret” exclusives on a lot of stuff, and not just recently. It’s an open secret how pushing dirt through Drudge works, and even though some here at Donklephant dismissed me for believing that Hill’s camp pushed that image, I think it’s important to remember that the campaign never followed up on who did it, nobody was ever fired as a result and nothing additional was said, like “Yeah, Drudge made this up.” And as we all know, when a campaign doesn’t say something, it can resonate just as much as when they do.

So what do you think?

This is really amateur hour.

The Obama campaign gave this photo to news outlets for what reason? To show that President Clinton meets people?

All this will ultimately end up doing is remind people that Obama was a member of Wright’s church for over 20 years, and that Bill Clinton met the man for a couple minutes.

As top aide Howard Wolfson said…

“Urgent indeed — a picture — oooooooo!”

Pretty pathetic move from Obama’s camp, and I’m extremely disappointed because it points to a “politics as usual” type of campaigning that he has repeatedly decried.

I’m changing the “Pics of the Week” section in the footer to “1000 Words.” I think it has a nicer ring to it and I’m going to be highlighting a new pic each day and sharing the story behind it.

Today we have the story of Kenneth Foster, a death row inmate in Texas who surprisingly got a commutation of his death sentence last week…

From his cell on death row, Kenneth Foster didn’t pretend to be an innocent. In 1996, Foster drove the car in a nighttime crime spree, ferrying friends to two armed robberies before following a pair of cars into a neighborhood. After Foster’s companion got out and shot one of the drivers, the 19-year-old Foster whisked the murderer and his other passengers from the scene.

Repugnant though they are, Foster’s crimes did not include the murder of Michael LaHood, a 25-year-old law student. Through an unprecedented turn of events, Foster Thursday narrowly escaped dying for that murder. To the surprise of many, Gov. Rick Perry heeded the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Foster’s sentence to life.

The governor’s decision did not, however, arise from the “law of parties” — the unique Texas law that holds all participants in a capital crime equally culpable, if it can be proved they “should have anticipated” the fatal outcome. The advocates for reducing Foster’s sentence included 13 members of the Legislature, most of whom argued that Foster had no idea a shooting would take place. Foster and his co-defendants testified that while Foster knew of the previous crimes that night, he didn’t anticipate murder.

Pictured above is Kenneth’s father and wife. You can find more pictures and stories at the bottom of the page.

As always, at the bottom of the page, courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

By the way, full disclosure, I’ve become a brand ambassador for TheNewsRoom which means I’m actively writing and educating our community about their product and its benefits. This isn’t a paid position, but I do get double points in their rewards program called NewsPerks.

Needless to say, I’m pretty sold on their marriage of content and advertising, and I’ll be writing about it more in the coming weeks, along with effective ways to monetize your traffic.

Nicholas Popaditch lost his eye in Iraq…so we rebuilt him.

Yes, that’s a bionic hand peeling a banana, and it could mean a lot more freedom for our soldiers who’ve lost their appendages in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You can see more pics at the bottom of the page.

Courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

As always, they’re at the bottom of the page.

Courtesy of TheNewsRoom.

Located at the bottom of the page…

Unfortunate Update:
Note the ad that got served up with one of the 1-35 bridge collapse pictures, in particular the lines “You’ll Be Surprised” & “Jump In.”

This doesn’t happen every time because a different ad gets served up, but when it does…yikes.