Bush Gives Up Golf to Honour Iraq War Dead

I really wish that headline was a joke. It certainly sounds like one.

Bush recently said he's stopped playing golf because he wants to show the families of soldiers killed in Iraq that he stands "in solidarity" with them in their grief.

For this reason it would be inappropriate "to see the commander-in-chief playing golf."

Who writes this President's lines? Seriously.

And of course, even something so mind-numbingly banal wouldn't be complete without a little white lie. Bush says that he stopped playing golf after learning of the death of UN official Sergio de Mello - in fact, he says, he was pulled off the course to be told the news, and vowed never to return to the golf course until the war was over.

Problem is, he last played golf on October 13, 2003. De Mello died in mid-August. Unless the U.S. government has taken to bringing news dispatches back from Iraq via rowboat, it seems unlikely there'd be such a delay.