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May 28, 2012 | | MEMORIAL DAY Dan Bullock was 14 when he signed up with the Marines using doctored documents—and 15 when he died in Vietnam. The Daily Beast's Michael Daly tells the Brooklyn boy’s story on our national day of remembrance. Plus, from the number of troops killed in Afghanistan to the number of names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, The Daily Beast collects the figures that best represent what the holiday means. OUTRAGE The United Nations condemned a massacre that left 49 children and 34 women dead in Syria last week as the country’s ambassador called the U.N.’s response a “tsunami of lies.” The brutal massacre in the town of Houla has been internationally denounced, and special envoy Kofi Annan traveled to the fractious nation’s capital Monday even as other leaders said his attempts to forge a peace plan had failed. The U.K. foreign secretary backed the Annan initiative at a press conference, however, saying the alternative is “ever-increasing chaos and a descent closer and closer to all-out civil war and collapse.” While most nations have heaped the blame for the massacre on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, Syria’s ally Russia said “both sides” shared responsibility for the killings. NOT COZY Having the British tabloids as an enemy may be political suicide, but that doesn’t mean Tony Blair gave into Murdoch’s influence. The Daily Beast's Mike Giglio on the former prime minister’s defiant testimony. TALKING POINTS Democratic leaders say they’re ready to take a stand on Bain. Weeks after President Obama’s reelection campaign ran a series of controversial ads attacking the private equity firm founded by presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, top Dems say it’s one hot-button issue they’re not afraid to push. “He wanted to have this conversation,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman Jim Burn said of Romney. “We’re going to have it. There should be no hesitation or equivocation.” Romney has often touted his experience in the private sector as proof that he has the economic savvy to take on the country’s fiscal woes. Nevada’s Democratic Party chairwoman said Obama’s message resonates in her state. “Obama is speaking to the things that are important to us,” Roberta Lange said. IMBROGLIO Mamma mia. The Vatican denied that a cardinal is a suspect after Italian newspapers reported Monday that the papal butler arrested last week for leaking sensitive Vatican documents may have received substantial help from an unidentified higher authority. Forty-six-year-old Paolo Gabriele, a member of the pope’s personal staff, was detained Friday after Vatican investigators allegedly found documents from the Holy See in his apartment. After the butler was detained, insiders said that they found Gabriele’s involvement in the case confusing. On Monday, a Vatican spokesman said that media pressure would not cause the Curia to rush its investigation. | | 
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