I've been dreaming of this since the liberation of Afghanistan. But I'm still thinking it's impossible.

The new air-sniper is actually a full helicopter... or at least a small kit helicopter, which means, I think, it's capable of carrying a pilot and little else. The mini-copter is remotely piloted and completely unmanned, so that it can loiter as its XBOX-controlled gun takes a bead without fear of putting any crew in danger.

It's called the ARSS, Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System.

The Army boffins already had a Vigilante robocopter on hand as a result of their Armed VTOL UAV Testbed Integration (AVUTI) effort. This produced a Vigilante (essentially an automated Ultrasport 496 kit chopper) remotely controlled from a station which can be set up on the ground or strapped into a manned transport helicopter for better radio line-of-sight. US Apache attack ships can now be fitted (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/30/apache_uas_datalink_flight_test/) to control unmanned aircraft, too.

...

For this test, the little Vigilante has been fitted with a lightweight stabilised remote turret, the Precision Weapon Platform (http://www.sdl.usu.edu/programs/arss), which is to be controlled by a soldier on the ground near the target - separate from the ground or airborne station handling the copter - who will use an Xbox controller to aim and fire.

In the PWP turret is a simple semi-automatic rifle firing .338 Lapua Magnum slugs - the sniper's sniper bullet. The turret and its software handle all the bullet-drop calculations, vibration compensation and so on: first-shot kills are expected at several hundred metres, and the human operator won't need any advanced marksmanship skills.

Thanks to ArthurK.

Posted by: Ace at 10:51 AM | Add Comment
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An environmental animal rights terrorist.

Confederate Yankee suspects this is a case of the FBI trying to cover Napolitano's ass by acting all bipartisan 'n shit. Possibly true, but these ruthless lunatics should have been on the list long before now.

Obama and the Left seem only interested in the hypothetical possible future terrorism of right wingers, and not so much the real-world actual past and present terrorism of the Left (including the plucky underdog favorites of the left, Muslim terrorists).

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Add Comment
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From New York, of course. Don't feel so smug, crap like this starts here but it spreads.

New York could be the first state to ban the sale of cigarettes in drug stores as well as in supermarkets and big-box stores like Wal-Mart that have pharmacies.

..."They are incrementalists," said Audrey Silk of New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment.

"How dare they decide what a company's message is and what they can sell based on the message they determined," Silk said. "It's socialism."

She argued the measure wouldn't reduce sales, but instead force smokers to go to gas stations and other retailers that don't also offer smoke cessation products along side them as pharmacies do now.

"Health care and cigarettes don't mix," said Russ Sciandra of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York. "Obviously it's going to provoke opposition from some powerful forces, but I think like a lot of issues we work on, this is coming sooner or later and let's do it sooner."

Cool, because during tough economic times for retailers, there's nothing better than eliminating a popular item from their inventory.

More importantly, there's really no end to what these busy bodies want to control.

I have an idea, just for funsies...let's make Russ submit to an inspection of his life and favorite activities. When we're done we will give him a list of things he may and may not continue to do. No account will be taken of his personal preferences or freedoms, it will simply be based on our whims and ability to gin up a mob willing to enforce our moral choices on him. How's that sound guy?

Posted by: DrewM at 10:13 AM | Add Comment
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An inconvenient truth.

Childish. The left won't -- can't -- talk about adult topics like adults, and so we have these puerile fictions that not only are enhanced interrogation techniques morally repugnant, but they also never work at all, so we're giving up absolutely nothing at all to keep our consciences squeaky-clean.

There is never such a thing as a trade-off when the left is talking. Every single thing they push for is win-win-win.

His full appearance is here.

Posted by: Ace at 10:03 AM | Add Comment
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Quick, let's prosecute the agents that saved America from another attack.

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) -- including the use of waterboarding -- caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack -- which KSM called the “Second Wave”-- planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

Oh, wait, he won't be prosecuting the agents themselves. Just the men who authorized the actions that prevented an Al Qaeda attack.

Posted by: Ace at 09:18 AM | Comments (5)
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Ouch.

The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived Tuesday.

The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers said Tuesday that it lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.

...The ad slump hasn't eased so far in the second quarter, prompting Times Co. Chief Executive Janet Robinson to caution the three months ending in June could result in another advertising decline in the 20 percent to 30 percent range.

An ad slump is bad for a lot of people, not just left wing hack newspapers, so it's hard to take too much joy from this. Still, it's possible to take some.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:36 AM | Add Comment
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Well, this should be interesting (or at least entertaining)*.

"John McCain has failed miserably in his duty to secure this nation's borders and protect the people of Arizona from the escalating violence and lawlessness," Simcox said. "He has fought real efforts over the years at every turn, opting to hold our nation's border security hostage to his amnesty schemes. Coupled with his votes for reckless bailout spending and big government solutions to our nation's problems, John McCain is out of touch with everyday Arizonans. Enough is enough."

I have no clue how that will play in AZ but if all he does is piss McCain off and make him sweat a bit, I'm all for it.

Related Enough: DHS Secretary (and former AZ Governor) doesn't know that illegal immigration is, er, illegal.

Now about those damn veterans....

*I changed the link and the headline to avoid linking to Politico and their claim that Simcox is "anti-immigration". I'm not sure of that and it seems the media often plays fast and lose with "anti-immigration" and "anti-illegal immigration"

Posted by: DrewM at 08:15 AM | Add Comment
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Time to throw the left a little red meat.

President Barack Obama Tuesday refused to close the door on prosecuting authors of Bush-era legal rationales for terror suspect interrogations, after offering immunity to CIA operatives involved.

Obama made a distinction between the agents who carried out harsh interrogations permitted by the White House after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the legal officials which justified such methods.

"With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws."

Right.

Posted by: Slublog at 07:58 AM | Comments (1)
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Hey, Ahmadinnerjacket was just confused. He heard there was going to be a racism conference and thought it would be the perfect venue to share stories about blood-drinking jooooos. Surprisingly, some representatives objected (the U.S. had already refused to attend).

This is kind of old; it happened yesterday morning. And I imagine it's mostly theater for these clowns. Except the actual clowns who were there. They're doing God's work:

As Mr. Ahmadinejad began to speak, two protesters wearing rainbow-hued clown wigs — their statement on the tenor of the proceedings — pelted him with red foam noses. Hustled out the door by security agents, they were soon followed by lines of stony-faced diplomats from the 23 European nations attending the conference. They walked out to the sound of some other delegates applauding Mr. Ahmadinejad.

The United States and more than a half-dozen other nations had already boycotted the gathering out of concern that it would focus on maligning Israel rather than on the global problems of discrimination, replaying the disputes that marked the first United Nations conference on combating racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.

The Czech Republic is the only country to have walked out and then kept walking. It won't be back for today's three ring act.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:41 AM | Add Comment
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Boy, I hope that woman has a good sense of humor. Her father, too. o_O

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:18 AM | Add Comment
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