So I'll just direct you here, and then scroll up for more.

Actually, if you haven't been following him lately, you can scroll down to find more, too.

You can pretty much scroll sideways to find Instapundit delivering death to Joe Wilson by a thousand links.

And there's more. The media seem strangely no longer interested in the man who got so much hype and glowing press last year.

While most of Wilson's most vigorous champions don't even bother to defend him at all. They choose to just ignore the story, figuring that if they keep their readers uninformed about recent developments, there's nothing to defend.

Josh Marshall Style Self-Important "I will have more on this later" Pronouncement:

I will have more on this later.

Posted by: Ace at 12:51 PM | Comments (8)
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This animated video of Motorhead's Ace of Spades has served me well as the official site theme.

As of today, however, that song becomes the secondary theme. The new theme is just too awesome for words.

Hint: "Cowbell" and Christopher Walken may or may not be involved.

Today is officially the Ace of Spades HQ Audio-Visual Society Appreciation Day, I guess. I think this is the fourth AV link today.

Hat Tip to Blaster, for doing a man's job by tipping me to the theme.

Update: Blaster adds a little mo' cowbell.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (14)
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It's awfully funny. But during the period when the left assures us there was "no" link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi sure did seem to have the run of Saddam's capital:

LONDON — Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi set up "sleeper cells" in Baghdad before the Iraq war to attack American forces occupying the country, according to a British intelligence report.

The report, dated March 2003 and released as part of an overall review of British intelligence, forecast the string of Zarqawi's attacks against American targets during the past year "using car bombs and other weapons." It said he was setting up groups of fighters to be activated at a later time, known in the intelligence field as "sleeper cells."

...

By the time of the U.S.-led invasion in March of last year, the report said, Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee indicated:

"Reporting since (February) suggests that senior al Qaeda associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has established sleeper cells in Baghdad, to be activated during a U.S. occupation of the city."

The reported added: "These cells apparently intend to attack U.S. targets using car bombs and other weapons. (It is also possible that they have received CB materials from terrorists in the KAZ)," referring to chemical and biological materials and the Kurdish Autonomous Zone. "Al Qaeda-associated terrorists continued to arrive in Baghdad in early March."

And yet we're told there was "no" cooperation.

Which is all the more reason to have invaded Iraq. If al-Zarqawi could accomplish this much without Saddam's connivance, imagine what he might have done if Saddam had, say, permitted him to freely operate in Iraq.

Posted by: Ace at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)
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As you may have noticed, I am in favor of Bush's re-election.

However, the Democrats are quite right in saying that Bush hasn't done enough to make us secure at home. Now, I actually think the Democrats would be worse on this score, but put that aside for now.

Read this article. It is long, but it is absolutely devastating.

I hate to say this, but it needs to be said: If Bush's lackadaisacal attitude, and Norm Mineta's dangerously-naive brand of political correctness, regarding airplane security results, as it in all likelihood will, in planes being bombed out of the sky, he will not only lose the election, but he will deserve to lose, and I will shed no tears.

Actions and decisions have consequences. I'd rather see Bush booted out of office that continue sending the signal that we, the public, will put up with politically-correct bullshit when our very lives are on the line.

Would Kerry be any better? Of his own volition: certainly not. He'd be worse. Far worse.

But with the example of Bush being thrown out of office because of this obscene lack of seriousness about airport security, perhaps he'll get the message.

I will not blame Bush for the sort of terrorist attack which, quite frankly, can never be prevented by any security measures the American public would put up with. There may be bombings in malls and on subway platforms; but the American people simply will not put up with a police state, nor with the inconvenience of being searched and screened at mall entrances. We, as a people, have made the decision that we will accept such risks in the interests of convenience.

But airplane bombings? It's not as if the terrorists have been secretive about their preferred choice of target.

It is impossible to prevent all terrorist attacks, even those directed at airplanes. However, if there are multiple bombings this summer on airplanes, the American people -- and Ace of Spades HQ -- are going to ask some very tough questions regarding exactly how committed the Bush Administration is to keeping us alive in the skies.

And when Bush loses Ace of Spades, he's lost America. When I turn, it's a 400 electoral vote blowout.

The administration is on warning about this. They have been for years, of course. But fucking-around time is well over by now.

Thanks to Blaster's Blog, who has more links and thoughts.

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (53)
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A "Pause for Breath" in June, But Leading Indicators Show Rebound

The terror-tax on oil worked the miserable magic that had been intended, slowing spending and (as we already knew) hiring.

But...

... a big rise in leading indicators of factory activity supported a general view that the slowing was merely a pause in growth that should pick up in the third quarter. ...

The White House was quick to play down concerns that the economic soft spot would last.

"You have to look at the overall body of evidence in the indicators," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. "We are seeing a strong, sustained recovery. The economy continues to strengthen."

Analysts agreed.

"June industrial production suggests the economy took a rest in June and the other data suggest this was just a pause for breath," said chief U.S. economist Ian Morris at HSBC Securities in New York.

Output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities fell unexpectedly in June, recording its largest drop in more than a year. Industrial production fell 0.3 percent in June after a downwardly revised 0.9 percent May increase. Wall Street had expected a flat reading.

But separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its index for business conditions in the mid-Atlantic region rose to 36.1 in July from 28.9 in June.

Forecasts had been for a fall to 25.0 and the result bodes well for the third quarter.

"This report looks very good. It supports what we saw from the Empire State survey earlier today. Factory activities are accelerating again after a June lull," said Parul Jain, deputy chief economist at Nomura Securities International.

The New York Fed earlier reported a solid rise in its July Empire Manufacturing Survey, with the business conditions index climbing to 36.5 from a revised 29.9 in June.

The clouds are thick and gray, but through the gloaming, I spy a tiny gleam of polished brass:

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)
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Is Bush responsible for job losses? Maybe indirectly. But it sure doesn't help that Teresa Heinz's company has been shedding workers for years (or at least that was the plan announced in 1999).

Apparently the Weight Watchers frozen food division is owned by Heinz. And Whoopie Goldberg is -- wait, was -- a Weight Watchers' pitchwoman.

Were I Michael Moore, I could get a solid 55 minute documentary out of those two facts alone.

Thanks to Tanker.

Tanker also sent along this article, which you probably already saw, but if you didn't, it's worth checking out: Aides: Kerry Didn't Read National Intelligence Estimate Report Before Voting for War.

That's right-- he didn't read the same NIE report he's claiming Bush didn't read. (Bush says he did read it, btw.)

Remember, this is the same man who says we need a President who will get all the facts before taking us to war. I guess we need a President who will get all the facts, but not so much a Senator.

Correction: Jeepers, I didn't read the article's date; it was a 1999 piece. I had to re-write my original post to make a similar point.

Sorry about that. This is the second time I've posted an older article before reading the date on it. Shame on me, but this time, lesson learned.

Thanks to Yaron for pointing that out to me.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (4)
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Mark Steyn notices something interesting:

The media, said Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor of Newsweek, in a unusual moment of candour the other day, ‘wants Kerry to win’ and so ‘they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic ...that’s going to be worth maybe 15 points’. In Fleet Street, if memory serves, an assistant managing editor is the bloke who orders the office furniture, but on Newsweek’s bulked-up masthead Mr Thomas is quite the bigshot and, just to prove his point, the magazine’s cover this week features a beaming John Kerry and a beaming John Edwards over the headline ‘The Sunshine Boys’.

That sounds pretty familiar.

And then, just to rub salt into the wound, he pounces on something I was flogging a month ago:

‘Like a caged hamster, Senator John Kerry is restless on the road. He pokes at the perimeter of the campaign bubble that envelops him, constantly trying to break out for a walk around the block, a restaurant dinner....’

Why couldnÂ’t he have been a caged tiger? IsnÂ’t that what sheÂ’s getting at? A noble beast, restless and prowling? A caged hamsterÂ’s never struck me as being that interested in poking the perimeter. HeÂ’s happy on his little hamster wheel, going round and round and getting nowhere, occasionally pausing to chew his nuts. But heÂ’s not constantly trying to break out, unless he happens to be at a Hollywood fundraiser and a certain male movie star asks him back to his pad for a nightcap. Perhaps Ms Wilgoren thought the tiger was too haughty and aristocratic, and that the rodent imagery would humanise Kerry. Or perhaps, like Sinatra, the Senator has his very own Hamster Pack of buddies for when he breaks out of the bubble and gets to that restaurant.

I'd declare Mr. Steyn an enemy of this site if he weren't so damnably indispensible.

Posted by: Ace at 10:16 AM | Comments (4)
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Robert Novak tells you stuff you already know, but it's fun to read again.

Oddly enough, the liberals' Ahmed Chalabi doesn't seem to be getting the same press-coverage as the real Ahmed Chalabi. I'm sure there's some "nuanced, news-judgment" reason for that which does not involve liberal bias.

Via Instapundit, The Belgravia Dispatch catches the NYT making flat-out untrue statements which just coincidentally happen to fit its preferred narrative.

Posted by: Ace at 10:09 AM | Add Comment
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The pedestrian in this unbelievable traffic-video footage actually survives getting hit by a car (a car which careens into him after being hit by another). The drivers of the two cars escaped with "minor injuries." (The fact that their injuries are so described as "minor" would seem to be a pretty good tip-off that the pedestrian's weren't.)

I always feel weird about links like this. I hate being exploitative, but this is the sort of thing I'd email to a friend (particularly since the pedestrian did survive). So, if I'd email it to a friend, I guess there's no strong reason to refrain from posting it on the blog.

Anyway, the Chicago Boyz have the footage and the Snopes.com article describing the collision, and how the man survived this calamity.

Bear in mind that while this guy lives, the collision is pretty hair-raising.

Thanks to RDBrewer.

Posted by: Ace at 09:30 PM | Comments (9)
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I've read excertps, but I hadn't actually heard the remarks.

What he's saying is pretty serious, and there's some real anger there, but Cosby is one of those guys who's always sorta funny. He'd be funny if he were a doctor diagnosing your carnivorous foot fungus.

Link fromthe comments to this Slate article about Cosby, which is okay, but it doesn't tell you a whole lot you didn't already know.

Posted by: Ace at 09:20 PM | Comments (4)
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