Being investigated in Vietnam for a "relationship" with a juvenile of unidentified name and sex.

Posted by: Ace at 05:48 PM | Comments (15)
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I waffled on posting this. It's childish and nasty and superficial but then so is Maureen Dowd.

So, here.

Posted by: Ace at 04:33 PM | Comments (44)
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Having been clued in by the inestimable Jim Geraghty at NRO, I had to click on the link and see what trainwreck awaited over at Wonkette.

I am astonished.

Wonkette writes a post using the word f**king and f**k, but manages to avoid juxtaposing it with any ass references at all.

Needless to say, ass f**king is not in her list of 'banned words.' Wonder why?

In the spirit of constructive criticism, may I suggest we send her some tips (something non-sexual for a change, I imagine) for words she should ban? Or just use the comments, because, well, don't you know that Wonkette is a big fan of Ace?

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 03:46 PM | Comments (18)
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He trolled the Jihadist sites under a nom de plume. A sting (videotaped!) shows him explaining how to kill the drivers of tanks and Humvees, while keeping the vehicle intact (to be used to kill further American soldiers).

He got life in prison, but may be paroled in 19 years. Then again, he's at Fort Levenworth military prison. We'll see what kind of shape he's in in 19 years.

But don't question his patriotism. He has the right to dissent via conspiracy to murder and treason.

Posted by: Ace at 03:15 PM | Comments (18)
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One good thing about the project is that it has attracted MSM attention, and therefore some additional general-public attention as well -- raising the profile of blogs, even for blogs not part of the OSM network, or whatever it is.

That's a good thing, I think. Advertisers are people, and people make decisions for dubious reasons all the time. Hollywood is more likely to make a movie out of a book, for example -- even if it's a bad book, that no executive has actually bothered to read -- because there is a reassurance in holding that book in their hands. It's something concrete. It's real. It's not just a "premise" or a "concept" or even a spec script.

They can carry that book -- that little signifier, that 300 page reifier -- and show it to investors and say, "This is the thing we're making a movie about. This real thing, which you can touch and feel and even smell, if you like smelling books." (And, frankly, who doesn't?)

Similarly, major advertisers, who have been reluctant to advertise on blogs despite the fact that the cost-per-eyeball is far lower than the CPM for placing ads in magazines and on TV -- might now see that there's a "real business" out there called blogs and decide that OSM -- with its investors, its incorporation, its editorial board, etc. -- now signifies a certain reassuring amount of professionalism and take-it-seriously-ism.

That little intangible could be the key to the whole deal's success or failure. Advertisers have known about blogs for years, of course, and some corporations have even set up their own blogs. But will OSM reassure them further that this is a real thing? Will OSM let them finally smell it?

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (5)
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Stop the ACLU rounds up reactions from the blogosphere, much of which is critical and skeptical.

RiehlWorldView is one of the skeptics, and has decided to remain an independent. Then again, he's got major-league traffic lately, and I'm not sure he'd have much to gain from aggregating with a host of (mostly) smaller blogs.

I don't know either way. I will say that, from the beginning, I never really understood what OSM was intended to be. I was one of the bloggers contacted for early sign-up -- I didn't really sign up; really they just wanted me to sign up so they could present potential investors with a list of blogs that might be involved in the thing when it launched -- and I never "got it."

Not to be too mercenary, but the only thing that I really understood and anticipated was the possibility of higher ad rates, something that I thought a bunch of big machers, backed by venture capital, might be able to swing. But as everyone now knows, the rates offered by OSM are not so terribly different from those offered by BlogAds. A little higher, maybe, but then the (basically) flat-rate contract offered by OSM doesn't allow for increasing rates based on increasing traffic. And of course most bloggers plan to, or at least hope to, grow their audience.

The other part of it -- the "Drudge Report Round Up" of blogs, the "original reporting from all over the globe" part -- I don't really get at all. There already is a Drudge Report of blogs-- called Instapundit. And original reporting is rare, only happening during a major disaster or, even rarer, a controversy in which there can be some advancement of the story through largely Internet-based investigation (i.e., Rathergate). I don't know how the fact that there are a lot of non-reportage blogs now aggregated into a big confederation of bloggers is going to increase the opportunities for original reportage.

There will be more original reporting on the Internet, but it will still be quite rare, and I don't see how OSM is going to change that much. Except that, OSM being dedicated to such original blog reportage, they will of course feature such posts and send traffic to such bloggers, increasing the benefit to bloggers for doing such reportage and thereby encouraging it.

But then... Instapundit and other big bloggers already tend to highlight original blog-reportage, even when it involves fairly local issues.

I always thought that someone in the organization was pretty psyched about creating a truly revolutionary media venture, and was determined to have such a revolution as part of the company's mission statement, but... never really got around to figuring out how exactly that revolution would come to be. Kinda like the underpants-theiving gnomes on South Park. They knew what they had and they knew where they wanted to go, but that crucial "Step Two" was always left blank, the details to be provided at a later date.

So I don't know. There's a bottom-line cash-money part of the project which is, while nice, very incrementalist, and a more ambitious and idealistic plan for a really revolutionary change in information-delivery, but which seems sketchy and unlikely.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (24)
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Cutting to the chase: there are only two possible "exit strategies" in Iraq. Victory or defeat.

Many Congressmen seem to believe there is little difference between them.

The Iraq War, while longer and bloodier than I (and many others) imagined, is in fact moving towards success. "Success" is not the defeat of every single terrorist in the country. "Success" is the defeat of most terrorists in the country, training Iraqis to take the battle to the rest (with American help, increasingly in the form of airstrikes).

The Iraqi army is growing in numbers, morale, and combat effectiveness. And at this moment -- when the number of loyal, effective Iraqi soldiers is eclipsing the number of terrorists and terrorist supporters -- now is the time Congress wants to tell terrorists "You've beaten us; we merely want a 'Decent Interval;' just keep doing what you're doing, and we'll turn the country over to you by a date specified"?

No one wants to be in Iraq "forever." (Although it is quite likely the Kurds will ask us to keep a few bases in their territory, an arrangement beneficial for both them and us.) Bush's plan is not to use the American military in perpetuity to safeguard Iraq. Bush's plan is to train enough Iraqi soldiers so that they themselves can handle terrorism in their own country.

It's a plan that, while costly, has the small virtue of actually seeming to work.

Representative Murtha's plan will work, too, of course. His plan is to give control of Iraq to terrorists. Does he really believe that once an oil-rich state is in the hands of terrorists no further American military involvement there will be necessary?

Really? Sort of like how Afghanistan posed no danger to the United States before 9/11?

Via Hans Bricks, who seems to think that John McCain should be our next President.

Simmer down there, Francis.

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (29)
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Anklebiting Pundits says that Rep. Tom Reynolds is talking mutiny on the S.S. Hastert.

Beset by one of the worst bouts of insomnia I've ever had last night, I tried watching the oft-watched Crimson Tide to put me to sleep. It didn't work. Watched the whole thing. Should have tried the boring movie that put me out light a baby last week-- Ocean's Twelve. It's cinematic Nyquil.

But I'm in an X.O. Hunter kind of mood.

Remember, guys: Weps is the key. You can't do this without Weps.

Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (12)
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Good stuff.

Via the Corner.

Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (4)
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Normal meaning about 100 cars torched by Muslim extremists on a nightly basis.

Sort of what the Bronx was like before they started electing Republican mayors.

Of course, there could be a bright side to all of this.
The biggest beneficiary has been Nicolas Sarkozy.

While the French public has given general backing to president Jacques Chirac's government in cracking down on youths behind the urban violence, it is Sarkozy who has benefited most, according to a new survey out this week.

The Ipsos poll found his popularity has leapt 11 points to 63 percent, his "presidential vote potential" has climbed to 61 percent, and 68 percent supported his hardline approach to the unrest.

Not bad for a guy who dared to call scum, "scum."

I just hope the Frogs don't figure out that he is a Hungarian Jew.

Posted by: Tanker at 07:28 AM | Comments (18)
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