As others have wondered, where is the outrage? How come there's none of that usual bluster?

I guess because if Israel can hit a secret nuke plant it could also easily hit the bunker of Syria's drooling imbecile of a dictator.

This article suggests, however, that Israel is keeping quiet about this in order to allow Assad to save some chinless face and not feel the need to respond belligerently.

In its first admission by a state official, Syria's ambassador to the UN confirmed that an air raid carried out by Israeli fighter jets deep in Syrian territory on September 6 was, indeed, an attack on a Syrian nuclear facility, Israel Radio reported Wednesday morning.

The Syrian envoy disclosed the nature of the target during a meeting of a UN committee where Israeli envoys were also present.

A senior source in the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the statement was made in New York by the Syrian official.

Since first announcing on September 6 that an incursion into Syrian airspace by IAF jets took place, Syria has attempted to strike a balance between mustering international condemnation of Israel on the one hand and efforts by Damascus to blur the nature and purpose of the facility attacked on the other hand.

...

Israeli analysts estimated that the government's decision not to disclose information about the strike was intended to avoid embarrassing Assad's regime, in the hope that silence on Israel's side could prevent the tension between the two countries from escalating into all-out war.

Posted by: Ace at 11:39 AM | Comments (43)
Post contains 266 words, total size 2 kb.

Meh. I don't think the douchey Sulzberger family cares that much. They're rich enough to not care about money, and to imagine the family will always have it.

There's a bit of an asterisk on this story as it seems to come from one source, though neither Morgan Stanley or the NYT is commenting, which suggests it's for realies.

Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.

The person declined to be identified because Morgan Stanley hasn't made the sale public yet. Traders with knowledge of the transaction said Merrill Lynch & Co. sold New York Times stock worth $183 million in a block trade.

...

New York Times shares slid 48 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $18.43 at 12:44 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and fell as low as $18.28, a level not seen since January 1997.

If Elmasry has sold the stock, ``it's almost a dead certainty there would be a bailout of other institutional holders,'' Bibb said in an interview. ``If that happens and there is a sharp drop in the share price, the Sulzbergers have to sit down and decide whether now is not a good time to take the company private.'

But the Sulzbergers would presumably come out ahead -- outside investors bought high, and now the family would be buying them back out at, I imagine, a sharply lowered price. The difference went into their pockets and would stay there.

Kind of like Enron. Perhaps former Enron advisor Paul Krugman will take this opportunity to expound on callous plutocrats preying on middle class investors.

Posted by: Ace at 11:24 AM | Comments (25)
Post contains 321 words, total size 2 kb.

Most seem to take that headline as pushing hard for a negative angle on greatly decreased terror deaths, but I'm not certain of that.

First of all, such spin is absurd, and one would have to be a drooling imbecile to try it. I'm pretty sure only 40% of the press corps consist of drooling imbeciles, so there was probably some non-retardified supervision here.

Second, the media likes to dramatize trends and numbers. Why assume they are attempting to spin the good news as "bad for mortuary workers" when it's possible they're just looking for a way to dramatize the effect of, and extent of, the rapid plunge in deaths in Iraq? I mean -- apart from visceral, unapologetic bias against the war. Perhaps these reporters just stumbled accidentally into doing their jobs properly?

Here's the article. Decide for yourself, but really, there's not much point reading it. The headline tells the tale: Deaths fall in Iraq, as does money for morticians and grave-diggers and corpse-washers. Newsbusters has a quick digest if you're interested.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (15)
Post contains 200 words, total size 1 kb.

Wow. Neil Clark is playing Von Ribbentrop for the Axis of Evil.

TodayÂ’s developments are all very welcome. But more is still needed to deter an illegal U.S. attack on Iran. The formation of a mutual defence pact between Russia, Iran, Syria, Venuezuela and any other countries threatened by neocon aggression is urgently required.

The pact would stipulate that an attack on any of the states would be considered an attack on them all: and would be met with immediate military retalitation, as well as economic measures, such as the disruption of oil supplies.

...

The lessons of history are clear: to deter aggression, countries with a common foe need to stick together and guarantee to come to each otherÂ’s defence if attacked.

Don't question his patriotism. Oh, I know, he's not American. But he's plainly also anti-British. As LGF's link notes, he was previously spied cheering on Al Qaeda and rooting for coalition combat deaths by "true heroes of Islam."

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (22)
Post contains 188 words, total size 1 kb.

One of the perks of my kick-ass job is that I get to attend cool functions every now and then.

Like today, for example. I just got back from "Lunch Time with DARPA". That's right, suckas...a full lunch time spent being briefed on advances in DARPA research goodness.

There was talk about exoskeletons. There was a demonstration of new prosthetic devices (which looked every bit as awesome as something you would see in Star Wars). And, best of all, there were gifts.

Lots of gifts.

Of particular relevance to you morons is that DARPA gave me a kick ass deck of playing cards. Each card touting a military advance they have made.

(By the way...all the advances on the back of the Jack cards are way cooler than the advances on the Ace's...read into that what you will).

Nevertheless, here is what the back of the Ace of Spades card touts:

"Autonomous Vehicles"- DARPA began funding development of high performance ground navigation systems in the 1980's. In 2002, DARPA created the Grand Challenge, a long distance competition for robotic ground vehicles. The program accelerates autonomous ground vehicle technology that can be used to save lives on the battleground.

Ahh...Ace of Spades and an emphasis on getting things done autonomously..the two concepts seem to go hand in hand, don't they?

Posted by: Jack M. at 10:03 AM | Comments (24)
Post contains 227 words, total size 1 kb.

How the AmSpec managed to avoid the words "masturbatory fantasy" is beyond me. Clearly Sean Macomber is a better man than I.

After recounting some of the more, um, florid fantasias about the Randi Rhodes Non-Mugging from some of the, uhhh, fervid subscribers to the Community-Based Reality, Macomber notes, as I easily predicted, they refused to accept an alternate version of reality from Rhodes' own lawyer.

Despite the contentions of Rhodes' own lawyer and Air America Radio -- not likely members in good standing of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy -- Rhodes' fans refused to let the hate crime narrative give up the ghost. "We are likely to be more accurate on this board than the entire domestic news industry," one aficionado declared at Rhodes' official site. Another seconded that dismissal: "Unfortunately the AAR statement was so vague it only worsened the situation."

Vague? The reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded seems to be the sentence-length antonym of vague. And even leaving aside whether a person whose profile lists his location as "The 13th Floor of the Tower of Terror" and auto-signs every post with the refrain, "Republicans will never be happy until they have completely destroyed the earth and ended all life as we know it" is going to be more accurate than the entire domestic news industry, is he going to be more accurate than Rhodes' lawyer and uber-liberal employer?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say...probably not. There is, however, something bigger going on here, encapsulated in the determination of Rhodes' fans, against all facts to the contrary, to hold-tight to the pipe dream of right-wing fanatics hiring Blackwater agents to beat her as she walked her dog: They so wish it were true. As with global warming alarmism, these sorts of messianic martyr fantasies about neo-Nazi conspirators aligned against liberals' salvation program for the masses are delusions designed to assure people clearly desperate for meaning in their lives that they are historically significant figures living in historically significant times. History, sadly, is not made within the virtual walls of online echo chambers.

I half-watched Secretary again last night. A lot of people seem to get off on fantasies of psychosexual domination, I guess. Intruding on their fantasias with facts is like knocking on the door when they've been in the bathroom for an hour.

I have a simple cure for these people, though I doubt they'll have the stomach for it.

1) Stand in front of a mirror, looking directly at yourself.

2) Realistically recount your meager achievements and influence.

3) Speak the following words forcefully to yourself: I'm just not worth the bother of political repression, and I never will be. I'm an ineffectual douche with delusions of importance and deep-seeded psychosexual fantasies about domination by a strong man. I really have to grow up and get over myself and move out of my mom's basement.

Repeat this mantra every day and one day you might be within a stone's throw of normal.

Heh:

What about one about the Vast Bloody Mary Conspiracy?

From Michelle, who runs down more crazy-talk from the usual suspects.

Posted by: Ace at 09:56 AM | Comments (27)
Post contains 530 words, total size 4 kb.

Sweet Jeebus.

Watch to the left behind the lead vehicle.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 08:43 AM | Comments (24)
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

Washington, DC and northern Virginia residents can do me a favor and click into the extended entry. I need some advice about getting around DC. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:41 AM | Comments (55)
Post contains 126 words, total size 1 kb.

Governor Goodhair (I'M RICK PERRY, BITCH) throws his support behind Rudy Giuliani, after deciding Rudy means what he says when he says he'll nominate justices like Scalia, Roberts and Alito.

Dismissing the "perfect candidate" argument, Perry says "when he buys a pickup truck, he doesn't rule it out simply because it has one option he doesn't like".

Well, I'm not crazy about the center console seat in my Silverado either, so what the hell.

Anyway, I'm a little surprised Perry threw in with Rudy.

Adios, mo-fo.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 08:19 AM | Comments (40)
Post contains 94 words, total size 1 kb.

This comes from a university study so it must be true.

"Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner," said Baruch, who works in the university's business school in Norwich.

Banning swear words and reprimanding staff might represent strong leadership, but could remove key links between staff and impact on morale and motivation, he said.

"We hope that this study will serve not only to acknowledge the part that swearing plays in our work and our lives, but also to indicate that leaders sometimes need to 'think differently' and be open to intriguing ideas.

"Managers need to understand how their staff feel about swearing. The challenge is to master the 'art' of knowing when to turn a blind eye to communication that does not meet their own standards."

But itÂ’s not all skittles and beerÂ…cursing in front of the boss or customers is still apparently not such a great plan. Still, news like this can only enhance the employment prospects of the majority of people who read this blog.

Posted by: DrewM. at 07:07 AM | Comments (33)
Post contains 200 words, total size 1 kb.