Outfriggin'standing:

The remote control turret changed the battlefield more than you might think. It all began three years ago, when the U.S. Army realized that new remote control gun turret designs actually worked, and suddenly they could not get enough of them...

The main issue was that the enemy was no longer able to knock out the turret gunner, early in a firefight, and take away a lot of the vehicles firepower. Because of that, once the enemy opens fire, they are in trouble. The remote turret tends to begin delivering accurate fire right away, and is much more immune to enemy fire than a human gunner. If the vehicle is a Stryker, the enemy will soon find themselves dealing with half a dozen or so heavily armed infantry, who get out of the vehicle and come at the ambushers. Iraqis don't like that. They also don't like how some of the CROWS turret equipped vehicles will come after them. All those accurately aimed bullets coming their way, and no enemy soldiers in sight, is demoralizing.

I have 30+ years of television viewing telling me that Robots Are Scary.

Speaking of which...

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:35 PM | Comments (37)
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Says he's not the emissary who promised $1 million in donations if Senate Candidate 5 were awarded Obama's seat.

I think this is a bit odd:

"Politics is a contact sport. Only those on the sidelines have clean uniforms," he said.

From Drudge. I wonder if giving the article the "It Wasn't Me" headline he was thinking of this (Content Warning) song by Shaggy.

Posted by: Ace at 04:09 PM | Comments (41)
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The deadliest rental property on the planet.

I think they're just using a form-letter for these wire reports on missile attacks in Pakistan now.

I even think it looks something like this:

UPDATE: commenter Jean advises me to add the official AceofSpadesHQ watermark for proper attribution.

Done!

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Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:56 PM | Comments (23)
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Can the Dallas Cowboys get any more gay?, someone asks.

No.

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (50)
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In Denver, at the Democratic National Convention:

PUMA Pundit has the story.

The hug was orchestrated by Jackson.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (59)
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DrewM. made just this point earlier.

Styen concurs:

[The "pledge"] all sounds very nice, but implicit in such a "pledge" is that the United States now accepts that Iran's going nuclear and there's nothing anyone can (or will) do about it. That's a significant shift.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (58)
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As James Taranto writes, the Illinois legislature is working up a bill to strip the governor of the right to appoint a senator to replace an absent one. Without the power of unearned incumbency, it's possible to pick this seat up -- especially with the general disgust at the corruption in this one-party state.

Even without such a bill -- only a real minor player would accept Blago's nomination. He's too radioactive. You'd have to get a real non-entity back-bencher to take the appointment. (Or an idiot like the actor John Cusack, who's always threatening to go into politics.)

Yes, a seat we assumed would remain comfortably in liberal hands is at some degree at risk. But we need an actual candidate to capitalize.

Apart from Mike Ditka -- who I assume, quite frankly, didn't run against Obama in 2004 due to skeletons in his closet -- who we got in Illinois? Any ideas?

Former Governor Jim Edgar? A Geraghty reader thinks Edgar could win.

He achieved the near-impossible in Illinois, after all -- leaving office unindicted.

Edgar has some tough but true advice for the voters of Illinois: Blagojevich, and all the other corrupt pols, are ultimately your fault.

Edgar says told reporters Tuesday at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign that voters were given plenty of reasons not re-elect Blagojevich two years ago by news reports detailing alleged corruption. Edgar is a distinguished fellow at the Institute of Government & Public Affairs on campus.

Edgar says voters represent the only realistic curb on future corruption. The former Republican governor says potential legislative solutions don't work.

Obama's Choice: He wanted his longtime all Valerie Jarrett to get the seat.

Well, she's about as competent as Obama:

CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.

But it's not safe to live here.

About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing. [...]

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.

Democrats have a cute saying: "Republicans spend their campaigns saying the government can't work, then spend their time in office proving it."

Funny, I admit.

But, um, the Democrats' track record...? Can they name a recent success?

Gary Sinise? JB suggests him:

I've got two words- Gary Frickin' Sinise. Illinois native, still lives there most of the time, I think.

Lt. Dan for Senate !!

IMDB confirms he was born in Illinois, lived there, formed the Steppenwolf Theater Compnay there, etc.

But he has the Fred Thompson problem-- he's under contract, and he'd be screwing CBS, I guess, if he ran for Senator. CBS wouldn't be allowed to run CSI:NY at all unless they were willing to give his opponent equal time every week, which of course they wouldn't be.

He's a political guy. But would he give up a great job in exchange for a kinda crappy one?

One thing I found out recently is that the most brutal job in Hollywood for an actor, hours-wise, is starring in a one-hour series. Starring in a half-hour sitcom is great. Regular schedule, short hors. But one-hour shows are long, long hours, which is, I guess, why so many of them are ensemble pieces.

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (150)
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Hmmm.

I'm not sure Gateway Pundit quite proves what we all suspect -- we know Blago was on the phone with “various Washington, D.C., based advisers," but we don't know necessarily they're Obama advisers. They could just be general party hacks looking to broker a deal.

On the other hand....

Mr. Emanuel was among the few people in Mr. ObamaÂ’s circle who occasionally spoke to Mr. Blagojevich. He declined to answer questions on Wednesday, waving off a reporter who approached him as he walked across Capitol Hill.

And Obama's denials are very circumscribed:

n a news conference in Chicago to introduce his choice as secretary of health and human services in the new administration, Obama reiterated that he has never spoken to Blagojevich about the appointment of a replacement to serve out the remainder of Obama's Senate term, and he said he has not been contacted by any federal investigators regarding the case.

Obama said he has asked his team to "gather all the facts about any staff contacts" that might have taken place between his office and Blagojevich or his advisers. But he said he was "absolutely certain" that his office was not involved in "any deal-making" with Blagojevich on the Senate seat.

Obviously, "I" didn't talk about this to Blago allows for the possibility that, say, Rahm Emmanuel did, and a denial about "any deal-making" doesn't mean deals weren't discussed. Just not made.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 11:05 AM | Comments (34)
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Wasn't that the perennial claim of the lefties whenever a terrorist bust was made over the term of Bush's presidency?

What, we can't use it too?

I question the timing.

In all seriousness, it seems, um, serious.

"We don't know where the suicide attack was to take place," federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said.

"It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or Europe could have been the target."

One of the suspects had "received the green light to carry out an operation from which he was not expected to come back," Mr Delmulle quoted investigators as saying.

The man "had said goodbye to his loved ones, because he wanted to enter paradise with a clear conscience", he added.

"This information, linked to the fact that a European summit is getting under way at this moment in Brussels, left us no choice but to take action today."

Note the defensive nature of that last statement -- police are now conditioned to perpetually apologize for being forced to act against Al Qaeda. As if doing so is a bad thing.

Posted by: Ace at 10:58 AM | Comments (10)
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Attacking Starbucks where it hurts. Not on price -- but on image.

Another billboard slogan jabs, "large is the new grande." The two phrases are displayed on 140 billboards in Western Washington, some of them near Starbucks cafes.

...

Will Starbucks respond in kind? Unlikely.

While the coffee wars received much media and Wall Street trumpeting this year, Starbucks has been mostly silent, maintaining that its customer base is different.

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Instead, it is fighting back in a more subtle way. Executives have hinted that Starbucks is taking the high road.

...

"We're not going to get into that conversation. We're not going to get sucked into the, 'My coffee is better than your coffee,' price point type of coffee conversation. We're going to play at a much higher level. And by 'higher level,' I mean even more Dianna Krall songs covered by Annie Lennox."

I made up that last part.

I'm not sure if I really get McDonald's strategy. People aren't just buying Starbuck's coffee. They're also paying for the right to hang out for an hour or two on a nice chair, which McDonald's isn't offering. Plus, from my experience, Starbucks is a lot friendlier when they catch you masturbating in their bathrooms. Or on line, for that matter.

Posted by: Ace at 10:52 AM | Comments (101)
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