Damascus Embassy Attack Update Thread (Last One)
UPDATE 42 (12:15 EST): And that'll do it for us. We leave you with this parting thought - this guy votes:
What is truly astounding is that after being fed such a steady diet of lies and half-truths by this government and its lap dog media that any of us believe anything at all that is reported. If CNN says the sky is blue I look out my window to check. If MSNBC say 1+1=2, I count my fingers to make sure. I don't subscribe to any particular "conspiracy theory" but I sure as hell know that all these m*therf*ckers are constantly conspiring to manipulate our perceptions of reality in the service of their sinister agendas. They never sleep on this and we can't afford to trust anything they say that has any bearing on matters of war and peace.
Sure, he's a lunatic. But if you just focus on that, you lose the very subtle beauty in the idea that he has to use his fingers to count up to 2. Seriously though, joking aside, all of them - total batshit crazy. If conservatives consent to massive hikes in social spending for mental health programs, up to and including a program that significantly subsidizes the development and distribution of psychotropic drugs, do you think maybe we can make them go away? Because right now they're just out there, walking around and having super-secret meetings in the park with the imaginary CIA agent who always leaves them messages in .gifs pasted dead center in Democratic Underground threads. It's like a combination of JFK and A Beautiful Mind, except the parts usually reserved for Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe are now being played by some guy who alternates between rocking back and forth muttering about BushCo and jumping up and down screaming about neocons.
UPDATE 41 (11:55 EST): You want video? The web has video. CNN or Yahoo.
UPDATE 40 (11:45 EST): Memeorandum says the CNN article is new, and indeed it does appear to be so (if only because of the very helpful "story highlights" box at the top, which we'll be glad to reproduce for you:
- NEW: Condoleezza Rice thanks Syrian security forces for their response
- Four gunmen killed, one wounded in foiled attack on U.S. Embassy in Damascus
- Syrian ambassador suspects al Qaeda-like group responsible
- State Department cites "ongoing concern" for U.S. embassies in Mideast
We still can't find anyone who'll agree with CNN on the magic number being five attackers, but far be it from us to criticize anyone for refusing to back down on what they think is right. We hereby take back our stated viewer preference that they fire their Damascus correspondent (and web editor), and suspend all judgement as to the actual number of attackers. The phrase "al Qaeda-like group" pretty much sums itself up. Press gaggle going on in DC. Maybe we'll get some numbers.
UPDATE 39 (11:35 EST): For those of you who have jobs so bad that you need the last half hour's worth of updates:
Robert Spencer points out that, well, we're kind of in a war.
Dan Drezner says: not so much with the Al Qaeda connection. We say: in their minds AQ chiefs are very proud of them, but only in their minds. AQ chiefs say: we've never heard of these guys in our lives, and agree with everybody else - launching a daytime raid on the fortified US embassy in Damascus is pretty stupid... not as stupid as letting yourself be captured, but still pretty stupid.
PoliBlog mostly agrees with all of this, but he goes meta and discusses the problem in the context of decentralized terrorist networks.
Hot Air makes the same 'Episcopalean extremist' joke that we've been running, which would sound like us bragging except we're pretty sure we originally stole the joke from Allah like two years ago (aka his pre-Malkin gravy train days). We nonetheless get a strange sense of affirmation.
What is truly astounding is that after being fed such a steady diet of lies and half-truths by this government and its lap dog media that any of us believe anything at all that is reported. If CNN says the sky is blue I look out my window to check. If MSNBC say 1+1=2, I count my fingers to make sure. I don't subscribe to any particular "conspiracy theory" but I sure as hell know that all these m*therf*ckers are constantly conspiring to manipulate our perceptions of reality in the service of their sinister agendas. They never sleep on this and we can't afford to trust anything they say that has any bearing on matters of war and peace.
Sure, he's a lunatic. But if you just focus on that, you lose the very subtle beauty in the idea that he has to use his fingers to count up to 2. Seriously though, joking aside, all of them - total batshit crazy. If conservatives consent to massive hikes in social spending for mental health programs, up to and including a program that significantly subsidizes the development and distribution of psychotropic drugs, do you think maybe we can make them go away? Because right now they're just out there, walking around and having super-secret meetings in the park with the imaginary CIA agent who always leaves them messages in .gifs pasted dead center in Democratic Underground threads. It's like a combination of JFK and A Beautiful Mind, except the parts usually reserved for Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe are now being played by some guy who alternates between rocking back and forth muttering about BushCo and jumping up and down screaming about neocons.
UPDATE 41 (11:55 EST): You want video? The web has video. CNN or Yahoo.
UPDATE 40 (11:45 EST): Memeorandum says the CNN article is new, and indeed it does appear to be so (if only because of the very helpful "story highlights" box at the top, which we'll be glad to reproduce for you:
- NEW: Condoleezza Rice thanks Syrian security forces for their response
- Four gunmen killed, one wounded in foiled attack on U.S. Embassy in Damascus
- Syrian ambassador suspects al Qaeda-like group responsible
- State Department cites "ongoing concern" for U.S. embassies in Mideast
We still can't find anyone who'll agree with CNN on the magic number being five attackers, but far be it from us to criticize anyone for refusing to back down on what they think is right. We hereby take back our stated viewer preference that they fire their Damascus correspondent (and web editor), and suspend all judgement as to the actual number of attackers. The phrase "al Qaeda-like group" pretty much sums itself up. Press gaggle going on in DC. Maybe we'll get some numbers.
UPDATE 39 (11:35 EST): For those of you who have jobs so bad that you need the last half hour's worth of updates:
Robert Spencer points out that, well, we're kind of in a war.
Dan Drezner says: not so much with the Al Qaeda connection. We say: in their minds AQ chiefs are very proud of them, but only in their minds. AQ chiefs say: we've never heard of these guys in our lives, and agree with everybody else - launching a daytime raid on the fortified US embassy in Damascus is pretty stupid... not as stupid as letting yourself be captured, but still pretty stupid.
PoliBlog mostly agrees with all of this, but he goes meta and discusses the problem in the context of decentralized terrorist networks.
Hot Air makes the same 'Episcopalean extremist' joke that we've been running, which would sound like us bragging except we're pretty sure we originally stole the joke from Allah like two years ago (aka his pre-Malkin gravy train days). We nonetheless get a strange sense of affirmation.
