Althouse: Al Capone's accountant.

May 17, 2015

Al Capone's accountant.

A Google news search turns up 3,020 results for that search right now. Do you know why?

Another interesting Google search right now is a single 3-letter word: Umm. About 341,000 results on that one. Are you paying attention?

24 comments:

trumpintroublenow said...: The Wikipedia page for this supposed high level ISIS leader did not even exist until yesterday. And the new page cites a "well documented report" that the raid never took place.; 5/17/15, 11:44 AM
paminwi said...: What I want to know is why they REALLY went after this guy and his wife AND why did we have to broadcast it to the world that we gathered all kinds of intelligience. The intelligience has just become less useful since we blabbed to the world what we did. Is Obama feeling battered and so he needs a feather in his cap?; 5/17/15, 11:47 AM
Barry Dauphin said...: A terrorism analyst who was not identified told the New York Times that Sayyaf was easily replaceable, comparing him to Al Capone's accountant.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/who-was-abu-sayyaf-emir-oil-killed-u-s-n360076; 5/17/15, 11:48 AM
Hagar said...: Something happened, but, as usual, it is best not to believe anybody's story as to exactly what it was.; 5/17/15, 11:58 AM
Michael K said...: Anything this administration says is subject to later revision.; 5/17/15, 12:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm waiting for transcripts from the Sunday shows I listened to, but what I'm sensing is that they wanted that guy for intelligence. That's why they went in. But he put up a fight and ended up dead, so they took his wife, Umm.

Now we have the woman and we need to extract intelligence from her. How do you think that's going to work out as an advantage/disadvantage in the fight for hearts and minds?; 5/17/15, 12:05 PM
Moneyrunner said...: Oh crap. Althouse wants to change the hearts and minds of people who want to kill you for drawing a cartoon. Affirmative action hire at work.; 5/17/15, 12:12 PM
Etienne said...: I kind of laughed when half the news outlets called the guy an "ISIS Commander" and the other half an "ISIS Leader". Some percentage an "ISIS Official". All of course referencing Capone's accountant, who's name was coined by the military briefer, who tried to simplify it for the common civilian.

Obviously, at 300 pounds, he was no military commander.

I'd like to have me a Christian slave though, so there's some envy.

Anyway, they say he is dead now. With no body to display, we'll never know.; 5/17/15, 12:15 PM
Fernandinande said...: Actually 406 results for news of "Umm".

And 101 results for ""Al Capone's accountant".; 5/17/15, 12:18 PM
Etienne said...: Arab women are only slightly better off than the Christian slaves.

I'm thinking she only knows what he ate, and he ate a lot.; 5/17/15, 12:22 PM
Michael K said...: When the Obama people did NOT use the Osama intelligence haul for years after, I just don't believe anything they say. Maybe some adults in CIA used the data but Obama has been getting rid of adults as fast as he can.; 5/17/15, 1:10 PM
gadfly said...: Al Capone's accountant is now up to 12,900 Google hits at 2:15 PM EDT and UMM is at 64.4 million hits.

Google will not be tricked or tracked.; 5/17/15, 1:19 PM
Chuck said...: So Meet the Press featured a discussion panel of Chuck Todd, Thomas Friedman, Helene Cooper, David Axelrod and (the token) Sara Fagen.

Thank the gods of cable tv that I don't have to rely on CBS, NBC and ABC.

What a despicable travesty, that Meet the Press would bring on Cory Booker for the intended purpose of having him "link" the Amtrak accident to a lack of infrastructure spending. Chuck Todd asked the question, Booker deliberately avoided a direct answer, deliberately smeared the issue of infrastructure spending, and Todd let him go.

I think -- and I am being serious here -- that Meet the Press is the most loathsome news program on television. Not because Al Sharpton or Rachel Maddow aren't more deserving; they are. But their ceiling is so low. Nobody watches them. They don't pretend to be anything other than a televised Salon.com.

I have no idea why Meet the Press gets the ratings that it does.; 5/17/15, 1:29 PM
Hagar said...: I just watched the noon re-run of Fox News Sunday, and it was another Sunday hour wasted.
These people all just talk to each other.; 5/17/15, 2:05 PM
Gahrie said...: What I want to know is why they REALLY went after this guy and his wife AND why did we have to broadcast it to the world that we gathered all kinds of intelligience

It is an attempt to down out the bad news coming out of Iraq in the war against ISIS.; 5/17/15, 3:01 PM
Gahrie said...: I'm thinking she only knows what he ate, and he ate a lot.

The story I read is that she was the one in charge of the slave auctions.; 5/17/15, 3:02 PM
Gahrie said...: I have no idea why Meet the Press gets the ratings that it does.

For over 50 years it was the gold standard of the Sunday morning talk shows. it evolved and changed over the years, but was still the best of its kind.

Then Russert died, and it has been a disaster ever since.; 5/17/15, 3:04 PM
Danno said...: All of the Sunday morning "so-called" news programs have hosts and guests that are part of the NY/DC bubble, and have their heads so far up their ass that they haven't had a breath of fresh air in years. That is why I don't watch them, but rather let Ann summarize them for me.; 5/17/15, 3:43 PM
T J Sawyer said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/17/15, 3:55 PM
David said...: ISIS gets 214,000,000.

Umm.; 5/17/15, 3:55 PM
David said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/17/15, 3:55 PM
T J Sawyer said...: My gosh. With all the wars we fight in the middle east, you would think that by now everyone would know that Umm means "mother of."

Except, in the case of Umm Ali. That is a delicious dessert.; 5/17/15, 3:56 PM
Bill said...: Umm Kulthum, the songbird of Egypt, gal-pal of Nasser?; 5/17/15, 4:19 PM
clint said...: Al Capone's accountant was mentioned prominently in an episode of Daredevil -- the direct-to-netflix, whole-season-released-at-once Marvel superhero show that's getting really good reviews. (Well deserved ones.)

At least, that was my guess before I read on past the question.

It made me google him sometime last week.; 5/17/15, 5:32 PM