Ace of Spades HQ, Ace of Spades, or AoS is a neoconservative and humor-driven U.S.-based Political Blog, which has been described by Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley as a "very smart military blog",[1] but in fact covers current events, legal issues, and salacious topics in popular culture, along with cutting-edge military hardware and the activities of the U.S. and allied armed forces. Created in 2003, Ace of Spades has had over 68 million hits as of February 2010.[2] It has maintained for years a position as a top-100 blog within the "Blogging Ecosystem" maintained at The Truth Laid Bear.[3] Ace of Spades HQ has also been quoted, mentioned, referenced or linked on the Wall Street Journal's website,[4] Fox News, CNN,[5] National Review, The Weekly Standard, and many notable online magazines/blogs. The site's leading blogger, "Ace of Spades," has also appeared as a guest expert on Fox News, although it is quite rare for him to make media appearances.
Ace's co-bloggers include: "Dave in Texas," "DrewM.," "LauraW.," "Jack M.," "Gabriel Malor," "Slublog," "rdbrewer," "Maetenloch," "Monty," "Russ in Winterset", and "Purple Avenger,". In addition to these main contributors, other readers of his are able to post to the weblog via its "open blog" mechanism.
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Ace of Spades HQ has in the past won "Webbies" for "Best Conservative Blog" (2007 and 2005), and has also won accolades as the "Most Obscene Conservative Blog" in years past. (The addition of advertising to the site has led to a huge reduction in actual vulgarities on the site in 2009 and 2010.) Ace himself was honored as the "Blogger of the Year" at the Conservative Political Union's Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2008, where he was introduced by Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, according to Newsbusters and The Weekly Standard. His speech at that event indicated that he felt all Americans have an obligation to maintain political awareness, rather than relying upon elites to make decisions for them.
Brian Faughnan of The Weekly Standard[6] suggested that "Ace has a gift for cutting through political BS, for dissecting the fatal flaws behind liberal arguments, and for doing so with humor. ... [H]e gave an incisive speech on the death of democracy and the rise of tyranny, accompanied by an analysis of how Ronald Reagan re-invigorated the two-party system. Seriously."
Joy Whittemore McCann of Little Miss Attila also covered the CPAC 2008 speech, and remarked[7] that "AoS gave a rather thoughtful set of remarks on the why New Media is an important part of policy-making, and drew a straight line between the history of policy debate in a town-hall setting and the Reagan Revolution, which rejected the notion—now so prevalent in Europe and elsewhere—that the political class can consider itself our 'betters,' and simply make policy decisions on our behalf. We have, he reminded us, not simply an opportunity to inform ourselves about politics, but a 'duty' to do so. Naturally, alternative streams of information will play a large role in that process."
The Ace of Spades Headquarters is often critical of other political websites, including Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish,[8] the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos,[9] and Glenn Greenwald's Blog in Salon. He has also been exceedingly critical of Christopher Buckley, both as a writer of fiction and as a political commentator.[10] Ace of Spades HQ frequently employs obscenity and humor to express its point of view on serious political questions. Center-right—and devout Roman Catholic—weblogger The Anchoress has described the blog and its commenters as "smart but very very vulgar."[11]
Blogger-in-Chief Ace and Ace of Spades Headquarters itself have both been quoted and linked extensively at other top-tier blogs such as Power Line, Hot Air, Instapundit, Protein Wisdom, and Right Wing News.
AoSHQ, like many political blogs, links to and comments on the day's news. Unlike some other online commentary sites, however, it often features humorous content in its videos, cartoons, and pictures. The site sometimes employs obscenity and vulgar language, setting it apart from some conservative media outlets.
AoSHQ allows commenters to select their own screen names. The use of humorous or ironic names, or monikers taken from dead celebrities, former government officials, and the like, is an integral part of the culture of AoSHQ. Recurring confrontations between "Alexander Hamilton" and "Aaron Burr", who, despite their deaths nearly two centuries ago, have failed to reconcile on matters of national policy, remain a staple, as does random visits from former president "Thomas Jefferson" who generally drops by to clarify and amplify upon his published and unpublished opinions.
Ace of Spades Headquarters was satirized by Roy Edroso of the left-wing Village Voice in the autumn of 2008, in his Guide to the Rightosphere as a "Fratboytarian" new-media outlet. Edroso described the Ace of Spades evolution:
New blog quickly mutated into rowdy multi-author scrum specializing in schoolyard taunts . . . . Site contributors and readers became "morons," but affectionately, e.g.: "There's Hope For You Morons Yet: Woman Takes Out Ad To Lose Virginity Before 30th Birthday." Throughout good times (2004: "I don't plan on doing anything except gloat until Thanksgiving") and bad (2006: "Islamist Enemies Take Great Relief in Democratic Win"), contributors keep their spirits high with "not safe for work" links, often accompanied by moral dudgeon . . .
Ace's expressed political positions include:
While Ace has repeatedly denounced Ron Paul as a racist over some newsletters that were ghostwritten in the 1980s, Ace has himself made overtly racist comments on his own blog. For example, he compared First Lady Michelle Obama to the Klingon Worf and the alien creature from Predator on Inauguration Day in 2009.[3]