ABC News has learned that federal and New York City officials have received credible intelligence that al Qaeda has been plotting to carry out suicide attacks on corporations based in the city.

Sources at several law enforcement agencies tell ABC News that an “overseas source” has provided the information about the threat to New York and that it is more significant than the usual “chatter” intercepted from likely terrorists that has prompted warnings in the past.

Officials from dozens of local and federal agencies met into the night Friday and again this morning.

“Intelligence reporting indicates that al Qaeda continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States,” the New York City Police Department said in a statement released today on the “ongoing al Qaeda threat.”

“The NYPD recommends that corporate and institutional security directors review their protection of HVAC systems, parking installations, and security in general,” the statement added. “The alert level for New York City remains unchanged at ‘orange’ or ‘high.’”

I honestly don’t think it’s a question of “will it happen”, as much as it is “when will it happen?“

Some Democrats who signed up to hear Vice President Dick Cheney speak Saturday were refused tickets unless they signed a pledge to endorse President Bush.

The measure was a security step designed to avoid a disruption, which Bush campaign spokesman Dan Foley alleged Democrats were planning. Democratic Party officials denied it.

Was this a political campaign speech or was this some other “job related” speech? It does not matter. Either way, it was wrong to require people to sign a “pledge” to support President Bush. While we have the right to vote, we are not required at ANY time to tell anyone who we intend to vote for. But we all know that right?

Two men who had sought tickets reported they were required to give name, address, phone number, e-mail address and driver’s license number, and then were presented the pledge of endorsement when they arrived to pick up the tickets Thursday.

Some might say they did it to reduce the risk of some sort of “protest”. Some might say they should not be there if they did not support the President. No matter what they might say the reason was for doing this, it was wrong.

I wonder how they will explain this one?

First there was this report from the Sofia News Agency, yesterday:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the group suspected of beheading two Bulgarian hostages, has reportedly been arrested in Western Iraq.

Then today Al-Jazeera piped in with:

Reports in Kuwait on Friday said a man assumed to be Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi has been captured near the Syrian border.

The report claimed that the man was captured during a joint operation by U.S. occupation forces and Iraqi police, Al Siyasah newspaper, quoting Iraqi sources, said Friday.

and now I see this on Al Bawaba:

Reports in Kuwait on Friday said a man assumed to be Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi has been captured near the Syrian border.

Zarqawi, whose Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Iraq, was captured during a joint operation by US forces and Iraqi police, Al Siyasah newspaper, quoting informed Iraqi sources, said Friday.

The US and Iraqi investigators are trying to identify the captive and has sent his DNA sample for testing, the unconfirmed report indicated.

I don’t know if I would trust the sources on this, but I do find it highly ironic that these are the sources for this story with no word from any of the major news networks.

Eugene Roche, a paunchy character actor who played the kitchen-cleaning “Ajax man” in commercials and had memorable roles in such television shows as “All in the Family” and “Magnum P.I” has died at age 75.

Roche died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack in an Encino hospital, family friend Timothy Wayne said Friday. He had been hospitalized Monday for tests after suffering a mild heart attack at his home in Sherman Oaks, Wayne said.

…

Plump and jovial with glinting eyes, Roche costarred on TV’s “Webster” as a lovable landlord, and was Archie Bunker’s neighborhood nemesis Pinky Peterson on “All in the Family.”

…

Survivors include his wife, Anntoni, and their nine children.

Rest In Peace, Eugene.

You read between 350 - 400 words per minute. Well above average reading level. (The average rate is between 200 - 250 words per minute.) It is assumed that you did not skim the words nor fail to understand the meaning of what was read.

How many words-per-minute do you read?

Today started off rough.

Since I had a couple free minutes this morning, I decided to look into the missing graph problem with StatTraq (knowing full well it was something with my setup, not the plugin).

Before I finished looking through my settings, Randy Peterman, the author of the plugin, offered his expertise. I sent him an email explaining what was happening and the error messages I was receiving. He said it was a simple problem, and I had to activate the gd2.dll extension in php. This sounds simple enough right? Oh no. Not for me, not today.

First, I discovered I did not have gd2.dll, I only had gd.dll which told me that I probably needed to upgrade my php installation, since I had verson 4.2.2 installed. I quickly grabbed the newest version of php (5.0) and performed the installation. I have done this so many times with other machines, this was no biggie, at least I didn’t think it was going to be a “biggie”.

Before I messed with any of the configuration settings, I decided to try and bring up the statistics page to see if the graphs were appearing as they should. Well. They weren’t, but then again, neither was the text or the images of ANY page on my site. That’s right. My entire site was completely blank. You know. The “white screen from hell that tells you something is not right”. A quick look at the source told me there was NOTHING on the page at all, except empty html tags.

I obviously hosed something in the php install, so I uninstalled it, and re-installed. Numerous times. I checked and double checked the settings. I re-installed AGAIN. Nothing worked. I decided to roll back to 4.2.2 and make sure the site was indeed still intact. It was. With version 4.2.2 it works like a charm. As soon as I put 5.0 on the machine it goes bonkers on me.

No matter what I did, each time I tried to install 5.0, the entire site was blank. Nothing but empty html tags. No content. No comments. No Slobokan. Nothing.

I finally decided to try version 4.3.8 which is the latest version before 5.0 on the php site, and guess what? It worked like a charm.

So. The final result is I have everything working again and I can see the graphs that are generated by StatTraq. Now if I could only find out what happened to the last two hours, everything will be fine.

After a few attempts at “configuring” 5.0, again and again, I decided to grab 4.3.8 and see if it worked. Guess what?

The theme for tonight was definitely “prate”.

The previous three nights were rough. There were times when I thought maybe I was just being too critical of the people speaking, because I am Conservative, but Gidget would quickly remind me that she is NOT a Conservative, and the people who were speaking were total dolts. So, you see, both Conservatives (like me) and Liberals (like Gidget) have a problem with this years “message” from the Democrats. They are not making sense and they babble on for hours. They say they have ideas, but they all seem to be other people’s ideas. There is just nothing original at the Democratic National Convention.

The first speaker I will recap tonight is Senator Joseph Biden. He started his speech as if he was already half way through it.

Nearly 100 years ago, the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats told us the world has “changed utterly … A terrible beauty has been born.” Tonight, our country stands at the hinge of history. America’s destiny is at stake. But we can shape that destiny, if we seize the opportunities before us.

Maybe it didn’t start out so bad. The brain numbing experience of listening to all of these speeches could be having an adverse effect on my sleeping habits… (insert sound of snoring here). Maybe I slept through part of it?

Americans are proud, not petty. Instead of dividing the world, we must unite it. Instead of bullying, we must build. Instead of walking alone, we must lead. It’s only leadership if others follow.

We should be the ones to “unite the world”? We tried that. Or don’t you remember? We had NUMEROUS U.N. resolutions. We gave Saddam YEARS to abide by those resolutions. We even got ONE MORE resolution (which was passed UNANIMOUSLY). We tried to unite the world, several times, and when they would not stand with us, our President (with the full support of Congress mind you) decided we would STAND on our PRINCIPLES. Do you remember those? Some did, some didn’t. Our President took an oath to defend us against all THREATS, foreign and domestic.

I concede we have learned SINCE then that the intelligence data was wrong. Our intelligence, FRENCH intelligence, BRITISH intelligence. RUSSIAN intelligence. EVERYONE’S intelligence was bogus, not just ours. But we did not know that then, and our President did was he SWORE he would do to protect us. Period.

We should not build the world, we should offer help, but if they do not wish for our help, then let the lazy ass bastards build it themselves. I am tired of carrying their weight anyway.

We should not lead the world. We should walk side by side with our allies, but when we face a threat we should be strong enough to rise up and make a stand against that threat, whether or not our allies think we should defend ourselves. Americans should make the decision to protect America. Not France, not Germany, not Russia, not Canada, not anyone.

It’s not like we are walking alone anyway. Britain, Australia, and many other countries have joined in our “walk”, yet there are those who say we acted “unilaterally”. Will someone point out ANY U.N. action where we did not either (a) supply the most funding, or (b) supply the most troops. I think we should let the world walk alone for while and see how they hold up. I am sure we will be just fine.

Just as Joshua’s trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho - just as American values brought down the Berlin Wall - so will radical fundamentalism fall to the terrible, swift power of our ideas as well as our swords.

The terrible, swift power of our ideas as well as our swords? Be careful there Joe, you are beginning to make Kerry sound like a Crusader, and that will not go over well on the world stage, or did you forget that too?

The next speaker tonight was Wesley Clark.

War. I’ve been there. Heard the thump of enemy mortars. Seen the tracers fly. Bled on the battlefield. Recovered in hospitals. Received and obeyed orders. Sent men and women into battle. Awarded medals, comforted families, attended funerals. And this soldier has news for you: Anyone who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the best defense of our nation is committing a fraud on the American people. Franklin Roosevelt said it best: “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”

He’s got that right. I really wish the Democrats would stop repeating themselves on this war stuff. Democratic leaders in the Senate, and the House, all saw the same intelligence as the President. They all voted to remove Saddam from power. The fact they say the President lied is itself a lie. They can deny it all they want but repeating the lie will not transform it into truth.

Under John Kerry we will attack and destroy the terrorist threat to America. He’ll join the pantheon of great wartime Democrats.

Oh really? Will he keep this stance when our “allies” (and I do use that term loosely) reject his ideas too? Whoa… Did you see that? I just saw a dolphin swim by…

Choose a leader whose physical courage, moral values and sound judgment will - with the grace of God and our determined commitment - strengthen our country, protect our liberty, renew our spirit and secure a future for our children that is worthy of our heritage.

Don’t you worry Wes. We will make sure President Bush sticks around for four more years, to guarantee the future for our children that is worthy of our heritage.

The next speaker was Senator Joseph Lieberman. I was actually looking forward to his speech, until he opened his mouth.

That was a heck of a campaign in 2000, wasn’t it? And when it was all over, Al and I won, didn’t we? But campaigns are about the future - not the past.

More references to 2000. I really thought Sen. Lieberman was above that, I really did.

In this campaign, we will vigorously disagree with the other side. But we should not resort to personally demonizing them to win the election. Such tactics are wrong, regardless of who practices them, because they divide and diminish America at a time when we must stand united and strong.

Too late Joe. Just about every reference to President Bush or Vice-President Cheney that I have heard during the DNC can be classified as “personally demonizing”. Great. Now not only are they using ideas that belong to other people, they are promoting principles and standards they have already broken. Wonderful.

The next speaker was Nancy Pelosi.

Good evening Democrats! Hello California! I am honored to stand before you as the Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives… blah. blah.. blah… blah. blah blah.. blah blah blah…

… blah. blah.. blah… blah. blah blah.. blah blah blah… We can do it!! We can do it! And, working together, we will do it!

Sorry. The mere sound of Nancy Pelosi makes me lose it. I had to mute the television. Honest. Anything she had to say will be denied by her, before the morning papers run, unless of course it sounded poorly, then she will stand by every word for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. Next!

John Kerry’s daughters (Vanessa Kerry and Alexandra Kerry) spoke next. The both told stories from their childhood, and told us what a great man their daddy was, and that we should elect him President.

Do you really think they would have stood up there and said he was creepy looking, that he always seemed to drool, and that we would be crazy idiots to elect their father? Duh. Political Fluff(tm) plain and simple. Next.

The next speaker was Max Cleland. On a quick side note, I used to respect former Senator Cleland. He was a fine Georgian (whom I did not get a chance to vote for in his election prior to 2000 because I did not live here) who I would have voted for, prior to 2001. Much has been made about Max Cleland and the “attacks on his patriotism” by Saxby Chambliss, which resulted in Senator Chambliss being elected. I would like to set the record straight and let you know that Cleland lost because the people of Georgia thought he was not representing their views in the Senate the way they wanted. Is that easy enough to understand?

A country that doesn’t alienate our allies, but works with them. A country that doesn’t lose jobs, but creates them. A country that doesn’t limit educational opportunity, but expands it. A country that doesn’t make health care less available, but more affordable. A country that doesn’t spoil our environment, but protects it. A country that is strong a country that is respected, a country that is worthy of generations of sacrifice, and our children’s highest hopes.

Oy. More hype. Less substance. Facts Max. Where are your facts to back up your claims? No President (Democrat or Republican) can ever guarantee jobs. We all know leaders in the business sector and the economy dictate the jobs situation. I don’t think anyone is getting less of an education now than they were four years ago. Hell, even my wife has gone back to school. Awesome huh? No Democratic President will ever spend more money for education. The more educated the society the more likely they will see they are full of crap.

This leads us to the main event. The last speaker. John F. Kerry.

“I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty.”

How stupid was that? The words were insincere, and the salute was totally wrong. Any NAVY man that salutes like that should be discharged. Immediately. How am I supposed to take the rest of his speech seriously when he acts like an idiot? Whoa. There went that dolphin again.

I am not really going to go into his long drawn out 46 minute speech. It was, by most accounts, a very drab nomination acceptance speech. I will point out something though. He said,

To all who serve in our armed forces today, I say, help is on the way.

Sounds good doesn’t it? He is making a statement to our armed forces. What a guy. Too bad he stole it. Let’s look back to the year 2000, and a speech made by then Vice-Presidential hopeful Dick Cheney.

“To all of our men and women in uniform, and to their parents and families: Help is on the way!”

Dick Cheney made this statement while campaigning in 2000, and then Presidential candidate George W. Bush used those words in a statement dated November 3, 2000.

We all know that I was not going to vote for Kerry anyway, but now that I have found, and proven that Kerry is a plagiarist, I have nothing more to say. All this talk about restoring honor and respect to the White House means nothing. He is no better than Nixon. He is no better than Clinton. He has no vision. He has no ideas. He tries to ride the ideas of others, he has no backbone. If I ever mention John Kerry’s name again, it will accompany the title “Plagiarist”.

Note: You can find references to the ORIGINAL speeches by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush at the following sites (most of which are liberal sites trying to point out the lack of help from the current administration):

John Kerry is a Plagiarist
Plagiarist John Kerry
John “Plagiarist” Kerry

I installed Randy Peterman’s StatTraq plugin tonight and I must say, it’s awesome.

I think it’s kewl that I can see how many hits are from different news readers as well as different browsers. Major geekiness.

If you have a WordPress blog, you might want to head over there and get it.

One note though: For some reason my graphs are not coming up, and that sucks, but I am sure it’s probably something I did.

British Nobel laureate Francis Crick, who with American James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA that revolutionized genetics and spawned the ubiquitous field of biotechnology, has died at 88, associates said.

Crick, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962, passed away late Wednesday at a hospital in San Diego, California, where he had been battling colon cancer.

…

The scientist leaves behind a wife, artist Odile Speed, and two daughters from the marriage, as well as a son from a previous marriage.

Rest In Peace, Francis.

Would someone with experience in these matters please explain why this would need to be done?

On Monday Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry made a campaign stop at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Monday. Kerry was accompanied by former Ohio Senator John Glenn and Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Bob Graham. Photos taken of this visit depict Kerry and others wearing so called “bunny suits” which are required of all visitors entering a space shuttle orbiter in the Shuttle Processing Facility.

Bumbling by Kerry’s staff, and a press corps itching for something to make fun of, and a perfect photo opportunity turns into a media nightmare. The net loser? NASA.

Now, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel has told NASA to remove all images of Kerry’s visit to KSC from all NASA web sites - immediately - due to Hatch Act concerns. These images have now been removed.

I decided to look and see what the Hatch Act was all about…

The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government and some state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs.

Okay… I am still lost. Why would the Hatch Act have anything to do with a U.S. Senator running for President appearing in a “bunny suit”? He is not an “executive branch employee”. Even though it is part of the executive branch of the government, NASA itself was not involved in “political activity”. In fact, it cannot be proven that any employee at NASA actually took the pictures. Personally, I think it was a member of the Kerry campaign that authorized (or took) the photos so they could show Kerry in a more “scientific” light. To bad for them that bulb was burnt out long ago.

This decision, to remove the pictures, will do nothing more than generate more interest in the pictures. Why anyone would care that John Kerry was catering to the “Oompa Loompa” or “Teletubby” vote is beyond me.