The FBI has made public that they have reason to believe that Al Qaida will attempt attacks on shopping malls this holiday season. The question is, of course, whether this is a credible threat.

The alert, like similar FBI and Department of Homeland Security terror alerts issued over the past five years at holiday times, raised questions about the credibility of the information.

The bulletin acknowledges that U.S. intelligence officers are uncertain as to whether the information is real, and intelligence officers say there is a concern that it could be "disinformation."

Law enforcement officials at three different agencies told ABCNews.com the FBI alert was based on a source who has proved reliable in the past.

It sounds to me like the FBI isn't sure whether this is credible or not and decided that it would be better to reveal its suspicions of an attack rather than wait and see.

To be honest with you, I saw the headline "Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago" and thought to myself, "This weekend?" I'm going to be spending Saturday at the mall while my aging Ford Exploder is repaired.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:57 PM | Comments (27)
Post contains 203 words, total size 1 kb.

This sounds like it has the makings for a great scifi channel B movie. A storm in the North Sea has created a surge which will raise tides between 5 and 9 ft along the eastern shores of southern England sometime in the next 12 hours.

They are standing by for evacuations. The Thames Barrier has been closed.

Jerry Falwell told me that it's just retribution for the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, and the ACLU.

Al Gore just called to say "Global Warming."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:20 PM | Comments (31)
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Defense Industry Daily has the story. Baron Paul Drayson has already lived a pretty good life. His company made bank. He was given a peerage. He was the Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support. And now...he's going to be a race-car driver in the U.S.

From his resignation letter:

"Dear Gordon,

As you know I have a passion for motor racing and over the past year have competed in the British GT championship racing a unique bio-ethanol-fuelled race car, achieving a "historic first" win for a green-fuelled car and coming second overall in the championship.

A number of special circumstances have now presented me with a once in a lifetime opportunity to take my racing to the next level. I have the opportunity to race next year in the American Le Mans series in the United States, a key step towards my eventual dream of success in the Le Mans 24 hours endurance race.

For the first time next year the American Le Mans Series will allow bio-ethanol cars to compete and so this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase British motorsport technology for environmentally friendly racing.

Bonus points for being a badass. Minus ten points for working "environmentally friendly racing" into his rationale for leaving.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:28 PM | Comments (35)
Post contains 220 words, total size 1 kb.

Mark your calendar, boys and girls. Today, November 8, 2007, marks the death of my childhood.

You see, before I fell madly in love with Suzanne Sena, and before I had ever written my first epic poem about Mary Katharine Ham, there was another woman in the center of my life.

A woman who I was convinced would "call me". A woman who I was determined to have "one way or another." A woman who taught me the virtues of acheiving "rapture".

I was 8, and that woman was Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie.

My friends, Debbie Harry turned 62 years old today.

62

Let that sink in. Let that wash over you.

I'm going to share a story with you in the extended entry. But for the main page, I'll just include this.

It's how I prefer to remember her.

more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 02:20 PM | Comments (292)
Post contains 514 words, total size 3 kb.

This woman may turn out to be the winner of the Ace Of Spade HQ Mother of the Year Award for an apparent accident.

Â…having a female stripper surprise your son in front of his teacher in class would not feature on many wish-lists.

Yet that's what happened when one woman booked a special performer for her son's big day.

She stipulated that the surprise take place in drama class - and even asked the teacher to film it so the family could see the boy's reaction.

But - thanks to what has been put down as a booking error - a female stripper turned up in place of the gorilla-suited man the unnamed mother had apparently asked for.

The stripper, who arrived on cue halfway through the lesson, first walked the birthday boy around the classroom on all fours.

Then, gyrating to the sounds of Britney Spears, she spanked him before stripping down to her bra and knickers and insisting the "naughty" schoolboy rub cream all over her body.

At that point, the teacher - who had not been told what the surprise would entail - called an immediate end to the show.

Look, mistakes were made and weÂ’ll all look back on this some day and laugh. The important thing is this young man continues to get his education and somebody posts pictures of the stripper online.

Posted by: DrewM. at 01:02 PM | Comments (30)
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

Bumped because there's a little more than an hour and forty-five minutes left to vote and judging from the lethargy a lot of people seem to be feeling you maybe leaving work early. Plus, I don't want to write a new post pimping this.

Alright morons, youÂ’ve done a fine job thus far but the polls donÂ’t close until 5pm today so there can be no let up. LetÂ’s not get in to a John Kerry situation where we declare victory based on early exit polling.

Just think of how those conservative chicks will swoon over Ace when he swaggers in to the YAF conference with his newly minted Best Conservative Blogger award. Why he might be able to parlay that into a night of hot conservative sex, date, slap in the face at the nearest bar at closing time.

Sure, technically none of that makes your life better and letÂ’s face it, itÂ’s all about you. But thatÂ’s why Gabe has arranged to have LauraW do the topless hump dance and Jack M is working on his epic victory poem. Okay, I'm a little ambivalent about the poem thing too but itÂ’s all we got.

So, off you go now and vote Ace of Spades as the Best Conservative Blog and donÂ’t forget Nice Deb (Best New Blog) and Slublog (Best of the Rest)

Posted by: DrewM. at 12:16 PM | Comments (30)
Post contains 237 words, total size 2 kb.

Does it feel like Friday to anyone else? I should get to go home, I think. Right. Now.

Even more than that, I deserve to go home early for shooting down a student who was clearly wrong right there in front of the class, the professor, and God. Dirty looks be damned, but I've done my job today.

Step right over here and tell New Comments Thingy why you should get to go home early, too.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:57 AM | Comments (44)
Post contains 84 words, total size 1 kb.

They couldn’t override on stem cells, Iraq or children’s insurance but Army Corps of Engineers projects in their districts? Gotta get that snout in the trough!

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

The 79-14 vote included 34 Republicans who defied the president. Enactment was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party.

Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic-controlled legislature, and Thursday's vote showed that most of the Republicans will defy him on spending matters dear to their political careers.

Hint to Republican Senators and Congressmen…when you run next year as ‘fiscal conservatives’ this is the kind of thing that makes people laugh at you.

Posted by: DrewM. at 10:58 AM | Comments (37)
Post contains 159 words, total size 1 kb.

They couldnÂ’t override on stem cells, Iraq or childrenÂ’s insurance but Army Corps of Engineers projects in their districts? Gotta get that snout in the trough!

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

The 79-14 vote included 34 Republicans who defied the president. Enactment was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party.

Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic-controlled legislature, and Thursday's vote showed that most of the Republicans will defy him on spending matters dear to their political careers.

Hint to Republican Senators and Congressmen…when you run next year as ‘fiscal conservatives’ this is the kind of thing that makes people laugh at you.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:58 AM | Comments (37)
Post contains 167 words, total size 1 kb.

This morning, a jury in London convicted Samina Malik, the self-named "Lyrical Terrorist," of possessing records likely to be used for terrorism.

Malik, who worked at WH Smith at the airport, was arrested in October last year. When her bedroom was searched police found a ringbinder full of documents as well as a bracelet bearing the word "jihad".

There was also a sticker on a mirror inside the door, bearing the words "lyrical terrorist".

In one handwritten document found by police, she wrote: "I want to have the death of a shaheed [martyr] ... I want the opportunity to take part in the blessed sacred duty of jihad."

Also found were publications from an Islamist extremist group called Followers of Ahl us-Sunnah Wal-Jammaa'ah, linked to another group, The Saved Sect, and to the extremist cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri.

You read that right. Malik made no act of terrorism beyond collecting pro-terrorist propaganda and pining for her own martyrdom. At worst, she joined an organization which spreads Al Qaida propaganda. Note, however, that there was no evidence that she took part in such dissemination.

Contrary to the claims of the Left, which constantly portrays the U.S. as discarding basic rights on a daily basis, Britain takes a much narrower view of speech and association rights.

Related: The Conservative Party (Britain's Rightist Party) is trying to keep Labour (Britain's Leftist Party) from extending the time limit for detaining terrorism suspects without charge.

At present, the British police can hold terrorism suspects for 28 days. Labour would like to make the time period longer (Blair tried to make it 90 days and failed). Labour is also considering allowing use of extended detentions for criminal suspects other than terrorists.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, accused the government of seeking to establish a "permanent undeclared state of emergency."

Of course, the U.S. government can detain terrorist combatants indefinitely under certain circumstances. That detention, however, is made by the military, not police forces. Local police forces are still bound to recognize the due process rights of those people they arrest.

The British reaction to domestic terrorism reached far beyond the PATRIOT Act-inspired nightmares of the American Left.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:10 AM | Comments (26)
Post contains 377 words, total size 3 kb.