August 2004

Terror Alert in NYC, NJ, and Washington D. C

Police officers with assault rifles guard the entrance to the Prudential Financial building in Newark, N.J., Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004, after federal authorities warned of a possible terrorist attack. Security was increased at the Prudential building after it was named Sunday as a specific target along with the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) in New York City, and the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and the World Bank (news - web sites) buildings in Washington. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

August 2, 2004

The government has placed five key financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. on high alert after uncovering specific information about a possible terrorist attack.

Sources tell CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr the information analyzed over the past 36 hours comes from documents seized in Pakistan following the recent arrest of a "second or third tier al Qaeda operative."

"The quality of this intelligence — based on multiple reporting streams, in multiple locations — is rarely seen, and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at a hastily arranged news conference Sunday.

A cache of recently obtained information — including photos, drawings and written documents — indicates that al Qaeda operatives have undertaken a meticulous preparations to case five specific buildings: The Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark.

In spite of the above, I hear speculation that this is just a George Bush plot to take attention away from Kerry.  Some people just live in a fantasy world, and fat lying jerks like Michael Moore add to this fantasy.

August 12, 2004

Available in China, but not in Alabama

August 15, 2004

Made it to Columbus OH to visit my daughter, Jennifer.  She will graduate from college in November.  Columbus is a nice place, and we visited a friend of Jennifer's who lives in the country with a number of horses, 11 dogs, and at least 3 cats - I lost count.  A beautiful place.  Next stop is Chicago.

August 22, 2004

Chicago is great!  Beautiful tall buildings in all styles.  The only picture of Marina City I could find on the net does not have the second tower, built a few years later. We stayed a few blocks from the Tribune Tower, first picture.  Next is the John Hancock building, and then Marina City.  Then some only slightly decorated glass boxes, and of course the Sears Building.  I could not, however, find a picture of the two four foot tall yellow rubber duckies at the entrance of the Navy Pier (now a recreational area). Too bad.

Meanwhile, we got some buy signals from some of the timing systems.  I will buy some stuff on Monday.  Not going in to be 100% invested - more like 40% at most.

August 23, 2004

I bought 20 stocks.  Ten were from the list that combines all of the CNBC 10-rated stocks and the Zacks Focus List (CNZF).  The other ten were from Zacks Number 1 list (Z1).  I extracted the few duplicates from these two lists, so that there is no overlap.  Both of these lists were as of last Friday.

August 25, 2004

Finally, somebody has said all that needs to be said about rock stars and politics.  And it was Alice Cooper.

"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.

"Besides," he continued, "when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."

 August 27, 2004

Over the last few days, several more signals have gone to buy status.  I created a new system (CNZF1) using the new stocks from CNBC and Zacks.  I also just started the existing systems on later dates.  That made for some extra buys.  However, SAM, NCS, and MSA tanked pretty quickly.  This has kept me from making any money.

September 3, 2004

Well, up and down these last 2 days.  In addition, every day or so some stock just flat tanks, even if most are doing OK.  Frustrating.  Still, a tiny profit.

Assorted Pictures from Beslan

These people love their children - who do the Chechens love?

So far as I am concerned, people who do these things deserve extermination, not independence.