memeorandum: Number of the Week: 492 Days From Default to Foreclosure (Mark Whitehouse/Real Time Economics)

9:05 PM ET, November 27, 2010

Top Items:

Feds: Somali-born teen plotted car-bombing in Ore. — PORTLAND, Ore. - Federal agents in a sting operation arrested a Somali-born teenager just as he tried blowing up a van he believed was loaded with explosives at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, authorities said.

Discussion: Rational Nation USA, HillBuzz.org, Jihad Watch, Washington Monthly, neo-neocon, Wizbang, HotAirPundit and Althouse

Bryan Denson / Oregonian:

FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting, authorities say — The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon.

Teddy Partridge / Teddy Partridge's myFDL diary:
FBI Thwarts “Bomb Plot” at Xmas Tree Ceremony in Portland, Oregon

Discussion: Doug Ross, Patterico's Pontifications and Pajamas Media

Liz Robbins / New York Times:
F.B.I. Says Oregon Suspect Planned Attack of ‘Grand Scale’

Discussion: Teddy Partridge's myFDL diary, Mediaite and AmSpecBlog

portland.fbi.gov:
Oregon Resident Arrested in Plot to Bomb Christmas Tree Lighting …

Discussion: Gawker, The Daily Beast and TalkLeft

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org blogs:

Charles Krauthammer Rips Liberal Media for Being Obsessed with Sarah Palin — Charles Krauthammer on Friday tore into the liberal media for being obsessed with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. — After Krauthammer scolded the “editorial judgment” of the producers of PBS's “Inside Washington” …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, Hot Air and The Right Scoop

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Former Republican Sen. Warns GOP May ‘Have Gone So Far Overboard That We Are Beyond Redemption’ — In an age when far-right tea party activists have taken over the Republican Party and demanded lockstep allegiance, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) has been one of the few GOP lawmakers to step out of line.

Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:

Scowcroft on START: ‘Partisan’ GOP Doesn't Want To Give Obama ‘A Foreign Policy Victory’ — Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) has been the leading Senate Republican urging the upper chamber of Congress to ratify the New START arms control treaty with Russia. However, the Republican obstructionism …

Discussion: The Politico, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly and The Hill

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Charting His Own Course Against Prevailing Winds — WASHINGTON — Mavericks are not in vogue these days on Capitol Hill, a place where hyper-partisanship and obduracy seem to be their own rewards. — But Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who played that role long before it had a brand name …

Discussion: Raw Story and Hullabaloo

ZIP / Weasel Zippers:

NPR: Obama's Fat Lip Gives Him “Street Cred,” Scar Will Help Him Stare Down Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il... Oh yeah, instead of staring down a sissy, now they'll be staring down a sissy with a scar... That Fat Lip Might Give Obama Some Street Cred- NPR

Scott Simon / NPR:

Simon Says — That Fat Lip Might Give Obama Some Street Cred … Gauze in hand, President Barack Obama walks to his car after the game of basketball Friday at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. — Just three weeks after getting a shellacking in the midterm elections, President Obama got a fat lip.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Newsweek:

The Taliban Call a Time-Out — For months, NEWSWEEK has reported emphatic denials by senior Afghan Taliban officials that they were engaged in secret peace talks with the government in Kabul. Those denials received further weight last week when The New York Times exposed …

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Ed Barnes / Fox News:

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions — An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz. — In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond. — The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters …

Discussion: Hot Air, Moe Lane and FrumForum

Mark Whitehouse / Real Time Economics:

Number of the Week: 492 Days From Default to Foreclosure — 492: The number of days since the average borrower in foreclosure last made a mortgage payment. — Banks can't foreclose fast enough to keep up with all the people defaulting on their mortgage loans.

Discussion: Pajamas Media

John F. Burns / New York Times:

Demonstrators in Ireland Protest Austerity Plan — DUBLIN — After a week that brought Ireland a pledge of an $114 billion international rescue package and the toughest austerity program of any country in Europe, thousands of demonstrators took to Dublin's streets on Saturday to protest wide cuts …

Discussion: Zandar Versus The Stupid, Suburban Guerrilla and Guardian

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:

Obama: I pray every night, read the Bible — Praying and reading the Bible are part of his everyday life, President Obama said in a wide-ranging interview broadcast Friday. — Speaking with Barbara Walters, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama also described how they involve their daughters in daily prayer.

Discussion: Zandar Versus The Stupid, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

Bill Gates / Wall Street Journal:

Africa Needs Aid, Not Flawed Theories — The science writer Matt Ridley made his reputation with books like “The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature” and “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.” His latest book, “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves” is much broader, as its title suggests.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy and Cafe Hayek

Eliot Kleinberg / Palm Beach Post:

Man arrested for packing gun at Boynton Beach Walmart — A customer expecting to see great deals waved down authorities after she saw something else: a man packing a gun while waiting in line at a Black Friday sale. — Police arrested Christopher D. Scott, 49, just after midnight Friday …

Discussion: Don Surber and Mediaite