Melanie Phillips

Protecting Israel is pastor John Hagee's mission

Claudia Rosett..................UN- A Scandal Scorecard.................Via Pajamasmedia

Crime Beat- #71

Mortgages- takes a hit ....and keeps on ticking- ...........as long as it's third person and not first person

"At this juncture, economists say the troubles in the mortgage market could, all told, cost financial firms and investors up to $400 billion.

That is far more than the roughly $240 billion cost, adjusted for inflation, of the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s, according to estimates of the combined financial toll of that crisis on both the federal government and private sector. The loss in total real estate wealth is expected to range from $2 trillion to $4 trillion, depending on how far home prices fall, according to several economists.

That would be significantly less than the losses suffered by investors in the stock market collapse earlier this decade, which erased more than $7 trillion, or about 40 percent, of market value."

More on Lt. Murphy's Mettle...................Powerline

Greatest ending anywhere?

Crime beat- he'd probably only get a year in Canada

"From January, 2000, until September, 2006, Sirls defrauded clients, co-workers, and others to obtain about $31 million.

Because he was using money received from later investors to pay earlier ones, he returned about $21 million, making the actual total loss to investors about $10 million.

Authorities believed the money was used to pay for his own losses in the stock market and to fund his gambling addiction."

Investment Musical Chairs

Crime beat- gangs

"The civil injunctions are a new tool and work like this: law enforcement officials identify gang members and activity; they go to the state attorney's office to request the injunction; the state attorney then asks a judge for a court order restricting the activities of the gang members."

Progress in Iraq-.....Fred Kagan....... Weekly Standard

"Instead, Al Qaeda In Iraq today is broken. Individual al Qaeda cells persist, in steadily shrinking areas of the country, but they can no longer mount the sort of coherent operations across Iraq that had become the norm in 2006. The elimination of key leaders and experts has led to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the al Qaeda bombings that do occur, hence the steady and dramatic declines in overall casualty rates."

Terrorism Awareness Project

Mortgage fraud

Michael Yon- Inside the Surge

Shopping list for Council

"(2) Get a clue. As you all know, come Jan. 1 under the City of Toronto Act, if the city doesn't follow up on complaints from the public about closed-door meetings, those complaints will go to Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin. And that's just not somebody you want to mess with"....