We're worried about the potential for massive unemployment, right?  Most estimates put it at 8% unemployment next year, with more dire predictions pegging it at up to 15%.

The problem of unemployment might be especially bad among young people, many of whom have no experience or past skills to market, just potential. Worse still, with unemployment comes crime.

That's why I propose as part of stimulus that the federal government make community college enrollment free for the next 2 years and subsidize state universities; in exchange we ask these schools to increase enrollments and create buzz in their local communities spurring students to go to college to get an AA or BS or MS degree.

How much will this cost?  Let's figure that out...

The fight I'm about to chronicle is a deeply personal one, and its winners and losers are yet to be determined. The combatants include my wife, my brother, my sister-in-law and me: two Muslims, two Jews and a Babylon-sized grudge against carols, Christmas trees and fruit cakes.

(Proudly cross-posted at C4O Democrats)

I guess not. Believe it or not, most Americans don't hate queer people.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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UN on Gaza: People are going to start getting hungry.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is shifting from "collective punishment to genocide." Jamal Al-Khudari, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and head of the popular committee against the siege in Gaza said that a few days ago.

The trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depended, has now been stopped for days by the Israeli army. The delivery of medical supplies and industrial fuel donated by the EU has also been blocked. The fuel was needed to power Gaza's sole power plant, which has now shut down, leading to rolling blackouts throughout Gaza. A ship from Libya carrying over 3000 tons of aid for GAZA was turned away by the Israeli navy. The US is seemingly oblivious to an atrocity conducted by its best friend in the Middle East, Israel.

"It wasn't so long ago that thousands of passers-by would spend a couple of days on a bus to swarm into this cow town in the heart of the Sonora Desert. It was the final stop on the frontier on the way to el Norte, the last place to stock up on Gatorade. Thanks to the crackdown on illegal immigration, Sasabe is now a ghost town. . . .
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas /story/796909.html

I have been reading this blog almost completely in the shadows since I began in January. I have refrained from posting diaries and comments because I was content with everything I was reading and this blog has been a great source of news to me ever since i started. I am writing today to say please let it go. Stop talking about old rivalries and please move on from the primaries and all the hatred everyone here has. It is disturbing that people here cannot let go of their disagreements with Dailykos posters during the primaries and will not stop complaining about how horribly Clinton was treated several months ago. I must confess that I read both Daily kos and Mydd and I have not seen hatred towards this blog at Daily kos, and certainly not in rec diaries. This blog's population has shrunk since the primaries considerably and it really saddens me to see people pushing people like me away from great blogs like this because they cannot forgive and just let go. Hilary lost and she and Obama have made amends, so can we. Diaries and comments that bash our fellow Democrats are not helpful and as good as it makes you feel, it will not make the outcome of the primaries change and nor will it change words that were spoken in the heat of an intense primary, so can we please just let it go and stop putting those diaries at the top of the rec list every time I check this blog. Thank you.

Stephen Biskupic, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (2002 - present) has announced that he is resigning in January before the new administration takes office.

The DOJ is one Dept that needs a housecleaning.

Good riddance, though Biskupic allowed that he has amassed a good "track record," like the other non-fired US Attys in the corrupt Bush DOJ.

Many Wisconsin Democrats and allies would agree with that positive assessment of Biskupic's office performance, in point of fact.

But I doubt that Biskupic is sending a Christmas card to the proven-innocent Georgia Thompson this year [see also Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson, and Investigate Biskupic].