The Labor Department says 524,000 jobs were lost in December, bringing the total for 2008 to 2.6 million. ‘The jobs market is still in a free-fall,’ one economist says.

By Maura Reynolds (LA Times)

Reporting from Washington — The nation’s unemployment rate soared to its highest level in 16 years last month, reaching an eye-popping 7.2% as businesses slashed their payrolls by 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported today.

All together, 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008 — 75% of them in the last four months — and 11.1 million workers are now unemployed, the Labor Department said. And that’s not counting millions more who have reluctantly taken part-time work instead of full-time jobs or have become so discouraged they stopped looking for a new job.

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The story of an undocumented immigrant who grew up in the United States but has never been able to obtain residency, although all of the rest of her family has documented status. She speaks of the impact the uncertainty has upon her life.

George Shultz, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell offer their views.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will have no shortage of issues to take on as secretary of State. She steps into the job amid a global economic meltdown and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On top of that, she must address the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while managing complex relations with Russia and China. And there are the perennial issues of hunger and disease in Africa, drugs in Latin America and the nuclear threat worldwide. How can one person manage it all? 

Times editorial writer Marjorie Miller asked five former secretaries of State what advice they had for Clinton in her new job. What follows are edited transcripts of their counsel.

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President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush’s Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

At a news conference, Obama also introduced his picks of retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security, and Susan Rice as UN Ambassador.

Click here to view the entire squad »

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Many of us (Obama supporters) have become accustomed to the close-minded “far right” like Bill O’Reilly as they continue to find outlandish reasons as to why B.O. isn’t fit to be president. In most cases, Mr. O’Reilly sits within the confines and comfort of his highly-rated show…here’s a good look at his lack of control as he pays a visit to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Enjoy.

Photo AP: Congolese vented their outrage at the failure of the United Nations peacekeeping force to stop the rebel advance.

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN (The New York Times)

GOMA, Congo — When Congo shakes, Africa trembles.

This vast linchpin of a country at the green heart of the continent, covering 905,000 square miles and bordering nine nations, never goes down alone.

When the Congolese state began to collapse in 1996, it set off a regional war. When it imploded again in 1998, it dragged in armies from a half-dozen other African countries. The two wars and the mayhem since have killed possibly five million people, a death toll that human rights groups say is the worst related to any conflict since World War II.

The worry now is that Congo is on the brink again, with neighbors poised to jump in, which is why the relatively small-scale bush fighting last week attracted some of the most intense diplomatic activity Congo has seen in years. The French foreign minister, the British foreign minister, top United Nations diplomats and the State Department’s highest official for Africa all jetted in to the decrepit but important lakeside city of Goma.

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On the heels of Veteran’s Day, a day in which we honor those who have served, we also pay tribute to the brave men and women currently serving for our country.

Pictured: U.S. Army Spc. Clayton Hodge, 22, rests after climbing a mountainside on patrol October 26, 2008 in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. He and fellow members of the 1-26 Infantry are involved in some of the heaviest fighting between American forces and Taliban insurgents. (John Moore/Getty Images)

by Femi Ajetunmobi

And I cried!

I saw Jesse Jackson in the crowd weeping. I saw Oprah Winfrey sobbing in the crowd on the shoulders of strangers. I saw the young and the old, blacks and whites and coloreds, rich and poor, famous and the unknowns, holding hands and hugging, screaming and crying, all at the same time, completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the moment. I held my emotions in check during all these. I saw people celebrating in Sydney, Australia. I saw people jumping up and down in Nairobi, Kenya. I saw people displaying unmitigated joy in Hong Kong. From the East coast to the West coast, from North America to Africa, every one recognized the significance of the moment. Still, I held my emotions in check.

Never before have I seen so many people gathered in one place – like they did in Grant Park, Chicago, that night – reveling in the magic of the moment. Never before have I seen the world come together in the moment – like we all did on Tuesday night – to celebrate a night that would be talked about from generations to generations and for centuries until the end of time. It was one of those moments that we would all be able to say, years down the line, that we knew exactly where we were when Barack Hussein Obama was elected the first black leader of the free world!

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The right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights.

by Jasmyne A. Cannick

I am a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support. 

I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about social justice issues. I am a lesbian. This year, I canvassed the streets of South Los Angeles and Compton, knocking on doors, talking politics to passers-by and working as I never had before to ensure a large voter turnout among African Americans. But even I wasn’t inspired to encourage black people to vote against the proposition.

Why? Because I don’t see why the right to marry should be a priority for me or other black people. Gay marriage? Please. At a time when blacks are still more likely than whites to be pulled over for no reason, more likely to be unemployed than whites, more likely to live at or below the poverty line, I was too busy trying to get black people registered to vote, period; I wasn’t about to focus my attention on what couldn’t help but feel like a secondary issue. 

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Eugene Allen, 89, a retired White House butler, tries on his old tuxedo for a photo. Allen, who served eight presidents during a period when America’s racial history was being rewritten, is marveling at the election of Barack Obama.

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