What's on everybody's mind? Unemployment

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you probably know that my favorite news site is Lucianne.com, produced by the incomparable Lucianne Goldberg.  (Yes, she is Jonah's mother).  It is staffed by a small tight-knit team of a few professionals and thousands of Americans who read virtually every newspaper in the world.  When these vigilant citizens read something of interest, they post a summary and a link to the original article.  Just glancing at the latest posts this evening,  I was struck by this adjacent series of posts:

Alabama unemployment highest in 26 years

Associated Press, by Phillip Rawls Original Article
Posted By: BamaMan- 1/22/2010 5:55:24 PM Post Reply
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's unemployment rate has risen to 11 percent-a 26-year high that wiped out a brief hope of recovery for Alabama's job market. State Industrial Relations Director Tom Surtees announced Friday that the rate rose from 10.5 percent in November. The December rate is the highest since Alabama's jobless rate hit 11.1 percent in January 1984. It also ended the optimism that state officials had a month ago


Nevada jobless rate rises to 13 percent

KCRL TV 4 News [Reno, NV], by AP staff Original Article
Posted By: ruby2ssday- 1/22/2010 5:43:02 PM Post Reply
State officials say Nevada's unemployment rate rose in December to 13 percent. That was up seven-tenths of a percent from November, and begins to approach the 13.3 percent record set in September. (snip) The unemployment rate in Las Vegas rose one percentage point, to 13.1 percent. In Reno and Carson City, the jobless rate climbed to 12.7 percent.


N.C. unemployment hits new peak
Raleigh News and Observer (McClatchy), by John Murawski Original Article
Posted By: Gartrell Bibberts- 1/22/2010 5:20:53 PM Post Reply
North Carolina's unemployment rate hit its highest peak last month in more than 30 years as the recession continues to ravage the state's economy. The statewide jobless figure reached 11.2 percent in December, representing the loss of 2,400 jobs during the month, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported this morning. It's the highest jobless rate since the state began tracking the figure in 1976 using the current methodology.


Tennessee unemployment rate rose to 10.9% in December
The Commercial Appeal, by Richard Locker Original Article
Posted By: ronnie8365- 1/22/2010 5:20:27 PM Post Reply
NASHVILLE — After a slight drop in November, Tennessee's unemployment rate increased to 10.9 percent in December, the state Department of Labor & Workforce Development announced today. That's up seven-tenths of a percentage point from the November rate of 10.2 percent, which had dropped from 10.5 percent in October.


State unemployment at 11.1 percent last month
Journal-Register [Springfield, IL], by Tim Landis Original Article
Posted By: Fosterdad- 1/22/2010 5:04:46 PM Post Reply
Illinois lost more than 237,000 jobs in the past year, including nearly 71,000 manufacturing jobs, helping drive the December unemployment rate to 11.1 percent, the state employment agency reported today. State Department of Employment Security director Maureen O’Donnell said in a statement the increase reflects the troubled national economy.

Notice these are all posted sequentially by different people, very likely from different regions of the country in a span of  less than an hour.  This is bad.  Very bad.  And by the way, Howard Dean, people are not mad because the Democrats have moved too far to the center.  And President Obama, Massachusetts did not elect Scott Brown on the same wave of change that elected you.  People want jobs.

(I decided not to link to each article here.  Go to Lucianne.com if you want to read more.  I think you'll be hooked.)