The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee says the new bleak unemployment figures makes helping the nation’s beleaguered auto industry even more urgent.

From Chicagoist: Yesterday <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/03/obama_nominates_richardson_faces_ci.php">we explored</a> what we thought was a benign attempt by a fringe political group to raise a ruckus over Barack Obama's birth certificate. <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/03/obama_nominates_richardson_faces_ci.php#comment-1531599">Boy, were</a> <a href="http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/03/obama_nominates_richardson_faces_ci.php#comment-1531766">we wrong</a>. Click here for the full story and related links.

By Jesse Washington Gay is the new black, say the protest signs and magazine covers, casting the gay marriage battle as the last frontier of equal rights for all.

As the battle between two marginalized communities rages on, Andrew Sullivan highlights an interview with a prominent African-American lesbian activist who claims to have been dismissed by gay activists before Prop 8's passage. She was told the black vote "didn't matter," and outreach was unnecessary.

Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty Tuesday to a state dogfighting charge, a move that could make him eligible to leave prison early and potentially speed up a return to pro football. Vick, 28, arrived wearing a gray suit and wrist and ankle shackles, but the restraints were removed by the time he entered […]

From theroot.com: The lingering tension between gays and lesbians and the African-American community over the passage of California's Proposition 8—banning same-sex marriage—isn't a laughing matter, but it is absurd. It has all the makings of a Tyler Perry movie starring the casts of <em>Big Love</em> and <em>The L Word.</em> <em>Diary of a Mad Black Mormon Lesbian Nun?</em> Now showing in California and coming soon to a theater near you.

Black voters in California have been blamed for the passage of an anti-gay marriage ban called Proposition 8. Here is yet another rebuttal of that argument, this time from noted poll interpreter Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com: “The notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly….”

Did Black voters propel California’s gay marriage ban to victory? Many angry opponents of that ban — a ballot measure known as “Proposition 8” — seem to think so.

Smokey Fontaine, the fearless leader of BlackPlanet.com, recently found out that there were 32 Black people in Wasilla, Alaska — the hometown of Republican vice-presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin.

Check out this week’s moments in Black history.