Unemployment datapoint of the day  —  Remember the stress tests?  The baseline scenario had unemployment in 2009 at 8.4%, rising to 8.9% under the more adverse scenario.  Well, we're only up to May, and already it's at 9.4%.  —  Bloomberg tries to find a silver lining to today's gut-wrenchingly atrocious unemployment figure:

The Settlements  —  Charles Krauthammer has a misleading and evasive column about the Israeli settlements issue.  He does not deal with the legality of these towns—he can't, of course, because they are illegal under the fourth Geneva Convention, which provides rules for occupying powers.

What's the point of a public option?  —  In the national debate over health insurance reform, a key issue is whether the government should offer a “public plan” to compete with private insurers.  For example, in today's NY Times, Paul Krugman writes,