Today is World AIDS Day, the 30th since the discovery of the disease. I’m in the generation that saw this break as an epidemic, with all the confusion and fear around that. I hope we’re moving toward controlling it in my lifetime.

• I case you missed it, here’s Martha Coakley’s press conference announcing the lawsuit against banks for stealing homes. And just as an example of this, here’s a family finding total wreckage after returning to their illegally foreclosed home. This is why we need to Occupy Our Homes.

• Frank Luntz is apparently scared to death of Occupy Wall Street, and thinks that Republicans have to stop using the word “capitalism” as a result, among other recommendations. This is ridiculous, but it’s good to see Luntz so yippy.

• A major reason why we’re seeing such volatility in the GOP primary is that nobody’s spending to win, which makes earned media events like debates that much more important.

• If nothing else, Occupy Wall Street will have the legacy of “we are the 99 percent.”

• The ECB’s Mario Draghi again hints that his agency will do their part to save Europe if countries hand over their national sovereignty. And Angela Merkel goes even further, saying that only tighter fiscal integration is needed, not a central bank. The mess rolls on.

• Syria is in a state of civil war, according to the UN, with over 4,000 dead.

• The White House conspicuously did not threaten a veto in their statement opposing the Republican plan to extend the payroll tax cut.

• All of a sudden, everyone in Congress wants to get on the right side of a bill to ban insider trading, which before a 60 Minutes story had 5 co-sponsors. I’m guessing it passes by the end of the year.

• Dan Froomkin has an interesting review of Ron Suskind’s Confidence Men, which I think draws the right conclusions.

• A good check-back with Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds from Guillford County, North Carolina, who has been at the forefront of providing the evidence on foreclosure fraud. Check out his recounting of a panel discussion with the CEO of MERS.

• Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson is apparently launching his own anti-corruption political party and running for President.

• There will be far too many tax measures on the 2012 ballot in California, but if the disparate groups coalesce around Jerry Brown’s plan to tax the rich, it could be a bellweather vote for the nation.

• One silver lining out of the morass of appropriations bills last month: the FDA appears to have received a funding boost.

• More evidence that Scott Walker’s biggest problem in the upcoming recall election might be the crappy Wisconsin economy he’s presided over.

• Weekly unemployment claims jumped back up a bit today, but manufacturing numbers for November turned up strong. I’d expect a decent jobs report tomorrow morning.

• The foreclosure inventory is at a record high, owing to the fact that banks cannot prove ownership and subsequently finish off the foreclosure.

• Michael Bloomberg thinks the NYPD is an army he controls. That would explain the deployment of a brigade to evict Occupy Wall Street.

• Good for Christine Gregoire and Lincoln Chafee, calling on the President to reschedule medical marijuana as a drug that can be legally prescribed by a doctor.

• Latin American poverty is down to its lowest level in two decades. Why, it’s as if policies of social spending on the poor work!

• Democrats want to protect things from sequestration as well. They just filed a bill to exempt Medicare provider cuts from the trigger.

• Anti-censorship forces have all the momentum against the Protect IP Act, i.e. the break the Internet bill.

• It had to be done, but I’m glad that Penn State is giving their bowl game receipts to sex crime advocacy groups.

• Newt Gingrich’s Hispanic strategy shows some foresight. His inability to file a full slate of New Hampshire delegates doesn’t.

• Just because Herman Cain admitted to giving money to a woman for 13 years without his wife knowing about it doesn’t mean that anything illicit was going on.

• A good explanation of the detention provisions in the Senate’s defense authorization bill, from Adam Serwer.

• I would have read my biology book more in school if H.I. McDonough and his family were on the cover.

• Memory lane: future President Gingrich’s interview with Ali G.