If this pattern continues, 2011 will be the third straight year that conservatives significantly outnumber moderates -- the next largest ideological bloc. Liberalism has been holding steady for the past six years, averaging either 21% or 22%, although notably higher than the 17% average seen in Gallup polling during the early to middle '90s.

Longer term, the Gallup ideology trend, dating from 1992, documents increased political polarization in the country. The percentage of moderates has fallen to the mid-30s from the low 40s, while the combined percentage either liberal or conservative is now 62%, up from 53%.

U.S. Political Ideology Stable With Conservatives Leading

a million jobs

I keep hearing this - its a total fairy tale.

Fox Wildly Inflates The Number Of Jobs Keystone XL Pipeline Might Create | Research | Media Matters for America

This essay is interesting because it attempts to stab in the direction that I would like to see the left in this country move - there is a need for a liberal-tarianism that seeks to maximize personal *individual* liberty, as opposed to the libertarian movement which seeks the lowest sustainable rate of taxation, and as opposed to the liberal movement which sees the state as a way to control behavior that they find objectionable (in exactly the same fashion as the conservatives they despise).

There are a variety of circumstances in which individual *economic* liberty and lower taxation are mutually exclusive, particularly with respect to the middle and lower classes whose choices are limited by their means.

For example:

The politics of freedom does not dismiss the value or importance of state resources. But rather than conceiving of them as protections against the hazards of the market or indices of public compassion, it sees them as sources of power, as the tools and instruments of personal and collective advance. Armed with universal healthcare, unemployment benefits, public pensions and the like, I am less vulnerable to the coercions and castigations of an employer or partner. Not only do I have the option of leaving an oppressive situation; I can confront and change it—for and by myself, for and with others. I am emboldened not to avoid risks but to take risks: to talk back and walk out, to engage in what John Stuart Mill called, in one of his lovelier phrases, “experiments in living.”

I've argued elsewhere that enabling this kind of liberty makes the economy more dynamic and innovative because people have the freedom to take risks in their working life without being independently wealthy. The libertarian movement is absolutely tone deaf regarding these issues. The failure of libertarians to recognize these realities (as well as comprehend basic economic concepts such as negative externalities) makes the whole movement look like a silly cult to me, in spite of my sympathy with their general desire for freedom, my shared concern about rent seeking and corruption in government - I can't take libertarianism seriously anymore.

However, I am concerned that liberals cannot create a new movement unless they clearly draw a line in the sand regarding the liberal proclivity so see the state as a convenient mechanism for social control, and they vocally reject parts of the liberal movement concerned with social control, just as libertarians reject parts of the conservative movement associated with social control. It is here where unfortunately I do not think this author "gets it." Note the following:

The politics of freedom similarly understands liberty as, above all, a claim against—and a movement to overcome—oppressive forms of power, particularly in the private spheres of the workplace and the family.

That is why the politics of freedom refuses to view the state as the conservative does: as a constraint. Or as the welfare-state liberal does: as a distributive machine. Instead, it views the state the way the abolitionist, the trade unionist, the civil rights activist and the feminist do: as an instrument for disrupting the private life of power. The state, in other words, is the right hand to the left hand of social movement.

Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom | The Nation

Proof the SOPA Blackout had a political impact.

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.
Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320
We're running early and will get started soon.
UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville, and am looking forward to your questions. At the top, I do want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with folks who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, and to let them know that we are going to be coordinating with state and local officials to make sure that we give families everything they need to recover.
Verification photo: http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg

I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA : IAmA

Faux argues that by the mid-2020s, even with the most optimistic assumptions about economic growth, current trends indicate that the average American’s wages will drop about 20 percent. One big factor is that more and more good jobs will go overseas, leaving even America’s best and brightest no alternative but to enter the service industry.

Nieman Reports | The Jobs Crisis

In the 60 years after World War II, the United States built the world's greatest middle class economy, then unbuilt it. And if you want a single snapshot that captures the broad sweep of that transformation, you could do much worse than this graph from a new Pew report, which tracks how average family incomes have changed at each rung of the economic ladder from 1950 through 2010.    

60 Years of American Economic History, Told in 1 Graph - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

The Cheapest Generation - Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic

Americans' shocked response to the Breivik sentence hints at not just how different the two systems are, but how deeply we may have come to internalize our understanding of justice, which, whatever its merits, doesn't seem to be as universal as we might think.

A Different Justice: Why Anders Breivik Only Got 21 Years for Killing 77 People - Max Fisher - The Atlantic

To give the driver a better feel for the engine, an exterior recording of the M5’s motor plays through the car’s stereo. The precise sample is determined by engine load and rpm. Some of the real engine notes are still audible to the driver, so the recording is more of a backing track. BMW says the setup helps the driver shift by ear and reduces the chances of bumping the rev limiter when using the full rpm range.

One of the features of my new car that I wish I didn't know about. (No, its not an M5.)

Faking It: Engine-Sound Enhancement Explained - Tech Dept. - Car and Driver

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against' | Music News | Rolling Stone