Poll: USA fed up with political incivility

"Americans believe in civility … and in compromise; they believe in middle-ground solutions. Those are two issues that I think Americans believe are not well-reflected in the media — in talk radio, television programs, the Internet."

Is Obama REALLY a socialist? Not even close.

Sick of hearing people ignorantly call Obama a socialist or communist? Me too! I'm not too happy with him either, but he's definitely not a socialist. I found this great article on CNN  where they interviewed an actual socialist leader to ask him what he thinks of Obama. I thought it was pretty interesting, so I posted it here.

Twitter's Gettin' Some Government Love

I came across this article on CNN.com and thought it was pretty cool and kinda funny! Click on the link for the full article, but basically the Library of Congress has created a massive Twitter archive...apparently random, self-obsessed tweets have become important historical documents.

Library of Congress to archive your tweets

Twitter and the Library of Congress announced Wednesday that every public tweet posted since Twitter started in 2006 will be archived digitally by the federal library.

The purpose, according to a blog post by Library of Congress communications director Matt Raymond, is to document "important tweets" as well as gather information about the way we live through the sheer masses of tweets on the site.

"I'm no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data," Raymond said in the post. And I'm certain we'll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive."

Calling All Independents

This was an article I found on CNN.com - interesting stuff! Click on the link below to read the whole thing.

Can independents seize the day?

By John Avlon, Special to CNN

April 7, 2010 9:13 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Three credible independents running for governor this year in three New England states
• They say they're too fiscally conservative for Democrats, too socially liberal for GOP
• Registered independents outnumber Democrats and Republicans there
• Big question: Can they channel popular discontent into a winning campaign?

JJ's comments: Traditionally independent third parties have only played a spoiler role in elections, meaning that they only garner enough support to take away votes from one of the candidates and not enough to actually have a chance at winning. Most of the time though, these spoiler candidates have come from the fringes, not the middle. My theory is that most Americans are politically moderate or centrist, and a party organized around these views could be very powerful! I don't think there's ever been a better time to do so, either.

By the way, if you're wondering if there has ever been an "independent" (meaning someone not affiliated with any single party) President, there has. His name was George Washington.

I'd love to hear your opinions about this.