Manufacturing has been a bright spot over the past year in terms of jobs gained. Activity has picked up, and factories are coming back on-line. The problem is that this has come at a cost. Specifically, the US manufacturing jobs of the future feature lower pay and benefits.

In Thomas Frank’s excellent new book Pity The Billionaire, he explains that The Right had to subvert reality, which we all know has a distinct liberal bias, and pin the blame for the on-going financial crisis on liberals instead of the conservative’s “the invisible hand whispered in my ear that financial regulations are tyranny, so stop it, you guys” economic policies. But how to do that? Why by complaining that the Right is nothing but a bunch of cleverly-inserted by sleeper liberals (I blame The Democrat Machine)

The release of Fazl and other Taliban may just be a Hail Mary pass, however. Talks have been suspended at the request of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President. Though asking for a prisoner release previously , Karzai doesn’t favor it now. We may get the establishment of a Taliban office in a neutral third country, with talks continuing there on a reconciliation. But Karzai stopped the talks when he found out that the US was negotiating directly with Taliban officers to use Qatar as the third country, recalling the Afghan ambassador there.

I’m saving my “What to Look for in 2012″ listicle for tomorrow, but one of the issues that may not make the list, but which is terribly important, is the battle in the states over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. 2011 was the year when this issue finally bubbled up to the surface (pardon the pun) and into the consciousness of the public. The critically acclaimed Gasland came out in 2010, but anti-facking forces benefited this year from some scientific revelations. Independent studies for the first time identified fracking as a cause of methane contamination and water pollution, and late in the year, the EPA agreed in a case in Wyoming.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may, or may not, be of interest.

What’s a little slander, privacy invasion, abetting and maybe a little treason if not the cost of doing business?

Aerosmith — Back In The Saddle, live in Japan, 2002.

So here we are, the week between Christmas and New Years. This is a slow news time (as David Dayen noted here), yet it is a classic time for “take out the trash” type news dumps.

While students were on their holiday break, Arizona issued a disturbing wake-up call to anyone who thought the education system had evolved to reflect America’s diversity. In a legal challenge to a controversial law passed in 2010, an administrative law judge pummeled a flagship educational initiative by supporting restrictions on programs based on Latino history and culture.

In the litany of the Religious Right, Lawrence is critically important to know. It’s not only important to LGBT activists; it’s one ruling the Religious Right rails against when they talk about activist judges. It’s a big deal.