  A total angular momentum representation simplifies the radiation transport
problem for temperature and polarization anisotropy in the CMB. Scattering
terms couple only the quadrupole moments of the distributions and each moment
corresponds directly to the observable angular pattern on the sky. We develop
and employ these techniques to study the general properties of anisotropy
generation from scalar, vector and tensor perturbations to the metric and the
matter, both in the cosmological fluids and from any seed perturbations (e.g.
defects) that may be present. The simpler, more transparent form and derivation
of the Boltzmann equations brings out the geometric and model-independent
aspects of temperature and polarization anisotropy formation. Large angle
scalar polarization provides a robust means to distinguish between isocurvature
and adiabatic models for structure formation in principle. Vector modes have
the unique property that the CMB polarization is dominated by magnetic type
parity at small angles (a factor of 6 in power compared with 0 for the scalars
and 8/13 for the tensors) and hence potentially distinguishable independent of
the model for the seed. The tensor modes produce a different sign from the
scalars and vectors for the temperature-polarization correlations at large
angles. We explore conditions under which one perturbation type may dominate
over the others including a detailed treatment of the photon-baryon fluid
before recombination.
