“Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, a joint project of Propublica and the Sunlight Foundation, digitizes information that representatives of foreign governments, political parties and government-controlled entities must disclose to the U.S. Justice Department when they seek to influence U.S. policy.”–From the Website. You can select a legislator and find the contacts and contributions from foreign sources to him or her and track foreign lobbying in other ways.
Citizen’s Briefing Book May 13, 2009
www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Citizens_Briefing_Book_Final.pdf
As the Obama Administration was transitioning into power, they asked for Americans to play a part and suggest changes that needed to be made. Using the change.gov website, the Administration collected over 44,000 ideas. The most popular ideas (determined by over 1.4 million votes cast) are presented in this document—-a citizen’s briefing to President Obama.
2008 Presidential And House Results Map April 9, 2009
http://innovation.cqpolitics.com/atlas/district_08
CQPolitics offers this map of the 2008 Presidential and House election results by Congressional District. If you click on any District, you will see the percentages of the vote won by Obama and McCain, and the percentages won by candidates who ran for the Congressional District seat.
Who Runs Gov January 27, 2009
The Washington Post has unveiled a new database to provide profiles of elected and appointed officials. It is in the early stages, so I am sure there will be much more to come. Currently, it covers administration officials, presidential advisors, congressional members and military leaders.
Previously from the Washington Post: Congress Votes Database
Inauguration Day 2009 November 10, 2008
http://inaugural.senate.gov/index.cfm
The official site for information on the 2009 Inauguration. Information on the events, tickets, history, and more is found on the site.
Voters’ Rights September 30, 2008
Thanks to Doris Dixon for alerting me to these two sites:
ACLU Voting Rights – www.aclu.org/votingrights/index.html
Voter Suppression Wiki – http://votersuppressionwiki.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
With the election just weeks away, it’s a good time to get up to speed on voting rights and issues. The first link offers a thorough examination of voters’ rights and election issues. The second site, the Voter Suppression Wiki, is a nonpartisan site that explains the various tactics that can be used to attempt to suppress votes. The site also offers a place for citizens to report incidents of vote suppression.
THOMAS September 30, 2008
Doris Dixon pointed out that we don’t have a link to Thomas on the Highway, and she’s right. We should! THOMAS was created by the Library of Congress to make legislative information freely and easily available to the public. You can use THOMAS to search for bills, resolutions, schedules, treaties, committee information and more.
For the text of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, click here.
Situation Report: Russo-Georgian Conflict August 13, 2008
www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/situation-report-russo-georgian-conflict
The Institute for the Study of War has put together this backgrounder on the current situation in Georgia. It includes a very useful map and is updated regularly.
MAPLight August 8, 2008
From the Scout Report: “This rather innovative database brings together three unique data sets including bill texts, legislative voting records, and supporting and opposing interests for each bill. This data allows users to determine the contributions given by interests supporting and opposing each bill and the average donations given to legislators voting ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ on each bill.” Search by bill, legislator or interest group.
[From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008. http://scout.wisc.edu/]
Presidential Campaign Finance Map June 4, 2008
http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/mapApp.do
The Federal Election Commission offers this map which provides information on each Presidential candidate’s campaign expenditures and information on campaign donors.
National Environmental Scorecard March 24, 2008
The League of Conservation Voters produces this annual scorecard to analyze the environmental voting habits of individual congress members. Users can search by state, zip, name or congressional session.
FORA.tv November 19, 2007
From The Scout Report:
“If you could invite Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton into your home to talk about the existence of God, would you? That question is no longer just a hypothetical, as visitors to the FORA.tv website can do just that. Under the tagline, ‘The world is thinking’, the site provides access to hundreds of delightful talks, conversations, conferences, debates, and more than a few stimulating arguments. Drawing on a broad range of new media experts, FORA.tv brings together content from the Hoover Institution, the Global Philanthropy Forum, the World Affairs Council, the American Jewish Committee, and dozens of other organizations. First-time visitors to the site can take a look through the ‘Popular Programs’ section, and then maybe they might want to look over the FORA.tv blog. For users who don’t find any of the programs to their liking, they should make a beeline for the ‘Pitch a Program’ section.”
Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007.
Question about Memphis City Council Super Districts September 14, 2007
From Doris Dixon (Raleigh):
Question: Why were the Memphis City Council Super Districts formed?
The Newsbank database for the Commercial Appeal includes the following articles that may jumpstart the research of curious customers:
Chris Conley, “Judge OK’s City Council Remap Plan,” Commercial Appeal, June 20, 1995, A1.
“Chronology of Lawsuits,” Commercial Appeal, April 26, 1995, p. 11
According to Thomas Jones, the Memphis Room clipping file subject heading for this topic is “Memphis–City Council–Election Districts.”
Note: Links work in the library only.
Thanks to Doris for all of the research!
FactCheck.org September 10, 2007
This is the website of the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization “that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.” The organization monitors “the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.”
2008 Presidential Election Timeline August 29, 2007
www.cqpolitics.com/2008_timeline.html
This is a handy way to find out when debates, caucuses, and primaries will take place. “To navigate the timeline, click and hold your mouse on each band to scroll left and right. The top band represents each month, the bottom each year. Clicking on the text will display information on each event.”
