WeMatter > Links
Note: Click
in "Issue:
... " to
go to the Issue's page,(New
... ) for sites
added in last 2 months
Issue
links #
Issue: Election
reform-- Are their better ways to elect
our representatives?
- ElectionMethods.org,
-- Our purpose is to educate and inform the public
about the gross inadequacy of our current election
method and the major benefits of a better alternative.
- Technical
Evaluation of Election Methods --
The best election method gives the electorate,
to the maximum extent possible, the leaders
they sincerely prefer
- See: Arrows
Theorem -- proves (in 1952)
that there is NO consistent method of
making a fair choice among three or more
candidates.
- Our
Kids Are in Big Trouble Wired
10/??/2004-- There's a pesky flaw at the
core of our democracy: How do we count those
who can't vote?
- Felons
can't vote, is
this an "unreasonable" restriction and thus
effects our democracy?
Issue:
Federal Budget --How much
money should the Government distribute and
how it should be distributed.
Public
Agenda [on the Budget] -- A good, seemingly
objective resource on many issues.
- Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities (Liberal)
{Studies} fiscal policy issues and issues
affecting low- and moderate-income families
and individuals.
- Citizens
for Tax Justice (Moderate)
is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and
advocacy organization dedicated to fair
taxation at the federal, state, and local
levels.
- National
Taxpayers Union: (Conservative?)
dedicated to lower taxes, less wasteful
spending, and the principles of rational
and limited government.
- Taxpayers
for Common Sense a non-partisan
budget watchdog, dedicated to cutting wasteful
spending and subsidies,
Source sites
Books
- Rome
Wasn't Burnt in a Day : The
Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats,
and Other Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting
America (Joe Scarborough)
- Running
On Empty: How The Democratic
and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting
Our Future and What Americans Can Do About
It
by Peter G. Peterson
Issue:
Digital policy-- How should
the access to Digital media be encouraged
while protecting the rights of the Copyright
holders and the infrastructure profits.
- American
Open Technology Consortium (AOTC) is
a nonprofit organization of technologists
who have joined together to educate lawmakers
and regulators about technology — especially
in regards to The Internet, which is the
most world-changing technology since the
wheel.
- Caslon
Analytics Intellectual Property guide --
Massive site, covers: Australian law, global
law, other countries, advocacy, resources,
arguments, patents, names & links, ECMS/DRM,
fair use, Indigenous, geopolitics, online
music, plagiarism, moral rights, duration,
e-mail& news, academia, publicity, piracy,
- IPac is
a nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving
individual freedom through balanced intellectual
property policy.
- Progress & Freedom
Foundation -- a market-oriented think
tank that promotes innovative policy solutions
for the digital age.
- Register --
Biting the hand that feeds it -- Links to the
articles of interested to computer professionals. Frequent
- SlashDot --
News for Nerds, Stuff that matters -- A set
of Articles, Blogs, etc. on LINUX, UNIX, WINDOWS,
and other software stuff...
Issue:
Copyright (Intellectual
property) -- Protecting Content providers
while preserving the Right to Fair Use
Issue:
Internet Policy -- How
should we control the access and content
on the Internet
None so far
Issue:
Internet Radio -- How should
the streaming Internet radio sited be charged
and controlled
Issue:
Law -- How the laws of
the United states are effected by international
treaties (or should be made?)
- ACLU -- (Lib) --
the American Civl Liberties Union is our nation's
guardian of liberty
- ACLJ -- (Con) --
the American Center for
Law and Justice is dedicated to protecting
your religious and constitutional freedoms. [Issues]
Political
Parties:
Candidates with
positions on Digital Access
- For more Digital Access and less copyright "protection"
- Con, for copyright "protection" and
less Digital Access
Issues on Digital Access:
- Letter to John Aschroft to prosecute operators
of file-sharing systems and individuals who allow
mass copying:
- Bill to give entertainment companies legal
immunity in order to interrupt individual users.
- Rep. Howard Berman D-North Hollywood
Opinion Groups: #
- Reason -[Libertarian
site]- "Reason covers politics, economics, culture,
and science from a broad-minded libertarian perspective" { See}
- Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities-{Liberal?}
= "{Studies} fiscal policy issues and issues
affecting low- and moderate-income families
and individuals.
- The
Independent Institute --" Debate,
redefine the debate over public issues, and
foster new and effective directions for government
reform"
- The
New Policy Institute showcases
the work of the NDN Political Fund and the
NDN PAC to promote strategies to modernize
progressive politics, invest in a new generation
of emerging leaders, and advocate for a better
agenda for the nation.
- Citizens
Against Government Waste -- "mission
is to eliminate the waste, mismanagement,
and inefficiency in the federal government
Think Tanks #
- Brookings
institute: committed
to independent, factual and nonpartisan research
and publication. -- Their main areas of research
are: Economic, International and Governance
- Cato institute: The
Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato's
work has increasingly come to be called "libertarianism" or "market
liberalism."
- Center
for American Progress:"Progressive
ideas for a strong, just, and free America",
a nonpartisan research and educational institute
dedicated to promoting a strong, just and
free America that ensures opportunity for
all Americans.
- Century
Foundation: called attention
to facts and analyses that have corrected
widespread misconceptions and provided policymakers
with new ideas for addressing the challenges
facing the nation. about issues such as economic
inequality, population aging, homeland security,
discontent with government and politics,
and national security that significant improvements
are possible even when the conventional wisdom
says they are not
- Commonweal
Institute is a new think tank
and communications organization working to
bring positive moderate and progressive messages
to the public and build widespread support
for the issues we care about.
- Hoover
institute: The
principles of individual, economic, and political
freedom; private enterprise; and representative
government were fundamental to the vision
of the Institution's founder.
- NIRA's
World Directory of Think Tanks (United
States, Links to NIRA's comments)
| Left (Liberal) -- Citations
2003 |
Centrist, Citations 2003 |
Right (Conservative) --
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3,896 --
13% |
11,605
-- 39% |
13989
-- 47% |
Political
sites
- Conservative (right,
Republican)
- Liberal (left,
Democratic)
- Political
Research Associates works
to facilitate public understanding of
the threat posed to
democratic values and principles by the
Right in the United States.
- Rockridge
Institute -- to help achieve
a just, democratic, environmentally sustainable,
and humane society.
- Fair/Balanced
- The
Red and Blue is dedicated
in bringing you both side of political
issues and will provide you with a balanced
source of information and opinion
Candidate rating
sites # (also see Quizs)
Resources: #
Current
Issues and Enduring Questions :
A Guide to Critical Thinking
and Argument with Readings
(Amazon
order $55. 95 new,
$4.00 - $18.00 used)
Bill, Government
Information #
Data sites #
- CIA
Fact book. (Text
version for country information)
- Cool Gov --
the U.S. government provides lots of neat resources,
more and more of which can be found on the internet.
Basically, we’re just going to try and
find the coolest stuff there is and post it here.
- OurDocuments.gov provides
a nifty interface to the top 100 documents in
our nation’s history.
- Electionline.org,
produced by the Election Reform Information Project,
is the nation’s only non-partisan, non-advocacy
website providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis
on election reform
- FedStats.gov -- The
gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S.
Federal agencies
- MapStats --
Statistical profiles of States, counties,
cities, Congressional Districts, and Federal
judicial districts
- Find
Law: the highest-trafficked
legal Web site, providing ... legal resources
on the Internet for legal professionals,
businesses, students and individuals. About
the Company
- Harvard
Center for Risk Analysis -- "attempts
to provide a "big picture" view of public
health by comparing and ranking a wide range
of hazards, analyzing the results of dealing
with those hazards in various ways, and developing
sound scientific data identifying policy
choices that are most likely to achieve the
greatest health, safety, and environmental
benefits with the most efficient use of finite
resources"
- Index
Mundi, home of the Internet's
most complete country profiles . Country
comparison (Generates graphs
on the fly from CIA
Fact book)
- MIT
Open Government Information Awareness --
Empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive,
easy-to-use repository of information on
individuals, organizations, and corporations
related to the government of the United States
of America.
- Political
Calculations -- easy-to-use,
simple calculators are created and presented
to do math related to current events, in
addition to more traditional analysis
- USA
Statistics in Brief is a supplement
to the Statistical
Abstract of the United States and presents
national summary data and state population
estimates.
- News gathering sources
- Where
to Do Research -- is a popular
reference directory run since mid-1999..
With more than 12,000 external links and
about 80 subject area
- Smarter
Surfing: Better
Use of Your Web Time -- These
links are part of a
Web workshop taught for journalists
and other professionals
- Supreme
Court of the US: Docket , Opinions (slip
opinions: 2004-5 ,
2003-4 WeMatter
index )
(Political) Fact Checking
sites #
- Annenberg
Political Fact Check -- nonpartisan,
nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters
that aims to reduce the level of deception
and confusion in U.S. politics
- AskQuestions.org --
We collect popular questions and report them
to the media
- Center
for Media and Democracy (Forum) works
to strengthen democracy by promoting media
that are "of, by and for the people" - genuinely
informative and broadly participatory - and
by removing the barriers and distortions
of the modern information environment that
stem from government- or corporate-dominated,
hierachical media (I
realize this is Left Biased, but I like the
material, so be notified -- MLL)
- PR
Watch -- investigates and
exposes how the public relations industry
... manipulate public information, ...
- Spin
of the Day -- web-based
daily reporting on public relations,
propaganda and media spin.
- Disinfopedia,
-- "open content" encyclopedia of people,
groups and issues shaping the public agenda.
- CJR's
Campaign Desk(About) --
Critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage
from Columbia
Journalism Review
- FAIR,
the national media watch group, has been offering
well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship
since 1986.
- IPA --
Institute for Public Accuracy
- Lying
in Ponds -- encourages vigorous,
independent commentary in the American punditocracy
by quantifying and analyzing partisanship.
- Media
Matters for America -- comprehensively
monitoring ... conservative misinformation
in the U.S. media
- Media
Research center -- The Leader
in Documenting, Exposing and Neutralizing
Liberal Media Bias
- Media
Transparency -- news, opinion,
analysis and investigative data related to
links between conservative philanthropies and
the organizations and people which they fund,
and their influence in the media.
- Spinsanity,--
the nation's leading watchdog of manipulative
political rhetoric,
- Truth
or Fiction -- Be among the first
to know about new eRumors, viruses, Internet
hoaxes...and more.
- Project
for Excellence in Journalism --
is an initiative by journalists to clarify
and raise the standards of American journalism.
- Rhetorica.net --
a web log, is Dr. Andrew R. Cline's attempt to
explain the persuasive tactics of politics and
the press.
- Urban
Legends Snopes, (Recent
Additions)
Internet Audio/Video
sites, e.g. Webcasts, # (Comment
area to add sites)
--
is a web portal and blog that explores activism
on behalf of the commons in all its variety
