Colin Powell's Endorsement Decision

I found it interesting to listen to the entire piece - he goes into some detail about why he chose to endorse Obama and why he has issues with his own party. For me, while I don't agree with all of his thoughts, it was a wonderful change to hear a person meticulously and articulately voice both pros and cons for the candidates, and to make their choice based not on sound bites or negative ads (what I see as fear-mongering), but instead on what they believe the qualities of the candidates to be.

Colin Powell on Meet the Press

DMCA Bites a Hand...

Regardless of who you support (or don't), this is f-u-n-n-y! It could easily happen to any of the candidates, but that it first happened to someone who voted the DMCA into law (the Senate vote was unanimous, Messrs McCain/Kyl/Levin/Abraham), well - that's just a delicious homing of roosting chickens! ;)

YouTube to McCain: You Made Your DMCA Bed, Lie in It

If you're not familiar with the DMCA, it affects you if you've ever purchased music, movies, software, MP3 players or used any type of encryption in the past 10 years. The criticism section of the Wikipedia entry gives a good short summary. That this article was published just past the 10 year anniversary of the DMCA is also a little funny. And last - that the YouTube response contains information from the EFF (http://www.eff.org/) to highlight the issues is perhaps a form of justice - given that organization fought the DMCA from being enacted in the first place.

Another Candidate Quiz

It's only 20 questions, and it allows you to weight the questions towards what is most important to you. When complete, it then shows you the closest matches, and provides the detail on how closely you match each candidate. It's not comprehensive, but does have the major alternative parties represented.

Glassbooth

Covering Just the Issues

Thanks to my friend, Erin, I have another site to add:

Campaign Issues 2008

It attempts to deliver succinct summaries of where the candidates stand on the issues by using their own words (from speeches, debates and press releases) and actions (through voting, bills, proposals, etc.).

After this last debate (Which most of the press I've seen calls a slight win for Obama, but where instead I saw two children get involved in a battle of, "Nuh-uh, that's not what I said, that's not what I meant! But you said..." ... rinse, repeat...) it may be a breath of fresh air.

A debate where I heard very little new, but heard both candidates take opportunities to show how contumelious they can be to each other, and still have a thin veneer of civility. I keep finding myself wishing there was a debate where the person asking the question was able to say, "Stop. You're going back to your script. Stay focused, and answer MY QUESTION." And I thought that Brokaw did a better job of this than previous moderators, but both men tended to blow right by their 1 minute time limit as well as any re-focusing attempt.

Is it possible to have a viable third party? I don't know. Is it possible to have politicians that you respect? I don't know. Is it possible to have a politician take a stance based on principle or belief, without weighing the balance of which answer will mean a net increase in votes? I don't know.

Who am I voting for? I still don't know. Grr.

Non-Partisan Sites

I wanted to summarize the sites I've found or had suggested to me (and I'll continue to update if I find more) - and have included them all in the right column of the blog. ------------->

FactCheck.org
This site appears to focus on addressing truth in advertising and published statements. They provide a Summary of the issue, an Analysis section, document their Sources and links to Related Articles. It's an attractive site, with a special video blog called, The Wire, that tries to be "Faster Than the Speed of Spin" and is short and informative.

PolitiFact.com
This site focuses on how true or false statements or attacks are. They have handy gauges that signify True, Partly True/False all the way to "Pants on Fire." ;) They also maintain an analysis called the Flip-O-Meter which analyzes whether a candidate has changed stances, and to what extent. There's also a summary page for each candidate which lists how many items they have under each Truth level so you can see if they tend towards honesty - or not.

OnTheIssues.org
This site provides history based information on where the candidates stand on the issues. Much of their information is obtained from their voting history, which provides them a grade, or rating, on the issues. It also includes public statements on issues, and when they made them. It provides many different ways of viewing this information, and comparing the candidates to each other, and to your views. Be sure to check out the Grid, and VoteMatch. I especially like that they have posed different ways and corollary questions to help you consider your stance on the issues.

GovTrack.us
You can track both current Congresspeople and bills on this site, so it's more for staying current on what your elected representatives are doing, than for comparison to a potential opponent (unless they too have a congressional record). The neat thing is you can set up RSS feeds or email so you get updates as they happen, and I've also set up a widget that shows my current issues and Congressmen's actions on my blog. Useful for me, but you can do the same for your own on your site.

Track and Research Congress

A couple of days ago, I made an entry with links to two Presidential candidates' "Issues" pages. I've since been looking for a place that independently reviews those plans, and the history of how the candidates have acted in the past. While I haven't found that review, I have found something that helps with the latter...

GovTrack.us is a site that allows you to do two main things -- keep abreast of pending legislation and research past legislation. So not only did I find a way to see how every Representative and Senator voted on every bill, but if there is a person or issue you want to keep track of in the future, you can set up Feeds to get that info pushed to you!

Want to look up how McCain/Obama voted on the appalling FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 2248)? Go to the View Votes page and you can see (I'm happy with neither). Though I find that my Representative (Shadegg) voted as I like (this time).

I've also set up Tracked Events to monitor things related to my two Senators and my Rep. I now track changes with an RSS (or Atom) feed (ask me if you want to know more about feeds), and I've put a widget to the right, "Tracked Events in Congress" so you can see my example. I'll find out if it's information overload, or if it's the right amount to make me a more informed citizen. Given time, I think it will help me make more informed decisions - especially when deciding whether to vote for an incumbent!

I'm the swing vote

As I've watched the political arena the last few weeks, I've reflected on two thoughts:

• Who are the people who change their minds about the candidates after viewing/reading/seeing/hearing the information presented through the media?
• Holy crap. I'm one of the people that both parties are hoping to influence.

I've long considered myself an independent. Not as a cop-out as I'm often accused -- "Make up your mind!" or, "You just don't want to make a decision." And not so I can avoid having to explain the behaviors of people I align myself over which I have no control. I know Republicans shuddered when they heard about Cheney shooting his hunting buddy, and Democrats cringed when Clinton had his non-sexual relations. (Okay, okay - I am glad that I get to dodge that.)

I consider myself an independent because I find that neither major party has really expressed the values I hold important consistently. I've found I'm more comfortable taking a look at the issues, voting history and how a candidate has shown they make their decisions, and for what they stand -- for each position I feel informed enough to vote.

Which brings me back to my two thoughts. Watching the DNC and RNC I see rabid supporters of both parties (or perhaps just those candidates, those people), the ones that will vote that party. Period. I also find that as an undecided voter, I get very little out of the national conventions. Both parties tend to stand up and give honor to their opponent with the one hand, and try to bash them with the other. I find that I have more appreciation for the party that ends up doing the least bashing, and most genuine honoring. All the other rhetoric seems steeped in emotional ordnance prepared for the group that's fanatical enough to be at the convention - it's not geared to inform and influence an independent with reason.

As I've realized that all those political commercials, approved by those candidates, are really designed to get me to NOT vote for the other guy (or gal), I've also realized that it's hard work and not easy to sift through all the chaff for the real determinants of what a Person, in the Office, will do for the People, and the Country. But it's also something that I realize I really have the responsibility to do.

So I'm doing my best, to watch both sides, and take all the bashing with a grain of salt, to only look at the side show of whose pastor said what, or whose daughter got pregnant to see how the Person running handles it and shows their character. And I certainly hope that these candidates will start talking about what they will do, and how they will do it.