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.