Follow the $$

Now that the mid-term elections are over, find out about money given by corporations and Super PACs to politicians at Influence Explorer.  This is a project of the Sunlight Foundation.  You can search the name of an individual to see how much was given and to whom, track the formation of Super PACs and compare contributions to candidates.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Politics and Government going mobile

Stay informed on Washington happenings while mobile.  Check out the White House News Media app(iOS, Android) for news from the White House and the Congressional Record app (iOS) for what our representatives and senators are discussing.  Get a more current take on late breaking political news from the app Politics Today (iOS).  This app gathers Twitter feeds and then presents them as "news', "liberal" or "conservative"

For more detail on these and other political apps, see the NY Times article Let the Phone Be Your Political Advisor .

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Wealthiest Members of Congress

This week Roll Call, one of the most respected publications covering Congress and now a free site, posted "50 Richest Members of Congress," a run-down of the financial worth of the 50 wealthiest members of the legislative branch and the sources of their wealth.  The results of this latest study, an annual project of Roll Call since 1990, includes a break down of financial assets and member profiles, with recent news coverage, for each of the 41 men and 9 women in this exclusive group. While the source of their wealth ranges from tech entrepreneurship to family trust funds, 18 of them hold a J.D.

Beyond this special report, Roll Call is a great source for law students and attorneys on the latest developments on Capitol Hill, unique news coverage of Congress, fundraising and seniority charts, and policy updates, with Roll Call blogs and free registration to receive daily updates on legal areas or policy issues of interest to you.   

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

ABC News App streams election coverage to you!

Do you want more coverage of the upcoming Democratice National Convention?  Did you get everything you wanted to know about the just finished Republican National Convention?  ABC News' mobile app has extended coverage than that which is found on traditional news sources. And YouTube is getting in on the act with an Elections Hub that brings together multiple news sources.

"ABC News has upgraded its iPad app to deliver extensive elections coverage from the conventions and presidential debates leading up to the elections in November.

The app will provide a continuous news flow this week of the Democratic National Convention, including three live streams for mobile and desktop.

Politics is more interactive than ever. It’s hard to miss a beat from the campaign trail as media channels use social networks and political apps for continuous coverage. For example, YouTube launched an Elections Hub, an online one-stop-shop for elections coverage, this year. The hub features content from ABC News, Al Jazeera English, The New York Times and other media."

(Read more here at Mashable: http://on.mash.to/R5aImk)

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Politicians and Money

With the discussion of financial reform, these days politics and money are in the news. One interesting web site to further explore that intersection goes by the odd name LittleSis .

Funded by the Sunlight Foundation, LittleSis is a free database detailing the connections between powerful people and organizations. You can search famous people or organizations to track their connections and donations. They answer questions such as:

• Who do the wealthiest Americans donate their money to?
• Where did White House officials work before they were appointed?
• Which lobbyists are married to politicians, and who do they lobby for?

All of this information is public, but scattered. Their data derives from government filings, news articles, and other reputable sources. And they provide citations.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Redistricting Game

How may future lawyers, legislators or policymakers really understand how congressional redistricting works--and how it affects political power and the outcome of elections? Grasping these concepts would never be fun if it weren't for the Redistricting Game.

This free game, developed at the University of Southern California's Game Innovation Lab for the USC Annenberg Center for Communication, lets you play the "redistricting game" by redrawing maps of congressional districts in fictional states within a browser window. Watch the results both on the map and in the facial expressions of the fictional representatives affected by your moves, and work toward approval of your plan. Players can work through five missions, including basic population equality, partisan Gerrymander, and Voting Rights Act. Each mission comes with eye-opening quotes.

Check out this game and play the real world variables to understand how the system really works.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Pew Research Center's Election ' 08

Sometimes in an intense political season it's good to step back from the daily tracking polls and breaking news. For a broader perspective on what the American public is thinking, check out Election '08: Pew Research Center's Coverage of This Year's Campaign. Here the nonpartisan research and polling center uncovers what they have found out about the issues, attitudes and beliefs shaping the election landscape, including society's interaction with the media and technology. Election '08 reports include both data and analysis, with graphics and actual polling questions behind the results.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

VP Debate - getting their facts straight

Watch Sarah Palin face off with Joe Biden last night? I lost count how many times each of them claimed that what the other said was not true. So, I have turned to my trusty fact checking sites for the VP debate - FactCheck.org and - PolitiFact.com - a cooperative effort of Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times.

So, did Barak Obama vote to increase taxes “families” making as little as $42,000 a year as Sarah Palin claimed? He did not. According to FactCheck.org, "the budget bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000 a year."

Did John McCain really say, as Joe Biden claimed last night, that "he wouldn't even sit down with the government of Spain, a NATO ally that has troops in Afghanistan with us now."? According to Politifact.com, not really, but rather "McCain refused to commit."

What I really like about both of these sites is that they give you links to follow up the sources of their information so we can make our own judgments.





Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Fact-Checking Friday's Debate

Here are a few of the claims made by Senators McCain and Obama in Friday's presidential debate, and resources for checking their accuracy.

Factcheck.org and the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog each have their fact-checking for the whole debate on a single page, so those two links are only provided here. PolitiFact has separate pages for each claim, which are linked to individually.

- The kerfuffle over whose position on talking to Iran is most like Henry Kissinger's.
The answer is nuanced. Here is Kissinger's reaction.

- Obama's tax plans. Obama said that he would give 95% of people a tax cut. McCain said that Obama had voted to increase taxes on people making as little as $42,000 per year.
The answer to the latter depends on whether a vote on a budget resolution counts.

- McCain: "The average South Korean is 3 inches taller than the average North Korean."
This is true.

- McCain: Pakistan was a "failed state" before Musharraf came to power.
This was not answered by any of the fact-checking sites mentioned, but using "a country in social and economic collapse where the government no longer exercises authority" as a definition for a "failed state," this AP article calls the statement false.

Several more claims are fact-checked on the sites mentioned.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat