Political Action

General

Do You Know?

"Over the past few years, we've noticed that while a lot of important decisions have been made in Washington about our country and its future, those decisions have been getting drowned out in the media by Chandra and Kobe and sharks and mad cow and orange alerts. And that's just not healthy for our Republic."

"So, because there's so much at stake for our country in this election year, we've compiled important facts that we think every voting American should know before marking their ballot on November 2."

"We urge you to forget the polls. Forget the pundits. Forget the 30-second campaign sound bites. Instead, look at the record."

Speak Out Now!
"Speak Out - Institute for Democratic Education and Culture is the country's only national not-for-profit organization that promotes progressive speakers and artists on campuses and in communities. Committed to social, political, cultural and economic justice, Speak Out encourages critical and imaginative thinking about domestic and international issues through artistic and educational forums nationwide."

Democratic Underground

"Democratic Underground (DU) was founded on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2001, to protest the illegitimate presidency of George W. Bush and to provide a resource for the exchange and dissemination of liberal and progressive ideas. Since then, DU has become one of the premier left-wing websites on the Internet, publishing original content six days a week, and hosting one of the Web's most active left-wing discussion boards."

"We welcome Democrats of all stripes, along with other progressives who will work with us to achieve our shared goals. While the vast majority of our visitors are Democrats, this web site is not affiliated with the Democratic Party, nor do we claim to speak for the party as a whole."

Freeway Blogger
Posting pictures of political messages hung on signs and overpasses surrounding America's numerous majestic freeways.

Black Box Voting
A clearinghouse for information on electronic voting with no paper trail. Find how future elections will be stolen.

Instant Run-Off Voting
InstantRunoff.com was created and is managed by the Midwest Democracy Center, a Chicago-based non-profit organization dedicated to making our government more democratic and representative.

The Center for American Progress
"The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all Americans. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values."

The Axis of Justice

Axis of Justice is non-profit political organization formed by Tom Morello of Audioslave and Serj Tankian of System of a Down. Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice together.

We aim to build a bridge between fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice.

Punk Voter

Punk bands, musicians, and record labels have built a coalition to educate, register and mobilize progressive voters.

Something needs to be done to unite the youth vote and bring real activism back into our society. Punk rock has always been on the edge and in the forefront of politics. It is time to energize the majority of today’s disenfranchised youth movement and punk rockers to make change a reality.

Punkvoter is about organizing the many diverse and regional movements into one voice of political change. Punkvoter is our way to educate today’s youth about what is really going on in Washington, DC and how we can collectively force change. This is our chance to be a strong voice against the serious flaws in the current political system. This is our way to talk about new laws and scenarios that could change our quality of life for years to come. Punkvoter is your organization. It will be run with the same energy and spirit of all punk efforts. With your help we will be a credible force to truly shape the future of our nation.

These are drastic times and today’s youth are not voting.

The Backbone Campaign
"The Backbone Campaign is a progressive grassroots effort to embolden the Democratic Party. We are both recognizing the Democrats who have stood up to intimidation, and demanding greater strength, and visionary leadership from the rest. We are uniting artists and activists to utilize beauty and humor to inspire citizens and leaders alike. Our nation and the world face a collection of unprecedented challenges. These challenges will not be met by a fearful people. We intend to tap into the American peoples' great reserve of courage and creative power to sculpt a future worthy of our children."

Politics Nationwide
Website providing links to and information about elected officials and political candidates. A resource for political information.

International Leaders
The CIA's list of leaders and major political figures for each country in the world.

Political Compass
Take their online test to see where you end up on their political compass.

Liar, Liar... Pants on Fire

This campaign uses a 12' high statue of George W. Bush with his Pants on Fire. The statue is mounted on a flat bed trailer and pulled by an official looking, very classy, American flag laden, American sedan with leather interior. It's a very cushy ride.

The flames actually are artificial fire that looks very realistic. George is outlined in electroluminescent wire for a very spooky effect (and so he's visible at night).

Bush Flash
A site that tracks the wonderful days of George W. Bush's leadership.

The Smirking Chimp
News and message boards tracking George W. Bush.

Open Debates

Open Debates works to ensure that the presidential debates serve the American people first. Currently, the presidential debates are secretly controlled by the major parties, through the private bipartisan corporation called the Commission on Presidential Debates, resulting in the stultification of format, the exclusion of popular candidates, and the avoidance of pressing national issues.

The major party candidates never pay a political price for their antidemocratic practices; posing as an independent sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates shields the major party candidates from public criticism and public accountability.

Underground Alliance
Underground Action Alliance is dedicated to promoting civic participation of members of the punk rock community and beyond. Our primary purpose is to engage our youth to commit their energy, ideas, excitement, and enthusiasm to work for equitable social transformation that benefits all inhabitants of the Earth, and the planet itself.

The Center for Public Integrity

"The mission of the Center for Public Integrity is to provide the American people with the findings of our investigations and analyses of public service, government accountability and ethics related issues."

"The Center's books, studies and newsletters combine political science and investigative reporting, unfettered by the usual time and space constraints. Through its hard-earned reputation for "public service journalism," the Center aims to produce high-quality, well-documented, investigative research resulting in a better-informed citizenry that demands a higher level of accountability from its government and elected leaders. The Center also extends globally its style of watchdog journalism in the public interest through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Created in 1997, ICIJ includes more than 80 leading investigative reporters and editors in over 40 countries."

All Politics
Nothing but political news from the Time-Warner-CNN conglomerate.

Contacting the Congress
"Contacting the Congress is a listing of phone numbers, FAX numbers, electronic mail addresses and WWW/gopher homepages for members of the Congress." Very complete and easy-to-use.

FECInfo
"The non-partisan Federal candidate campaign money page" ... or ... "A place to discover who gave what to which Federal candidates when..."

Leftist Parties of the World
"This page contains the entire spectrum of political parties, organizations and groups which consider themselves to be leftist or have origins in leftist movements. You will find democratic socialists and reform communists as well as social democratic and green parties, traditional communists, marxists-leninists of stalinist or maoist persuasions, the tendencies of trotskyism, left communists, guerrilla organizations, leftist movements struggling for national or ethnic liberation or for regional autonomy, the different currents of anarchism, alliances with leftist participation and parties outside of these categories."

Mojo 400
Find out about the "Coin-Op Congress" in this list of the 400 biggest contributors in the political big-time from Mother Jones magazine. Includes sidebars ("Return to Spender - The Dirtiest Money of All", Breaking News about the MoJo 400, and "Where are They Now" [care to guess what's happened to some of last year's contributors?]). Searchable database, too.

National Partnership Resouce Site
Resource center for Family and Medical Leave Act and other family employment related legal information.

National Political Index
Simply: a site with an incredible list of links to almost anything political. "The National Political Index is a web site which provides an index of substantive political information ... our secondary purpose is to provide a one-stop shop web site for political activist organizations with tactics and logistics information to empower them to compete successfully against massive TV advertising which provides almost no high quality information to voters. Empowering activists is the key to nullify the corrosive impact of big money on the democratic process." Catorgories include: Hourly Political Headlines - Federal Elected Officials - State and Local Officials - Federal Candidates - Info. on Federal Candidates - State and Local Candidates - No-Cost Web Sites for Candidates - National Political Parties - State & Local Party Groups - Political Activist Groups - State Initiatives and Referenda - Un-elected Beltway V.I.P.s - Tracking Congressional Legislation - Voting Booths And Polls - Federal Gov't Agencies - Government Sponsored Information - State & Local Gov't Agencies - Political Science Departments - On-Line Political Magazines - Unclassified Political Sites - National Political Activist - National Political Review - National Employment Index - Personals - Political Resources - Political Goods & Services - Political Humor - Search Sites - Political Newsgroups - Political Think Tanks - Reporters' Resources - Political Games & Simulations

Opensecrets.org (Center for Responsive Politics)
Want to know how much candidates are paying to buy their U.S. House or Senate seat? Check out "Influence, Inc." to find out who's paying billions to lobbyists ... and more, all from The Center for Responsive Politics ... "a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy."

Project Vote Smart
"Project Vote Smart tracks the performance of over 13,000 political leaders." Site selections include: "Issue Positions"; "Voting Records"; "Performance Evaluations"; "Campaign Finances"; "Biographies"; and "Other Available Information."

Roll Call
"The late House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Mass) had the best description for Roll Call; he called it "our hometown newspaper in Washington." For forty years, our primary subject matter (and audience) has been the US Congress. But we approach the institution in an unorthodox way. Instead of tracking issues and legislation, we cover the three Ps: people, politics, and process." Fairly mainstream ... but with news and tidbits not found elsewhere about the goings-on in Washington.

THOMAS Legislative Service
Find information concerning Congress -- particularly legislative activity -- under headings like "Congress This Week", "Bills", "Congressional Record", "Committee Information", "Historical Documents", "The Legislative Process" and "Congressional Internet Services" (a set of great government links). Invaluable source of information.(Why is it called THOMAS? "In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, a service of the U.S. Congress through its Library." Oh.)

WebActive
"WebActive is a weekly World Wide Web publication designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest in activism and progressive politics on the Internet. WebActive helps you navigate the tremendous web of information which has been spun by the growth of the Internet. WebActive also helps plug you in to activist opportunities so you can have a direct impact and make a difference. WebActive covers both the mainstream and the margins." That's what they say. That's what they do!

Who's Getting the Election Money
Federal Election Commission

Political Parties

Vermont Progressive Party

The Progressive Party is Vermont's fastest growing political party. They are focused on electing people to represent the majority of Vermonters. By majority they mean the people who work for a living. These are the folks, by and large, who haven't felt a big impact from the "booming" economy.

Progressives believe that everyone who works full-time should be able to meet his or her basic needs, have access to health care and rest assured that his/her children will be able to go to college...

Online Think Tank for Democrats

"For the first time since the Great Depression, all three branches of federal government are under the sustained control of the Republican Party. The G.O.P. has a huge advantage in national fundraising and a disciplined, coordinated strategy for dominating the media with an increasingly conservative agenda. Perhaps "the most unkindest cut of all", Republicans have successfully convinced many Americans that the Democratic Party has no ideas, stands for nothing, and has no clear, political message."

"Democrats.US would like to begin correcting these false impressions."

Billionaires for Bush
Fighting hard to reassure all Americans that not one billionaire will ever be left behind by George W. Bush.

The Communist Party
"We are a party of unity in action. We are an integral part of every struggle and movement for change to eliminate poverty and joblessness, against racism and for full equality. We are participants, initiators and leaders of every movement to make life better now and much better in a socialist future." Yeah, so they supported an oppressive dictator, like the Repubs and Democrats haven't? The CP is still around, has apologized for that whole Stalin thing, and has a quickly growing youth section.

Democratic National Committee
Home of the Democratic (or was that Republican?) Party.

Green Parties of North America
From on-line forums, to a statement of principles ("Ten Key Values") to local and statewide addresses to links with Green Parties around the world, this is the spot to find out more about this political movement.

Labor Party
"We are the people who build and maintain the nation but rarely enjoy the fruits of our labor. We are the employed and the unemployed. We are the people who make the country run but have little say in running the country. We come together to create this Labor Party to defend our interests and aspirations from the greed of multinational corporate interests. Decades of concessions to corporations by both political parties have not produced the full employment economy we have been promised. Instead income and wealth disparities have widened to shameful extents. We offer an alternative vision of a just society that values working people, their families and communities."

New Party, The
"The New Party is a progressive political party taking root around the U.S. ... We're building a multi-racial, lively and creative political organization that can, over time, break the stranglehold that corporate money and corporate media have over our political process. For the last four years we have focused on local elections, and have won 134 of our first 202 races. It's all at a modest level -- school boards, city councils, county boards -- but it's the right place to start. We see ourselves as a different kind of progressive third party: we're starting at the grassroots level; we run issue as well as candidate campaigns; we work inside and outside the Democratic Party; and we're a membership based, small 'd' democratic organization."

Republican National Committee
Home of the Republican (or was that Democratic?) Party.

Socialist Party USA
"The Socialist Party strives to establish a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control -- a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community. Socialism is not mere government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers control production and community residents control their neighborhoods, homes, and schools. The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewed future by not plundering the resources of the earth."