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Not every issue is black and white!

Here is my problem with John F. Kerry. He has had 20 something years in the Senate to author any legislation he thinks is good for America. Exactly what is his record on producing such legislation. Name 10. Name 9. Name 2. He has been sitting on his ASS for 20 years. 20 years of Senate, and still we don't know where he stands.

Maybe if you got off YOUR ASS and actually did some research, you would find out what his record is. Or do you expect the US media to spoonfeed this to you?

Try this:
"In his almost 20 year career, he has sponsored (667) and co-sponsored (4117) a total of 4784 bills and amendments. By comparison, during the same years, John McCain only was associated with a total of 4247."

Or try his voting history

Prolife and prochoice.
He is prolife in his own life, but he doesn't want to force his opinion on everybody else who is prochoice. How is that a bad thing?

Pro Gun, anti gun.
He is for the assault weapons ban. That doesn't mean he is anti-gun. He still supports the right to bear arms, but there are limits on what arms we should be able to bear, don't you agree?

Both Bush and Kerry have not submitted their NPAT (National Political Awareness Test), but a few dozen other presidential candidates have:

http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_party .php?party_name=All

and the 2004 Presidential Candidates Sucks-Rules-O-Meter

I agree that we often spend our foreign aid money on stupid things (such as supporting local thugs for our own gain), but some foreign aid is beneficial. We should be preventing humanitarian crises, helping poor countries develop basic infrastructure, sponsoring good NGOs, etc..

If Badnarik thinks we should modify our foreign aid policy to be more reasonable, I don't have a problem with that. If he thinks we should never, as a matter of policy, ever intevene in another country's affairs even in the cases when they clearly need our help (such as disaster relief), and it wouldn't cost us much to do so, I do have a problem with that. I'm not sure what Badnarik's stance is, he seems to have left that particular question blank on the national political awareness test.

How would you feel if there was a Chinese or Russian military base in your neighborhood?

That depends who my neighbors are. My current nearest neighboring country is Canada. If it was North Korea, I might answer the question differently. It also would depend on who the occupying country was, and whether my own country was free to kick them out at any time. It's a shame that our military has damaged their reputation in many places around the world. On the other hand, there may be many wars which never happened because we were there as a deterent (unfortunately, history only tells us what happened, not what could have happened).

-jim

The war in Iraq seems to be a relatively devisive issue within the Libertarian Party and movement. Your stance seems to be staunchly against the war. What are your plans, if any, to reach out to pro-war libertarians?

The final averages are:
Democrats: 72.18777293
Independents: 76.5
Republicans: 16.32365145

Here is a good source of information:

http://www.vote-smart.org/

The following is from their website -

"Thousands of candidates and elected officials. Who works for you? Who is seeking your vote? Project Vote Smart, a citizen's organization, has developed a Voter's Self-Defense system to provide you with the necessary tools to self-govern effectively: abundant, accurate, unbiased and relevant information. As a national library of factual information, Project Vote Smart covers your candidates and elected officials in five basic categories: biographical information, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances and interest group ratings. What would you like to know? Access our library of information through either the menu on the left hand side or the links above.

To find out more about PVS, click here or call our Voter's Research Hotline 1-888-VOTE-SMART with any questions."

In late September, they will be sending their NPAT (National Political Awareness Test) questionaire to every candidate for Federal office. Vote-Smart will post the candidate responses, so that you the voter can decide which candidate best represents you.

You can find out how the system works by doing a search for a candidate named "Bellis".

This will bring to the information they have posted regarding my campaign and my NPAT answers after I submit them.

Project Vote-Smart has a ton of unbiased information, including profiles of politicians such as VP Cheney.

Government Information Awareness (cached copy; the site has been dodgy lately) is "a research effort by the Computing Culture group of the MIT Media Lab. It aims to provide software and data to help citizens understand the complexities of their government". I find it entertaining, at least.

Project Vote-Smart has a ton of unbiased information, including profiles of politicians such as VP Cheney.

Government Information Awareness (cached copy; the site has been dodgy lately) is "a research effort by the Computing Culture group of the MIT Media Lab. It aims to provide software and data to help citizens understand the complexities of their government". I find it entertaining, at least.

http://www.vote-smart.org/

They have biographical information, issue positions provided by the candidates (where available), campaign finance information (links over to Open Secrets), interest group ratings, voting records, speeches and statements in an organized format.

(For those of you who haven't been paying attention, BOTH Bush and Kerry are pro-hunters/sportsmen.)


I'm pretty sure however that Kerry has done more than most Senators when it comes to the environment.

Check out Project Vote Smart for example:

Environmental Issues:

2003 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 2003, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 53 percent of the time.

2003 On the votes that the Sierra Club considered to be the most important in 2003, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the National Parks Consevation Association considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 92 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the Comprehensive US Sustainable Population considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 73 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 1999-2000, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 94 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the National Parks Conservation Association considered to be the most important in 1999-2000 , Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the Comprehensive US Sustainable Population considered to be the most important in 1999-2000, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 84 percent of the time.

An interesting aside, Nixon was the one who can be credited with the creation of the EPA. He spent a third of his 1973(?) State of The Union talking about the environment.

It doesn't have to be a party issue.

(For those of you who haven't been paying attention, BOTH Bush and Kerry are pro-hunters/sportsmen.)


I'm pretty sure however that Kerry has done more than most Senators when it comes to the environment.

Check out Project Vote Smart for example:

Environmental Issues:

2003 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 2003, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 53 percent of the time.

2003 On the votes that the Sierra Club considered to be the most important in 2003, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the National Parks Consevation Association considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 92 percent of the time.

2001-2002 On the votes that the Comprehensive US Sustainable Population considered to be the most important in 2001-2002, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 73 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the League of Conservation Voters considered to be the most important in 1999-2000, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 94 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the National Parks Conservation Association considered to be the most important in 1999-2000 , Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.

1999-2000 On the votes that the Comprehensive US Sustainable Population considered to be the most important in 1999-2000, Senator Kerry voted their preferred position 84 percent of the time.

An interesting aside, Nixon was the one who can be credited with the creation of the EPA. He spent a third of his 1973(?) State of The Union talking about the environment.

It doesn't have to be a party issue.

John Kerry voted FOR the DMCA.

That's simply not true, at least regarding the issues people pay attention to. Go to vote-smart.org's section on Kerry's voting history. I can't find a single entry where he abstained.

He's been one of the big supporters of the Pirate Act (allowing the DoJ to file civil suits against file swappers) and the Induce Act (blog) which seeks to hold those that "induce" copyright infridgements criminally liable.

Here's some more information on him. I guess some people should just not be reelected...

He [Feingold] was also the lone dissenter in the Patriot Act. Again, a very brave thing to do given that opponents can use that to paint him as a traitor, and they probably will try that tactic.

You seem to have forgotten about Dennis Kucinich.

He voted against the USA PATRIOT Act as well!!

-dave-

The Congress is expert at (Score:4, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on 16:21 Saturday 24 April 2004 (#8961805) ... protecting stupid people from themselves.

Absolutely. Just because I think spyware is wrong, misleading, annoying, and is generally evil, doesn't mean that I think it should be illegal. For example, I absolutely support the EFF (I'm a paying member) against the ??AA but don't think that the ??AA should be illegal...

I see legislators promising the world right now, possibly at the expense of transforming our government into a more inefficient and costly mechanism. I wish that politicians worked towards American freedom every year. You'll notice that Mr. Balboni is running for re-election in Nassau County this year and is probably quite happy to get this slashdot article right now.

Dear senators, please stop overlegislating and please work on improving our society through major forces like education and reducing how much our country spends on iraq. thank you.

Heh.

-T

There are lots of declared candidates to choose from. Don't have a mouthful of coffee when you read their party affiliations. Yes, Michael W. 'Mike' Bay is running under the National Barking Spider Resurgence Party. And it appears that the United Fascist Union (whoever they are) has endorsed Jackson Kirk Grimes.

There are lots of declared candidates to choose from. Don't have a mouthful of coffee when you read their party affiliations. Yes, Michael W. 'Mike' Bay is running under the National Barking Spider Resurgence Party. And it appears that the United Fascist Union (whoever they are) has endorsed Jackson Kirk Grimes.

There are lots of declared candidates to choose from. Don't have a mouthful of coffee when you read their party affiliations. Yes, Michael W. 'Mike' Bay is running under the National Barking Spider Resurgence Party. And it appears that the United Fascist Union (whoever they are) has endorsed Jackson Kirk Grimes.

Holy crap. Check out these quotes from him:

"White people are the victims when Affirmative action programs Hire those For race reasons only. White people Have no place to run to when illegals take over USA"

"The Jews promoted the WAR on Iraq. The Jews are the only ones plus Halliburton Dick Cheney's Co that profited from the War in Iraq."

"AIDS has spread because of stupid Catholic and right wing Nuts being allowed to much say about what causes AIDS"

All via Project Vote Smart. While I'm all about supporting the little guy, I'd be careful about what you're saying giving him your money...

Where's the uneducated under-dog who isn't a racist and bigot?

Greatly Increase Funding: k) Other: program to stop school Bullying of litler kids

I think it is very important for each and everyone to take 10 minutes to write your congressman/woman about why Open Source is important and why you feel strongly that they do *not* vote for any bills limiting open licensing.

I would suggest you go down to city hall. Just being there will give you a bit more insight of what it is like. It's kind of like installing a new operating system. You can kind of figure out basically what it is like from pictures you have seen and properties you have read about, but you get a better picture from what is going on from trying it out.

Also, government is a huge hierarchy as you might already know, I guess like a filesystem. So you have your local, state, and country.

Cities
Pretty much all large cities have a website where you can download the city code or get information on various meetings and events that will allow you to get involved. Don't bitch about city decisions unless you don't take the effort to acquaint yourselves with current happenings every month or so. To visit your city website alter the "XX" in the following URL to reflect your state abbreviation (ie. ca - california, ny - new york)

http://www.statelocalgov.net/local-XX.htm

State
Your state government is the accumulation of all local governments within a set boundry. Do the same thing with the following URL as the one above.

http://www.statelocalgov.net/state-XX.htm

National
Here we have all those states to create a national charter of if...then statements governing your way of life. These are ultimate and cannot be evaded by each lesser government (local, state). It should be noted that those smaller governments can choose to enact various further restrictions that they see fit, as long as it does not interfere with the national charter.

Here are two portals for the huge national government.

Library of congress portal - Executive (links to the other two branches of government, Legislative, and Judicial are at top the top.)

Official Federal Gov portal site

A bit more on elections specifically
Relatively recently unveiled on slashdot , Project opengov contains a wealth of information. I would recommend spending much of your time here to acquaint yourselves with the people running your government.

Alternatively, enter your zipcode to get quick summary of who's working for you in government. Project vote-smart

There are a few other good sites, one at the tip of my tongue, it features detailed financial recordings of government election campaigns. I'm sure you have enough data to grok though ;)

Knowledge is power.

BUT bad people are trying to change all that. They've come up with a proposed law, called the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, or UCITA. UCITA would, among other things, explicitly make shrinkwrap licenses fully enforceable. This would be a very bad thing.

UCITA is already the law in Maryland and Virginia. If you live in those states, move!

For more information on why UCITA is bad, click here. Find your state representatives here. Tell them what you think.

>> You obviously vote Republican.

You obviously have no idea as to what the political position is of anyone in office. Democrats are just as "guilty" of poorly thought-out legistlation as Republicans. Members of both parties are given to rash, ill-advised, and hasty decisions made in the name of "National Security." A little education might be in order before you go making such blanket statements as the one above. I suggest you start here, here or here.

And how you got modded as Informative and not as a Troll is beyond me. Makes me wish that I hadn't burned up my mod points yesterday.

GWB has used the phrase "with us or against us" several times.

Q Mr. President, does it appear that Iran is flexing its muscles in Western Afghanistan, and does that threaten the U.S. war on terrorism in that region?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, Iran must be a contributor in the war against terror; that our nation and our fight against terror will uphold the doctrine, either you're with us or against us; and any nation that thwarts our ability to rout terror out where it exists will be held to account, one way or the other.

This is the text of the letter that I just sent to my congress people. The only way I feel like I get heard is when I snail-mail my congress people. I get a nice form response in about 7-10 days that usually talks all around the issue that I bring up, but at least I made someone in their staff think about what I said.

And you should too! :-)

Here's an excellent site for finding the particulars of your congress people: Vote Smart

Text:

Dear ,

I writing today to ask you to take up an issue that has the potential to vastly improve the quality of public domain works out there. A strong public domain gives people a creative background and a collective sense of culture. A strong public domain will offer an alternative to whatever the media is pushing as the "special of the week." Ultimately, it is what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they created our country: "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Right now, that "limited time" is much longer than the average life-span of anyone alive when the work was created. By the time the works come into the public domain, they are no longer relevant. I'd like you to introduce legislation that allows authors to be fairly compensated for their works, but also brings works into the public domain much more quickly.

There is a billed called "The Public Domain Enhancement Act" that aims to do just this. It proposes a tax of just $1 on any copyrighted work over 50 years old. If this tax is paid, the copyright stays enforced. If not, then the work enters the public domain. You can read more about the bill at a web site set up for this: http://eldred.cc/

Please help reaffirm the Constitution's concept of "limited time" and create a larger public domain by working to make this bill become a law.

If you take up this issue, the media companies will lobby, and lobby hard, against it. They'll see it as competition for the attention span of our citizens. And they're right. But competition in our society is a good thing. In the end, it's the quality of life of the citizens, over the short and the long term, that is the most important issue. A strong public domain, provided by a simple statute like this will secure a creative commons for all of us.

By the way, thank you very much for completing the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT). I appreciate your clear and concise explanation for your position on the various issues it covers.

Thank you,

Despite the overwhelming majority by which this legislation passed, it is important that your representaives know where you stand.

Most represenatives will consider any opposition to such popular (amongst the wealthy lobbyist groups) legislation the equivilent to career suicide, so it is important that you take up the fight on multiple fronts by supporting the EFFs efforts to challenge the DMCA in court.

"The best way (only way) right now is to be an intern and watch over some guy who did that too and move up."

You must live in the wrong state. When I ran for the US House last year (decided on very short notice), Google pointed me to the Louisiana Department of State, I found out there what was needed ($600 payed to the Department of State), filled out the paperwork, mailed in the money order, and that was that. The rest was figured out from the numerous and frequent mailings I ended up getting (and still get) from the state and the Federal Election Commission.

And it's not like Louisiana is world renown for its internet presence and connectivity or anything.

"What if you're just a simple decent qualified person who wants to run for Selectman/Mayor/Rep/Senator/Governor/President? I went to the Senate's web site [senate.gov], for instance (and many others using google) trying to find out HOW TO RUN!"

Of course they won't. If you bothered to peruse the US Constitution a little, you'd realize that it is not the federal government's place to tell the states how exactly their elections should be run. Different states have different requirements (beyond the lone federal requirement of "You must be over 30") and different qualifications.

"Just yesterday I thought it would be sweet if there was a web site people could go to to see how to run for political leadership in their state."

Find your state's Department of State. That's usually the best place to start.

"States maintain a web site like I described and one that would also show WHO is running"

Like this?

"and what they DO and what they have DONE"

You have two options. One is to go to the congresscritter's website in question and look at the legislation they sponsor and/or co-sponsor, and to THOMAS to see how they voted on legislation.

The other is to go to non-partisan information sources like Project Vote Smart, who attempt to make the information more digestable.

"And each candidate would have his own web site hosted (or just linked.) FAIRNESS IN EVERY WAY!"

Fair to everybody except for the taxpayers. As a former independent candidate and as a taxpayer, I do not want tax dollars going to pay for private political campaigns. Candidates (especially for federal office) get enough free attention from the press as it is that it really isn't needed.

"Nobody votes because theres a bunch of bums we don't know anything"

Because the information isn't there to know, or because they don't bother trying to find out?

"This would be a pretty cheap way for equal spending that everybody keeps pushing for,"

First off, it would be even cheaper if the taxpayers didn't have to pay any of it.

Secondly, the problem isn't "equal spending," the problem is things like "truth in advertising" and "honesty about campaign fundraising and spending." And if you need a law to require candidates to register this information with, say, the FEC, it's already too late. If you need to twist their arms to get them to share this information, they shouldn't be in office to begin with.

I just finished calling my local Congressman to tell him that I support this bill and want him to as well.

Instead of writing your congressman e-mail through the EFF's webpage, pick up your phone and call him or her. Politicians respond much more strongly to physical letters and phone calls than they do to e-mails. My Senate rep, Dick Durbin, won't even reply to your e-mail except in snail-mail form, and only if you attach your address to the e-mail when you send it.

You can find your House Rep's phone number by putting in your ZIP code at vote smart's website. Pick up the phone and give him your view on the bill - the person there will write that information down and let him or her know.

Any good pages that will give stances and voting histories?

If you haven't voted yet today, head over to Project Vote Smart and find the candidates you want to vote for. It's a fantastic resource.

However, I have to take issue this comment in the assumption that these bills are partisan and party driven. Not so. Since, in the eyes of washington, these are minor issues that registered voters don't care enough about to swing their vote, these bills and actions are up to the highest bidder. True, you will find certain types of people, committees and companies tend to have a favorite flavor of congress critter, but that doesn't really make this partisan.

What I'm really saying is, don't vote with your party; vote with your mind. Do your research about what you care about. Look up who their legislative advisor is - get to know him/her. Drop a $1,000 donation to the ones you like, and I your voice with DEFINATELY get heard, and you WILL get to actually talk to the congressman or any memeber of their staff. Ya, I know it's all corrupt and wrong, but politicial donations can be a good insurance policy sometimes.

Here's a good site with lots of links to various political stuff. Halfway down there's a link to the voting records of members in congress.

http://www.vote-smart.org/ce/

Personally, I've been making use of the above web site in order to figure out who my candidates are and whether they're worth my vote or not. This sort of web site is very helpful.

vote-smart is another good source of information about politicians, among the others that people have already mentioned in this thread.

Hollings is going to be around for at least a few more years, but we do get to pick a new senator to replace Strom this year. The senate race here in SC isn't getting as much press as the race for governor, but I think it's just as if not more important. So who among our senate candidates is more "tech-friendly", more interested in protecting the public interest, less interested in introducing new legislation for the sake of placating lobbyists?

Sometimes I've avoided voting for a candidate or a ballot initiative because of my ignorance of the issues. But it doesn't take full-time research to find out where most candidates stand. Your local governments probably put out an election guide, and that's a great place to start. Also, check your local deadtree newspapers in the weeks prior to an election. If you're not willing to subscribe, just go to a local library and ask a librarian if you need help. An hour in the periodicals room should give some insight into the issues and candidates.

For non-partisan info on the web see Project Vote Smart or The League of Women Voters. You may find links to local chapters here. And if you have an active local chapter, they almost certainly put out a voter's guide and may even sponsor debates.

If you want to surf some more, try starting with Google's Directory.

Finally, to follow the money check out Open Secrets.

About the only recourse left in this society is to write your government officials. Ask them to help pass a law like this in your state. It's been mentioned that this will only stop spammers from those states - ok, well the more states that pass this law, the better for us.
Vote-Smart.Org
will help you to look up the Postal and Email addresses of everyone you need to write to.

Check out Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan group which has the voting records on key votes and position information on a large (LARGE) number of candidates. It's definitely not complete on some of the internet issues, but it may be a good starting point.

Since you were trying so hard to be so technical, you completly missed the point. Instead of trying to flame, why don't you actually research the facts.

you can find that stuff here:
vote-smart

You can find out more detailed information on Hollings on his page at Project Vote-Smart.

The best site on the web for looking at voting records and how various special interest groups rate politicians is Project Vote Smart.
They also send out a questionnaire to all candidates which includes questions on tech policy. In fact the policy questions are pointed enough that the political parties were telling their candidates to not cooperate last election with Project Vote Smart. It's easier to waffle on issues when you are as amorphous as pankcake batter.

Please use this link or one like it to find out who represents you in both the House and the Senate. If you don't know your 5+4 digit zip code, you can always use Mapquest to show it to you (with a nice handy-dandy satellite photo of your neighborhood!)

http://www.vote-smart.org/vote-smart/profile.phtml ?ID=BCA70462&dtype=B&state=CA

feel free to spam mr. jones with your comments on his spamming activites

There are some good links to finding names, addresses and phone numbers for your reps/senators in D.C.
THIS LINK has Senate information.
THIS ONE leads to House of Representatives information.
AND THIS ONE at Project VoteSmart is about the only central repository for FAX numbers.
We need a database of all this information in some easy-to-use format like MySQL or Access (shudder) so that popping off letters and faxes is as easy to do as possible. Email is easy. Snail mail is most effective. If we can't get rid of paper entirely - and this would appear to be the case for effective communication with congresscritters - we need to make it as painless as possible. I have found that the biggest pain in snail mail is NOT the cost of the stamp or the tedious activity of putting folded paper in envelopes. Instead, it's collecting all the relevant addresses and/or FAX numbers in one place. I can't believe no one has done this yet. I've made a small database for maybe a dozen people in Washington, but to do it for every elected rep. and senator would take more than a week. If we could agree on a common format (or formats) then one person per state could get it done in no time at all.

Special interest groups and political action committees have these tools. It's basically targeted spam, but it gets the best results.

A lot of the information you're looking for can be found at Project Vote Smart. You can put in your zip code to find out who all your representatives are, and how to get in touch with them. The site will even tell you how your representatives have voted during their time in office.

As an aside, if you're interested in knowing whose votes are influenced by which lobbyists and corporations, Opensecrets.org has that information.

US Attorney General says attacks will mean changes in law.
"It's clear to me we need to upgrade and strengthen a number of laws in the US," he says.

These phone calls are easy and quick. They'll want your name and address; I can imagine this will no doubt make many /. readers blood pressure go up, but it's the way the system works. They want to make sure you're a registered voter, and that you're a real person in their district.

I always feel like a bit of a dumb ass when I call. Often it's an intern answering the phone, that has little idea about the issue. Be short and brief, so they can't missinterpret your view.

These phone calls matter to many representatives, and help influence them. If they get several phone calls about a little known issue such as Dimitri's within a day or two, they will take notice.

We should use every method (email, phone, petitions, etc) to make our country what we want it. God bless us, every one! har har

Nathan
Retards.ORG