Phones App Shows Political Leanings By Location

An anonymous reader writes "This phone-enabled, java-app, Red | Blue, allows the user to identify the political leanings of their current location. "By taking your current location, and finding the nearest individual donors of campaign funds from the publicly available data from the Federal Elections Commission, red | blue is able to provide you an accurate reading of the political leanings of your surroundings -- red for Republican or blue for Democrat.""

Comments

Re:That's pretty odd

[orangesquid]

And I got third?!

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who's wondering why it's only available via cell phone? I'd think that I could just type in my zip or something like that, and achieve the same effect.

I thought it would be something cool, but it seems kind of dumb that it's for cell phones only.

I wonder what it was designed for

[Kanpai]

You have to wonder what exactly people have in mind when they make these things - though this is a cool little app.

Now i can do a quick check to find out whether it's safe for me to make loudmouthed comments about abortion and gay marriage in a public place, or where i should start handing out pins. It's certainly cheaper then getting run out of town or punched in the face.

Re:I wonder what it was designed for

[flyingsquid]

You have to wonder what exactly people have in mind when they make these things

Isn't it obvious? It's so you can find the location of the nearest red base, run in, steal their flag, and then take it back to the blue base.

Re:I wonder what it was designed for

[Minna Kirai]

Now i can do a quick check to find out whether it's safe for me to make loudmouthed comments about abortion and gay marriage in a public place,

Well, that depends on whether you want listeners to agree with you, which varies according to your objectives.

If you're trolling for flames, then you need a hostile audience. But if you're karma-whoring for modpoints, then it should be people who'll nod along to each sentence.

Re:I wonder what it was designed for

[Tyndmyr]

On the next issue of Red v. Blue...

"I think Im lost"

"Don't worry, Ghost, just check your cell phone!"

Re:I wonder what it was designed for

[bar-agent]

w00t!!

Re:I wonder what it was designed for

[mr_burns]

I intend to use it to boycott businesses that support Bush, draining the economy of the surrounding communities.

New technology

[BaltikaTroika]

It's like the old days when you could tell GI Joe apart from Cobra by the colour of their lasers.

BaltikaTroika

Re:New technology

[Anonymous Coward]

http://homestarrunner.com/cheatcommando.html

http://homestarrunner.com/cheatcereal.html

http://homestarrunner.com/commandos3.html

Find donors here

[kajoob]

Here is a cool little search that let's you find who in your area (or wherever you want to search) donated how much to whom.

Re:Find donors here

[MammaMia]

See, this is disturbing, how is this not an invasion of privacy? When I made my little contribution to [candidate] how was I to know that my personal info would end up in a publicly searchable database? That's nobody's business but me, the candidate, and the FEC. Seriously - how is this public information?

Re:Find donors here

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Seriously - how is this public information?

Your answer is right here:

and the FEC.

The FEC is a governmental agency and their records are public by the Freedom of Information Act.

Re:Find donors here

[bmetzler]

how was I to know that my personal info would end up in a publicly searchable database? That's nobody's business but me, the candidate, and the FEC. Seriously - how is this public

Keep this in mind the nest time you think that the Freedom of Information Act is a good thing. It comes back to bite you, doesn't it?

Yes, it's always nice to be able to find dirt of the "bad guys." But when it is your personal information that is involved, Whew! Now it is another story.

-Brent

Re:Find donors here

[xlv]

See, this is disturbing, how is this not an invasion of privacy?

If you find the database at opensecrets.org disturbing, check out this other one I mentionned in another post yesterday: http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php. This database will give you the name, amount, employer and address for each donor.

Re:Find donors here

[MammaMia]

Sure, but where do the lines get drawn? My tax return is between me and the IRS, and I don't expect THAT to become public information either. If I'd known it would be available like this, I'd have kept my money to myself.

Now in this case I could certainly see statistical information being available, such as how much $ is donated to which candidates/groups, from any given area, but I see no reason for personal information including my address and workplace to be included in here. Interestingly, my name doesn't show up in the FEC's database search - and their search does not include street addresses.

Re:Find donors here

[RealProgrammer]

The public interest in knowing who sponsors a candidate overrides your interest in keeping that private.

This is a way-cool app.

I found that among the top contributors to US Senate candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) (2003-04) are:

A family named Soros from New York:

SOROS, GEORGE, NEW YORK,NY 10108, SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT, 2/27/2004
$12,000

SOROS, JENNIFER NEW YORK,NY 10011 CONSULTANT 3/15/2004
$12,000

SOROS, JONATHAN NEW YORK,NY 10011 SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT 3/6/2004
$12,000

SOROS, ROBERT NEW YORK CITY,NY 10014 SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT
3/4/2004
$12,000

SOROS, SUSAN KATONAH,NY 10536 BARD GRADUATE CENTER FOR DECORATIVE 2/27/2004
$12,000

And the billionaire Crown family of Illinois:

CROWN, A STEVEN CHICAGO,IL 60601 HENRY CROWN & COMPANY
$12,000

CROWN, ELIZABETH NORTHFIELD,IL 60093 HOMEMAKER
$12,000

CROWN, JAMES S CHICAGO,IL 60601 PRIVATE INVESTOR $14,000

CROWN, JOANN WILMETTE,IL 60091
$12,000

CROWN, NANCY C WINNETKA,IL 60093 HOMEMAKER
$12,000

CROWN, PAULA H CHICAGO,IL 60610 HENRY CROWN & COMPANY
$14,000

CROWN, REBECCA WINNETKA,IL 60093 BAKER DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL
$12,000

CROWN, RENEE S WILMETTE,IL 60091 RETIRED
$14,000

CROWN, SUSAN CHICAGO,IL 60601 HENRY CROWN & COMPANY
$12,000

Re:Find donors here

[Anonymous Coward]

Not surprising, keeping in mind that billionaire George Soros is the principal financial backer of the DNC, who has allegedly spent about $20 million of his own money to support Democratic candidates and interest groups, including a $5 million donation to moveon.org .

Re:Find donors here

[Anonymous Coward]

now look up rupert murdoch (ceo of news corp, owner of fox and a shitload of other companies) and his zillion different variations on his name... you'll be impressed if you can find it.

there was a good article around somewhere on the net with a rundown of his contributions to the bush campaign all made in chunks less than $10k (maximum legal contribution you can make). the best part is that he made a small donation to gore for like $2k just to be fair... and balanced. oy.

Simple Explanation

[ObligatoryUserName]

>> Am I the only one who's wondering why it's only available via cell phone?

According to the site, this app is an extension of the fundrace.org website, which does let you input a zip code. The cellphone app just takes your current GPS coordinates and checks it against the same database. They aren't trying to sell the software, it seems that they thought it was a moderatly cool idea for a cellphone app and ran with it. Kudos to the devs.

Cute

[MBCook]

Very interesting. I'll have to try this on my phone tomarrow.

With all the predictions of "GPS on your phone will let them send you targeted ads" that I seem to see every once in a while, this is kind of cool. Does anyone know of any other programs like this? Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to see how many car accidents happen each year at the intersection your closest to, or what nationality the neighborhood your in is (based on the various kinds of restraunts near you, maybe). Anyone have any neat ideas for this kind of thing?

As a side note, does anyone know of a program that I could get for my phone (Java/J2ME) that would let me view it's GPS data (my location)? For some reason "they" don't want me to know where I am.

Re:Cute

[dtfinch]

As a side note, does anyone know of a program that I could get for my phone (Java/J2ME) that would let me view it's GPS data (my location)? For some reason "they" don't want me to know where I am.

J2ME is pretty least common denominator. I haven't checked but I suspect that if you could check your GPS with it you would do it through a vendor-specific extension which means I'll need to know what model of phone you're using to give a definitive answer.

Re:Cute

[MBCook]

It's a Sanyo 8200.

Irony

[dtfinch]

I guess I'm taking the blue pill.

Re:Irony

[dtfinch]

That was in reference to the Matrix. I forgot about the "other" blue pills out there.

Re:Irony

[Txiasaeia]

We're geeks & don't need to worry about the "other" blue pill - don't worry, we understood ;)

Re:Irony

[tod_miller]

You see what has happened to /. - you have to start explaining your inside jokes and geek sp33k.

*shakes head*

I think the signal to noise ratio is far to healthy, give me some fr1st ps0tting and star wars jokes any day.

Phones Do Show Political Leanings By Location

[craXORjack]

If your cell phone is sitting on the dash of your two and a half ton SUV and you measure your fuel consumption in units of gallons/mile, you are proabably a republican.

If your cell phone is in your jacket pocket and you are pretending it is a gun while you hold up a liquer store because you lost your factory job, you are proably a democrat.

If you don't have a cell phone because you don't want to feed a huge greedy corporate oligopoly you are a Nader supporter.

If your cell phone is inserted in your boyfriends ass, you are either a Barney Frank supporter, a log cabin republican, or possibly just a seriously disturbed individual.

Re:Phones Do Show Political Leanings By Location

[N3WBI3]

If your cell phone is sitting on the dash of your two and a half ton SUV and you measure your fuel consumption in units of gallons/mile, you are proabably a republican.

Please, more Clinton soccer moms drive SUV's than anyone else. They need it to take their kid and her friends to soccer..

If your cell phone is in your jacket pocket and you are pretending it is a gun while you hold up a liquer store because you lost your factory job, you are proably a democrat.

Thats just silly we all know democrats dont work thats why youre all for free drugs and welfare ;p

If you don't have a cell phone because you don't want to feed a huge greedy corporate oligopoly you are a Nader supporter.

I got nothin'

If your cell phone is inserted in your boyfriends ass, you are either a Barney Frank supporter, a log cabin republican, or possibly just a seriously disturbed individual.

or you could be This Guy trying to be something he is not...

Re:Phones Do Show Political Leanings By Location

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod bomb awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Yet another locator tool

[xlv]

At http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php, you can enter your address and see the contributors in your neighborhood...

Damnit.

[torpor]

The world really is starting to feel like a bad Stephenson novel, day by day.

What next? GPS-based border-patrols from the local KFC Syndicate?

Re:Damnit.

[h8macs]

No worries, this is being worked on. A local Tucson, Arizona company is setting up a Wi-Fi network along the border to protect us from low wage workers!

I'll be damned if they keep the cost of our marijuana, and home building down!

WTF?

[Per Wigren]

red for Republican or blue for Democrat

Shouldn't that be the other way around?
Now I understand American politics even less.. :P

Re:WTF?

[alwayslurking]

No, they just ignore the traditional colour/political spectrum associations. I'm sure there's some baroque historical reasoning behind it. Very disconcerting the first time you see a state breakdown map though, since the heartland/Bible belt is all red, which is hardwired to "Yay!", in my mind at least.

Republicans are generally a fair way into the Right/Authoritarian area of the political compass while Democrats will normally be a little bit South-West of them.

Re:WTF?

[N3WBI3]

Republicans are generally a fair way into the Right/Authoritarian area of the political compass while Democrats will normally be a little bit South-West of them.

yea but is all depends on where you live, in MN iam am uber conservative man, but I sit just to the right of center on PC...

Re:WTF?

[killbill!]

In Europe, red = left, blue = right.
In the US, the other way round.

On the other hand, you could argue US Democrats belong to the center-right by EU standards...

Re:WTF?

[Minna Kirai]

Shouldn't that be the other way around?

It was only in 2000 that the USA got colors attached to each party. It happened during the televised results of the Presidential election (and the several day's worth of televised argueing about the outcome)

All 5 major TV stations showed a map of which states were won by whom. Naturally, they did it in the 3 colors of the USA flag, and naturally white (blank) was used for undecided. At that time, 4/5 stations choose red for Republican. In the arguments that followed, "going red" became a shorthand for voting Republican (or at least declaring that way).

Why did they happen to choose red=Republican? Maybe for alliteration (both start with R). Maybe because red reminds us of war, and Republicans are more pro-war? Maybe because blue is the color of depression, and Democrats are more pessimistic? Some of all those things, probably.

Re:WTF?

[Krow10]

In Europe, red = left, blue = right. In the US, the other way round.

On the other hand, you could argue US Democrats belong to the center-right by EU standards...

You could extend this and point out that the US Republicans have gone so far right that they've rolled the meter.

Cheers,
Craig

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

They chose it because in the past the method was red for challenger, blue for incumbent. When it was Gore running, he was the "incumbent" (even though he had only been VP, and not P). So Democrats became blue, and Republicans red. But supposedly only for that election.

After the long challenge to the results, the red and blue got ingrained to associate with the party rather than the position of incumbent or challenger. So now networks have referred to red states as republican, and blue as democrat for so long, I doubt they will revert to the old method for election night coverage.

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me a break. You pulled that right out of your ass. What is wrong with you, modders?

The Republican party had its beginnings as a liberal and abolitionist ticket before the civil war (Lincoln was a republican). As in England, the more liberal party used red and the more conservative party (at the time, the Democrats) used blue.

Over the course of the next century the relative interests of the two parties changed (as, in fact, did the definition of liberal, which used to mean libertarian). The parties essentially switched. Since this happened gradually, however, they never switched colors.

Why just make up an answer? "It was only in 2000 the the USA got colors attached..." WTF are you smoking?

Re:WTF?

[Minna Kirai]

AC: As in England, the more liberal party used red and the more conservative party (at the time, the Democrats) used blue.

Build a time machine. Go back to 1999. Find a USA voter. Ask him "Do you live in a red state or a blue state?"

He will have NO IDEA what you mean.

Oh yeah....

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I heard about those guys on the news up here in Seattle....

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Shift, Blue Shift.

[nullportal]

The $64,000 question: will it tell you which of those reds and blues around you will bother to show up at the polls on election day?

Political Leaning != Total Value of Donations

[stomv]

The two phrases simply don't mean the same thing. Sure, it might be an indicator... but you know what is an even bigger indicator? Finding out how that particular voting precinct leaned in aggregate on the most recent presidential, senate, and house voting.

Financial donations to political parties are a subset of political donations (PACs, volunteer time, etc). However, since its votes that count, and voting information is public, why not just use that?

Or, why not use an accurate title to the thread?

Red/Blue ?

[Captain Rotundo]

Can someone explain to me why we swapped the Red/Blue designations after the 1996 election? Or was the 1996 election the first with Red Republicans and Blue Dems? either way why did this happen? People talk Red/Blue like its an eternal struggle thats been that way for decades, it wasn't too long ago that Red states were democratic states, and blue states were republican. Why the odd, yet total shift in everyones designations?

Accuracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like this would show some statistical bias - one party is almost certainly more likely to donate than others.

Free?

[slcdb]

If this is free, like the website and the Creative Commons license says it's supposed to be, then why is Handango charging $5.37 to download it?

Do shades count?

[Different Tan]

In Britain it would be much simpler to code; just the one colour. Three party politics (according to good old Charlie), one xerox dose of public underspending...