[olug] OT: evil poll

[Craig Wolf]

Ok, found this on my college's site...perfect timing for this thread I
think:

Election day is only a week away, and if you’re trying to find out more
about the candidates, it can be hard to find sources of information on
the US presidential election that don’t have a hidden (or not very
hidden!) bias for or against a particular party or candidate. Here are a
few that rise to the top as neutral sources of information on the
candidates, their voting records, positions, platforms, and more.

Project VoteSmart

Project VoteSmart is a nonprofit group that calls itself the “voter
defense system.” No one can join the Project's board without a political
opposite: for every liberal working for VoteSmart there is a
conservative, etc. The Project refuses financial assistance from all
organizations and special interest groups that lobby or support or
oppose any candidate or issue, and their volunteer staff updates and
tracks daily candidates voting records, issue positions, public
statements, interest group ratings and campaign finances.

http://www.votesmart.org/election_president.php

Politifact

The St. Petersburg Times and the Congressional Quarterly created the
site to help voters separate fact from falsehood in the 2008
presidential campaign. Journalists and researchers from the Times and CQ
fact-check the accuracy of speeches, TV ads, debate claims, interviews
and other campaign communications. They decide whether a claim is True,
Mostly True, Half True, Barely True or False and have a special category
for claims called “Pants on Fire.” The site includes video of speeches,
a database of voting records, and an “attack file” in which they track
the attacks each candidate makes on the other and then verify accuracy
of the attack.

http://www.politifact.org/truth-o-meter/

Campaign 2008: The Presidential Field.

The Washington Post mains this website with links to information on each
candidate. What makes this site different from the others is the
detailed information on the official endorsements of each candidate by
whom and why, and on campaign finances, including a database of
supporters, state by state information and spending records.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/

American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank

University of Texas professor Michael E. Eidenmuller has amassed a huge
online database of speeches in audio and text forms. You can take a
listen to your favorites at:

http://americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm