Ballotpedia.org: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

Hi All,

For those folks who are interested in politics I just learned about a website called Ballotpedia.  Click here to visit the site.  Advertised at the 'Encyclopedia of American Politics' the site has links to Elections (Ballot information, Elections Results, Election Analysis), Federal and State and Local Elections. Links to policy issues, links to 'Influencer's, and a section on Updates.

Visiting the Federal Politics link leads you to a map of the United States.  This part of the site includes Special elections to the 114th Congress, House of Representatives Elections in 2016, Senate Elections and the 2016 presidential election.

Other useful parts of the site is the Ballott Measures section.   Statewide measures, local ballott measures and unique reports can be found here. For example, local ballot measures discussed include marijuana, the minimum wage, fracking, law enforcement and more.

The 'Influencers' page is very, very insightful.  It includes 'influencers' on a national, state and local level.  Influencers are also organized by 'policy' for users to navigate more easily.

Whatever your political persuasion, there is something here for everybody on the site.  Enjoy Ballotpedia - its got unique information that is well organized, easy to find and interesting to read.

Regards,
Stu

Hi All,

Last night President Obama gave the annual State of the Union address.  Click on the various links below to learn about the speech and to do some fact checking.

Click on this link for USAToday's summary of the speech. Next up is the New York Times.  This next link is the analysis and reporting from the New York Times. 

The Washington Post's view of the speech can be found by clicking on this link - hint: it has lots of numbers.  FoxBusiness's take on the speech can be read by clicking on this link.


Click on this link for the actual text of the speech - as printed in the New York Times earlier this morning.  Fact checking speeches, addresses and other public announcements is becoming quite fashionable lately.  Click on this link for just such a fact check of the speech.

Click on this link for the Republican rebuttal from the Washington Post. Here is the transcript of the speech - brought to you by FoxNews.

Finally, for a somewhat historic view of State of the Union speeches, click on this link from Wikipedia.  Especially note the links at the end of the entry that cover historic speeches. Interesting history at your fingertips!

Enjoy the sites.
Stu