Non-partisan election coverage

I thought as long as I'm being patriotic, what with quoting the U.S. Constitution and all (LOL!), why not add a couple of links to the sidebar regarding the 2008 U.S. Presidential election? It's quite topical right now, of course, and ramping up more and more as the lesser candidates fall by the wayside.

I actually remember visiting FactCheck.org during past elections to try to get to the facts behind the sound bites. From their "About Us" page:

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

I rediscovered FactCheck.org earlier tonight when I came across this item, Website Checks Facts On Presidential Candidates, which says about FactCheck.org:

Time magazine has named factcheck.org one of 25 websites they can't live without, and it's easy to see why.

Candidates make statements that voters take as fact, but turn out to be wrong.

. . . .

Factcheck.org does not give their opinion, and analyzes both Republicans and Democrats the same way.

The website also has a place for you to submit your questions about the candidates or election process.

Another site relevant to American politics is OpenSecrets.org, which seems to be run by an organization known as "The Center for Responsive Politics." The site is more narrowly focused than FactCheck.org in that OpenSecrets.org specifically examines the money behind the politics. From their "Who We Are" page:

The Center for Responsive Politics is 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. The Center conducts computer-based research on campaign finance issues for the news media, academics, activists, and the public at large. The Center’s work is aimed at creating a more educated voter, an involved citizenry, and a more responsive government.

As an added personal convenience I even added a "Politics" tab to my iGoogle home page so that I could place the sites' RSS/XML feeds there. That way I can easily examine the most current news items from each site as they are issued. Even though the feeds only provide short introductory blurbs per item, it'll be enough to gauge whether or not I want to click on through to the corresponding site for the full information.

Anyway, I recommend both sites (especially FactCheck.org) for folks who want to try to get to the actual facts behind all the political spin rather than simply taking the candidates' words at face value.