Partisan Free Politics

Unless you were hiding under a cave yesterday - you may have caught a part of the YouTube CNN debate. Generally, I thought it was incredible and the questions seemed much more poignant than those typically asked of potential presidential candidates, but I am curious what you all thought about it?

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As acting Media Director and in an effort to open up lines of communication and clear up some confusion about the new stuff PVS has going for 2008, I've compiled a list of exciting new initiatives and programs that we are working on for this Presidential election season It's kind of long, but broken down into 11 sections. Feel free to e-mail media@votesmart.org for clarification or more information on any of these. Carolyn Holmes 1) Blog / Blog Outreach Program We’ve started a blog, the Voter's Speakeasy (www.votesmart.org/blog), that will mostly cover updates on internal matters, and will serve as a forum in which people can stay connected with the day-to-day goings on of PVS. We have asked the department heads to regularly ...

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I seriously love democracy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/15/AR2007071501108.html (I'll get around to learning how to make hyperlinks and such eventually, right now I don't have time to work with the series of tubes and such that makes the internets...so there you go.)

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Well to be precise, he doesn't actually carry it himself (to my knowledge,) but he does have a whole city full of armed guards. Shelly Parker, who lives in one of those parts of DC that interns (and Mayors) are generally told not to go in, on the other hand, isn't allowed to possess one. Ms. Parker isn't an ex-con, she has no mental disabilities, by all accounts she is an upstanding member of her community, the only thing that precludes her from legally possessing a firearm in her home is that her home is within the District of Columbia, which has an almost complete and total ban of private gun ownership. Ms. Parker's concern for her safety ...

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It was brought to my attention that some of the posts on this blog cast project vote smart in a negative light. Unfortunately, that is the cost of having an insider conversation about what each everyone of us agrees to be a vital and necessary organization. Dialogue, however virulent, is a necessary part of democratic social orders. With that caveat, I wanted to start a positively oriented post, to let our friends in Montana (some of whom are avid readers of this blog ) know that this "two-way medium" - can work in their favor. While in Montana I started to comprehend the genius behind PVS, but it wasn't until I moved to our nations capital - that I came ...

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For my next trick I will attempt to combine two discussions into one. For those of you who may not have read, Rudo, Matt and I have been discussing diversity and affirmative action under the guise of my first Supreme Court posting. Mauritania vs. Orange Shirt Guy, Sam's blogging debut, has also led to some very interesting discussion on gender issues, consumerism, and beauty in general, with the author, as well as Rudo, Stacey and myself (after having been drug unwilling into a discussion on gender issues) having weighed in thus far. The thesis of my second PFP post is that there is one obvious treatment that would help alleviate each of these problems: education. ...

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Puts a few things in perspective. http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200707/ecology.asp

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Here goes my long-awaited, much-anticipated blogging debut. Andrew asked for a Texan perspective, but I don’t really think I reflect the “typical” Texan viewpoint. Nevertheless, I will write. I came across this article today in the New York Times: It’s not exactly about a policy issue, but I think I could picture the group talking about this around the fire. Besides, I’ll work my way to the policy stuff. Patience, please.The article is about women in Mauritania who are deliberately overfed, because, to them, obesity is a desired quality in women. It’s a sign of affluence and, yes, beauty. Young girls are forced to eat calorie-rich and fatty foods, often to the point of throwing up, ...

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  In light of recent documents, I became curious how efficient the Center for National Independence in Politics is, both on its own merits and compared across the sector. Charity Navigator is an organization that rates non-profits, its self described mission is to: "help charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over five thousand charities and by evaluating the financial health of each of these charities." This is one of many services that large donors and foundations use to analyze the financial health of an organization (another such service is GuideStar).   The following are several different non-profit organizations, you'll notice that PVS is on the very bottom in overall score and ...

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