Also Try
- American Presidents
- Conservative Views
- Corporate Power
- Current Events
- Democracy and Media
- News
- News by Subject
- Presidential Election 2004
- Presidential Election 2004
- Progressive Views
Discussions
- -Contact Your Congressional Representatives (Congress.org)
 Provides the email address and other contact information about your federal and state legislators. Assists with writing a letter in the proper format. Assists with finding your legislators, either by zip code or state. 12-03
- -Contact Your Congressional Representatives (Congress.org)
Provides the email address and other contact information for legislators, by state or name. 1-00
- Contact Congress Members (VoteNet)
Provides the email address and other information about your legislators. Includes search engines to find your legislators (you provide your zip code), find out who is contributing to political campaigns, learn more about specific political campaigns, and more. 1-00
Lesson Plans
- Analyzing the Use of Propaganda (New York Times - Hambouz and Khan)
"In this lesson, students analyze the use of propaganda in the war against terrorism, focusing specifically on the attacks in Afghanistan, exploring the distinction between ideas spread to benefit a cause and those spread to damage an opposing cause." 2-02
- Distinguishing Facts and Opinions (Information Institute of Syracuse)
- Exploring the Roles of Fact and Opinion in Relaying the News (New York Times - DeKorne and Chin)
"In this lesson, students evaluate how facts and opinions function in relaying the news and consider the media's responsibilities in reporting during wartime." 2-02
- Government Lessons (Information Institute of Syracuse)
Provides dozens of lessons by topic and grade. 1-04
- Government and Civics Lessons (PBS - Teacher Source)
Provides over two dozen lessons, by subject, related to governing, politics, budget making, the national debt, voting, political campaigning,and rules of citizenship. 2-01
- Perfect President (PBS - Teacher Source)
Provides a lesson for students to help them become clearer about qualifications for president of the United States. 2-01
- Political Systems - Comparisons (Information Institute of Syracuse)
Provides lessons by grade level. 1-04
Lists
- Political Leaders (ABC News)
Provides a brief background on how each leader came into a position of power. Also provides quotes and a short biography.
Materials
- Political Buttons (Buttonsonline.com)
Provides complete buttons with messages or kits. 3-04
- Voter Registration Forms by State (Federal Election Commission)
Provides forms to register, organized by state. 2-00
- Voter Registration Online (CapWeb - VotetNet)
Provides the information and forms necessary to register to vote in your state when online registration is permissable. 9-01
- Voting - Register to Vote (BeAVoter.org)
Allows you to begin the voter registration process online. They will then send you the completed materials for you to sign and mail to the voter registration authorities. The address for the voter registration authorities will already be on your envelope. 5-00.
- Voting - Register to Vote Online (OnlineDemocracy.com)
Provides an online form to register to vote. You will then be mailed the form with the information filled in so that you can sign it and turn it in. Also allows you to simply print, sign and turn in the form for states that do not require card stock for registration. Also allows you to change your voter registration address, political party affiliation, or name. 8-00
News
- AllPolitics
- CNN Political News
- Congress - News and Issues (Congress.org)
Provides news. Also provides information on issues through links to organizations advocating for their views to be supported by Congress. 6-01
- Conservative News and Information (Heritage Foundation - Townhall.com)
Provides a conservative view of news events. 5-01
- NPR Hourly News (NPR.org)
Provides radio news. 7-03
- News for Students (McNeil-Lehrer Productions - PBS NewsHour)
Provides news designed for teens regarding politics. 11-00
Papers
- 10-20-02 Fewer Young People Are Voting (International Herald Tribune - Goldstein and Morin)
"In 1974, about 30 percent of all 25-year-olds voted. Next month, 23 percent are expected to vote. If those trends continue, only about 19 percent will vote in 2022.
- Bush Acceptance Speech (Washington Post)
Provides the full text of Governor Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. 8-00
- Bush Imposes Tariffs on Foreign Steel to Protect U.S. Steel Companies (The Times - Watson, Fletcher, and Webster)
The Times (of Britain) reports on the tariff and predicts strong retaliation from other countries. 3-02
- Bush, George W. (Republican National Committee)
Provides information on President Bush's positions and achievements. 2-01
- Candidate Information (Vote-Smart)
Provides information on candidates for public office. 11-01
- Chaney, Dick (Biography.com)
Provides highlights of Chaney's career. 8-00.
- Clinton Strategist Dick Morris (ABC News)
Describes the role of Dick Morris as political strategist for Bill Clinton. 12-02
- Clinton Strategist Dick Morris Discusses Strategy (PBS Frontline)
Describes the role of money in Dick Morris's strategies for Bill Clinton.
"I think the best argument for making the networks provide free air time is so the country can have its President back on duty, in his desk working on issues, as opposed to raising money, which is what he basically has to spend his time doing the year before an election." 12-02
- Conservative Views of Government and Law (Federalist Society)
Provides conservative legal opinions, news, and essays from a conservative view of government and law. 5-02
- Daschle Versus Limbaugh (The American Prospect - Sullivan)
"For it is one matter to disagree with someone on political grounds and criticize their policy arguments; it is quite another to engage in vitriolic attacks that contribute not to political debate but to high levels of animosity and hatred that, in the end, do little more than degrade the quality of our national debate."
"The president, in particular, has an extraordinary bully pulpit from which to make either a negative or a positive impact. In the aftermath of September 11, for example, Bush's repeated statements calling for tolerance toward Muslims had a clear result. A November 2001 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that nearly two-thirds of the president's core constituents -- conservative Republicans -- felt favorably toward American Muslims, up 29 percentage points since before the attacks." 12-02
- Editorial - Political Reform Bill Will Benefit Incumbents (Washington Times - Lambro)
Provides an essay arguing that the finance reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would benefit current members of the House and penalize new candidates. Argues that the new bill would also favor President Bush for the next Presidential election. 2-02
- Election Dates (USAToday.com)
Provides information on elections, including primaries, by date. 12-03
- Election Dates - Primaries (Vote-Smart.org)
Provides information on primaries, by date. 12-03
- Election Deadlines - Filing Deadlines for Primaries (Federal Election Commission)
Provides filing deadlines for primaries, by state. 12-03
- Election of U.S. President - Progress (theGreenPapers.com)
Provides information on primaries, caucuses, and conventions, by state. 12-03
- Executive Privilege - A Short History (FindLaw.com - Dorf)
Summarizes the few important events since George Washington in which Presidents declared that "executive privilege" required that they not disclose information. Executive privilege is a custom (not a law) that Congress and the courts have honored to ensure that the Executive Branch is not under the authority of Congress or the Judicial Branch, but rather is separate and equal. 2-02
- Finance Reform - New Methods of Lobbying (MSNBC - Isikoff)
Suggests ways that lobbyists will operate after finance reform goes into effect. 2-02
- Finance Reform Passes the U.S. House (Time.com - Waller)
Describes new legislation that is designed to prevent corporations, associations, and other powerful groups from buying power in U.S. elections through contributions to political campaigns. 2-02
- Impeachable Offense - What is it (New York Times - Glaberson)
Provides a discussion of the Constitutional basis for impeaching the President of the United States.
- Issue - Environment and Corporations (PublicCampaign.org)
Provides statistics on the influence of corporations on the quality of the environment. 1-04
- Jeffords - Senator Jim Jeffords (U.S. Senate)
Provides a profile of the Vermont Senator whose switch from Republican to Independent changes the power of the Senate from Republican to Democrat. 5-01
- LaDuke - Native Activists and the Future (Massa and Cascadia Planet - LaDuke)
Provides statements from Winona LaDuke about "White" views of the environment compared to the Native views. She also discusses the difference between Native Activists and Environmentalists.
- Liberal View - Growth of Federalist Society Power in the Bush Administration (People for the American Way)
Provides a list of members of the Federalist Society in positions of power. Describes the Federalist Society as "Right-Wing." "Membership in the Federalist Society has long served as a network for ultraconservative legal professionals to discuss political and legal strategy aimed at creating an 'intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community.' " 5-02
- Lobbying Efforts - Public Records (US Senate Office of Public Records)
Provides information on the amount of money provided by lobbyists. 10-01
- Media in a Democracy (Boston Review - McChesney)
"An informed, participating citizenry depends on media that play a public service function. As James Madison once put it, 'A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.' But these democratic functions lie beyond the reach of the current American media system. If we are serious about democracy, then, we need to work aggressively for reform."
"What kind of reform? In broad terms, we need to reduce the current degree of media concentration, and, more immediately, blunt its effects on democracy. More specifically, we need special incentives for nonprofits, broadcast regulation, public broadcasting, and antitrust." 11-02
- Money - Winning Compared to Spending in the Senate (OpenSecrets.org)
Provides a list of expenditures, winners, and losers for Senate seats. More than two-thirds of the heaviest spenders were the winners. Also provides a great deal more information about donations and elections. 12-03
- News from the U.S. Congress (FedNet)
- Newseum - Interactive Museum of News
Provides information from high visibility journalists and politicians about news-related issues of the day. Designed partly to inform children about the role of news in government.
- Pickering Rejected by Senate (Yahoo - Ferraro)
"On three successive 10-9 votes, the Democratic-led panel refused to send to the full Senate for consideration the nomination of Charles Pickering, contending he could not be trusted on civil rights and has repeatedly put his own views above the law." 3-02
- Political Buttons (Buttonsonline.com)
Provides complete buttons with messages or kits. 3-04
- Political Campaigns (League of Women Voters Education Fund and the Center for Government Studies - Democracy Network)
Provides information on political campaigns and issues of candidates. 5-00
- Political Campaigns - Finances (Federal Election Commission)
Monitors and reports on contributions to political campaigns. 5-00
- Political Leaders (Derksen)
Provides a recent history of political leaders of the world, with an emphasis on parliaments. Also provides dates of elections for parliaments.
- Political Parties - Senators Switching Parties Since 1890 (United States Senate)
Provides a discussion of the political climate that caused each senator to change parties, as well as a biography of each. Includes Jim Jeffords. 5-01
- Political Parties in the United States (United States Senate)
Provides a history of majority and minority political parties in the United States from 1789 to present. (The political parties of the 1st Congress of the United States were not Democrats or Republicans.) 1-04
- Political Position - Assess Your Political Position (PoliticalCompass.org)
Provides questions to position you on a political graph, ranging from "left wing" to "right wing" and "authoritarian" to "libertarian." Also positions prominent British politicians on the chart. 7-01
- Politics - Marketplace of Political Ideas (University of Houston Libraries)
Provides information on the political parties. (Not updated frequently.) 9-01
- President Bush Ends ABA's Role - ABA Response (American Bar Association - Barnett)
Provides a rebuttal to President Bush's rationale for excluding the ABA from the process of assessing the professional qualifications of nominees for federal judge. 3-01
- President George W. Bush's State of the Union Speech - Major Points (NBC17.com - Bush)
Summarizes the key points and initiatives of President Bush's 200 State of the Union Speech. 1-03
- Presidential Candidates (Politics1.com)
Provides information on each candidate for President of the United States, by political party. 12-03
- Presidential Candidates - Bush (AOL)
Provides George W. Bush's position on gun control. 10-00.
- Presidential Election Results Were a Tie (Washington Post - Porter)
Discusses why, in a statistical tie, the results cannot be objective. 11-00
- Presidential Personalities (American Psychological Association)
"As part of their The Personality and the President Project, psychologist Steven J Rubenzer, Ph.D., of Houston, Texas and co-authors Thomas Faschingbauer, Ph.D., of Richmond Texas and Deniz S. Ones, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, used several objective personality instruments to analyze the assessments made by more than one hundred presidential experts who were instructed to assess the lives of presidents they studied. The experts were instructed to look only at the five-year period before their respective subject became president to avoid the influence that life in the White House might have had on their behavior."
"Results of the research indicate that great presidents, besides being stubborn and disagreeable, are more extraverted, open to experience, assertive, achievement striving, excitement seeking and more open to fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas and values. Historically great presidents were low on straightforwardness, vulnerability and order."
"Achievement striving was found to be one of the best correlates of greatness in the oval office and competence was also a big predictor of presidential success." 12-03
- Propaganda - Interview with Noam Chomsky (BBC News - Marr)
"For many people, the idea that propaganda is used by democratic, rather than merely authoritarian governments, will be a strange one." 7-02
- Rice, Condoleeza - Biography (National Review - Nordlinger)
Provides a biography of Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor. 2-01
- Rice, Condoleeza - Biography (Salon.com - Kettmann)
Provides limited biographical information on Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor. 2-01
- Senate - History of the United States Senate (United States Senate)
Provides a history of the Senate, including key officers of the past and present, such as President of the Senate, President pro tempore, Secretary of the Senate, Sargeant at Arms, Senate Chaplain, Legislative Counsel, and more. 5-01
- Senate - Women Senators (United States Senate)
Provides biographies of the women who have served in the United States Senate, including Rebecca Latimer Felton, Hattie Wyatt Caraway, Rose McConnell Long, Dixie Bibb Graves, Gladys Pyle, Vera Cahalan Bushfield, Margaret Chase Smith, Eva Kelley Bowring, Hazel Hempel Abel, Maurine Brown Neuberger, Elaine S. Edwards, Muriel Humphrey, Maryon Allen, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Paula Hawkins, Barbara Mikulski, Jocelyn Burdick, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Carol Moseley-Braun, Patty Murray, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Jean Snowe, Sheila Frahm, Mary Landrieu, Susan Collins, Blanche Lincoln, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Deborah Stabenow, Maria E. Cantwell, and Jean Carnahan. 5-01
- Shadow Government for Emergencies (Seattle Times - Gellman and Schmidt)
"President Bush has dispatched a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital." 2-02
- Shadow Government for Emergencies (Seattle Times - Gellman and Schmidt)
"President Bush has dispatched a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital." 2-02
- Tax Cut and Social Security (Center on Budget and Planning Priorities - Kogan, Greenstein, and OrszagKogan)
Concludes that "the 75-year cost of the tax cut Is more than twice as large as the long-term deficit in social security." 2-02
- Taxes - Estate Tax Cut - Where It Is Going (Center on Budget and Planning Priorities)
Shows that the tax reduction passed by Congress will provides the richest 4,500 estates with the same amount (28 billion dollars) as the 142 million persons with the lowest incomes will receive. 8-01
- Taxes - Shrinking Budget Surplus (Center on Budget and Planning Priorities - Kogan)
Concludes that over half of the lost surplus in the federal budget is caused by the tax reduction passed in 2001. 2-02
- Taxes - Shrinking Budget Surplus (Center on Budget and Planning Priorities - Springer)
Concludes that over half of the lost surplus in the federal budget is caused by the tax reduction passed in 2001. 2-02
- Teens Views From Britain and Italy (McNeil-Lehrer Productions)
Provides views of teens about the presidential election in the United States and their own countries. Also describes elections in Britain and Italy. 11-00
- Ten Key Values of the Green Party of the United States (GreenPartyUS.org)
Provides the Green Party's values. 6-02
- The White House for Kids (White House)
Provides information about kids in the White House, pets in the White House, and the history of the White House. 1-01
- U. S. Supreme Court Members (BBC)
Provides a British view of the U.S. Supreme Court members. 11-00
- USA and China - Relationship Since the 1950's (CNN)
Provides a short summary of each key event that changed the relationship between the USA and China since the 1950's. 5-01
- Voting - Candidate Finder (Capitol Advantage)
Provides information on elections and candidates by state. 2-01
- Voting Deadlines (Politics1.com)
Provides dates related to elections within each state, including dates for voting in primaries. Qualifications to vote include: You must be 18 years old or older by the day of the election, you must be registered to vote, and you must be a U.S. citizen. In many states, you must register with a political party to vote in that party's primary election. To vote in a primary election, your registration must be recognized well before the primary election in that state. 12-03
- Who Owns What in the Media (Columbia Journalism Review)
Provides a listing of companies owned by each of the largest media companies to show who controls what we see and how we see it. 6-01
Projects
- Compare Your Positions With Presidential Candidates for 2004 (SelectSmart.com)
"The candidates' positions have been determined first by the candidate's actions, then their public votes, followed by their public statements, and whenever possible, special interest group rankings of the candidate have been factored in."
"The results page links to information about the candidates including links to their websites, public statements and news reports. We also provide links to the special interest groups mentioned on this page." 10-03
- Elections News (Votelink)
Provides news on elections and politics. 2-00
- Kids Views - I Have a Dream (Walnut Heights Elementary)
Provides reports of Mrs. Wagner's 20 students in second or third grade on what the world should be like, "I have a dream."
- Kids Views - If I Were President (Walnut Heights Elementary)
Provides reports of 20 students in second or third grade on what they would do if they were the President of the United States.
- New Voters Project (NewVotersProject.org)
Provides activities to help "reengage young people in the political process. Over 28 million eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 years old could be a powerful voting bloc in the upcoming elections." 2-04
- Political News (Salon.com - Politics)
Provides news on elections and politics. 4-00
- Voting - Kids Participate on Election Day (Kids Voting USA)
Provides an opportunity for kids to participate in the voting process with adults.
Purchase Resources
- Campaigning - Static Cling Signs (iPrint.com)
Providessigns for sale. Awesome Library does not endorse the product, but provides it as an example. 4-04
- Campaigning - Yard Signs (1st-political-yard-signs.com)
Provides yard signs for sale. Awesome Library does not endorse the product, but provides it as an example. 4-04
- Campaigning - Yard Signs (SSGraphics.com)
Provides yard signs for sale. Awesome Library does not endorse the product, but provides it as an example. 4-04
Research
- Welfare Reform Not Much Help (applesforhealth)
Researchers at UC Berkeley and Yale University have determined that life has not gotten better for children whose families have gone from welfare to work. The researchers found that arranging proper child care is still too challenging for most welfare moms. 02-11-00.
Worksheets
- Elections Worksheets (AbcTeach)
Provides dozens of worksheets to help children have a better understanding of the elections process. 1-04
|
