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Do Your Research
Sites you need to visit before you go to the polls.
Bv Dan lohnson
Hey, remember when George W. Bush and
John McCain were close to stripping to
the waist and attempting to give
each other a Stone Cold Stunner?
Yeah, that was at about the same
time that Al Core spent a solid
three weeks ripping Bill Bradley
on national television. Newsflash:
that was just a few months ago.
We caught you napping, didn’t
we? You forgot that it was an
election year because the action
since has been so incredibly bor
ing. That’s okay. We understand.
You really should know something before you
go to the polls,
though. Don't even get
up from where you
are—everything you
need to know is online.
First off, check out
what the candidates
themselves have to say.
Head over to
aigore.com (don’t do
what I did and go to
gore2000.com—all
you can get there is a
chance to buy a plush
doll of Demi the
Democratic Donkey). Pretty standard stuff
from the Veep here; meet his family, meet his
wife, see his policies, etc. Much like Al himself,
the site is staid and unconvincing. Articulately
bland policy wonk statements are the domi
nant mode of communication. There’s not
much in the way of interesting stuff here, aside
from the daily snipe at
George W. Bush about
some minutiae or other.
Bush’s site isn’t
any great shakes,
either. If you cruise to
georgewbush.com. a
the first thing you’ll
notice is the similarity
to the Gore site. It’s as
if they use the same design firm, and the
same people write the releases from both
camps. His policies are listed in the most
inoffensive and uncommunicative way possi
ble. A good bit of Bush’s web site is devoted
to meaningless jabs at Gore and
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defenses against Democratic attacks.
Some humor is available in the youth
zone, where you can read such trea
tises as "Running for President is a
lot like playing baseball."
So where to go to really figure
things out? A good place to start is
politics.com. If you want inside infor
mation, it’s all here. The positions of
several major presidential candidates are
distilled down to plain English. Find out
who’s donating to the big boys, and have a
searing debate in their forums afterwards. When
you’re done with them, go to salon.com and
look at the political story archive. Salon is very
good at investigative reporting (they broke
the news of Henry Hyde’s
extramarital affair when he
was going after Clinton),
and report both the good
and the bad from an out
siders’ perspective.
If you’re really in the
mood for some dirt, click
to the Skeleton Closet at
realchange.org. These
guys dislike everybody.
The site is a monument
to American political cor
ruption, detailing
shady deals, money
switches and other
things embarrassing
to every major pres
idential candidate
and a few other
prominent political
figures. They’re
well-rounded, with
links to information
on historical scan
dals (anyone
remember Teapot Dome?), 1996 candidates,
and their ideas on reform.
After that, you need a break and a laugh.
Check out ficus2000.com. If an actor can
become President, why not a potted plant? •
Hyperhistory
hyperhistory.com
Some might argue that it’s impossible to collect
and present everything that ever happened in
the course of human history in one place. The
folks at hyperhistory would probably agree, but
that hasn’t kept them from attempting to give it
a shot. Their synchronoptic (they’ll define it for
you) chart follows the developments in all the
major cultures of the world, making connections
you might not have thought of before—all in
bite-sized, digestible nuggets. CDavenport
Usability: B+ Content: A
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Guide To Grammar and Writing
ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
It’s 1:17am and you’re proofing that paper due*
in few hours. But you can’t remember if there’s
an apostrophe—is it it’s or its? Find out quick
with this online grammar and writing reference.
From comma usage to tense sequence, it’s the
easiest way to get answers to your writing
dilemmas. EFeick
Usability: B Content: A
M3
Webcrawler
webcrawier.com
Webcrawler is an easy-to-use search engine with
all the traditional search engine amenities
including yellow pages, maps and auctions. And
here, as with most search engines, you can per
sonalize the page and customize it with your
own personal preferences. One of the wonderful
features of this site is the fact that it has no
banner advertisements. The ads are still there,