Webresource: Civic Resources

From the LIFE Yahoo Group:

Just came across these, while helping my daughter research campaign
financing. I've added them to the civic resources at the LIFE
website, which has become surprisingly extensive:

http://www.learningis4everyone.org/component/option,com_bookmarks/Item
id,36/mode,0/catid,52/navstart,0/search,*/ or

http://tinyurl.com/yoybws

Terri
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Open Secrets
http://www.opensecrets.org

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.

SourceWatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch
Welcome to SourceWatch�your guide to the names behind the news.
SourceWatch is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and
Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and
issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is
documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations
firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and
manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also
includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and
industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and
public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special
interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others
involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists and
government agencies. Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a
policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor.
SourceWatch has 30,177 articles

Center for Media and Democracy
http://www.prwatch.org/
The nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy strengthens
participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public
relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and
citizen journalism, media "of, by and for the people." Our programs
include PR Watch, a quarterly investigative journal; six books by CMD
staff; Spin of the Day; the Weekly Spin listserv; and, Congresspedia
and SourceWatch, part of our wiki-based investigative journalism
collaborative to which anyone, including you, can contribute.

PR Watch
http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/prwatch.html
PR Watch, a quarterly publication of the Center for Media &
Democracy, is dedicated to investigative reporting on the public
relations industry. It serves citizens, journalists and researchers
seeking to recognize and combat manipulative and misleading PR
practices. It specializes in blowing the lid off today's multi-
billion dollar propaganda-for-hire industry, naming names and
revealing how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news,
organize phony 'grassroots' front groups, spy on citizens, and
conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy. We
expose the hidden activities of secretive, little-known mega-firms
such as Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller and Ketchum PR--
the "invisible men" who control our political debates and public
opinion, twisting reality and protecting the powerful from scrutiny.

Congresspedia
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia
Welcome to Congresspedia, the "citizen's encyclopedia on Congress"
that anyone�including you�can edit. Congresspedia is a not-for-
profit, collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy
and the Sunlight Foundation and is overseen by an editor to help
ensure fairness and accuracy. Congresspedia is part of the
SourceWatch wiki.

Citizens' Advisory Organization
http://www.citizensadvisory.org/
The Citizens' Advisory Organization is working to take the money out
of politics and make room for individual citizens once again. It's
goal is to put the "i" back in "politics". That's "i" as in the
individual voter, "aye" as in the voice of the average citizen,
and "eye" as in keeping a watchful eye on politicians. The primary
tool that accomplishes that purpose is a voting advice system that
makes it easy to get voting recommendations from people you trust and
which, in the process, empowers your selected advisors and advisory
organizations with political influence--to even the playing field, so
that corporate money no longer dominates the equation.