JPN: Seek Truth: Politics

Sources on contemporary Policies and Politics

These are sites with a focus on policy issues, reviews of the American political scene and the like. Some are blogs. Some overlap with the world focus covered on my World Affairs page. Also see my media page for a special focus on bashing our corrupt and dishonest mass media. Link collections of news sources are here. My blog: Gyroscope "For those unmoved by spin."

Favorites are listedon the world news page

Sites well worth reading (divided by major emphasis)

News with a point of view

More news than comment

Satire

Democracy Now The cult of Amy. Actually thinks we should be a democracy. (Up 4/29/11; posted 7/15/06)

Prospect Magazine British monthly. Literate writing on politics. (Up 12/13/09)

Clusterfuck Nation Peak oil dooms us, we'll loose our houses, we're all going to hell, etc. (Up 3/10/08; posted 2/4/07)

David Seaton's News Links Commentary and links. (Up 12/22/07)

Andrew Sullivan The Daily Dish. (Up 4/9/08)

Hullabaloo by digby. (Up 9/10/06)

MoveOn.org One of the first. (Up 10/18/06)

Sirotablog "David Sirota's online magazine of news & commentary" (Up 3/10/08; posted 2/6/06)

Obsidian Wings News and comment. (Up 12/22/05; posted 9/5/05)

Citizen's Rent Formerly was Random Thoughts on Politics. By Kathy in the Pacific Northwest. (Up 6/30/06; posted 11/17/04)

Carpetbagger Report "Reality-Based Commentary, Analysis, and Tirades on Politics in America." (Up 12/22/05; posted 3/27/05)

Daily Kos "Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation." (Up 6/30/06; posted 12/12/04)

The Gadflyer Small group blog. Good on finding outrageous things conservatives have done. (Up 11/18/05)

The Reaction Blog (Up 10/13/07)

Crooks & Liars Video of the wingnuts doing their thing. (Up 6/30/06; posted 11/18/05)

Harvard Working Papers Analysis from JFK school of government. (Up 10/13/07)

The News Blog Steve G. Discusses security issues. (Up 12/26/05)

MyDD "My Due Diligence", by Jerome Armstrong. Not afraid to go after the Democratic Party establishment. Interesting state-by-state links. (Up 9/5/05; posted 12/12/04)

Bruce Schneier "Schneier on Security" Focus on security and security technology. (Up 11/18/05)

Tom Watson "My dirty life and times." (Up 11/19/05; posted 1/30/05)

First Draft "Writing is only real on the first draft." (Up 8/8/.05; posted 1/30/05)

TomPain Political commentary and news reports. A project of the Institute for America's Future. (Up 11/18/05; posted 12/25/03)

Crooked Timber Covers more than politics. (Up 12/22/05; posted 1/30/05)

Bull Moose "More Moose, Less Bull" (Up 3/24/05)

The American Prospect Magazine and website. (Up 12/28/05; posted 12/25/03)

Z Mag Online community that goes with the printed magazine. Hard left. (Up 12/28/05; posted 2/13/00)

Independent Media Independent Media Center, grew out of anti-WTO protests. (Up 12/28/05; posted 3/28/03)

Brookings Institute Covers world affairs, but has economic and policy analysis. (Up 1/4/06; posted 7/6/00)

Moving Ideas Links to interesting items from various progressive sites, (Up 1/4/06; posted 1/09/00)

IPS Institute for Policy Studies. Self description: "the nation’s oldest multi-issue progressive think tank" (Up 1/4/06; posted 4/9/03)

IF Magazine. "In the independent tradition of George Seldes's In Fact and I. F. stone." Consortium news, its publisher, has a policy oriented web site. (Up 1/4/06; posted 2/28/00)

Foreign Media Reaction US State Department's summary of foreign media reaction to the US Wonderful. In dry, "just the facts style" they reprint a great deal of blistering criticism of US foreign policy. Has now disappeared! (Up 6/4/04, posted 2/28/00)

Natl Political Observer "Offering News and Commentary on Political, Cultural & Media Warfare in the United States". Provides references to interesting articles with some comment. (Up 9/8/05; posted 1/30/05)

Political Wire By Taegan Goddard. Reports political news, elections, etc. (Up 10/13/07; posted 11/17/04)

Manchester Guardian (Print Weekly, web daily). Coverage of many things the normal US newspaper doesn't bother to tell us. Good for understanding why other countries behave the way they do (golly, they actually have reasons). By contrast in a US paper other countries are either our loyal allies following us without question, or are being difficult for some unaccountable reason. (Up 10/13/07; posted 9/15/01)

C-SPAN Access to many primary sources. (Up 11/19/05; posted 5/30/04)

Economist Right wing and upper class, especially on economic matters (don't look here for globalization news!), but surprisingly open on many other issues. Often attacks US Middle East policy and doesn't disseminate as much propaganda as US mass media. (Up 4/16/06; posted 10/8/01)

Financial Times Right wing, especially on economic matters, but surprisingly open on some other issues. No fan of the Iraq war. (Up 4/18/06; posted 10/8/01)

NPR National Public Radio. Has headlines, but its features and perspectives are its greater value. (Up 12/27/05; posted 6/5/04)

Reuters Much online content. (Up 10/8/06; posted 3/27/03)

CNN Inside Politics Conventional news. (Up 5/30/04)

Brookings Institute Classic think tank. (Up 9/2/06)

World News network Headlines. (Up 12/28/05; posted 10/8/01)

Conservative but useful

These at least attempt to use data and argue responsibly. What a short list.

Cato Institute Libertarian; small government; market fanatics. (Up 9/2/06)

One interesting dimension of the current crisis is how often humorist have more 'gravitas' than 'serious' commentary: Jon Stewart's smackdown of Crossfire is the perigdmatic incident.

I'm Against It Was interesting, but now doing all that 100 years ago stuff. (Up 4/29/11; posted 10/16/05)

Needlenose "We needle; you decide." Snarky comments on politics. (Up 6/26/07; posted 10/16/05)

Get Your War On Very funny, and very obsene comics against Bush. (Up 10/18/06)

This Modern World Tom Tomorrow! (Up 7/2/06)

Stephanie Miller The best of the liberal talk show hosts. (Up 12/27/05)

JibJab Home of many satirical videos. (Up 12/27/05)

Al Franken His use of silence and the pause for comic effect is reminiscent of Jack Benny. (Up 12/27/05)

Offbeat

Rigorous Intuition "What you don't know can't hurt them." By Jeff Wells, a "Cautiously pessimistic Canadian." Quite the conspiracy theorist (he orates about how UFO reports are likely government disinformation to cover up the real scandal; sees every intelligence organization and the Catholic Church as involved in a massive child kidnapping and pedophilia ring) but he has some interesting links. (Up 3/10/08; posted 1/30/05)

Not recommended

These sources are often in the news, but have problems in how they present the news.

The News Hour PBS. Still too prone to limit itself to former government officials, but often interesting for evidence that even middle-of-the-road respectable types think the conservatives are nuts. (Up 4/18/06; posted 1/09/00)

Insight on the News. A magazine from the very conservative Washington Times. What this magazine is useful for is its coverage of stories about the government spying or violating civil liberties. To the extent those are done by neo-liberals, this mag is opposed to them.