| San Bernardino County Library Political and Governmental Resources
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| A Pathfinder of Internet resources, with a California emphasis.
Last revised January 8, 2004. |
| American Choices: Understanding Foreign Policy Debates (http://americanchoices.org/) |
| Individuals can determine where they stand on "the fundamental tradeoffs facing US policymakers. Centers on having the users answer 12 questions about their views on foreign policy issues. |
| The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden (http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html) |
| Sponsored by the Smithsonian. Background information, campaigns, and biographical material. |
| Bureau of Land Management in California (http://www.ca.blm.gov/) |
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| California Code of Regulations (http://www.calregs.com/) |
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| California Institute for County Government (http://www.cicg.org/) |
| Nonprofit public policy research institute dedicated to improving county government in California. |
| California State Association of Counties: Counties Close-up (http://www.csac.counties.org/counties_close_up_menu.html) |
| Brief profiles for each county in California, including population, legislative districts, and Boards of Supervisors. |
| California Voter Foundation (http://www.calvoter.org/) |
| Read about candidates from all of California's political parties, and connect to their home pages. Prospective voters can also look up candidates for seats in the Legislature and the county board of supervisors. Links to figure out what voting district you're in. |
| Capital Spotlight (http://www.c-span.org/capitolspotlight/) |
| Online weekly newsletter dedicated to reporting on key votes on Capitol Hill. From C-Span and Congressional Quarterly, Inc. |
| Census of Government 2002 (http://www.census.gov/govs/www/cog2002.html) |
| Taken every five years. Includes government organization, public employment, and government finance. |
| Center for the American Women and Politics (http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cawp/) |
| Research, education and public service center located at Rutgers Univ. |
| The Center for Voting and Democracy (http://www.fairvote.org/) |
| Nonpartisan, nonprofit group to cover fair voting procedures. |
| Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/chiefs/index.html) |
| Provided by the CIA. |
| Civilrights.org (http://www.civilrights.org/) |
| News, legislation, reports and events, directory of organizations searchable by state. |
| CNN: All Politics (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/) |
| Combines the strengths of two of the most powerful news and media organizations, CNN and Time Warner. |
| Code of Federal Regulation (http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html) |
| Includes browse feature for such publications as The Federal Register. |
| Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org/) |
| The nonprofit group which keeps an eye on politicians. Monitor progress with campaign finance reform, civil rights, a balanced-budget amendment and other issues. Discussion forums about corporate welfare, scandals and more. |
| Congressional Pictorial Directory (http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/107_pictorial/index.html) |
| May be browsed by state or alphabetically. From the Government Printing Offices. Utilizes the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) plug-in. |
| Congressional Quarterly (http://www.cq.com/) |
| From a leading source of news on the U.S. Congress for over 50 years. |
| CRP: Personal Financial Disclosure Forms (http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/) |
| Forms submitted by members of U.S. Congress. Sponsored by the Center for Responsible Politics. |
| Conservative News Service (http://www.cnsnews.com/welcome.asp) |
| Provided by the Media Resource Center, to give users an alternative to a liberal bias in the American news media and a frequent, liberal double standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes 'news'. |
| Core Documents of U.S. Democracy (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/coredocs/index.html) |
| 24 documents that every American should be able to access online. Includes the Bill of Rights, Constitution, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, Congressional bills, Declaration of Independence, and more. |
| Declare Yourself (http://www.commoncause.org/laundromat/) |
| "A national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to energize and empower a new movement of young voters to participate in the 2004 presidential election. |
| Democracy Network (http://dnet.org/) |
| Voter information and party and candidate positions in all 50 states. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. |
| Electronic Embassy (http://www.embassy.org) |
| Links the staffs and resources of the Washington DC embassy community to their constituencies in business and industry, education, the press and government. |
| Embassy.org (http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/directory.htm) |
| Search by host or guest country for embassies and consulates, UN embassies, and UN permanent missions. |
| FAQs of the U.S. Government (http://www.faq.gov/) |
| Groups the most frequently asked question about federal programs, benefits, or services by topic. Portal site from FirstGov (see below). |
| Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov/) |
| Registration and voter turnout figures, voting statistics, and information about the electoral college. |
| FirstGov (http://www.firstgov.gov/) |
| Portal to U.S. government Websites. |
| FTA State Tax Rates Structure (http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/tax_stru.html) |
| Tables comparing tax rates and structures for all 50 states. From the Federation of Tax Administrators. |
| 50 States and Capitals (http://www.50states.com/) |
| Large array of information on each state. |
| Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information (http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/romans/fdtf/) |
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| GovEngine.com (http://www.govengine.com/) |
| Comprehensive directory of official federal, state, and local government and court links. |
| GovSpot (http://www.govspot.com/) |
| Simplified searches for the best federal, state and local government information. |
| GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/multidb.html) |
| Major Federal government databases from the Government Publishing Office, such as Federal Register, Congressional Record or Code of Federal Regulations. Searches can tailored to the individual databases. |
| Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov/) |
| Electronic storefront for federally-administered grant programs. |
| The Heritage Foundation (http://www.heritage.org/) |
| A conservative think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. |
| League of Women Voters of California (http://www.ca.lwv.org/) |
| Names and contact numbers of state lawmakers, voting and registration, FAQs and state program positions. |
| My Government (http://mygov.governmentguide.com/mygov/index.html) |
| Background and contact information for federal and state elected officials base on the zip code entered. |
| Nation Master (http://www.nationmaster.com/) |
| 335 statistical data sets for almost any county in the world. |
| National Association of Counties (http://www.naco.org/) |
| Only national governmental organization devoted to highlighting and improving the understanding of issues for the 3066 counties in the U.S. |
| National Constitution Center (http://www.constitutioncenter.org/) |
| "Independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization...established to increase awareness and understanding of the US Constitution, the Constitution's history, and the Constitution's relevance to our daily lives." |
| National Conference of State Legislatures (http://www.ncsl.org/login.htm?returnpage=http://www.ncsl.org/) |
| Legislative reports, current legislation, many state surveys. Public users have less access that registered legislators and staff members. |
| National Institute on Money in Politics (http://www.followthemoney.org/) |
| Find out what specific businesses or contributors, or all contributors in any of 115 interest groups, invested in elections. |
| Official City Sites (http://www.officialcitysites.org/) |
| Wealth of government information for cities, counties, states and countries, with links to several countries. |
| Presidential News and Speeches (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/) |
| White House site. Browsable archive by date. Covers current president's activities. |
| Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org) |
| Tracks the performance of over 40,000 political leaders, including the President, Congress, Governors, and state legislatures. Includes the ability to search for elected officials at the Federal and state level by 9-digit Zip Code. |
| Public Agenda Online (http://www.publicagenda.org/) |
| Addresses 18 controversial issues. Subtitled the journalist's inside source for public opinion and policy analysis. |
| RegisterVote (http://www.register-vote.com/) |
| Nonpartisan site providing information on voter registration including qualifications, how to obtain a registration form, registration deadlines, and absentee voting information. |
| Roll Call (http://www.rollcall.com/) |
| Companion site to the print newspaper covering Congressional news and information. Editorials, election news, commentary, cartoons and classifieds. |
| Search Systems (http://www.searchsystems.net/) |
| Directory of over 11,600 public record databases, such as licenses, court records, unclaimed property, etc. |
| Soft Money Laundromat (http://www.commoncause.org/laundromat/) |
| A searchable database of special interest soft money contributions to the Democratic and Republican national party committees. Sponsored by Common Cause (above). |
| Southern California Association of Governments (http://www.scag.ca.gov) |
| Access to the agency's publications and calendar of events, as well as lists of member agencies and their elected representatives. Includes Southern California's preliminary regional transportation plan, a blueprint of the area-wide transportation future. |
| State PIRGs Working Together (http://www.pirg.org/) |
| Public Interest Research Groups are consumer advocacy groups that target specific public issues. There are approximately 25 of these independent and locally-based groups. |
| Stateline.org (http://www.stateline.org/stateline/) |
| Comprehensive and comparative information on public policies of all 50 states. |
| Students.gov: Student Gateway to the US Government (http://www.students.gov/) |
| Clearinghouse for information pertinent to students in high school or higher education. |
| Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet (http://thomas.loc.gov) |
| All legislation of the current and previous sessions of Congress, along with each session's Congressional Record and Committee Reports. |
| Townhall (http://www.townhall.com/) |
| Looking for a dose of conservatism? Current news from the right from inside and outside the Beltway. Links to conservative institutions such as the Heritage Foundation and Freedom Foundation. |
| Uncle Sam (http://exlibris.memphis.edu/govpubs/unclesam.htm) |
| Provides access to information on many government publications available through the Internet. Maintained by the Government Publications Dept. of the Regional Depository Library at the Univ. of Memphis. |
| Uncle Sam's Reference Shelf: County and City Data Book (http://www.census.gov/statab/www/ccdb.html) |
| Population and housing from the 2000 Census plus business and other data for cities over 25,000 and all counties. |
| United Nations General Assembly (http://www.un.org/ga/) |
| Comprehensive information. A collection of facts and documents concerning its current session form the core of the site. |
| U.N. Wire (http://www.unwire.org/) |
| Daily news summary covering the United Nations, global affairs and key international issues. Free registration is required for e-mail alert service. |
| U.S. Conference of Mayors (http://www.usmayors.org/USCM/home.html) |
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| U.S. Government Manual 2002/2003 (http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/browse-gm-02.html) |
| Comprehensive information on the branches of the federal government departments, offices and related bodies. In either ASCII text or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. |
| U.S. House of Representatives (http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html) |
| Master list of members' pages. |
| U.S. Senate (http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm) |
| Master list of members' pages. |
| Univ. of Michigan Documents Center (http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/) |
| One of the best and most comprehensive gateways to US and international government information. |
| Votenet (http://www.votenet.com/) |
| Listing candidates by party and election results by state, covering both the local and national political scene. |
| World Statesmen (http://www.worldstatesmen.org/) |
| "An encyclopedic list of the heads of state and heads of government ...for all countries and territories, going back to about 1700." |
| Your Congress (http://www.yourcongress.com) |
| "Straight information and irreverent humor." |