Do you know your congressman? And other legislative questions

Find My Congressman

www.govtrack.us
A great, easy-to-use resource for checking on your local senator or representative- or any senator or representative, for that matter. This site includes links to bills each member of Congress is currently sponsoring (as well as a history of bills he or she has sponsored in the past) and the bill's status, the congressman's political views as compared to the views of all other senators or representatives, how long they've served in their position, what committees they're on and their voting record- how often they miss a vote.

Track a Bill

thomas.loc.gov
This site includes the full text of each bill, a list of related bills, the names of Congress members who are co-sponsoring the bill, and the bill's status, including amendments made. You can also subscribe to updates on the bill's status via email through an RSS feed.
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Epiphany! On the presidential election

I've always felt a little overwhelmed by the vast information provided by the media coverage of each presidential election. I've thought many times in exasperation, All I want, as a voter, is a comprehensive list of each candidate's views and proposed solutions to key issues (this summer, they appear to be health care, illegal immigration and the economy, with the most emphasis on the last) and a varied sample of situations where they were successful and an analysis of how successful they were based on the circumstances. Is that so hard? Anyone know of a place that has that?

While reading TIME magazine's article "The Real Story of Romney's Olympic Turnaround," a thought suddenly hit me: what I want from the media is roughly equivalent to a resume. A brief overview of why each candidate thinks he (or she) should be elected president of these United States, maybe include a few references (ha, wouldn't you like that job- I wonder if Romney and Obama would be able to come up with enough people to handle the workload it would impose. I guess that's why nobody's ever done it before). The whole election process is like the world's longest, most expensive, complicated, important interview.

As a United States citizen, that makes me feel empowered. We, the citizens, are the ones who decide who to employ. All politicians are supposed to be public servants. The system we have is incredibly smart! Even if it isn't always that way in reality.

"They are not a liability, they are an asset"

CNN en español published an editorial today by columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. about how people who came to the United States illegally should not take offense at the term "illegal immigrant" because, in his words, "Es el saco que le queda." Literally (as far as I could tell), "It's the jacket that fits." A good (not literal) translation would be "It hits the nail on the head." This was an eye-opening editorial for me because I didn't realize some people were offended by the term "illegal immigrant," and after reading what Navarrette wrote I will also promise not to refer to illegal immigrants just as "illegals." But, since I agree with his opinion on the matter, I will keep using the term "illegal immigrant."

For those of you who speak español, I highly recommend the article: OPINIÓN: La incómoda verdad de que los llamen inmigrantes "ilegales"

For those of you who speak a little español, I still highly recommend it- it's good practice, well written, and relevant.

For those of you who don't speak any español, I guess you'll have to be content with the summary I presented above. If you want to know more of what it said, let me know with a comment and I'll expand.

By the way, the title of this post "They are not a liability, they are an asset" is also a quote from Navarrette's editorial. I translated it into English to share because I liked it, and I agree. "They" of course refers to "illegal immigrants."