Watch full Obama-Romney debate

By now, there are dozens of analyses and summaries of the presidential debate available from various media outlets. I will not provide another here. Instead, I invite you to watch (or read) the debate yourself, in full, and come to your own conclusions. My advice is that you at least watch the closing statements.

Oct. 3, 2012 Presidential Debate at the University of Denver, provided by 2012 Election Central:
http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012/10/video-watch-the-first-presidential-debate-from-the-university-of-denver/

Topics Covered: (times are approximate because they include the mediator's questions)
00:00-22:40		The economy: job creation and taxes
22:40-36:20		The economy: national deficit, taxes and Medicaid
36:20-47:04		The economy: entitlements (social security, Medicare)
47:04-52:10		The economy: level of federal regulation on the economy
52:10-1:09:08		Health care: Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")
1:09:08-1:14:20		The role of government (in general)
1:14:20-1:20:16		The role of government in education
1:20:16-1:24:19		What would you do about gridlock in legislature?
1:24:19-1:26:42		Obama's closing statement
1:26:42-1:28:50		Romney's closing statement

Watch for the next debate Oct. 11 between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan!

Brush up on Biden's and Ryan's political histories:
Joe Biden, WhiteHouse.gov
Paul Ryan, GovTrack.us

FOIA Online now live

Today, the Sunshine in Government Blog announced the launch of a new system that it says should help government agencies keep better track of record requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and "make the FOIA process more efficient."

I highly encourage anyone who has ever used FOIA or plans to use it in the future to read more about the new system, FOIA Online, on the blog: "FOIA Online goes live; new tool to track FOIA requests, responses."

Or you could go straight to FOIA Online: foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home

Who is Paul Ryan? Romney's 2012 running mate

	Republican Serving 7th term in the House representing the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin Chairman of the House Budget Committee Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, "which has jurisdiction over tax policy, Social Security, health care and trade laws." Member of the Subcommittee on Health
Paul Ryan

For more information, see my sources: paulryan.house.gov and govtrack.us

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.
Tweet

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."

Follow-up on yesterday's Supreme Court decision

Arizona police face questions after court ruling

Elliot Spagat, Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona's police chiefs and county sheriffs hoped a U.S. Supreme Court ruling would settle their long-running debate on what role, if any, they should play in immigration enforcement. Instead, the justices' decision to uphold the state's "show me your papers" statute has left them with more questions than answers.

Read the article