U.S. Politics and Government
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(From Noon Eastern time today until Noon Eastern time on Jan. 20, 2009)
2008 Presidential Election
- Obama for America
- Official site (BarackObama.com)
- Fight the
Smears - The truth about Republican lies about Obama
- Jews for Obama
Barack Obama for President
How the United States government works, the major institutions, and the politics that shapes what it does.
This page:
U.S. Politics and Government,
generally |
Executive Branch |
Legislative Branch |
Judicial Branch |
Government Documents |
Law |
Politics |
State and Local Governments |
California Politics and Government
U.S. Politics and Government, generally
- U.S. Government Manual - The standard guide for navigating the federal government
- Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids - A nicely done site with different tracks for different ages
- U.S. Government Policy and Supporting Positions - The "Plumbook" lists the 8,000 top jobs
- USA.Gov - Official directory of federal government Web sites (formerly FirstGov.gov)
- A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies
- Get It Done Online
- Forms.gov - Find forms used by
federal agencies
- Blogs from the U.S. Government
- Government Podcasts and RSS Feeds
- USA.Gov Answers -
Questions and answers about the federal government. If your
question isn't listed, ask it.
See also FAQs by Agency and Program - Google U.S. Government Search - Google's search engine of U.S. federal, state, and local government sites
- Google Government Search with State Filtering - Limit your results to a specific state (ResearchBuzz)
- Browse Topics - A subject directory of federal government Web sites [browsetopics.gov]
- Federal Agencies Directory (Louisiana State U. libraries)
- Gov+ - Searches federal and state government sites, news organizations, and think tanks (Clusty)
- GovEngine - Directory of federal, state, and local government Web sites
- Government Guide
- Government Portals - Sites with names in the form of "SubjectName.gov" (California State University Chico, Merriam Library)
- GovSpot
- Politics Navigator (New York Times)
- U.S. Politics, Government, and Law - An annotated list of reference Websites (Library of Congress)
- Yahoo: U.S. Government
- See also Demographics and Statistics for data collected by the U.S. federal government
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance - Grants available from the federal government
- FCIC National Contact Center - Phone directories for the federal government
- Kids.gov - Official kids' portal for teh U.S. government
- Political Graveyard - How, when and where politicians died and where they are buried; info on living pols, too
- Top 200 Government Contractors (Government Executive, 2003)
- U.S.
Government RSS Library - All kinds of feeds from federal agencies
(USA.Gov)
Guides to the U.S. Government:
Web Directories and Search Engines:
Miscellaneous:
Government: Executive Branch
- White House - Includes links to most other Executive Branch agencies
- See also Presidents
- Weekly Compilation of Presidential Papers - 1993 to date (U.S. Government Printing Office)
- Public Papers of the President - From 1991 to the latest published volume (U.S. Government Printing Office)
- Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States - Back to the Hoover administration (University of Michigan Digital Library)
- Papers of the Presidents of the United States - Back to Washington, but not all presidents' papers are available yet (Avalon Project, Yale)
- See also Executive Orders below
- DefenseLink - Public portal of the U.S. Dept. of Defense
- Armed Forces Information Service
- Defense Almanac - Facts and figures about the Dept. of Defense and military
- Navigating the Military Internet (Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School)
- SearchMil.com - Searches .mil domains
- See also War and Peace
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing [moneyfactory.com]
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Forest Service
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - Not the most fun or the most interesting site, but it can be useful.
- Forms and publications are available online.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Archives and Records Administration
- National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Park Service
- National Science Foundation
- Peace Corps
- Smithsonian Institution
- State Department
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
- U.S. Mint
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- U.S. Postal Service (USPS)
- The United States Postal Service: An American History (publication 100)
- See also Government Documents below and U.S. National and State Libraries
- Treaties in Force (State Dept.)
- Military Policy Awareness Links (MiPALs) - Compilations of U.S. policy statements on current world hot spots
- A Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees (Brookings Institution)
White House Documents:
Dept. of Defense, Military:
Web Directory and Search Engine
Other Executive Branch Agencies (selected):
International Relations:
What if the President asks you to join the administration?
Government: Legislative Branch
- Thomas - Congress, including status of pending bills and recent statutes (Library of Congress)
- House of Representatives
- Senate
- Legislative Branch Resources - Including bills, public and private laws, Congressional Record, and much more (U.S. Government Printing Office)
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present
- Congressional Directory - Official guide to current members (Government Printing Office)
- Congressional District maps (National Atlas)
- CongressMerge - Find your representative, find members of Congress who meet certain criteria (e.g., age, profession, religion), get schedules and lists of committee members
- Congresspedia - An encyclopedia of members of Congress. Find out about members' voting records and campaign contribution; find out which members are under investigation.
- Write Your Representative
- Congressional Quarterly - Independent news about Congress
- The Hill
- Roll Call - The Capitol Hill insiders' newspaper
- How Our Laws Are Made - By the House parliamentarian
- Enactment of a Law - By the Senate parliamentarian
- How Our Laws Are Made: A Ghost Writer's View - By a staffer in the Legislative Counsel's Office
- Bills and Resolutions, 1799-1873
- Statutes at Large, 1789-1875
- U.S. Serial Set - House and Senate documents and House and Senate reports, 1833-1917
- See also Statutes, for recent legislation
- Jefferson's Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives
- Senate Manual
- C-Span
Congressional Glossary
- U.S.
Senate Glossary
- Architect of the Capitol
- Congressional Budget Office
- Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- Government Printing Office (see also Government Documents below)
- Library of Congress
- U.S. Botanic Garden
Members of Congress:
Congressional News:
How a Bill Becomes a Law:
Various viewpoints.
Historical Legislation:
From the Library of Congress' American Memory project.
Rules:
Dictionaries:
Legislative Branch Agencies:
Government: Judicial Branch
- U.S. Federal Judiciary
- Federal Courts Finder (Emory Law Library)
- Finding Court Opinions on the Web - A guide to sources for federal and state courts by Robert J. Abrogi
- U.S. Supreme Court - Current decisions are available, but since they came relatively late to the Web, other sites have larger archives. See Law below.
Government Documents
- Core Documents of U.S. Democracy - Links to some of the most important documents in our history, legal materials, and government reference sites (U.S. Government Printing Office)
- Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy - Important documents, speeches, and court cases (U.S. Information Agency)
- GPO Access - Including databases of laws, bills, directory information
- GPO Bookstore
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - 1994 on
- Depository Libraries of U.S. government documents
- Subject Bibliographies
U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
- American Historical Documents, 1000-1904 (Harvard Classics via Bartleby)
- CIA Maps & Publications - Unclassified documents available for sale
- Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO 81009
- Open CRS - Directory and search engine for finding CRS reports (Center for Democracy and Technology)
- CRS Reports at Federation of American Scientists - On military and scientific matters
- CRS Reports at the National Library for the Environment
- CRS Reports at the State Dept. - Also issue briefs and other key U.S. government reports
- CRS Reports at the University of North Texas
Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports
These reports, compiled by a division of the Library of Congress for members of Congress, have not been widely available to the public.
- Core or Essential Government Documents, as selected by government document librarians (Diane Kovacs)
- Fedworld - Government databases
- Government Accountability Office reports and testimony - Nonpartisan GAO reports often make the news; find them here
- National Archives and Records Administration
- National Technical Information Service (NTIS) - Technical publications from government agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Web database goes back only to 1990, so e-mail or call for publications older than that.
- See also U.S. Government Research
- Our Documents - Information on 100 milestone documents in U.S. history
- Primary
Documents in American History (Library of Congress)
- U.S. Government Documents Ready Reference Collection - Most frequently used gov. docs at Columbia
- U.S. Government Periodicals (U. of Louisville)
- University of Michigan Documents Center - Links to documents and other government information from around the world
- Introduction to Public Records Research - All kinds of sources for public records you may not have known about, from law librarian Genie Tyburski
- KnowX - Search public records (fee for some records)
- SearchSystems.net Public Records Directory - International list of sources
- Virtual Gumshoe - Public records and other sources of information
- See also Political Research for sites that dig up documents officials would rather you didn't see
- CyberCemetery of former federal Web sites (U. of North Texas)
- Web Harvest - A project of the National Archives to save Web sites at the end of Presidential and Congressional terms
- Government Information Online: Virtual Reference Service - Ask government documents librarians your question [govtinfo.org]
Public Records:
Archived Government Web Sites:
Ask a Government Documents Librarian:
Law
- U.S. Constitution - Including facsimiles of the original document (National Archives)
- Popular Names of Constitutional Provisions
Primary Sources: Constitution
Constitution of the United States of America, Analysis and Interpretation
Annotated with case law by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress
- Thomas - Congress, including status of pending bills and recent statutes (Library of Congress)
- U.S. Code: Search or Browse
- Statutes at Large: Search or Browse laws and resolutions passed by Congress, from the 108th Congress (2003-2004) on. (GPO Access)
- Public Laws - From the 104th Congress (1995-1996) on (National Archives)
- Public and Private
Laws - From the 104th Congress (1995-1996) on
- Popular Names of Acts in the U.S. Code - If you know the common name of a federal law, this will tell you where to find it (Cornell)
- See also Historical Legislation
- Code of Federal Regulations - Back to 1996
- Federal Register - Back to 1994
- Office of the Federal
Register - Includes these and other legal publications
- Executive Orders - Back to 1937 (National Archives, Office of the Federal Register)
- See also White House Documents, above
- Federal Legal Information Through Electronics (FLITE) - Searchable database of Supreme Court decisions from 1937 (FedWorld)
- Supreme Court decisions (via Cornell)
- Cornell Legal Research Encyclopedia - Links to primary texts and other Web sites; international and foreign law, as well as U.S. law
- FindLaw - A portal for all kinds of legal information
- Guide to Law Online - Links to guides and primary texts for U.S. federal law, U.S. state law, law of other nations, international law
- Hieros Gamos - U.S. and international law
- Internet Law Library - Formerly hosted at the U.S. House of Representatives' site
- Law and Politics: Internet Guide - U.S., Foreign, and International legal sources
- Law.com - Legal news
- LawGuru - Legal research databases, ask a lawyer, search legal questions and answers, etc.
- Nolo Press:
- Oyez Project - Leading constitutional cases, information on the Supreme Court (Northwestern U.)
- Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources (Congressional Research Service report 98-461)
- The Virtual Chase - "Teaching legal professionals how to do research." This site by a law librarian covers more than just legal research, including researching companies, finding people, and finding factual information in many areas.
- Zimmerman's Research Guide - Legal research and related subjects (Lexis-Nexis)
- Find a Lawyer, Attorney, or Law Firm - From West Legal Directory/Findlaw (formerly LawOffice.com)
- Lawyers.com (Martindale-Hubbell)
- U.S. Copyright Office (Library of Congress)
- Extension of Copyright Terms (Circular 15t)
- New Terms for Copyright Protection (Factsheet SL-15)
- Copyright Website - Helps you register a copyright and gives info on copyright law (Benedict.com)
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Search patents and trademarks
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):
- FBI's Most Wanted List - Save a trip to the post office and check out the posters here
- Most Wanted Terrorists
- Uniform Crime Reports
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Research (full text and abstracts) in criminology; also experts are available to answer questions
Primary Sources: Statutes
Primary Sources: Regulations
Primary Sources: Executive Orders
Primary Sources: Supreme Court Decisions
Secondary Sources, Legal Research:
Find a Lawyer:
Intellectual Property:
Crime and Punishment:
Criminal Justice Index:
U.S. Politics
- Inside Politics - Political news from CNN (aka All Politics)
- Politico - Lots of news
- Altercation - Eric Alterman's comments on the news
- The American Prospect - Liberal magazine
- Crooks and Liars
- Daily Kos - Collaborative blog
- The Huffington Post - Famous and not-so-famous writers from the left side of the spectrum
- Liberal Oasis
Political News:
Political Commentary on the News:
- Washington
Post column
(What's this?)
- American Prospect column
- LA Weekly "Powerlines" column - On local and state politics. I don't find an archive page for the column, but you could do a G**gle search for them
Harold Meyerson:
The most insightful political commentator writing today.
- Mother Jones - The magazine for the rest of us
- Slashdot Politics - "Politics for nerds. Your vote matters."
- Talking Points Memo by Joshua Micah Marshall
- Commentary Today - Links to commentators on the left and right
- See also Politics generally
- America Coming Together (ACT)
- Democratic Socialists of America - Includes links to like-minded sites
- Democratic Underground - News and commentary in support of the Democratic Party and liberalism generally
- MoveOn.org - Perhaps the best known Web site for promoting liberal causes
- Turn Left - The home of liberalism on the Web
- Democratic Party [Democrats.org]
- Green Party
- Libertarian Pary
- Republican Party [GOP.com]
- Campaigns and
Elections - Site for the magazine on the subject
- FactCheck.org - Annenberg Foundation site giving the facts behind the political ads
- Federal Election Commission - Monitors campaign finance
- Open Secrets - Reports on contributions to U.S. politicians
- Political MoneyLine - Another source of data
- Project Vote Smart - Check the candidates' records
- Gallup Organization - The
premier U.S. polling agency
Web Directory:
More Partisan Sites:
Political Parties:
Official sites
Elections and Campaigns:
Polling Data:
State and Local Governments
Official State and Territorial Government Web Sites:
Other Sites on State and Local Governments:
California Government and Politics:
- Official Legislative Information - Current legislation, California codes, your legislators (leginfo.ca.gov)