President's Day: Decision '08

On this President's Day in an election year, and with the herd of candidates thinned out over the last two months, I thought today would be a good time to provide the civic-minded of you out there a clearinghouse of Presidential candidate links to help you come to a decision in the upcoming year. I'll start with the obvious:

Democratic Party

Hillary Clinton: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/?splash=1

Mike Gravel (My personal choice; he's been all but mathematically eliminated, but his campaign is still active): http://www.gravel2008.us/

Barack Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Republican Party

Mike Huckabee: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/

John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/

Ron Paul (although his Presidential campaign is still officially active, Paul is shifting his focus to his Congressional seat campaign): http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

For those sick of the two-party system, there are many third party candidates to investigate. Vote you conscience!

Constitution Party

The Constitution Party is a staunchly conservative party comprised primarily of dissatisfied former Republicans who are unhappy with compromise with the more moderate members of the GOP. If this describes you, give the Constitution Party a try.

Don Grundmann: http://www.truthusa.org/

Green Party

The Green Party is sort of the opposite of the Constitution Party. They are a left-leaning party consisting largely of voters dissatisfied with the more centrist direction the Democrats have taken the last few years.

Cynthia McKinney: http://www.runcynthiarun.org/

Kent Mesplay: http://www.mesplay.org/

Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party is unique in that members believe that government should be out of as many affairs of the people as possible, be they financial or personal. Anti-gun control, pro-choice, anti-business regulation, pro-same-sex-marriage, anti-tax, and more.

There are numerous candidates for this party's Presidential nominee, so I'm merely providing the party's Web site here. They can direct you to the candidates: http://www.lp.org/

And Then There's...

...perennial third party/independent candidate Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate and left-leaning activist. Personally, I think he's worn out his welcome in this capacity, although I respect his lifetime body of work: http://www.naderexplore08.org/

I highly recommend the Web site Politics1.com, which is where I got this information. There you will find all this and much more. It's in my links section.

Finally, I can't let a topic like this go by without mentioning a candidate who truly is the most animated you'll find this year: http://www.digthewig08.com/.

Thanks!

Raymond Briggs' "When the Wind Blows"

As promised from my post last month regarding author Raymond Briggs' book-turned-animated film The Snowman, here is more from Briggs, and it is another animated adaptation. When the Wind Blows is both charming and heartbreaking simultaneously, as it follows the efforts of a retired English couple to survive a nuclear holocaust according to the suggestions of the government. Such Cold War-era subject matter may seem dated--or maybe not.