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2006 Election Maps Mashups

Posted by kdawson on Tue Oct 24, 2006 02:49 PM
from the red-and-the-blue dept.
John Fitzpatrick writes, "Search Engine Watch has an article on the launch this week of map-based search tools to follow the 2006 Congressional elections, from both Google Earth and the map-based real estate site HotPads.com. The Google Earth Blog notes the release of two election-oriented layers outlining the borders of the congressional districts and linking to Google News articles related to the different races. And HotPads is offering the 2006 Election Edition. From their blog: 'The 435 congressional districts are outlined on HotPads Maps, with red and blue designating the party affiliation of the districts' current Representatives. By clicking on the districts' "I" buttons..., users can view quick facts about the districts including the current Representatives and the candidates in November's contests. By clicking on the quick facts bubble, users can get more detailed information [from] Wikipedia articles with detailed information about the candidates and the close races.'"
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  • OR... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zwack (27039) on Tuesday October 24 2006, @02:59PM (#16564810) Homepage Journal
    Or there is still Electoral-Vote.com [electoral-vote.com] from Mr Tanenbaum himself. Z.
  • by Anonymous Crowhead (577505) on Tuesday October 24 2006, @03:00PM (#16564832)
    Mr. Founder of hotpads.com.

    http://www.inman.com/InmanINF/mris/story.aspx?ID=5 0080 [inman.com]
    • In the interests of equal time, since Mr Fitzpatric gets free advertising, I quote from the article parent mentioned: The founders say they view their main competitors as major pay-to-list sites such as Apartments.com and ForRent.com, along with other classified listing sites such as Craigslist.org.
    • Does it matter? Is this info still of interest to you or maybe other slashdotters? Sometimes you have to promote your own products... and sometimes it's a win-win for everyone.

      As for me, I never pay attention to who submitted an article, and usually not to the summary either -- it's immaterial. Either the article stands on its own merits, or it doesn't.
  • hopefully this motivates some of the lazier ones among us to actually crawl out of their holes and vote, instead of just complaining.
    • I wish I had mod points so I could give you either a +1 Hilarious or +1 Naive.


      This won't do anything since the people who are normally too lazy to get off their fat asses and vote won't be visiting such sites anyway.

      Besides, to quote Bill Vaughan:

      A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.

      Judging by the way things are, that's not too far from the truth.

    • backwards (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Quadraginta (902985) on Tuesday October 24 2006, @03:55PM (#16565852)
      God forbid. The last thing I want is some lazy doofus voting and cancelling out the effect of my carefully-researched, painstakingly thought-out vote.

      I say make it much harder to vote. Make people crawl a hundred yards over broken glass on Sunday night at 4 AM in a driving rainstorm to vote. Then only those of us really fucking serious about the whole business will be making the decisions.
      • I suspect that's why the country is in such a shambles now. Only the dedicated - the extremists - vote, and the bulk of the country, the middle of the road people politically (well, middile of the US road, which is still to the right of roads in the rest of the world) don't have their moderating effect.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          Then you suspect wrong. First of all, turnout in the last national election was 57% of the voting-age population. 57% of the population can't be classified as "extremists" without perverting the definition of "extreme."

          Secondly, the most recent national-level election history has been one of sharp and sudden swings, e.g. from Carter to Reagan/Bush to Clinton and on to Dubya, not to mention the '94 Republican tidal wave, and possibly the Democratic resurgence this year. That makes no sense at all if only
  • Wikipedia (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gambit3 (463693) on Tuesday October 24 2006, @03:15PM (#16565122) Homepage Journal
    Whoa..

    You had me until the "facts from Wikipedia" part.

    Anyone remember the last Wikipedia Presidential election fiasco where both candidate's pages had to be frozen because of vandalism? How then would anyone be able to trust the "facts" about the candidates they would read from Wikipedia?

    --
    Go Where Web Thinkers Gather [webcogito.com]
  • Democrats will take the 435-member House of Representatives back by a likely margin of 5-15 seats. There are almost no serious analysts who disagree on this point. Once Dems take back the House, they will have subpeona power and will begin investigating the Administration's leadup to war, etc. In the first 100 hours of Dem control in the House, future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she plans to hike the federal minimum wage for the first time in almost 10 years, establish (real) restrictions on lobbying, enact the 9/11 comission reccomendations that the Administration refuses to enact 5 years later, increase federal funding for stem cell research with a veto-proof majority, and lower the amount of money that seniors have to pay for prescription drugs. Obviously all this stuff has to get through the Senate and be signed by the Presidednt into law however.

    In the 100-seate Senate, things are likely to tighten up considerably (Republicans currently hold a majority of 55 so Democrats need to pick up 6 seats to take it back). The only really competative races to watch in the Senate are:
    Montana (whre Democratic challenger Jon Tester leads Republican incumbent Conrad burns- whose Jack Abramoff ties are weighing him down),
    Tennessee (where Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is retiring, leaving an open seat for Dem Harold Ford Jr and Republican Bob Corker to fight over- this race is mostly tied),
    Missouri (where Republican incumbent Jim Talent is virtually tied with Dem challenger Claire McCaskill, who has made this race about increasing the minimum wage and stem cell research- two issues that heavily favor Dems),
    Rhode Island (where moderate Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee is struggling to win re-election over strong Dem challenger Sheldon Whitehouse, who leads him in the polls in this solid "blue" state),
    Pennsylvania (where Republican incumbent Rick Santorum is seen universally as the most endangered incumbent in the country, trailing behind Democratic challenger Bob Casey for months now),
    Virginia (where Republican incumbent George Allen leads Democratic challenger Jim Webb, but only after Allen's dropped considerably due to racism allegations surrounding the caught-on-video use of the slur 'macaca'),
    and Ohio (where Republicans statewide are in trouble due to a series of statewide scandals involving the GOP).

    Republicans are looking to pick up the Washington state seat, which they won't, and the Maryland seat, which they also will not (most analysts agree on this). The only possibility for a Republican pickup is really New Jersey (Dem incumbent Bob Menendez vs Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr- corruption is an issue on both sides of this race), where polls indicate that Menendez is leading slightly.
    • Democrats will take the 435-member House of Representatives back by a likely margin of 5-15 seats. There are almost no serious analysts who disagree on this point.

      I wonder why we need to have the election, then?
    • So.. if it turns out differently, will you say that the analysts are wrong or the votes?
      • Shut the fuck up, hippy.

        Nothing I said was partisan to the least extend. I merely said what Democrats were planning to do once they took back the House. The "First 100 hour" plan has been reported in the press, and there are no serious analysts (either partisan or non-partisan) who believe that Republicans will hold on to control of the House of Representatives this year. If you don't think they will, then you either haven't been paying attention or are in denial. I only gave the bare facts on the Senate
      • No one takes the truthies seriously.


        And anyone who thinks the Democrats are going to become fire-breathing lefties overnight is compeltely insane. They're a bunch of pet rocks -- it's just that at this point pet rocks would be preferably to people stomping on the gas, driving the country toward a cliff.

        Can I ask you, in all seriousness why you're still happy with the Republicans? I mean, I can understand why you would feel that an attack on this country merits a strong military response -- but that's not what we're involved in at the moment is it? We're stomping around in a quagmire for obscure reasons that have nothing to do with the 9/11 attack or Al Qaeda, correct?

        Or to take another point, I can understand why a conservative would worry about fiscal responsibility... but we don't have fiscal responsibility, do we? How about that deficit, eh?

        By the way, I've been meaning to ask some Repubican or other... do you think you guys could return some of the money Enron stole for you? Seriously, how do you feel about your party recieving stolen goods?

        (And what kind of "conservative" has such contempt for the Magna Carta, not to mention the Constitution? Aren't they time-tested enough? How can you just shrug off what's being done to central fabric of our country?)

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          Can I ask you, in all seriousness why you're still happy with the Republicans? I mean, I can understand why you would feel that an attack on this country merits a strong military response -- but that's not what we're involved in at the moment is it? We're stomping around in a quagmire for obscure reasons that have nothing to do with the 9/11 attack or Al Qaeda, correct?

          It's a quagmire to be sure, but I, and many conservatives believe that it was still the right call. I believe that it was the right call,

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        It's funny, I was thrilled when Bush won in 2004. Because it was clear to anyone paying attention that Iraq was so ineptly planned that nobody would be able to turn around by that point. Bush had to stay in power so they couldn't blame someone else for fumbling their ball. And no matter who is in control of Congress, Bush is still the Commander in Chief right through the 2008 election.

        The albatross of Iraq is going to be dangling around the Republican Party's neck for as long as amputees and bodybags are co
  • I want to see the maps that the politicans use when they are gerrymandering the districts.
  • stopsayingmashup - tag saved.

    It's like ebonics for Web 2.0 people.

    • And if you're in Utah's 2nd, please vote for Bob Brister [bristerforcongress.org]. He has many of the same views as your Bob Bowman. He supports familial unions for all people, ending the drug war, instant-runoff voting, getting out of Iraq, etc.
    • Well, you got modded off-topic (and I probably will as well) but as a fellow Floridian I wish you and your candidate Godspeed. It looks like from our paper today that Davis is gaining somewhat in the Gov's race. It will be interesting to what happens after the debates tonight (statewide on all PBS channels if you haven't heard). BTW - I am a third generation, lifelong Republican and there is one single local Republican candidate that I am supporting this year. Other than him, I'm voting Blue across the