by Warren O. Brennan

Created on: August 26, 2009

In today's society, it has become increasingly difficult to judge the voting records of those who represent us in Washington. This is partially due to the fact that we are, in some ways, suffering from an age of over-information. Our society has turned into a universe of 24 hour news coverage, that oversimplifies issues, and blogs written by people with no specialized knowledge and personal agendas. This is compounded by a serious lack of independent, conscientious journalism. The totality has lead to an incredible amount of rudimentary information being disseminated to the public, with substantive debate taking a back seat.

This pattern of discussing issues on a superficial basis rather than entering into serious discussion is particularly true when judging members of Congress. Anyone and everyone can spit out the one liners about Health Care Reform, but how many know how their Congressmen stands on the issue? How much funding is your Representatives taking from groups for or against reform? How many even know who their Congressmen is? (More than half do not according to most polls). This lack of information is embarrassing in a republic, where voters are called to make responsible choices in the voting booth.

So what is a citizen to do? TV is the preferred avenue of course for information now-a-days. That isn't such a bad thing on the surface but the simple fact is the programs currently being broadcasted are horrible at informing the public on how their elected representatives vote. For example, currently the country is debating so called "enhanced interrogation techniques" implemented the Bush administration. The cable networks have the sound bytes at the ready for the top of every hour. But what you don't hear is how your Representative in Congress voted on the Authorization of Military Force, which was used as justification for the techniques. There is also debate continuing over whether domestic surveillance used by the Bush administration was lawful, but how did your Rep. vote on the Protect America Act? This is only the tip of the legislative iceberg.

CSPAN is about the only network where you can get specific information on your Rep., but you will most likely have to wait around for three or four hours to see when the actual vote is being taken. Even local news, at least in my area, prefers to report on back to school fashion tips than our Congressmen's stance on issues currently under consideration.

So what about the internet? A valuable resource

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