Also, the Ralph Nader for President team infuses some much-needed relief from the two-party system!  Click below to see what the team has to say about McCain and Obama during this week’s debate:

Earlier today, we released Dick Morris’ commentary on this week’s presidential debate.  Now, we’re excited to release the second round of perspective from one of America’s most trusted research and civic engagement organizations—Public Agenda.

Public Agenda can always be relied on to present a fair and balanced look at the issues, which is why VoterWatch is honored to have the organization on board for our Presidential Debates Project.  Today, Scott Bittle (Executive Vice-President of Public Agenda) released commentary on the second presidential debate. Bittle had this to say about this the town hall-style forum:

Despite the criticism of the town hall format, in many ways the second presidential debate was more substantive than the first session, and dramatically more so than the vice presidential debate last week. (I mean the real one, not the SNL version).  Political junkies often say the town hall debate just regurgitates old news, but for many voters who haven’t been paying attention and are just starting to think about the candidates, that’s useful information. (Even more useful, if we may be so bold, is our Voter’s Survival Kit, which points out many of the facts that the candidates skated over in the debate.)

In addition to insightful editorial and video commentary (using the VoterWatch media player, of course), Public Agenda also released a more general page devoted to the presidential debates.  This interactive hub provides information on each debate, video commentary using the VoterWatch media player, links to debate transcripts, information on and links to Public Agenda’s insanely useful Voter Survival Kit (non-partisan election guides on a variety of subjects) and much more.  Be sure to check out Public Agenda’s “Debates 2008” page. You can also click below to watch Bittle’s commentary on the second presidential debate:

Stay tuned for more commentary throughout the weekend and early next week!

Be sure to check out VoterWatch’s Presidential Debates Project at http://www.bloggingthedebates.com

If you’ve been missing our regular releases, Dick Morris, Brett Winterble of CovertRadio, the Bob Barr for President team and the Ralph Nader for President team have already posted their commentary.  And now, we have some highly anticipated pieces from Public Agenda and Sophia Nelson!

Public Agenda put together an extremely informative package.  In addition to checking out what one of America’s most respected organizations has to say about last week’s debate, be sure to check out Public Agenda’s non-partisan “Voter’s Survival Kit” - a one-stop-shop for non-partisan perspective on some of America’s most pressing issues. Click the image below to launch Public Agenda’s commentary, which presents their non-partisan perspective on the candidates’ words and presentation during Friday’s debate:

Also released today were Sophia Nelson’s thoughts about Friday’s debate between Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama.  Her insightful commentary can be found below:

Stay tuned as VoterWatch creates landing pages for each of our commentators.  Then, you’ll have direct access to their most recent debate commentary as well as a logged copies of past debates.  Interested in getting involved in the Presidential Debates Project? Contact us at info@voterwatch.org.

Over the past week, we’ve been talking about the wide range of commentators who have partnered with VoterWatch for the 2008 Presidential Debates Project.  Already, we’ve posted commentary in the VoterWatch media player from Dick Morris, Brett Winterble of CovertRadio and the Bob Barr for President team.  Now, we are ready to release official commentary from the Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez campaign. 

Aside from providing us with commentary, the Nader team offered up some editorial thoughts about Friday’s debate.  When it comes to analyzing McCain and Obama, Nader encouraged individuals to focus more on "what won" rather than "who won."  This is an intriguing take when it comes to the partisan divide that often centers upon the politicians themselves, rather than the issues that are and are not discussed during presidential debates.  Here are Nader’s words:

Always ask after you watch a debate, not who won, but what lost and what won.

Militarism won. 
Boondoggle star wars won. 
Corruption won. 
Corporate crime won. 
Bailouts for Wall Street won. 
Nuclear power won. 
Aggressive NATO won. 
What Lost? 
Peace advocates lost. 
Consumers lost. 
Workers lost. 
Solar energy really lost.

These two candidates are really afraid of challenging corporate power. 
It’s our job to make them more afraid of the people than big business.

Now, let’s explore interactive commentary from Toby Nelson of the Nader/Gonzalez team:

Below, please click to see Brett Winterble’s commentary from CovertRadio.  Winterble is an expert who inserts extremely useful ideas and interesting perspectives into video of the debate.  Be sure to check it out and also surf on over the CovertRadio web site.  Here is the commentary:

Tired of the two party system?  Then get ready for some commentary from the Bob Barr for President team.  Click below to see what Jason Pye from the Bob Barr team has to say about McCain and Obama’s statements during Friday’s debate. Here’s the commentary:

Also, be sure to check out the campaign’s interactive web site.  Stay tuned for more expert commentary coming later today and early Monday morning!

Dick Morris has prepared his comments on last night’s presidential debate.  Click below to view them in VoterWatch’s interactive media player! We’re excited to release this first commentary.  Keep coming back throughout the weekend and on Monday to see the remaining commentaries (Cynthia McKinney, Sophia Nelson, the Bob Barr Team, the Ralph Nader team and many others).  Also, feel free to comment, interact and react!  Be sure to check out Dick Morris’ blog!

Last week, as we remembered those lost in the attacks on September 11, 2001, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin gave a speech addressing the tragedy. According to a piece by The Washington Post’s Intel Dump blog titled “Palin, Iraq and 9/11,” Palin spoke before a brigade of troops (including her son) stationed in Alaska en route to Iraq, “Palin told the troops they were going to ‘defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans’.”

This assertion aroused confusion because Abu Musab al-Zarqawi didn’t begin a branch of Al-Queda in Iraq until 2004, three years after the attacks on 9/11. “GOP’s VP nominee expresses a view now discarded by White House,” reads a blurb on the Washington Post’s homepage. This title has enraged Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard who argues, “Palin is evidently saying that American soldiers are going to Iraq to defend innocent Iraqis from al Qaeda in Iraq, a group that is related to al Qaeda, which did plan and carry out the Sept. 11 attacks.” For many conservatives, this characterization of her statement was unacceptable.

In other news, Judicial Watch covers a horrific use of campaign monies for personal pleasures. According to the Judicial Watch blog,

“Top lawmakers in Massachusetts who were unopposed in their reelection bids spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused campaign donations to lease fancy cars, throw parties, buy furniture and pay for meals at upscale restaurants.”

A Corruption Chronicles blog entry titled “Illegal Immigrants Run Oregon Senator’s Business” takes a look at the hypocrisy of Oregon Senator Gordon Smith. An ordinary advocate against illegal immigration, Senator Smith, was found employing a vast number of illegal immigrants for his private business. According to Corruption Chronicles, “Oregon Senator Gordon Smith publicly chastises illegal immigrants (he proudly voted against amnesty for millions living in the U.S.) for benefiting from government services that American citizens provide, he has for decades benefited from their cheap labor.”

Smith Frozen Foods is the name of the company that employed almost 500 workers, primarily from Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador. “The company refuses to use a federal database to check workers’ immigration status because,” Corruption Chronicles writes, “‘it doesn’t work very well’.” According to Corruption Chronicles:

“Practically the entire town knows that the senator’s business is an illegal immigrant haven. A local attorney, who represents Smith employees in criminal cases unrelated to their work, said her clients’ immigration status is often revealed during checks when they are arrested and booked. The attorney estimates that more than 70% of the company’s workers are in the country illegally . . .”

Fortunately this was unearthed, but it sadly marks another politician, like Eliot Spitzer, utilizing the services of those who they speak against.

Moving on, a piece on the Sunlight Foundation’s blog entitled “Dept. of Interior Oil Scandal,” highlighted the Department of the Interior’s reports recently released exposing factual corruption. According to the Sunlight Foundation’s blog the reports cited:

“widespread corruption in the Mineral Management Services agency, which handles mineral extraction, leases, and royalties for the Department of the Interior. The allegations show employees receiving illegal gifts, graft, filing false statements on ethics forms, using illegal drugs, and having sex with both subordinates in the agency and with agents of oil and gas companies with business before the agency.”

An American Constitution Society for Law and Policy’s (ACS) blog entry entitled “Judge Strikes Fla. Gay Adoption Ban,” covers a recent court decision surrounding homosexual adoption. According to ACS, “A Florida judge today invalidated the state’s ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men as unconstitutional.” According to ACS blog, the “decision, which has not yet been published, will allow a foster parent in Key West to adopt a teenage boy he has been raising since 2001.”

And let’s be sure we’re all aware of the connection between our lawmakers and the troubles we’re seeing on Wall Street. The Capital Eye blog has more on this.

Lastly, as the days of the election approach, make sure you REGISTER TO VOTE!!!

The last time Alaska was mentioned in our Transparency Recap, Senators Ted Stevens and John Cowerdy were named, being brought up on alleged charges of corruption with connections to VECO oils. This time, the CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) blog titled, “Sarah Palin Ran 527, which raised corporate money, for Ted Stevens,” directs our attention back to Alaska.

First, for those who were oblivious to the news over the past weekend, e.the People’s blog “Sarah Palin. A Good Choice?” critiques Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain’s newly announced, official running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. By questioning her experience, moral standing, and identity as a woman, the blog raises several interesting points:

She’s got very little experience & hardly anyone knows her. I’d never heard of her before 2006 when she was elected governor in Alaska… Does anybody really think Palin’s gonna draw disappointed Clinton supporters to McCain?… She’s religious, hunts, fishes, & likes baseball. She’s pro life (& walks her talk, God bless her), anti-gay marriage, pro 2nd Amendment, & pro-business (tho not a pawn). She’s got a reputation as a reformer in a corrupt state & is known as a maverick too.

While the above quote is a bit critical of the governor, Palin’s perspective can be found on her site, McCain’s site, and the GOP site.

Now that we are familiar with Governor Palin, we can return to the CREW blog titled “Sarah Palin Ran 527, which raised corporate money, for Ted Stevens.” CREW issued a report called Beyond Delay, ”which named the 22 most corrupt members of Congress.” Three of the twenty two in Beyond Delay were from Alaska, and Senator Ted Stevens, one of the named members, has had past connections with Vice Presidential Candidate, Governor Palin.

According to a Washington Post Article quoted in CREW blog:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state’s political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. Palin’s name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

“Palin’s relationship with Alaska’s senior senator,” CREW blog writes, “may be one of the more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain’s running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption.”

Palin has publically urged Senator Stevens to come clean, revealing the facts to the public, but “she also held a joint news conference with him in July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.”

Moving on to Washington, today, the United States Department of Justice released a 32-page document detailing Alberto Gonzales’ handling of confidential government documents. ProPublica.org’s blog titled “DoJ Report: Gonzales ‘Violated Basic Dept. Regulations’ for Classified Info,” focuses on this report.

According to ProPublica, Alberto Gonzales, former United States Attorney General “had taken the notes from his White House office to his house, but didn’t store them in a secure safe because he didn’t know the combination. And when he returned to the Justice Department, he did not store them in the required special facility for top secret information.”

Gonzales’s not being able to locate the notes after being requested by the White House Counsel’s Office ignited the investigation. The report also mentions Gonzales mishandling of seventeen other confidential documents, but it doesn’t mention the investigation of the numerous “firings of the U.S. attorneys and politicization of the department.”

The report says, “Like all other Department employees, Gonzales was responsible for safeguarding classified materials, familiarizing himself with the facilities available to him in the OAG for storing these materials, and observing the rules and procedures for the proper handling of classified documents.”

This security breach of having top secret documents mishandled was referred by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to the National Security Division of the department, but the prosecutors in the department turned down actions to bring any charges against former Attorney General Gonzales.

The fiasco taking place outside of the Republican National Convention is highlighted in the Talking Points Memo’s Cafe (TPM) blog titled “Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC; Reports of Tear Gassing.” “Journalist Amy Goodman has been arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota,” TPM writes. Founder of I-Witness, Eileen Clancy was also arrested and her crew of journalists, engineers and camera crew were handcuffed as the police waited for a search warrant. According to TPM, ”Clancy states she and her team were surrounded in the house they were staying at in St. Paul before they had the chance to video tape any protests.”

Here is a video of the arrest of Amy Goodman and protesters of the RNC running for clean air as tear gas is deployed. Overall, hundreds of individuals were arrested—some for throwing bleach and turning violence (not Goodman, of course).

All Things Whistleblower’s blog “More Bad News from Environmental Reports” cites the environmental decay affecting the polar ice caps. According to All Things Whistleblower, “Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago...a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitude.” This attributes to endangering the habitat for arctic creatures such as polar bears. All Things Whistleblower writes, “A recent federal aerial survey found nine polar bears swimming in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, with one at least 60 miles from shore...By comparison, federal scientists spotted a total of 12 polar bears swimming in the open ocean between 1987 and 2003..Yikes.”

Yikes indeed. Yikes…