Recommended Reading

Cracked.com

Cracked is humor for the smart man.   In particular, I like their lists.  They often have very interesting and amusing historical facts.  For example "5 Real Princesses Too Badass for Disney Movies"

scotusblog.com

An insightful blog about what the Supreme Court Of The United States is doing.   Written by a lawyer that has appeared before the court multiple times.   http://www.scotusblog.com/

PolitiFact.com

How do you tell if a politician is lying?  Check to see if his mouth is moving.     We all need a good way to fact check things our politicians say.  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ is a good website to check before you believe anything an elected official says.

Cartograms

The funny thing about maps is that they can easily lie.   The standard map most Americans remember (Peters projection) has Greenland bigger than Africa, when it is less than one tenth the size.   Republicans love to do something similar by showing the US states and/or counties colored red/blue, but ignoring population size.  It makes the country look mostly Republican, when it is evenly split - or if anything, slightly more Liberal.  Cartograms fix this problem by adjusting size to reflect population.  If you want to see a map that more accurately reflects the truth, check out:
 

Mark Newmans's (University of Michigan) Cartograms of the 2008 Presidential Election

It gives a much better perspective of what the country believes. 

XKCD

XKCD is a nerdy web cartoon.  Every once in a while they do interesting charts.  Here is a great one showing the political history of the US Senate and US House.   note that the House of Representatives has lost all of it's center-right Republicans, not to mention the left leaning Republicans.  They really have kicked out all the "Republicans In Name Only."

XKCD's House and Senate Graph

Election Protection

A non-profit organization that protects your right to vote.  It provides assistance to register, to vote by mail, general information, and a place to report problems voting or registering.   A great resource to make sure your vote counts - or a great place to volunteer to maintain the integrity of American elections.

http://www.866ourvote.org/