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Political waters heating up on the Web

Sept. 15, 1996

By JIM BROOKS

As the political season heats up and the first Tuesday in November draws nearer, the World Wide Web offers much in the way of information Ï and entertainment Ï about the political scene.

CLINTON-GORE '96 is the official Web site for the re-election of the president and veep, and offers lots of bells and whistles with its content¯.

You can download the cyberspace equivalent of campaign buttons that you could post on your own Web page, or browse the campaign's literature, video files and more.

It's all professionally produced and very slick; but not much fun. Point your Web browser to http://www.cg96.org for a peek.

BOB DOLE FOR PRESIDENT. Bob Dole's campaign gets into the act with the official Bob Dole for President site at http://dole96.com.

Like the president's site, the Dole campaign has put some money into creating a very slick Web site.

There's a Bob Dole Trivia Quiz, a Dole screen saver to download and a section to sign up as a Dole campaign volunteer. The site also has a rundown on Dole's proposed economic plan, and what it would mean in real numbers to working Americans.

Both major political parties have their own Web sites, and I found both of them to be a bit livelier than those of the candidates.

DEMOCRATS. The Democratic National Committee's Web site offers more than the usual campaign trail photos and news releases; there's the Donkey Stomp Ï a section where Dems refute statements made by members of the GOP, with a section of links to other Web sites that take House Speaker Newt Gingrich to task.

Point your browser to http://www.democrats.org.

GOP. The Republican National Committee's Web site offers more than their counterpart, including the ability to do live chatting.

Besides taking Democrats to task when possible, the site has a good set of links to take you to like-minded, GOP-friendly places on the Internet.

Point your browser to http://www.rnc.org.

MORE POLITICS. For political news and analysis, you'll find a plethora of places on the Web to satisfy the appetite of any news-hungry political animal.

¯ Project Vote Smart is a clearinghouse of information on national politics and candidates, and would be a great starting point for research with its nice page of links to numerous candidate's Web sites (both official and unofficial).

The project attempts to gather information on how candidates stand on issues (or may have voted on them in the past). If you're going to bookmark any political Web site, I'd have to highly recommend this one.

Visit Project Vote Smart at http://www.vote-smart.org.

Two additional sites are worth mentioning because of the players involved. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and it's true of political Web sites.

PoliticsNow is a site that is a combined effort by ABC News, National Journal, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

It includes columns and articles from the various media outlets, plus on-line discussion forums on political issues.

If you're really a political junkie, you'll find yourself camped out a while at your computer when you visit PoliticsNow. Point your browser to http://www.politicsnow.com.

Another joint effort is the AllPolitics Web site offered by Time and CNN.

You'll find transcripts of CNN political shows and an archive of political articles from the pages of Time.

Point your browser to http://www.allpolitics.com.

Two cable TV networks that also offer much political coverage are MSNBC and CNN. Their respective Web sites are worth a look for up-to-the-minute news on what's going on in the campaigns.

Visit http://www.msnbc.com and http://www.cnn.com for the latest dispatches from the campaign trail.

TV SOAPS ONLINE. If you're searching for something a bit more entertaining on the Web, and you're also a fan of daytime soaps, you're in luck. A number of these network staples have their own Web sites.

AMC. The All My Children site is updated daily with the latest news, and offers a discussion area and archived story line information going back to October 1995.

Point your browser to http://www.amcpages.com

DAYS. ``Days of Our Lives'' fans will want to visit Beth's Days of Our Lives Web site at http://ww1.artsci.wustl.edu/~eaporche.

You'll find lots of information on the characters from the show (including family trees of the families), and storyline information of what's taken place.

Other soaps and their Web sites:

You might want to try a search engine for sites on your favorite soap if it isn't listed here.

Try a visit to Yahoo! at http://www.yahoo.com/ for starters. And don't forget that even if your search comes up empty, you can scroll to the bottom of the screen for an easy jump to one of several search engines for a more powerful queries.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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