Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with politicians

Speeches sans words

silby — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:31:44 -0800

I remember hearing on NPR a few years ago, during the California recall election I think, a story about some merrie internet pranksters who digitally removed all the words from politicians' speeches, leaving the stutters and breathing. It was fascinating to hear. Can anybody link me to this stuff, or even a similar thing created for academic rather than comic purposes?

Seeking the names of pre-genocide female Rwandan political figures

espertus — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:57:14 -0800

Where can I find the names of women who served in the Rwandan parliament in the 1980s and 1990s? Next best would be the name of the woman who was Minister of Justice during the Rwandan genocide.

Storming the halls of power... with baked goods.

1f2frfbf — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:05:41 -0800

How do I nominate a state symbol? After reading this post and realizing my state doesn't have a state dish (at least not according to this page), I would like to nominate a one, but I have no idea where to start on this quixotic journey and the above page tells me nothing about the process.

How Do I Get Started In Seeking Political Office?

Lipstick Thespian — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:29:09 -0800

What Can I Expect If I Run For Public Office? I am seriously considering taking my political activism to a more involved place and actually running for office. Nothing huge - I don't even know what to run for, yet.

But in our current political climate, I'm not sure if I can simply accept "showing up at the pollls" as fulfilling my need to be involved in what I believe in.

I would appreciate any help from Metafilterites who have felt the same way in the past, acted on it, and could guide me in thinking this through.

Music to politics

Chrysostom — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:32:38 -0800

What musicians have successfully made the leap to politics? Examples that come to mind are John Hall (late of Orleans, currently a US Congressman), and Peter Garrett (former lead singer of Midnight Oil, current Australian Environment Minister).

Any others?

Polititian-packed Predator number 1?

donkeymon — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:34:03 -0800

Arnold Schwartznenegger and Jesse Ventura starred together in the movie Predator. Both went on to become US state governors. Are there any other movies featuring more stars (not politicians playing themselves) who went on to become successful politicians? Note that I said successful politicians; Fred Thompson doesn't count.

How many and which foreign leaders were born in the United States?

brokekid — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:10:23 -0800

How many and which leaders of foreign countries were born in the United States? I can only think of two, Lester Bird of Antigua and Janet Jagan of Guyana. Are there more?

Too Poor for Gore?

Huplescat — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:33:14 -0800

DRAFTGORE.COM just sent me an Email asking for money to run an add in the NY Times, and I’m desperate enough to do it. Are they legitimate?

Politically Illiterate

kidsleepy — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:23:45 -0800

I'm not politically savvy, and I want to know where candidates stand on certain issues. Is there a website that can do a simple side-by-side comparison? I'm looking for something very simple. For example, when you are shopping online, say for cameras, a site may let you compare two or more models in a grid format. You can see each camera's physical dimensions, size of the LED screen, batteries required, memory card options, etc. I want something like that for politicians- Hilary, Obama, McCain, Edwards, etc- with categories like abortion, gay rights, social security, etc. I know of sites like the Cook Political Report, but I want something nice and dumbed down.

Does something like this exist or am I dreaming?

Blogging While Politicking

hazelshade — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:13:50 -0800

Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland, has one. Ray Cox, MN State Representative, has one. Anyone know of other good blogs written by politicians? Others I've found include John Edwards' blog (well, sort of a blog -- it's only got three postings so far and he calls it a "diary") and the blog of Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat MP.

I'm mostly interested in blogs written by US and UK politicians. For purposes of this post I'm defining "politician" as someone currently holding elected office or expected to soon be running for office (Edwards for Prez in '08, for example).

Quotes from the Bush administration.

JokingClown — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:31:00 -0800

I am looking for a website (not a specific one) that has a list of quotes from members of the Bush administration, with the quotes now obviously misleading, incorrect, and or lies. This is the kind of thing I am looking for. http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/iraqquotes_web.htm At the moment I'm looking for quotes from the Bush administration, but I would be interested in other similiar quotes. Perhaps there is a website that specializes in this?

Where to find royalty-free pictures of the current U.S. administration?

codger — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 20:49:03 -0800

Royalty-free pictures of the current U.S. administration? [mi] My friend's trying to assemble high-resolution pictures of Bush's cabinet and cronies, primarily Condi Rice, Ashcroft, Cheney, Rove, et cetera, but they, unlike Dubya and Rummy, don't have nice big portraits on a home page.

So where would one go about getting nicely sized shots of these folks that are royalty-free or otherwise usable without paying anything? Target output is NTSC DVD, so anything 720x480 or higher should suffice.

Will future politicians have to explain their Web past?

Masi — Wed, 11 Aug 2004 03:08:20 -0800

Will future politicians have to explain their Web past [MI]? As blogs (and a Web presence in general) become more popular, it is to be expected the politicians that will shape up for the next 40-50 years will have acted in a online forum in some way or another, espousing opinions, which could be controversial.

There are already political figures having blogs, such as the King of Cambodia or the Iranian Vice President in the Parliamentary Legal Affairs, and there have already been controversies regarding someone's Internet past.

Considering this, how likely is it that tomorrow's politicians will be able to be tracked through the marks they left on various Internet forums? Will it be able to see the way their ideas got shaped?

Considering that most forums now have archives and will be easily accessed in the future, should anyone intending for a political (or any other, actually) career be careful on what opinion he espouses on the Internet?

Transcripts of DNC convention speeches

anastasiav — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 10:52:33 -0800

I need to find written transcripts of the speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. I know the speech texts are being given to the press in advance, 'cause a number of the bloggers have mentioned getting them, but I can't seem to find a central spot on the web where they're being published. I've found Howard Dean's on Democracy For America - anyone have any idea where I can find the rest? (The DNC wasn't any help)