Hi Dan- You may want to check out:

http://www.vaughnthompson.com/weblog

http://www.dailykos.com/

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://www.reachm.com/amstreet

http://pbahq.smartcampaigns.com/

These should get Dad headed in the right place.

Danny,
Your people are country people and so perhaps a good way to get your dad thinking is to buy him a book by Wendell Berry called “What are People For?” In fact, anyone and everyone with a twelfth grade reading level should read this prolific farmer’s poetry, essays, and fiction. For country people from the Mississippi Valley, though, he is one of our own. Gene Logsdon is also another excellent, if more light-hearted, author with a strong criticism of the so-called “conservative” forces in our society from the perspective of a country person. His book, “At Nature’s Pace", is tragic, funny, and a delight to read. I’m not saying that these guys have all the answers for everything wrong in our socity, but all you asked for was how to get the door open. Sorry, neither one have a website but a google search of each name can give you some interesting short pieces by them and a few sites about them.

I just requested Wendell Berry’s “What are People For?” from the library. That’s the second time someone has recommended him, so I’m going to take a look.

Wendell Berry is great. We used a good amount of Berry in the big research project I did a year ago.

I also would not send your to most of the sites that Vaughn said (though Vaughn’s site is very good). The other sites are just too “extreme” I would guess. I think they may “freak” him out.

if you’re interested in giving him more balance than just left vs. right you might send him this article.

http://www.libertyforall.net/2002/archive/august04/christian.html

the author explains how his christian beliefs led him to libertarianism. he also talks about the problems he has with conservatism (and liberalism) in the context of his religious beliefs. interesting stuff for christians to ponder. just want dear old dad to be well-rounded.

me thinks General Wes Clark might make him think twice.. that is a 4 star general who happens to be a dem as well.

a great resource is: http://www.u-wes-a.com

there are some fine media links in there, plenty of interviews archived.

here’s the post campaign archive and it’s updated frequently: http://www.u-wes-a.com/mediaclips-post.html

ironically the person who runs this website lived very close to where i was stationed.

Hear, hear! Maryellen makes a good point. There’s a lot more to this than left vs. right. Dad voted for Perot, so he longs for more options, but hates the idea of throwing away his vote (he would have preferred Bush to Clinton).

If you’re looking for news outlets, not necessarily commentary, turn him to NPR. Seriously. I know they’ve been labelled as the Most Liberal Media, but I believe they actually offer the best perspective on national and world news. Yes, most of their commentators are liberal, but they’re definitely not extremists.

i have no idear why people think npr is liberal, they’re very objective as far as i’m concerned.

heck, check the bbc or the cbc to get an outside perspective.

dave has a nice blogroll of progressive christians on his site as well.

“throwing his vote away"… we can write a thesis on this. i have a very big problem with this kind of thinking.

I was telling him about some of the voting reforms that could make 3rd and 4th parties work. He’d never heard of any, but I didn’t know much to tell him. Gringo, you know a lot about this. What can you tell him?

I like the instant run off system.

which alternative do you like the best to the EC?

I agree. Instant Runoff Voting is the fairest and easiest way to add diverse voices to the conversation and it gets rid of the “throwing my vote away” mindset. I also like proportional representation, but that’s even a longer shot than IRV.

you mean electoral college? representation sounds fair but i fear a bogged down system. the electoral system just doesn’t cut it… it’s not broad nor fair enough.

http://www.fairvote.org is a good primer

http://www.nota.org takes it one step further

i for one have an affinity to a parliamentary system.

i know california started doing a runoff and a small town in colorado, some were hollaring that it was so expensive etc but i think those claims were baseless.

all of this, the entire way our elections are done from financing to the electoral college vs. whatever to our very ballots needs serious reform. when i started looking at the facts it scared me just how much crap goes on. they’re simple fixes but the majority just don’t care or are malinformed.