PUBLIC MARKS from "Mal Burns" with tag politics

Anyone who is interested in US politics and the shape of the next presidential race will love this site. As candidates increasingly use online methods for boosting their profile, this portal monitors the whole process, even watching how many people sign up as "friends" in places like MySpace. Genius programming and non-partisan - just the facts and trends.

Site of public and government television in the UK. This link loads with Liberal Democrat listings, but you can switch elsewhere easily enough.

A new social networking site dedicated to those seeking change in society, the planet, human behaviour and political process. A good alternative to MySpace and the like for those commited and focused.

By Jacob Weisberg at Slate Magazine, this is a daily feature. The link above leads to the newly published complete collection, by turns hilarious and tragic.

An interactive map based on Google Earth and Displaying Terrorist Acts, Suspicious Activity, and General Terrorism News. It updates live every 5 minutes and covers a mass of incidents not always reported in the mainstream media.

New Climate Change and Global Warming Portal - a busy site with plenty to follow.

An extensive gallery of women's art based in Chicago.

The archive page for Tom's daily cartoons. Strips are posted here around 48 hours after paid-for syndication release. Simple style, but some good political commentary.

Yet another video search portal but without any real networking facilities. It's worth mentioning because it has a good political links section and also emphasises the use of tags to connect various movies together. Nor does it seem subject to the "mass overload" which can make other sites too cumbersome to navigate. Not the best, but worthy all the same.

Another fine online video portal dedicated to programmes about the environment and related social issues.

Portal keeping a watch on the major internation money institutions and their frequent misadventures.

US based site which, simply put, aims to "keep politicians accountabable".

A new magazine portal

Another new portal in beta. It's notable today in that it shows the live execution of Saddam which at least confirms nobody ushered him away at the point where the official broadcasts stopped - a bit of a killjoy for conspiracy theorists! I really don't recommend watching that clip (unless you are still a disbeliever) but the site itself seems to be offering up a few interesting items. No doubt many clips are at YouTube and elsewhere, but Liveleak is refreshingly uncluttered by trivia.