Urban Cartography

flowchart guide to GOP sex scandals

A better illustration of how power is shared and applied in Iran's complex political system, by Paul Kedrosky, via Good magazine.

thanks again to the always-helpful Fipi Lele for this one. As reader Chris notes, replace "guardian council" with "mainstream media," (and drop "supreme leader") and it's pretty close to how things are done here in the US.

from the Sunlight Foundation:

It comes as no surprise that Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky’s favorite word to say in Congress is “Indiana.” While staying out of the spotlight in Washington, he has been a champion for his Northwestern Indiana congressional district, bringing home millions of federal dollars to create jobs and win fans. Since the decline in manufacturing, new jobs have become essential for this Rult Belt region and Visclosky, from his position on the House Appropriations Committee, has sought to get as big a piece of the federal pie as he can for his constituents.

2008 American presidential candidates, ranked by Myspace friends and Youtube channel views, by party. I'm assuming the incredible dominance of the Ron Paul channel over other Republicans' was due to its use as a source of humor.

percentage of American churchgoers whose say their religious leaders speak on political topics, by topic; from pictures of numbers

how different groups voted in the 2008 election, by state & various other criteria, from the NY Times

executions by region, 1876 - 1996, texas vs. the whole south vs. all other states

Victims of terrorism worldwide, compared with Iraqi civilian casualties since the invasion of Iraq. If you are an American taxpayer, do you think this is a fair tradeoff? Are first world lives really worth that much more?