Review : Politics on the line

The Republicans may have made a big deal out of their convention being “live
on the Internet” but that was just the tip of the cyberberg of American
political life. Modem Nation: the Handbook of Grassroots American Politics
Online by Charles Bowen (Times Books, $20, ISBN 0 8129 2793 1) offers
much more than the Web sites of parties and candidates: it also lists sources of
information from every level of US government. From medical research to patents,
federal agencies have put it up for you to use—here is how to find it.