This is a human-edited directory and search engine of companies and other business establishments throughout the United States, provided to help forward-thinking people make educated judgments about where they do and do not want to spend their money.

The Progressive Pages is a beta site, and needs the help of socially-conscious individuals like you to make it a valuable resource for your fellow Amercians.

The following guidelines will be expanded and polished as work on the site progresses. For now, we invite all visitors with a vested interest in the health of our nation to participate in building the definitive guide to American business concerns which support progressive causes -- as well as those who actively work against progress.


To add a new resource to the database:

1. Click on the general category in which this company/business belongs. (Most categories are top-level only; subcategories will be added as the number of entries in a given category warrants.)

2. Click the "Add Listing to This Category" link near the top of the page.

3. Fill out the form, and hit Submit.


About the "Add Listing" form:

You must enter a valid e-mail address. It will NOT be made public, sold, swapped, or revealed to any third party -- with the following two exceptions: 1) We will surrender your e-mail address only by court order; 2) If you abuse this site through DOS attacks, hacking, or any other malicious activity; if you send abusive or offensive messages to this site, through e-mail, listing submissions, comments, or by any other means; and/or if you spam this site, we will contact your Internet Service Provider (and in some cases, if abuse falls into the category of illegal activity, to law enforcement authorities). Your IP address is logged.

Most fields on the "Add Listing" form should be self-explanatory; however, please bear in mind the following:

The "Description of business/company:" field is for a straight, to-the-point description of the nature of business the company conducts. It is NOT a place to editorialize, nor to enter any information that belongs in either "Red Activity" or "Blue Activity," which are explained below. (In some cases, such as when a company has a long or otherwise outstanding record of either "red" or "blue" activity, this rule may be broken -- but only at the discretion of the Webmaster.) DO ADD all known product names in the "Description" field! (If you need more space for brand-name listings, contact the Admin, at the email address at the bottom of this page.)

"Red Activity": Short, concise information on the company's right-wing activity.

"Blue Activity": Short, concise information on the company's left-wing activity.

There are sample records already in the database, with examples of "red" and "blue" activity. Looking at these existing records is the best way to understand exactly what we're looking for in these fields.

"NAICS" is the North American Industry Classification System. If you know the exact NAICS for a given company, enter its text description here. Right now, the NAICS does not appear in listing displays, but may in the future; however, having the NAICS present in a given record will make it easier to find a given class of business in database searches -- so please take an extra moment to look up the NAICS. (Note: Usually only major corporations will have a NAICS listing.)

Thomson & Gale Goliath offers NAICS codes for most corporations, as well as basic company info, corporate URLs, and annual revenue. Very handy!

The "Business/company URL" is NOT required, for the sole reason that many small businesses do not have Web sites. However, if the business/company you are submitting does have a Web site, PLEASE enter the URL.

All submissions are reviewed before they appear in the database.


Other notes:

At the bottom of each listing, you will see the links "Rate it" and "Read/Add Comments." Feel free to rate or comment about any business listed. This is where you can editorialize to your heart's content -- just don't abuse the system!

Submitting your email address when you make a comment on a given resource is purely optional. Bear in mind that if you do provide an email address, it WILL appear with your comments.

All comments are reviewed before they appear in the database.

Ratings, however, are tabulated immediately. You may rate a business only once, but you may review/comment on a listing as many times as you need to.


The short list of major companies that need comprehensive listings, ASAP:

America Online - American Airlines - Apple Computer - Arthur Andersen/Andersen Worldwide - Bank of America - Bank One - Ben & Jerry - Berkshire Hathaway - Citibank/Citigroup - Coca-Cola - Coors - Costco - eBay - Enron Corp. - FedEx - General Electric - Halliburton - Home Depot - MBNA America - Microsoft - Netflix - Netscape - Oracle - Pepsi - Publix - Target - United Airlines - UPS - Viacom - Wal-Mart

But remember: This is a nationwide directory -- so we want LOCAL businesses, too, from every city and town in America!


Some helpful sites:

BoycottBush.net
Consumer guide and brand list for the top 25 Republican Party donors with consumer brands.

Opensecrets.org - Money in politics data

Fundrace 2004
Look up the name, address & amount contributed of ANY private political donor (2004).

Thomson & Gale Goliath
Basic company info, corporate URLs, annual revenue, & NAICS codes.

Whitehouseforsale.org
Articles, lists of donors.

The Shepherd's Guide
"America's premier Christian business directory"


Some helpful articles:

Should High-Profile CEOs Back Candidates for Office?
Wall Street Journal Online

Campaign Inflation - Mother Jones
Industry pumped in a record $696 million to elect George W. Bush and a GOP Congress. The Mother Jones 400 reveals the nation's top contributors -- and what they expect in return. ...

MLB - team owner donor breakdowns
USA Today

NBA - team owner donor breakdowns
USA Today

NFL - team owner donor breakdowns
USA Today

NHL - team owner donor breakdowns
USA Today

NASCAR - team owner donor breakdowns
USA Today

Pro team owners play political game
USA Today


Caveats:

This site is in BETA. This means that what you see right now will not necessarily be what you see in the future. You will see placemarkers for banners, and some internal links (such as "Terms of Service" and "Privacy Policy") go nowhere. There will be plenty of improvements in the weeks to come (perhaps a forum, as interest grows) -- and yes, we will be trading banner links with sites of interest to progressive-minded patriots. Bear in mind that this site is 100% free, and the server space is being donated by a lifelong, progressive -- and proud -- liberal trying to make a difference.

Right now, however, the important thing is populating the database. This is a monumental task -- and one that many observers would (and will) mock and decry, for any number of reasons.

But if you believe -- truly believe -- in the power of the people, and if you refuse to be "neutered" by those say your core values are "wrong," only because they want to cow you into submission, then you owe it to yourself and to everyone with a stake in the future of America to join this effort.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

-- Abraham Lincoln

If you have questions, remove the spaces from the address below, replace the "AT" with "@" and e-mail:

a d m i n AT g l o b a l b l o g s . c o m