Ode to you first time voters...

First time voters, just out of college or even high school be sure to take time to include your voice. It isn't easy to visualize that what happens today can ripple into your tomorrow. When you're 20 something, fresh faced and full of promise, thoughts about a weak dollar, unchecked Russian aggression, and debt to China seem at a minimum, esoteric and more practically mind numbing and boring.

But know this, what happens in America now impacts the next decade and your generation in almost more dramatic ways than ours. Yours is the generation they will send off to a war. If, god forbid, they start drafting versus recruiting for the military it will be the 20 somethings that go. If the wars in Iraq drone on and on it will be your America that suffers. I know more 20 somethings who have friends in Iraq than any other age group. They pay a heavy price for our policies.

First time voters, be there in November. Get informed, research your candidates as much as possible and pull that lever. Welcome to democracy, it only works if you participate.

Great sites I highly recommend for folks looking for information:

http://www.opensecrets.org

Check out the industries and lobbyists behind your candidates - look at who has them in their pocket, then decide if your interests are in line with theirs.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com

Good such for polls and a great interactive electoral map.

http://www.snopes.com

Home of the debunking of urban myths and those crazy emails. If you get an email that sounds absurd - just go on snopes.com and use the RE: of the email to search. I have found that over 90 percent are false. But snopes.com does more than that - they give you the additional background FACTS to explain their sources.

http://www.themiddleclass.org

Great site that tracks the voting record of every legislator out there. This is a menace to those politicians that just work to get re-elected. Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle class - and its the middle class that is the back bone of the U. S. Economy. This is great site to look at your candidate's voting record, cut through the rhetoric and get down to FACTS. Vote in your best interest, not through sound bites.

That's all the advice for you tonight, dear first time voter. That is assuming you actually read this. If you're like my 23 year old, your mother has to pester you to pick up your dirty clothes, and then register to vote. But remember this sometimes, just sometimes, mom's are actually right!