Help securing my connection

[SpywareDr]

Brand or model of router/firewall to use?

What's the budget?

I have a Linksys Cable/DSL Router with 8 port switch. Would that work?

What the model number?

Would they be able to see data coming across the modem? Or web-logs?

"They" who? Your ISP can keep track of all traffic in/out of your connection.

I visit many different sites that include political and blog sites. I've checked the web-log and sometimes it contains sites I've never been to. I assume they must somehow be linked to the political site visited.

A single webpage can contain images, advertising, etc. that are hosted on other servers (around the world). So, when you request that single page, your browser is requesting all of those items as well so it can assemble the page correctly in your browser window. The history of all of that, is now yours.