Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Factcheck , your source for the truth

Do you ever wonder if what a politician is saying in is speech, or in his proposed legislation is truth or fiction?  Well, the Annenberg Foundation has provided the answer.
http://www.annenbergfoundation.org  The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) was established in 1993.”  Its’ main purpose sought to increase the impact of the scholarship produced at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication. “By conducting and releasing research, staging conferences and hosting policy discussions, its scholars have addressed the role of communication in politics, and other major fields.”  The discussion  always meet the high road of neutrality and have searched out the main facts that are true to the issues discussed.
If you want to know if your candidate is speaking the truth, go to http://www.factcheck.org/ the next day and find out what the Annenberg people have to say.
Remember, your job as an educated citizen is to seek out the truth about what is happening in politics and add it to your frame of reference.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

"and all the advantages of cool deliberation"

and all the advantages of cool deliberation”
                                Thomas Paine, December 1778
                  A Serious Address to the People of Pennsylvania
            In a response to a letter from Conrad Alexander Gerard, French Prime Minister to the United States, Thomas Paine included material about how the particular form of our” new constitution had not then been made a matter of controversy; so that the members meet unbiased, unprejudiced, and unawed by party influence, and all the advantages of cool deliberation.”
I bring this up because you as an educated citizen, need to strive for your vote in an “unbiased, unprejudiced and unawed…and all the advantages of cool deliberation. 
Because you as a citizen need to make an educated decision upon the votes placed before you, being objective about the material is an obligation.  Try not to go into any vote carrying the burden of your entire friend’s opinions, TV ads, signs, opinion polls, etc.  You need to gather the evidence listening to all the evidence with an open-mind, not a mind that has been charged with political rhetoric, but with facts, hardened with evidence.  This takes time.  Research is the key element.  You must trust your resources, commentators, political news, then weigh the evidence so you feel comfortable about your decision.  This is what gives you “all the advantages of cool deliberation”.
What about political affiliation?  Yes, people stand behind their party’s convictions, however, by keeping an open mind; you should be able to weigh those convictions against facts and your hypothesis about the issue.  It is at that point that you make your decision.  The conviction should be strong enough so you feel “all the advantages of cool deliberation”