Most political blogs and Webpages like this one are usually written by folks who possess strong opinions and ideas built around a logic template grounded on a definitive philosophical foundation. This blog and thousands like it rethink what journalists write into a custom-made opinion piece that can help a seeker of information expand their peripheral view of a single news event, issue or candidate for public office. Does that make this work illegitimate? Knowledge does tend to liberalize one's thinking.
Blog authors, contributing posters and commenter's who embed multiple source links into their writings actually add a new dimension of credibility to the message they are trying to convey. Obviously for physical reasons, newspapers, talk radio and news telecasts lack this depth advantage.
Newspapers in particular treat information and observation like a controlled substance, omitting pertinent bits of information while adding curbs and guide posts to keep the information limited. They turn the informational experience into a prescription. In that regard, this blog and others like it carry more credibility than the daily op-ed page of your local newspaper.
Besides themselves of course, the Gazette listed three popular Internet resources for supplying “legitimate” information on the candidates. Vote Smart, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Fact Check are all reasonable, yet like any other medium presenting the facts, they often don’t or can’t tell the full story. Fact Check in particular is limited - shall I be bold enough to say – by the facts.
Take Rep. Paul Ryan’s position on Wisconsin’s popular SeniorCare program as just one example of voting with just the facts. Ryan can say he voted for SeniorCare and that would be a fact. But there's more to the story.
House Gov Excerpt:Yes, that is a Ryan press release stating he supports an extension of SeniorCare. But Ryan left out important information when he earlier voted for the Medicare Part D supplement, a program designed to swallow Senior Care.
First District Congressman Paul Ryan voted in favor of the troop-funding portion of the bill, but opposed adding unrelated, non-emergency spending to the emergency war supplemental bill – even though he supports some provisions that are included in the non-defense related part, including an extension of the waiver for Wisconsin’s SeniorCare program through December 2009.
Rock Netroots Excerpt:Soon after this vote back in April of 2007, Ryan announced that Gov. Jim Doyle and state leaders had six more months to do two things: either help more than 106,000 SeniorCare participants enroll in the federal Medicare Part D program; or design a new package of state assistance to help cover some of the higher out-of-pocket costs seniors face under Medicare Part D. As far as Ryan was concerned at the time, SeniorCare will end in December of 2007. Democrats scrambled to save the program. Even after this, Ryan implied he would rather see earmarks such as SeniorCare stand on their own for a vote.
When HR 1 Medicare Part D passed in the 108th Congress, Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri and Green all voted for it, while all Wisconsin Democrats voted against it.
Medill Northwestern Excerpt:The fact is, Ryan can say he voted for the SeniorCare extension after he voted against it. But the truth is, if SeniorCare was left up to Paul Ryan, he would have ended it. This is self-explanatory and more than just the facts.
The House split the funding bill into two amendments. The first amendment contained money for domestic spending projects, such as Gulf Coast reconstruction programs, SeniorCare and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Milk Income Loss Contract program. The second amendment was comprised of mostly of funds for military operations in Iraq.
The domestic spending amendment passed 348-73, with most of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation voting in favor, with the exception of Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, and Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, who voted against.
The point is, if you limit yourself to the newspaper and accept statements from "fact" Websites as if they are the final word on candidates and the issues, you will probably be voting for the wrong candidate. Consider any and all sources of information and trust in yourself to connect the dots. If the information jibes, it probably is worth considering, whether the Gazette or your uncle thinks otherwise. And THAT is just my opinion.
Beloit Daily News Endorses Paul Ryan For Congress
BDN Endorsement:Just what we need more of in Congress – a hardline partisan. There's a ton of contradiction in their perspective.
Ryan is quickly developing into a rising star for the Republican Party, not because he's a hard-line partisan, but rather because he's an independent thinker who puts more emphasis on solutions than politics.
1 comment:
hey...what u are telling is absolutely correct to me !!!....nice post
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