The image says "#New York Times" at the top and has a quote that discusses "#Veterans' Jobs Bill Block in the Senate" on #Facebook

Facebook is a great way to share information with friends - but can also end up passing on false or partial information. Therefore, just like e-mails, I encourage people to check things out!

The image says "New York Times" at the top and has a quote that discusses "Veterans' Jobs Bill Block in the Senate". Since at first blush, it does not seem to be a good move politically for Senate members, I got curious and decided to find and read the article it came from – and why they would not pass a bill to help Veterans.

It appears that things like Snopes, Fact Check or Truth Team are not as unbiased as they used to be. So it's good to go directly to articles quoted, bills discussed or full context of quotes.

I use this example because it is very current and I have seen it many times and decided to do a little research..

#1: It appears to be from a blogger on NYT on-line site. Though not just a random person but a regular NYT blogger, this TruthTeam quote comes from a combination opinion piece /news piece blog. It’s important to understand that blogs and editorials are created for opinions to be expressed, based on the news and current events, but not necessarily unbiased news reports.

#2: It’s always good to read things in context, and get opposing views. So here is a link to the article. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/veterans-jobs-bill-blocked-in-the-senate/

The overall tone is not a whole lot different from the quote, but according to the article, Republicans voted against it specifically because the $1 billion bill was not funded. There does appear to be an expected source of funding, but possibly not attached to this bill. Also saw that the $1 billion would be to create up to 20,000 jobs. That's a minimum of $50,000 to create each job - not even the actual income veterans would receive.

My goal: To encourage people to not just pass along little snippets that sound good. Instead to get involved in the political process by educating and informing themselves. This is just one example of how I chose to do that.

Heather J. Kirk

We know your vote counts - make sure it's logical too!

We know your vote counts - make sure it's logical too!

Political ad writers COUNT ON YOU TO NOT THINK FOR YOURSELF and to not know how your own government works. Here is my rant of the week - not against, or for, any candidate, but about putting on our thinking caps - and knowing what we are talking about before we speak!

An ad against Vernon Parker says he told Tea Partiers he wants to get rid of the Department of Education (yes, he did say this), and therefore Arizona will lose $800 million dollars in educational funding. This is NOT A LOGICAL CONLUSION!

The DOE basically says 'teach what we tell you to, or we won't give you federal money for education. We don't care if you want to teach to the needs of your students and your geographical area. No local control of curriculum allowed." (My own words.)

But if there is no DOE, the DOE can't take away our funding for not doing what the DOE says we have to do. (See how that works...)  So the claim is ILLOGICAL.

Later (not in the ad), it appears that to cover up for this lack of logic, the ad writers say there will be no Pell Grants for college without the DOE. Who says there will be no college grants without a DOE? Not Vernon Parker. In the video quoted, he says that the DOE educational rules have resulted in kids who can't read at a third grade level and don't know history - - responding to charts and a presentation obviously made before he started speaking, about poor test scores, something very few will disagree with.

Clearly the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, creators of the ad, did not learn critical thinking in school either.

Here's a link to a Press Release (not news, but Public Relations), accusations related to the quote, and oddly the entire video of Vernon Parker's speech, which does not support the accusation. I guess they are counting on you to not actually listening. http://azdem.org/news/releases/Vernon_Parker_Cuts_Education_AZ_CD9/

 Heather J. Kirk