Final Shift Discussion

No more odd this, odd that. Daily Donut from now on. End of title discussion. Anything else that was stated in previous posts remains unchanged, especially about new discussions.

I have found a good website that I think I will use as a resource for this venture. It contains a record of congressional proceedings that is published daily as long as congress is in session. I got the idea to write about this from my local newspaper, which publishes congressional votes, so that will also be a huge resource for me. While the paper does publish the votes of my congressmen, I will also use The Washington Post's Votes Database for further information pertaining to Iowan congressmen and other lawmakers around the country. Lastly, for simpler explanations of the votes (other than the word for word record) I will utilize multiple other resources as I get going.

Because the Gazette usually prints congressional votes on Sundays, and that will be my first line of information, the votes I will be discussing will normally be for the previous week. The only thing I can think of right now that would cause me to write about something earlier is something like if the Senate made a major decision on the healthcare bill that is there right now. Another reason for waiting a few days to start writing is that it simply gives me time to learn more about it, and it gives my sources time to gather the facts and put them together.

One thing I haven't discussed too much yet is how I will take my view, and whether it will be party-based. I would like to just say that I don't affiliate completely with a party. It bothers me when people refer to Conservatives as republican, Republicans as conservative. This also applies to liberal and democratic. There are plenty of Republicans out there who have proven themselves to not be fiscally conservative. Alternatively, there can be conservatives who aren't republican. This goes the same for Democrats. Some of them can be conservative; they don't all want to spend, spend, spend.

This is basically my approach to politics. I don't have to associate myself with one party in order to have beliefs. I don't always agree with the Democratic financial ideas, but I tend to side with them on the more social issues (i.e. stem-cell research). Therefore, my views on specific congressional votes won't be based as much on party affiliation as they will be just on my personal beliefs. However, much like a reporter, I will do my best to leave my opinions out when giving the raw facts. When I get to the section towards the end where I give my vote and an explanation, opinion is fair game. I debated whether or not to talk about what my opinion is, but I think it's important to get it out there. If I wanted to be a reporter, I would go work for the newspaper, not write blogs.



I would also like to add that I am only using the Gazette as a starting point, not as my main source of information. You can read the section (go to page 8B) with the congressional votes if you want. I think it is pretty neutral, though.

Next post= last week's progress on healthcare (finally).