Don't argue, CHECK YOUR FACTS!

In the past, I have been referred to as a Liberal, and/or a Left-wing Democrat. I AM registered as a Democrat, but, I consider myself as a middle-of-the-road Democrat. There are some topics I agree with Democrats, and some I agree with Republicans. I DO NOT consider myself as hard-line in either party. I vote for the best person (in my point of view), and I come to that decision according to their platform and views that meet with mine. This is like most people, I believe.
Lately, some of my Republican friends, and relatives, have sent me their highly bias views in the form of forwarded articles. I don’t condemn them for their views, just that they don’t do the research before the open their mouths, or forward something. Just because a person is Republican or Democrat, does NOT mean they are ALWAYS right. Our first President did not have any affiliation with either party, so he was a non-party President. From there, the parties changed in believes and names.Now, I can not speak for all the Presidents in our history, so to save time, I am going to talk about the Presidents in my lifetime (1946 until the present). And if you really want to check; these facts are from www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/presidents of the united states.
In my life, there have been five Republicans and six Democrats. Both parties have their good and bad points in their term. In general, Republicans have been generous to big business, and Democrats have been generous to labor. More wars, or conflicts, have arisen during a Republican terms, and more peacemaking and human rights movements have come about during a Democratic terms. The deficit has grown bigger and faster during Republican terms, and been (generally) balanced or reduced during a Democratic term. Democrats have served more multiple terms than Republicans. Assassinations (or attempts) have taken place during both parties’ terms. Both parties have been embarrassed by impeachments. The Korean War spanned three Presidents. The Vietnam War spanned three Presidents. The conflicts have spanned six Presidents, but few American lives were lost in the Middle East until both Bush Presidents were in office. More than 5,000 service men/women were killed invading countries that posed NO harm to the. Both parties have raided Social Security and somewhat reformed Medicare, and done a poor job in both cases. We have more homeless today than in the Great Depression of the ‘30s. The deficit is the highest than ANY time in our history. There are thousand upon thousands of home foreclosed because the FED said lend,LEND, LEND to people who could not afford the mortgage. Both parties have had their blunders, mis-management episodes, and poor decision making. Like some of my friends and relatives, they are bullheaded, stubborn, and open their mouths before they check the TRUE facts. They listen to bias talk radio, bias news networks or bias newspapers, and take that as gospel. They believe the party in control is out to get them, and plotting to take their right away from them because some dummy on the radio says so.
No matter what you preference is...check your facts first, and then, recheck them.
And lastly, keep your opinions to yourself. I invite and enjoy a good debate, but DO NOT push it on me! I am old and stubborn too.

The Media did it

Just listen! Do you hear it? SWINE FLU, ILLEGALS, POOR ECONOMY, PIRATES, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FIRST 100 DAYS. If you did not recognize it...it's negativity. The media feeds on our response to negativity. We panic and that beings on more negativity. How about telling people about the positives in the news. The people who saw a robbery being committed so they joined together and caught the guy before he could run away. Or, the little 4 year old boy who called 9-1-1 cause his Mom was having a breathing problem. Or, the little girl who organized the making of care packages for the troops in Iraq. These are positives, and we need more of them broadcasted to us INSTEAD OF all the negatives. I do not mean hide the negatives, but, do not blow them so far out of shape they over shadow the good things. We all know there is plenty of bad to go around. But there is always a lot of good going on that we do not hear about.
Let's take the most popular topic today, the SWINE FLU. O-M-G! It's an epidemic, right? The last epidemic was in 1918 and thousands died. So far, the world has seen one person die from the present Swine Flu. Typically, there are 250,000 to 500,000 die each year from the flu, no matter which of the four strains. This flu was thought to have come from Mexico. The government is on this "illegals" thing about Mexico. So naturally Mexico is at fault. Do your homework...most of the world's pigs are grown in the US and most recent strains of the Swine Flu originated in the US.
Now to the economy. Have you watched the Stock Market lately? It's going up, slowly, but up. Many small towns have reported an increase in business profits. We hit bottom folks and now we're going upward. Spend it if you got it. And if you don't want to, put it in the bank for others to borrow upon.
Listen folks, President Obama is not a magician. He can not make the economy better in a day, and neither can the Congress or Senate, but they are trying hard. We elected these people to do their things. If you do not like what they are doing, then vote them out next term, but don't sit there and complain, help them. Be financially responsible and support the economy.
We are a GREAT country, maybe the greatest (but let's be humble). The American people are strong and always come up with a way the survive the hard times. We will this time too. I have seen third world countries and we have NOTHING to complain about.
Think positive, DO the positives, TALK positive and pass it forward.
One last thing...turn the news off. If it's something you need to hear, eventually, you'll hear about it.