How a bill becomes a law

Do you guys remember watching the video in like junior high that explains how a bill becomes a law? It layed out the process pretty clearly and made it sound pretty simple. I think it may be time for a new video. The new video may need to include something about there being two political parties that dislike each other and try to kill each other's bills on a regular basis.

With the passage of the healthcare bill I can't help but think our process for making laws isn't working quite how it should. I would argue that the average person doesn't know much about the healthcare bill and yet it has already been voted on and passed. If the job of our congresspeople and senators is to represent us with their votes it seems like they should have an understanding about how we feel about the bill before they cast their vote. But if most of us don't know what is in the bill then how can we form an opinion and pass that along to our representatives so they can vote accordingly.

Here's my issue. Who's responsibility is it to make sure the public is well-informed about what our government is doing. Is it on us to research on our own and then send our opinions to our representatives? Should our representatives be taking steps to make sure we know what they will be voting on and ask us for our input? Should some one from the whitehouse be making efforts to explain everything? Should TV and other media outlets do more extensive coverage that gives all the information about a bill?

What do you think? Also, do you feel like you know what is in the bill that just passed? (yes or no, you don't have to explain the bill)

Give Walmart a break

I read a story on Yahoo! yesterday about Walmart that I think is a little ridiculous. In a Walmart store some one got on the annoucement system and told all black people to leave the store. Of course this has to become a huge deal that will probably scar Walmart's name for a long time in the future.

Here's my beef. Aren't we getting way too sensitive? Couldn't everyone in the store have just gone about their business and ignored this comment. Maybe they could have chuckled and thought "what an idiot" and then continued with their shopping. Instead we have people demanding that Walmart take severe action and people threatening to never shop at Walmart again. This has been stretched to even say that maybe Walmart is a racist company. I'm not even sure its possible for a global company like Walmart to be racist.

What do you think? Am I not sensitive to the impact of an incident like this? Or is it being overreacted to?

Which is the most outrageous

Make your pick.

1. Our government is about to pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits as well as a couple other programs to help people out in the tough times we're going through. I've seen varying amounts but it looks like the cost of the bill will be around $130 billion. They have found ways to cover a portion of the cost (around $30 billion) so the other $100 billion or so will just get tacked onto our national debt. Will we ever stop spending money we don't have?

2. I heard on the radio yesterday that they US Postal Service has 15,000 employees that they don't need. Due to union contracts they are not allowed to fire these employees so they are forced to keep paying them. They have to cut costs some how, so they are looking into stoppage of mail delivery on Saturdays. Why have we ever let unions have so much power?

3. A chef is making cheese using his wife's breast milk and serving it in his restaurant. People have been visiting the restaurant and calling the chef, eager to try this "human cheese". Would you like your's sliced on a sandwich or a nice chunk of it to chomp on?