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Since the wealth of the United States has shifted from the entire middle class to a few individuals, will Mitt Romney use some of his enormous wealth to pay for the rebuilding of Moore, Oklahoma?

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REPUBLICANS!
WHAT WOULD REPLACE OBAMACARE?
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Nonconformists are all alike.
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 "Those who make peaceful revolution
impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable."
                                                          --John F. Kennedy
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How Does the Federal Government
Create A Budget?

There are five key steps in the federal budget process:

Step 1: The President submits a budget request to Congress

Step 2: The House and Senate pass budget resolutions

Step 3: House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees “markup” appropriations bills

Step 4: The House and Senate vote on appropriations bills and reconcile differences

Step 5: The President signs each appropriations bill and the budget becomes law

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Step 1: The President Submits a Budget Request

The president sends budget request to Congress each February for the coming fiscal year, begins on Oct. 1.

For example, President Obama submitted his budget request for fiscal year 2013 in February of 2012.

Fiscal year 2013 commences on Oct. 1, 2012, and ends on Sept. 30, 2013.

The president’s budget request is just a proposal. Congress then reviews the request and passes its own appropriations bills; only after the president signs these bills does the country have a budget for the new fiscal year.
 
Step 2: The House and Senate Pass Budget Resolutions

Once the president’s budget request has been released, Congress begins the months-long process of reviewing the request. After the president submits the budget request and lawmakers have thoroughly reviewed it, the House Committee on the Budget and the Senate Committee on the Budget each writes a budget resolution.

A budget resolution is not a binding document, but is more like a blueprint.

It provides a framework for Congress for making budget decisions about spending and taxes.

It sets overall annual spending limits for federal agencies, but does not set specific spending amounts for particular programs.

After the two chambers pass their budget resolutions, a joint conference is formed to iron out differences between the two and a reconciled version is then voted on by each chamber.

Step 3: House and Senate Subcommittees “Markup” Appropriation Bills

The Appropriations Committees in both the House and the Senate are responsible for determining the precise levels of budget authority for all discretionary programs.

The Appropriations Committees in both the House and Senate are broken down into smaller Appropriations subcommittees, which review the president’s budget request pertaining to the federal agencies under their specific jurisdictions.

Subcommittees cover different areas of the federal government; for example, there is a subcommittee for defense spending, and another one for energy and water.

After each subcommittee reviews the president’s request, it conducts hearings and poses questions to leaders of its associated federal agencies about each agency’s requested budget.

Based on all of this information, the chair of each subcommittee writes a first draft of the subcommittee’s appropriations bill, abiding by the spending limits set out in the budget resolution.

All subcommittee members then consider, amend, and finally vote on the bill.

Once it has passed the subcommittee, the bill goes to the full Appropriations Committee.

The full committee reviews it, and then sends it to the full House or Senate for consideration.

Step 4: The House and Senate Vote on Appropriations Bills and Reconcile Differences

The full House and Senate then debate and vote on appropriations bills from each of the 12 subcommittees.

After both the House and Senate pass their versions of each appropriations bill, a conference committee meets to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions.

After the conference committee produces a reconciled version of the bill, the House and Senate vote again, but this time on a bill that is identical in both chambers.

After passing both the House and Senate, each appropriations bill goes to the president.

Step 5: The President Signs Each Appropriations Bill and the Budget Becomes Law

The president must sign each appropriations bill after it has passed Congress for the bill to become law.

When the president has signed all 12 appropriations bills, the budget process is complete.

Rarely, however, is work finished on all 12 bills by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

This chart shows how all of these pieces fit together to make the annual federal budget process.

The Derby...The Preakness...The Belmont!
Did y'all watch the Preakness today? I know! I know! The poor little mistreated "horsies." But, I'm thinking those "horsies" are treated better than some American kids. And for a mere two minutes of work. My Dad and I would watch. Believe it or not, I'd be able to pick the winner more often than not just by watching the pre-race show. And my father would ask, "did you have a bet on it?" Of course not! I wouldn't even know how to place a bet. Except for the time we really went to the races. And, no...I didn't use the line Julie Andrews shouts from the stands in "My Fair Lady"...Come on...come on...Move your Bloomin' Arse!"

What's with the hats?

Haymarket Tragedy

In connection with the nation-wide strike for the 8-hour workday, which began May 1, 1886, a mass meeting was held on the night of May 4th in the Chicago haymarket.

Its purpose was to protest a police attack on Union pickettes at McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in which workers were injured and killed.

When police ordered the protest meeting to disperse (peaceful though it was), a bomb was thrown toward the police by an unknown person.

The police responded by firing at the crowd.

This became known as the "Haymarket Riot," now more properly named the Haymarket Tradgey.

The 8-Hour Day Movement was destroyed in the nation-wide hysteria which followed.

Stand With North Carolina's Public Schools!

Strong public schools have been a key part of creating the modern North Carolina—a wonderful place to do business and raise a family.

Unfortunately, after years of budget cuts, North Carolina's public schools are in danger.

Join former Congressman and State Superintendent Bob Etheridge and local civic, education and business leaders for a press conference and rally in support of strong public education and opposed to the terrible ideas being proposed in the state legislature!

What: Stand With North Carolina's Public Schools!

When: Monday, May 20, at 3PM

Where:  Craven County Administration Building
               406 Craven St. New Bern, NC 28560

For more information and to RSVP: http://bit.ly/17qL4QF

State lawmakers are putting the squeeze on our schools.

They want to jam 30 or more students into a classroom.

They want fewer teacher assistants.

And they want voucher money drained from public schools.

Students will have less one-on-one time with their teacher.

And students will have fewer resources like technology and text books to make up for it.

But that's not the attitude that made North Carolina great!

Instead let's invest in Pre-K to give every student the opportunity to start off on the right foot.

Let's hire more teachers and TAs, reduce class size and give every student the one-on-one attention they deserve.

Let's stop the race to the bottom.

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Time makes more converts than reason.
                                                           Thomas Paine
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Tell Eric Holder: Stop your attack on the First Amendment

"Attorney General Holder: Your department’s seizure of two months worth of the Associated Press’ phone records amounts to nothing less than an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. 

But sadly, this indiscriminate surveillance of journalists is part of a larger pattern within your department to go after whistleblowers without consideration of the vital role a free press plays in our democracy. 

The Associated Press in calling on you to return the records you seized and to destroy any copies you have made. In addition, we call on you to end your dangerous war on whistleblowers."

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

History of ACORN

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.

From 1970 to its end in 2010, ACORN had grown to more than 175,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in 75 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Canada, the Dominican Republic and Peru.

ACORN's accomplishments include successful campaigns for better housing, schools, neighborhood safety, health care, job conditions, and more.

ACORN members participated in local meetings and actively worked on campaigns, electing leadership from the neighborhood level up, and paying the organization's core expenses through membership dues and grassroots fundraisers.

ACORN constantly challenged the traditional notions of what a community organization is, and its family of organizations included two radio stations, a voter registration network, a housing corporation, and several publications.

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Editor's 2 cents: Why, that evil organization! And, they were responsible for getting voters registered. The new voters usually voted Democratic! Trouble was...the Republicans couldn't have that. They needed to kill off as many of these voting blocks (blacks?) as possible.