Voting is a basic right of all citizens, won with much effort & blood over the ages. Political gesturing to cripple this right is evil.

As clearly documented in the new short web video “Hearts on the Ground,” by Sundance award-winning director Kalyanee Mam (just released at www.LakotaLaw.org/action), the epidemic of child taking by the State of South Dakota is tearing thousands of Lakota Sioux families apart. Every day, Lakota grandmothers are illegally denied their right to foster their own grandchildren. The South Dakota Dept. of Social Services rejects grandmothers for such trivial reasons as too few rooms in a home, too small of a home, too old, decades old crimes, and even rumors. " South Dakota continues to violate the federal law by placing 90% of the 750 Lakota foster children it seizes each year into non-Native homes and facilities, instead of with relatives or tribal homes. Both federal law and the United Nations define this behavior as genocide. Only tribal programs are placing foster children with their relatives. President Obama has the authority to order three federal agencies (the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services), to provide resources to train and develop tribal family service programs and foster care systems for the nine Lakota Sioux tribal Councils. Within a short time, the $60 million in federal funds that currently go to the State of South Dakota’s Department of Social Services to illegally remove Indian children and force them into foster care can instead be spent and managed by the tribes, as they work to keep children with relatives, while restoring tribal sovereignty. Lakota children are more than ten times more likely to be forcibly removed from their parents than Caucasian children, and now comprise about 60% of all foster children in the state. In more than 90% of the cases, simply alleged “neglect,” as opposed to sexual or physical abuse, is given as the reason for the forced taking, sometimes at gunpoint, sometimes while at school, or in the middle of the night. Poverty equals “neglect' in the mind of the State workers. What is happening to Lakota children and families in South Dakota today is precisely the sort of activity that Congress intended to stop when it passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”) of 1978. The Act mandates that when states remove Native American children from their parents, they must be placed with relatives from their extended family, or with other members of their tribe, or with members of other tribes. Only when an active effort for such placements fail are states allowed to place Native Americans in White foster homes, or state run foster care facilities. The Department of Social Services in South Dakota continues to deny child placements to willing and capable relatives, while “stripping” parents of all parental rights to ever see their children again, for “violations” as trivial as failing to show up at parenting classes. South Dakota designates every Native child in its foster care system as “special needs,” receiving up to $79,000 from the federal government for their care annually, and then forcing many to take mind-altering drugs, even some as young at 18 months of age. Medicare spending for foster care child prescriptions in South Dakota increased more than 1,000 percent in the recent decade, while suicide rates for young Lakota children are 12 times the national average, and among the highest in the world. Some of the suicides are clearly related to the forced medications. More than a century after being forced from their ancestral lands onto reservations, the 70,000 members of the Lakota Sioux nation remain the poorest, most oppressed people in the United States. Let's turn around 150 years of cruel abuse to Lakota families. Please sign this petition and tell President Obama to instruct his agencies to help the tribes bring the Lakota children home!

A democracy can only be successful if most of its citizens vote. The Supreme Court last year weakened critical provisions that protected citizens right to vote. Rep. Issa should support the effort in Congress to restore these voting protections by co-sponsoring the bill to amend the Voting Rights Act.

We need to strengthen the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act is an extremely important piece of legislation that was passed during the Civil Rights era, but was unfortunately weakened significantly by last year's Supreme Court decision. Right now, Congress can improve and restore the protections which this legislation once served, by passing this important bill. Rep. Frelinghuysen should support this effort by co-sponsoring this bill.

My Church has used Soul To The Polls on the two (2) sundays of Early Voting after Church Service , using vans and church bus to get to polls

I am appalled by the efforts of the right wing of Congress to deny citizens the right to vote if they do not have a drivers license or passport. Many older citizens do not have these documents.

Every person's right to vote must be protected. Too many have sacrificed their lives protecting this freedom. It's a matter of honor, whether you agree with the person who suffers disenfranchisement or not. Protect the vote. Protect the majority.

This is an issue of fairness and important to preserving our democracy.

50 years after the federal Equal Pay Act was signed into law, fair pay remains an unfulfilled promise for New Hampshire working women. Economists say that at the current rate of progress, the gender wage gap in the United States won’t close until 2057. Granite State working families can’t wait that long. Women deserve equal pay for equal work, and closing the wage gap will strengthen New Hampshire’s middle-class by increasing the annual earnings of two-earner and single-parent households by thousands of dollars. Granite State lawmakers could infuse millions of dollars a year into the local economy – simply by ensuring that women get fair pay. Women don’t chose to be paid less. But common employer policies and workplaces pressures prevent or discourage women from learning how their paychecks measure up. For 60% of private sector workers in the U.S., disclosing information about wages and paid benefits to co-workers is explicitly prohibited by employer “pay secrecy” policies or actively discouraged by management culture. Two new bills introduced in the New Hampshire legislature – House Bill 1188 and Senate Bill 207 (2014) - take a critical step toward closing the pay gap in the Granite State. These bills would help employers by clearly defining the conditions in which male and female workers with the same job responsibilities may legitimately be paid different wages. HB 1188 and SB 207 would also help women find out how their own pay measure up by prohibiting employers from firing or retaliating against employees who disclose wage and salary information to their co-workers. Help jump-start our progress toward paycheck equity in New Hampshire by adding your name to our petition asking state legislators to support HB 1188 and SB 207. We’ll be hand-delivering the signed petition to members of the New Hampshire Senate and House of Representatives before key votes. To find out more about the wage gap and what you can do to support fair pay in New Hampshire, please visit and follow the New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay campaign page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh Thank you for supporting New Hampshire working families, The New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay Team [email protected] On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh ______________________________________ MORE FACTS ABOUT THE WAGE GAP IN NH: -- Progress on closing the gender wage gap in the United State has been stalled since 2004. Nationally, women’s pay is still falling short by an average of .20 cents on every $1 paid to male workers. -- As a group, New Hampshire women who worked full-time, year round earned just .79 cents for every $1 earned by full-time male workers in 2012. Based on the median earnings of all New Hampshire workers, women in the workforce earned .77 cents for every $1 paid to male workers. -- Economists estimate that over a lifetime, a woman will lose between $431,000 and $2 million dollars in unpaid earnings because of the wage gap. That missing money can’t be used to pay for higher education, buy a new home, save for a secure retirement or purchase goods and services from local businesses. -- Some people say the gender wage gap is a myth. They believe that women are paid less because men and women make different choices about work and family. But women don’t choose to be paid less than male co-workers with the same qualifications and job responsibilities. When economists studied factors known to contribute to pay inequality – such as education, occupation and employment patterns – they found that 41% of the wage gap can’t be explained by worker characteristics. -- With the exception of construction jobs, working women in New Hampshire earn less than men in every employment sector - even though NH women have equal or higher levels of educational attainment than NH men. -- In New Hampshire, the pay gap increases for women workers with the highest levels of educational attainment. The median wage for women workers with a 4-year or advanced college degree is $39,490 a year; the median wage for men with the same level of education is $64,134 – a 38% gap.

The great news is that Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley said the Pennsylvania Voter ID bill is unconstitutional. He ruled that the law is "invalid and unconstitutional on its face as the provision and issuance of compliant identification does not comport with liberal access and unreasonably burdens the right to vote. “Voting laws are designed to assure a free and fair election; the Voter ID Law does not further this goal.” Now the bad news. It is still possible for the law to be appealed. PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane defended the Voter ID law before Commonwealth Court. She may appeal the ruling to PA's Supreme Court. If she does appeal, the Voter ID law may be reinstated. Tell Attorney General Kane that we agree with Judge McGinley. Voter ID is “invalid and unconstitutional on its face.” Do not appeal Voter ID to the Supreme Court.

John Kiriakou has been denied a release to serve the last 9 months of his sentence in a halfway house. He still hopes to be released to a halfway house before the end of 2014. John stepped forward to provide information on an illegal CIA torture program knowing that he might put his freedom at risk by doing this. Faced with charges that could have resulted in a very long prison sentence he accepted a deal that resulted in a 30 month sentence. He has set a good example for all of us by risking his own freedom to reveal extremely serious violations of human rights. I believe that John very much deservers our support for his request to be released to a halfway house.