In October 2012, 8-year-old Nabeela ventured out with her grandmother Mamana Bibi to do daily chores in their family's large, open field. Moments later, Mamana was blasted into pieces by a US drone strike that appears to have been aimed directly at her. Amnesty International did not find any evidence she was endangering anyone, let alone posing an imminent threat to the US. Yet a year has passed and the US government has not acknowledged Mamana Bibi's death, let alone provided justice or compensation for it. We can't bring back Mamana Bibi but, through a process of accountability, we can stop the US government from committing unlawful killings with impunity.

The UN election for China to an influential Human Rights Council seat takes place on November 12th, 2013. This seat would cement China's ability to control the direction and priorities of international human rights activity. China's pervasive contempt for human rights is well-documented by UN monitors, human rights organizations, and the US State Department. Chinese prisons hold tens of thousands of dissidents persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, or political beliefs, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. For decades, China has impeded worldwide efforts by the United States to effectively monitor or reduce human rights abuses in UN member states. The United States cannot allow China to gain a world leadership position on human rights. By voting NO, we will be taking a stand for not just our own values, but the basic rights of millions worldwide protected by the Human Rights Council.

Fast Track is a procedural trick created by Nixon in 1974, to by-pass the Constitutional provision in Article 1-8, which states that “Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations.” Fast track erases the representative power vested in Congress to debate bills on their merits, or amend, and instead, cedes this power to the president. Both so-called free trade agreements, TPP, and TTIP, undermine United States sovereignty by creating binding agreements set by some 600 trans-national corporate advisors, and would nullify many of our laws that protect citizens, consumers, and the environment, if these very laws stand in the way of projected corporate profits. Corporations are suing today in anticipation of setting precedents on cases ranging from drug patent extensions, which would eliminate affordable generics, suing over countries banning a pesticide that kills bees, to suing over product labeling of GMOs. Every area where a corporation will earn less, will be on the chopping block, among them, labor rights, and minimum wage requirements, patent and copyright issues, food safety, product safety standards, clean air and water, buy American procurement policies, healthcare, energy, internet freedoms, and service sector regulations. TPP and TTIP, sweeping Free Trade Agreements, while having been negotiated in secret for three years, will, if passed into trade law, do extreme damage to the citizens of this country. We already know from experience, the damage free trade agreements like NAFTA have caused: mass shutdowns of U.S. manufacturing, soaring unemployment, deep decreases in wages, huge budget deficits, enormous trade deficits, and increased immigration rates, among many other negative impacts. With so very much at stake for the citizens of this country, shouldn’t we openly debate the bill on its merits, and amend, instead of limiting floor debate to 20 hours and only an up or down vote? Fast Track is outdated, and there is no reason to subject the citizens of this country, and your district to such an onerous procedure that severely limits representative government, handing it instead to “foreign and corporate advisors.” Representative Castor, please vote against fast track, and in favor of government of, by, and for the people.

The Administration has claimed that its drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen are legal under U.S. law, but it has never shared with Congress or the American people all of its legal memos purportedly giving legal justification for the policy. The Administration has also not told Congress or the American people who we are at war with - which groups the Administration claims it has the authority to target with drone strikes under U.S. law. By introducing legislation to compel the Administration to share this information with Congress and the public, Senator Wyden will give Americans concerned about the drone strike policy a way to engage Members of Congress on the issue.

Iranian leaders are currently seeking relief from the lawfully imposed U.S. sanctions. Hundreds of survivors, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters of those killed or maimed in the Oct. 23, 1983 Marine Barracks bombing seek relief from their pain and suffering every day. 30 years is too long to wait for justice. President Obama can hold Iran accountable for their actions. Remember the peacekeepers, Mr. President. The first duty is to remember.

Started in 2008 under President Bush, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has excluded everyone but corporations in developing this “trade agreement” in which only 5 chapters of 29 are about trade. The other 24 detail new corporate “rights” that will lower US food safety standards, eliminate US control of natural gas exports, encourage US companies to outsource jobs, extend monopoly drug pricing and ban US government drug price negotiations for Medicaid, prohibit imposition by Congress of certain financial taxes and Wall Street reforms, turn the internet over to private interests, limit US government regulation of utilities, education, transportation, and sets up an international tribunal where corporations can sue government for jeopardizing “expected future profits.” The “agreement has no expiration date and can’t be changed without 100% participants’ agreement.

Free Trade agreements have already lost jobs, shuttered plants and hollowed out Maine's communities. The last thing we need is another trade deal that limits ability to safeguard the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. We don't need any free trade agreements; we need fair trade agreements.

Republican extremism has impacted me in this way: I could not use the bathroom at an interstate rest stop. And it pains me to see friends not getting paid.

Republican Congressman Devin Nunes hit the nail on the head when he said, "It's moronic to shut down government over this." That was after his fellow House Republicans refused to back down from their efforts to overturn Obamacare, forcing a government shutdown. Fair Share organizers are turning up the heat on key congressional members in response to the shutdown, and we need a groundswell of grassroots opposition to the shutdown to break the gridlock in Washington, D.C.

We need a comprehensive approach to Syria that can serve as a peacemaking, prosperity-building model for the region. We need to break the endless cycle and horror of sectarian violence and dictators holding power through terror and genocide. The German Marshall plan offers a model that can be followed in Syria. Join me in proposing that our national and global leaders adopt and enact a visionary solution.

Historically, any peacemaking process is easy to disrupt.. One incident involving a small group or individual could bring the chemical weapons removal process to a halt as accusations fly and participants retreat, especially if the incident were to involve the use of chemical weapons, Successful removal of chemical weapons from Syria is important for the well-being of the Syrian people, the region and the world.

Join us to call on the US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to do the following: take a strong role in pushing for a ceasefire and a negotiated solution for Syria during the Geneva II Convention, push for an increase in US aid to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, and urge the United Nations to ban the use of killer drones.