As a Southern California resident, I know all too well how easy it is to get in the wrong lane - on either side of the border - and end up somewhere you didn't intend. This young former Marine had just moved here from another state and was driving at night in a borrowed truck. He ended up in the wrong lane and had no choice but to enter Mexico, where he attempted to turn around and come home immediately. When he truthfully answered questions at the border about having weapons, he was arrested. There is no reason for Mexico to be holding him, except to gain political leverage with the U.S. It is clear that he did not intend to commit a crime. Andrew Tahmooressi has already spent more than a month in a Mexican prison. The 25-year-old machine gunner was diagnosed with PTSD after his two deployments to Afghanistan, and was receiving treatment at a local VA hospital. But since his arrest in Mexico, his family and friends fear the worst. One likens his current situation to the conditions experienced by a POW, and worries about the effect of the confinement on his mental health. He should be released immediately.

This week, Congress has key opportunities to move to end the endless state of war that the country has been in for more than a decade. Reps. Justin Amash [R-MI] and John Conyers [D-MI] are introducing a bipartisan amendment on the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA] that would bar the U.S. from transferring shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons (“manpads”) to insurgents in Syria. Transfer of these dangerous weapons, which could easily fall into the hands of anti-U.S. terrorists, would threaten civilian aircraft throughout the region and violate international agreements initiated by the U.S. The Obama Administration opposes the transfer of manpads to Syria; the Amash-Conyers amendment would codify the Administration’s position into law. Rep. Ted Yoho [R-FL] has introduced an amendment to the NDAA which would bar the CIA from conducting drone strikes. This reform, which is supported by Human Rights Watch, among others, would force the government to disclose more information about the drone strike policy. Reps. Barbara Lee [D-CA] and Adam Schiff [D-CA] intend to introduce an amendment to the NDAA which would repeal the 2001 AUMF. The broad 2001 AUMF, rushed through Congress in the days after the 9/11 attacks, has been used to justify a wide array of abuses in the “war on terror,” including torture, indefinite detention, and drone strikes outside of legal armed conflict against people who were not threatening the United States. Reps. Peter Welch [D-VT], Walter Jones [R-NC], and Mick Mulvaney [R-SC] are circulating a letter to the White House in opposition to the supply of manpads to insurgents in Syria. Senators Mark Udall [D-CO] and Rand Paul [R-KY] are demanding that the Administration publish secret memos written by David Barron purporting to justify the use of drone strikes outside a legal armed conflict, as ordered by an appellate court, before voting on Barron’s nomination as a judge. If other Senators back them, the Administration will be forced to share more information about the drone strike policy, information crucial for judging whether it is legal, ethical, and wise. Urge your legislators in the House and Senate to press for these crucial reforms by signing our petition.

The Democratic Party in the House of Representatives needs to appoint one and only one best possible person to the House Committee to investigate Benghazi one more time. There is no better candidate than Alan Grayson. It is time that the Democrats had a spokesperson who could stand up to the rhetoric of Republicans like Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Eric Cantor.

The embargo against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act hurt people in the US, Cuba and people around the world. These vicious policies restrict trade as well as the exchange of scientific, medical and cultural information. US companies cannot sell their products to Cuba and people in the US cannot buy Cuban products. Cuba has many innovative medicines for which people in the US have no access. For example, the Cubans have developed cancer fighting drugs, drugs which treat the effects of diabetes and drugs which reduce cholesterol. As a person recovering from cancer, my rights are being violated since I have no access to medicines which might help me. My rights are also violated since these policies make it difficult for me to travel to Cuba and benefit from scientific and cultural exchanges. It is past time to normalize relations with one of our closest neighbors. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Fractionalization in the Jewish Community has never been good for Jewish people or the state of Israel. Friendly fire from with the Jewish community should not be tolerated as a substitute for difficult discussions and finding common ground. Leadership of organizations allegedly representing us need to be continually reminded we are a distinct, but very diverse multicultural minority and need to work together on important issues. Excluding Jewish voices or threatening to leave any group trying to represent a "big tent" group of people and positions is not easy, but there needs to be inclusion and the listening to the other even when there are difficult disagreements.

Yahoo is making access to secure and reliable email more difficult for Iranians. How? Yahoo has decided to not allow people in Iran to create new email accounts simply because of where they live. Iran is facing unprecedented sanctions, but essential services like free email accounts have long been exempt from those laws.* No matter where you stand on the effectiveness of the Iran sanctions, those laws don't apply here. The White House and State Department have made clear that it is important to ensure sanctions do not disrupt Iranians' access to online communications.That's why they exempted the technology from sanctions in the first place. For many of us in the US who use services such as Gmail or Hotmail, not having access to Yahoo may not seem like a big deal. However, Yahoo is the most popular email service in Iran and over 63% of Iranians use Yahoo as their primary email provider.* This unnecessary move by Yahoo to limit access may force many Iranians to use insecure and less-stable government Internet communications services – essentially the local equivalent of an NSA-run email service. Safe and reliable email services is something we need everyone to have access to. We know our voices matter to Yahoo because Yahoo executives have been responsive to these kinds of campaigns before. Last year, after a prolonged campaign, Yahoo agreed to turn on HTTPS encryption by default, which made its email service far more secure for everyone. Especially now, after the NSA scandal, Yahoo cares about what people like us think about them more than ever. In a recent speech, Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, said that, as a company, Yahoo needs to “rebuild trust with our users.” We need to remind Yahoo that the trust it needs to rebuild isn’t just with users in the US, but all potential users around the globe. And that Yahoo’s stated commitment to Internet security needs to extend to all its users - no matter what country they’re from. Technology is a tool that makes it infinitely easier for people from all over the world to share their hopes, stories and dreams together. Now that the United States and Iranian governments are talking to each other after decades, we need to raise our voices to ensure that every day citizens can have that same privilege too.

Many non-governmental and human right organizations were reporting about the brutality of the Ethiopian government for the last 23 years. But still the Ethiopian government is one of the major recipients of not only of financial aid but also military training and hardware from United States Government, which the regime does not hesitate to use against our people. The killings of thousands of Oromo students and civilians suspected of being supporters of opposition groups in the last two decades, genocide in Gambella and Ogaden can witness this. The financial aid given to this regime is not being used to construct schools and hospitals but to buy weapons, to construct prisons and buy technologies to spy on its own citizen at home and in diaspora. In the last decade, millions of hectares of land were and are being snatched off poor peasants and sold to wealthy investors in the name of development. The farmers and their families are left for destitution and absolute poverty while TPLF officials and peoples arround them are building luxurious Villas with the aid money at the same spot were the farmers are displaced . Opposing this land grab and injustice, millions of Oromo students and civilians are demonstrating peacefully. But the response from the government side is as usual so brutal that over 50 high school and University students were killed just on one day, and the killing is still underway. With this petition we would like to ask you: 1) To urge the Ethiopian government to stop killing unarmed Oromo civilians and students. 2) To stop giving both financial and military aid to this regime, who use your tax payers' money to buy weapons which end up killing our people.

Over 200 female secondary school students were abducted from their boarding school by a group of people who are believed to be a part of the Boko Haram sect in Chibok, Northeastern Nigeria. In recent years, countries which have experienced insurgencies, wars, conflicts and internal turbulence record that the most devastating impacts of these crises are experienced by children, girls and young women, who are left vulnerable to extensive attacks and dehumanizing conditions. The abducted young girls are being affected by a conflict they did not create, and their voices need to be heard. It can only be imagined what they have undergone in these past weeks or what they are bring subjected to at hand. Please sign this petition so that this situation can be given the right level of coverage in international media and be addressed as a priority issue by UNICEF, UNWomen and other international organizations that can put significant pressure on the Nigerian Government to intensify its search efforts. These 234 girls need to be found and returned to the safety of their families and homes.

When it comes to the future of the global economy, you've been shut out. When American negotiators decide what matters during trade agreements, they consult with big corporations, not the American public. These corporations are using these secret negotiations to make an end run around Congress so that they can ship even more jobs overseas, devastate the environment, drive up health care costs and repeal critical consumer protections on Wall Street. They've shut all of us out of the negotiating room, but that doesn't mean we won’t be heard. Our trade agreements should lift us up, not drag us down in a race to the bottom. Our trade agreements should put high standards for wages and working conditions, environmental and consumer protection first instead of trying to maximize corporate profits and power. Sign this petition today to let your members of Congress know that it's time for 21st century global trade policies that work for everyone.

[Need for recipient's emails; governments, militias and law enforcement agencies worldwide] Definitions ‘true hate’- No Acceptable Circumstances. Military Action – The act of legislating or ordering troops to be put on ground in combat or law enforcement. Consensus – Decision making by agreement or wide majorities. Nuclear Weapons – Weapons deriving their energy from nuclear fission or fusion Chemical Weapons – Weapons deriving their energy from; or combusting upon its victims, chemical explosives or agents. Classified Weapons – Weapons classified by this treaty. Military Rule – Government rule by public or private militaries; or dictatorships with totalitarian rule. Democratic Constitutional Conventions – A communally delegated convention to build a public constitution; and federal and federate governments. Petition for Ending War and Creating a Peace Treaty Internationally. Under what circumstance should there be any war legislated by a powerful regime? Innocent soldiers should not have to spend their lives just because an elected leader legislated for it. People have been killing eachother for centuries and blowing eachother up for decades, so must we continue on until military equipment is so advanced that millions of lives can end by one button push? Oh shit.. that can already happen, so it is only a matter of time until some monocratic dictator somewhere in the world gets mad and decides to try to rage nuclear war. Since wars are usually started over problems made by people in power, the powerful should have to solve it themselves rather than send thousands of other people to get killed over various political issues. We would hope that governments would have learned better from the US’ experience of nuking other countries, hopefully. If not, such a travesty will happen again eventually. If measures are taken to build peace around the world, namely this treaty being put to action to end warfare, human progress has been made and we are evolving. The general argument against a world peace movement is “it will never happen, so just accept it because it is human nature and people are violent.” With that ideology nothing good will ever happen for anybody accept those who are violent so should we conserve such nonsense from the past? It literally makes no sense not to publish, sign this petition and require lawmakers to sign this as a treaty or revise it under a wide consensus. People have been saying “that will never happen so just accept it the way it is” for basically every social movement. Do you think the American Revolution was such an easy and given thing? The Military of Great Britain at the time was the most powerful, so the common thought was likely that no one could ever secede from that kind of ridiculous power as the movement was coming to fruition. There are many other possible ways for these politicians to solve problems with other country’s politicians rather than letting thousands of people; who don’t deserve to die, die from both sides in the name of serving their country. The only time a country’s military should be used is in an act of defense; if their country is being invaded or to fight domestic tyranny. If this petition becomes law, countries can no longer declare soldier warfare and leaders who try to, or suggest legislating soldier warfare, shall be punished and/or fight their own battles. It should be one’s freedom to choose if they would like to serve their country with their life because it is their life; not the governments, and they can serve their country in their own way. When a person serves their country with their life, they are only dying. No one is gaining anything from the deaths of soldiers accept maybe the powerful in the modern day. We are told warfare and large military complex’s keeps our country secure, but not many countries are a true security threat anyway, so why continue to die in the name of corrupt governments? Do we want humanity to remain a violent species forever? But of course.. there are extremist groups who still may not agree to a peace treaty, and if not, will the world ever see peace?

Over half of Yemen's 24.8 million citizens hear it every day — the sound of a robot plane bringing death from the sky.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, your support of H. Res 520, co-sponsored by Congressmen Royce and Engle would help protect women and children. This resolution is slated to be voted on in this committee at the end of this month, so your support in vital. This resolution supports 1)an end to attacks on civilians 2) ensure humanitarian aid sent to Syria by the U.S. government reaches those Syrians most in need through Syrian American NGOs (non profits) who have been working on the ground for the past three years, 3) that the US Government no longer recognizes Assad as the legitimate president of Syria.