Dear President Obama, I request that, during the swearing-in ceremony for your second term, you consider laying your hand upon a copy of the Constitution instead of upon the Bible and that you eliminate all trappings of religious faith from the ceremony. The reasons for this request are as follows: -Having the Chief Executive sworn in with a Bible is an obvious violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as it clearly represents a preferential acknowledgement of one religious belief (Judeo-Christianity) over all others. -The Constitution represents the set of rules that applies to all Americans regardless of race, sex or creed, whereas religious texts only apply to the adherents of their particular faith. -The Constitution is the document that you swear to defend in your oath of office. -The Bible contains passages that are supportive of mysogyny, homophobia and genocide. It also offers advice on how to properly treat slaves without once stating that owning other human beings is morally wrong. -None of the governments described in the Bible are democratic. -The words "so help me God" are not a part of the official oath as stated in the Constitution and when said by a member of the government being sworn into office represent another violation of the Establishment Clause. Obviously the choice to remove all forms of faith from a presidential inaugural will be controversial and cause outrage among your political foes as well as many of your supporters. But in the interest of obtaining true religious liberty in our country, this outrage will be well worth facing and the ensuing debate healthy and well worth having.

Use this form to sign Senator Harkin’s petition to President Obama urging him to stand strong and protect the middle class in the fiscal "cliff" negotiations. If we all stand together, we can strengthen President Obama’s hand without tying his hands.

a minority of senators have been holding up bills that are favored by a majority of senators. bills should be voted up or down by a simple majority, rather than requiring 60 votes to be acted upon. time is short. phone your senators today.

To prevent Congress from touching Medicare and/or Social Security until members of the House and Senate give up their special entitlements and subject themselves to the same entitlements as the rest of the country.

Our legislaters should follow the same rules they impose on the American people.

Pledges made to Grover Norquist's organization seem to present a conflict for our elected officials. Any office holder that signed a pledge other than their pledge to their oath of office needs to disavow all prior pledges except to their oath of office.

Tuesday, Dec. 5, was a day of disgrace in the Senate. A small number of Republican senators voted to reject ratification of this Treaty, which was based on our own law, written in 1991 and signed into law by the first President Bush. I call for a re-vote, if such a thing is possible. Even the frail former senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who appeared in the Senate Chamber to argue on behalf ot theTreaty's passage, was not able to achieve its passage.

Filibusters should be few in number and short in duration.

An enormous amount of money is being spent to keep our elected officials living in style for life. No matter where I work, I can't get a pension for life for just serving a few years. I can't get top shelf life insurance for life for just serving a few years. And, they want to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Listening to these same elected officials repeat the same mantra about entitlement cuts without any cuts to benefits they have is just sickening. It's just not right.

I am tired of hearing about the monetary and other benefits that are allotted to our law maker's and policy maker's - all of congress, governors, legislator's - every politician while the rest of us go without. I have no pension, I have no health insuraNCE. I have worked since I was 11 years old, starting out babysitting - and sometimes working three jobs to survive. These people got us into this economic mess - its time they sacrificed something. Just like every other American who has worked an honest job and then retires with barely a scrap of what they paid into Social Security - they should be getting the same.

This may concern seniors the most but it should concern everyone. Banks make 6-8% on loans; we get .01% on our savings. The government encourages us to save to supplement Social Security but an average $8 a month isn't enough to buy dog food. I am most definitely personally affected by this absurd rate. I was a well paid executive before I retired. My pension "disappeared" and all I have left is some savings, These rates have forced me to live below the poverty level.

Congress aproval rating is 9 and thats not based on a 10, that's 9% out of 100%. The average yearly pay in Congress is $174,000. The Median wealth of all members in Congress is $911,510. The average salary in the US is $47,000 and they will tax us more. You see the reason they won't raise taxes on the wealthy (just pay what we pay) Is because they will be affected. Essentially if they did not receive pay or lobbyist monies they in turn will less likely to tthink of themselves. A seat in Congress should not be your only job. Especially for someone who goes to work half the time and doesn't produce anything.