As a career firefighter in the State of Illinois, I have paid into my pension fund without ever missing a payment. State Government Officials have historically allowed State and Municipal employers (my boss) the right to ignore their responsibility to provide adequate funding contributions into State/Municipal pensions, resulting in an 83 BILLION DOLLAR PENSION SHORTFALL. There is talk of A POSSIBLE FEDERAL BAILOUT after the election for Illinois. EVERY US CITIZEN should SignOn to this Petition to tell Gov. Pat Quinn: SOLVE YOUR OWN FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. My State can't afford to clean up the mess that your State caused!

Financial transparency is the life-blood of our democracy. Both Democratic and Republican past presidential candidates have released their tax returns. They have also voluntarily identified "bundlers," powerful and wealthy individuals who influence their friends and associates to donate to a politician, raising as much as half a million dollars per bundler. If Mitt Romney is allowed to win the presidency without disclosing these sources, it will set a dangerous new precedent of secrecy which will endanger the ability of voters to judge the financial integrity of a candidate.

The Republican National Convention opened with a party in St. Petersburg for delegates, politicians and wealthy donors. City tax payers are on the hook for $580,000 for that party. Now we know that the RNC has raised more than $55 million and may be able to pay these costs. Donor Bill Edwards gave $4.6 million and receives city subsidies. Donors like Sheldon Adelson, Communist China's casino mogul and David Koch spend millions to influence government. They can well afford to pay their bills. Please urge city council to insist these expenses are borne by the RNC, not taxpayers.

I'm getting somewhere between 10-15 calls a week to my home and cell phone. While I am fine with emails and postal mailings, and can tolerate door to door visits, phone recordings are intrusive and make me mad enough to not vote for any candidate that is represented by the call. Recognizing that it is important to provide candidates ways to communicate their message, phone calls should be restricted to personal one-on-one calls, or recordings for those who opt in for such messages.

I'm asking Governor Cuomo to please help the Democrats running for the State Senate who are Governor Cuomo to support the Democrats running for State Senate who are fighting for a “Fair Elections” system with public financing.

With vicious political attack ads whizzing across the country, and misleading lies being spread to the voting masses, it’s no wonder that the average US American adult feels disillusioned and distrustful of most politicians. Free speech was introduced by the first amendment to the US Constitution with good reason, but the ubiquity of “free speech” should not apply to issues that people get to vote on. Specifically, “free speech” should not allow for the mass distribution of lies, when it comes to voting issues. Some would say that it is the “opposition’s” responsibility to publically identify the lies, but how is this possible, when the “opposition” is not extraordinarily wealthy, or when many voters get all of their information from a single partisan source?

I am sick and tired of untruthful campaign ads.

If we changed the presidential term to one six-year term rather than two four-year terms, we could increase overall effectiveness of the president. By reducing the need for "re-election" tactics, we all benefit.

Attorney General Eric Holder: Investigate The Romney Family owning voting machines in OHIO and numerous other Swing States

We stand with CNN correspondent and Presidential debate moderator Candy Crowley against the onslaught of conservative outrage after she corrected a blatantly false statement from Mitt Romney during the debate. Allowing debaters to make false or misleading statements during televised debates does not further the democratic process.

The training of Chinese replacement workers in Freeport, IL at the Sensata Plant is wrong, and this has been happening nationwide. Under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, US taxpayers pay for all costs of training their replacement workers. That's all of us. We're now paying the cost of 170 Chinese workers out of our tax money

Mitt Romney has financial ties to some of the voting machines being used in the presidential elections and I'm concerned about the accuracy of the vote counts on those machines. There are no legal way for the public to recheck the accuracy of the vote counts provided by the machines. The public deserves access to the vote count to ensure the tally is not manipulated.