Businessman Ted Mavrakis has come under social and political cross-hairs for his desire to lease prime real estate space to The Tilted Kilt restaurant chain. The opponents of this plan have voiced their opinion, and are now asking the government to act in a way that will disallow this lease to happen. With recent mall foreclosures, excessive commercial vacancies, and a civic government that is littered with ineffectiveness and unaccountability, I am, just as many others are, deeply bothered by this. I refuse to watch the government make yet another foolish decision that will be detrimental to the business community. I refuse to let the voices of the few, who happen to be screaming the loudest, have their way once again. Mrs. Mayor, with all due respect, please take an objective look and see what is happening to our “downtown” area. We are in dire need of economic growth. We are in dire need of businesses that will drive traffic to the downtown area. You need to allow The Tilted Kilt to obtain their liquor license. Allow Mr. Mavrakis to lease his space by doing so, and let those who don't want to patronize this establishment dine elsewhere. I am hoping to gather 4000 signatures in support of growth in the downtown area, in agreement that the local government needs to realign itself behind the fledgling business community, and in support of Mr. Mavrakis untarnished track record in this town.

America’s own worst enemy is its corpocracy, the Devil’s marriage between big business and our twin political parties. It is ruling and ruining America. Among advanced countries America has the greatest income inequality; highest unemployment; greatest insecurity over putting food on the table; lowest life expectancy at birth; and largest prison population (minus unaccountable corporate criminals). The corpocracy has also shrunk the middle class; catered to the wealthy elite; left millions of Americans without health insurance coverage; and has started endless, unwinnable, costly wars for profit and power that snuff out millions of lives, fuel terrorism against America, and sacrifice the general welfare. Our nation’s founders didn’t like corporations or political parties. Corporations were not mentioned in our Constitution. The America today is not what our founders envisioned, and they would be horrified if they were to return. The Constitution was meant to promote the general welfare of the American people, not corporate and political welfare. The corpocracy is extremely powerful and has powerful allies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The corpocracy’s opposition is weak and divided. The only way to end the corpocracy is to unite its opposition. There are many NGOs with millions of members opposed to the corpocracy, but they are not united.

In the 1886 case between Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations had the same rights as natural person, by using the language in the 14th Amendment guaranteeing freed African Americans legal rights. This ruling has allowed for the courts to side with corporations in the Citizens United case to allow for unlimited corporate donations ot elections.

Stop bullying & obstructing the democratic process.

This would replace elections of state legislators and/or U.S. House of Representatives members from districts that elect only one member by plurality vote to districts where several members are elected from each district so that each party would be represented in proportion to the number of votes received in the general election.

In Massachusetts, there is a little-known law prohibiting any widow from collecting her spouse's Social Security if she collects a teacher's pension. This makes little sense to me, as our spouses' Social Security was paid every year for this purpose, and why should the state reabsorb this money when most former teachers on a pension need it? Massachusetts is THE ONLY STATE with this law. Let's change this before Social Security ceases to exist in its present form!

I am frustrated hearing Republican Congressman going after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as the only way to lower spending...What about Lifetime Congressional Healthcare and retirement packages. Since when do employees get better packages than their employers??? Doesn't the Congress work for us??/ They are so far removed from the needs of the average person that they can't make these decisions intelligently.

Congressional Reform Act 2011 Term Limits No Tenure and no Pension All funds in Congressional Retirement acct move to Soc Sec Congress loses their health care, join the masses Congress must abide by the same laws as everybody else.

In order to help reduce costs, federal and state elected officials should not be entitled to a pension or health care after they leave office. They can participate in a 401K while in office to save for retirement. Hopefully, elected officials will understand how the majority of Americans plan for retirement.

By the definition set up by state legislators themselves, Ohio state legislators are not considered public employees and thus are not subjected to the effects of much of the legislation they push through (i.e. SB 5). In fact, they are public employees and should not be able to make rules for themselves as they see fit. They should not be able to purchase nor receive service credit for work not done, and they should be subjected to the same increased payments and decreased entitlements for retirement that they establish for public employees.

Summary of Department of Peace Legislation Legislation introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence includes the following: Establish a cabinet-level department in the executive branch of the Federal Government dedicated to peacemaking and the study of conditions that are conducive to both domestic and international peace. Headed by a Secretary of Peace and Nonviolence, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The mission of the Department shall: hold peace as an organizing principle; endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking; promote the development of human potential; work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution; and take a proactive, strategic approach in the development of policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict and structured mediation of conflict. The Department will create and establish a Peace Academy, modeled after the military service academies, which will provide a 4 year concentration in peace education. Graduates will be required to serve 5 years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution. The principal officers of the Department, in addition to the Secretary of Peace and Nonviolence will include; the Under Secretary of Peace and Nonviolence; the Assistant Secretary for Peace Education and Training; the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Peace Activities, the Assistant Secretary for International Peace Activities; the Assistant Secretary for Technology for Peace; the Assistant Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament; the Assistant Secretary for Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution; the Assistant Secretary for Human and Economic Rights; and a General Counsel. The first day of each year, January 1st will be designated as Peace Day in the United States and all citizens should be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and endeavor to create peace in the coming year

In November 2010 John Kasich was elected governor with less than 50% of the vote. In December he told Ohioans they could either get on his bus or get run over by it. Turns out he wasn't kidding. Today, hundreds of thousands of dedicated public employees, including first responders and teachers, have been run over by Kasich's bus. Hard-working, middle class Ohioans have been stripped of their collective bargaining rights thanks to the passage of Senate Bill 5, just so Kasich can preserve tax cuts for the richest Ohioans. Public employees aren't the only people Kasich has run over. He and the Republican legislature are trying to make it harder for the poor, minorities, students and the elderly to vote. His budget undermines public education, makes college more expensive for working and middle class families, and picks the pockets of libraries and local communities. In Wisconsin, where a radical, anti-union, anti-middle class governor is following Kasich's lead, people have the right to recall dangerous state officials. Unfortunately, Ohioans don't have the right to run Kasich out of office because state law does not permit recall of the governor and other state officials. The time has come to change the law! Sign the petition in support of Representatives Mike Foley and Bob Hagan's legislation to give Ohio the right to recall radical extremists like John Kasich. Let's give Ohioans the right to put Kasich back on his bus and drive him out of Columbus.