In open defiance of the Obama Administration, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has introduced a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran. Ten Democratic Senate committee chairs have written to Majority Leader Reid, warning that passage of the Menendez bill would likely blow up the Administration's diplomacy with Iran, leaving military force as the only option to restrain Iran's nuclear program. Ohio Democratic Senator and progressive champion Sherrod Brown has not co-sponsored the Menendez bill. But he has been an original co-sponsor of AIPAC-promoted bills in the past. Thus, Senator Brown is sure to face extreme pressure from AIPAC to co-sponsor this pro-war bill. Urge Senator Brown to stand tall against AIPAC's pressure and to support the President's diplomatic engagement with Iran. Congress should not undermine the President's efforts to prevent another war in the Middle East.

In 2004, Utahns passed by ballot measure an amendment to the state constitution that bans same sex marriage. On December 20, 2013, a federal judge in Utah declared that ban to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. But Utah Governor Gary Herbert has directed the Utah Attorney General's office to appeal that decision. In addition, the conservative Sutherland Institute has started an online petition asking people to "support the critical importance of traditional marriage to the health and success of our society." Seventeen states have already decided, by court order or citizen ballots, to allow equal rights to the LGBT community, including the right to marry. Please help us show the Governor and the Sutherland Institute that they are simply out of touch with reality and that the majority of Utahans think we should embrace the 21st century and allow equal rights to everyone. Please sign OUR petition that is aligned with our Constitutional rights.

We must act now to limit the increasingly catastrophic consequences of global warming and climate change (more extreme weather, droughts, rising sea levels, changes in water availability) of which the burning of fossil fuels is the primary culprit. Our own survival, as well as that of thousands of other species, is in question.

On December 14th, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection began accepting comments on proposed revisions to the state’s oil and gas regulations. The PA DEP’s Environmental Quality Board is also conducting 7 public hearings during the 60-day comment period that ends on February 12th. Currently, communities in 38 counties are being fracked, yet the EQB is only holding hearings in 7 counties, including 2 where no fracking is occurring. Meanwhile, the most heavily impacted counties, like Bradford and Butler are being passed over. We are calling on the DEP to add hearings in every county being fracked. In addition, the 60-day comment period is far too short. Proposed rules like these demand ample time for comment. Rules on similarly important matters have been subject to comment periods anywhere from 120-days to six months long. The short comment period also impacts the scheduling of the hearings. The first hearing is scheduled for January 7th, the second day of the first full work week of the new year. All seven will be held within 17 days during one of the most difficult travel months of the year. No alternate dates have been provided by the DEP, nor have they stated a process for cancelling and rescheduling meetings due to weather. Does the DEP really want to hear from you? Sure doesn’t seem that way! Demand that the DEP do its job and listen to your comments and concerns. Tell them to add hearings so people, some whose lives have been turned upside down by fracking, are heard. Tell them to extend the comment period so that these proposed rules receive the proper scrutiny. We risk nothing by taking our time to get this right; we risk everything by rushing.

Amid all the alarm about NSA and other government agencies spying on US citizens, we have ignored that fact that it all starts with data collection by private sector companies. This data hoarding, largely without the consent or knowledge of most users, poses a threat to our freedom and autonomy, regardless of whether NSA is using it. The very existence of such data on such a scale is a permanent risk to a free society.

Because i have a spouse in the state of georgia and i think it would help me and him and other familys to have conjugal visits with there family memebers..

The Leuser Ecosystem is home to the densest population of orangutans remaining anywhere in the world and is the only place where orangutans, tigers, elephants, rhinos and sun bears live in the same forest together. The people of Aceh have long fought to protect the Leuser Ecosystem as it also provides them with clean water for downstream irrigation, agriculture and food production and helps avoid soil erosion, flooding, landslides and pest outbreaks. Massive palm oil companies are pushing hard to open this pristine ecosystem up for mass clearing in order to plant palm oil plantations. Local activists and community members are being joined by scientists and conservationists around the world to call for protection for the Leuser. And protection comes down to one man, Governor Dr. Zaini Abdullah, who can nominate the Leuser as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Some successful petitions on the White House petition site have received no official response for a very long time. The least they can do, if they provide a site like that, is to make prompt responses.

December 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, one of the world's strongest and most effective wildlife protection laws. Unfortunately, just at this time when we celebrate four decades of success with the ESA, a bill that could rightly be called the “Extinction Act” has been introduced by anti-environment lawmakers in the House and Senate (H.R. 3533 / S. 1731). This bill would gut the ESA and put imperiled species at greater risk. This bill would harm imperiled species by: - Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered. - Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered. - Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.

Citizens United was a disaster. It opened the floodgates for corporations to write big checks to fund right-wing special interest attacks, helping them pour $719 million into the 2012 elections. The question is, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to stuff this "corporations are people, elections are auctions, democracy is for sale" mess into the Dumpster of Bad Ideas? Here's how: A constitutional amendment that puts power back in the hands of the people. The actual, human people. Sign the petition to join me in calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. - Al Franken

Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, unemployment benefits that help millions of long-term unemployed workers and their families will expire. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that failing to act will cost the economy $37.8 billion and 310,000 jobs. Denying jobless aid isn't just economically reckless -- it's morally wrong. Congress doesn't have much time to act before the first wave of workers is affected. That's why we need to let Congressman Peter Roskam know that his district supports extending a lifeline to long-term unemployed workers.

Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, unemployment benefits that help millions of long-term unemployed workers and their families will expire. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that failing to act will cost the economy $37.8 billion and 310,000 jobs. Denying jobless aid isn't just economically reckless -- it's morally wrong. Congress doesn't have much time to act before the first wave of workers is affected. That's why we need to let Congressman Randy Hultgren know that his district supports extending a lifeline to long-term unemployed workers.