We, The Prospector, have suffered long enough. Now is the time to act, so that we may rekindle the flame of "The Fuse"

The Michigan Legislature is about to pass a major piece of legislation that restricts women’s health care coverage in the state. The initiative would ban all health insurance policies in the state—public and private—from covering abortions, including in cases of rape and grave danger to the mother. Michigan Right to Life used an arcane tactic, known as an “indirect initiated state statute,” to do an end-run around a previous veto of this bill to make it law with a very low bar––they only needed 3.4% of Michigan voters to sign a petition supporting the initiative. The Michigan legislature can either approve the legislation, or let the voters decide next year. Tell Michigan legislators that 3.4% of voters should not make over-reaching decisions about women’s health care choices, and instead to put this on the ballot in November 2014.

Since Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda 1.9 million of Filipinos have become homeless and 600,000 displaced. At the same time, many Filipinos who live and work in the U.S. are a key source of aid for their families in the Philippines and are at risk of deportation. It would only burden an already strained infrastructure for the Philippines to reabsorb thousands of its nationals currently abroad during this national emergency. TPS would stop deportations and provide working authorization that will empower Filipinos here in the US to more effectively aid their own home country. DHS and USCIS acted quickly in a very similar circumstances to designate Haiti and El Salvador for TPS after massive earthquakes. That response can and should be repeated for the Philippines.

Many Congressional Republicans have sharply attacked the historic agreement with Iran to curtail its nuclear program negotiated by President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and other members of the UN Security Council. Many leading Congressional Democrats, including Senator Feinstein (chair of the Senate intelligence committee), Sen. Levin (chair of the Senate armed services committee), Senator Boxer, Senator Durbin, and Senator Rockefeller have endorsed and defended the deal. But so far, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice in the Senate, has not made a public statement about the deal. This is surprising because earlier this year, Senator Warren pushed strongly in the Senate to make sure that U.S. sanctions on Iran would support negotiations with Iran and not undermine them. Urge Senator Warren to add her voice to Congressional Democrats endorsing and defending President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry’s diplomacy with Iran. References: List of Congressional statements in favor of the deal: http://fcnl.org/issues/middle_east/members_of_congress_back_iran_deal/ Senator Warren’s statement in June: Video Release: Sen. Warren Stresses Importance of Structuring Iran Sanctions to Encourage Negotiation http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=144 UPDATE: Senator Warren endorsed the deal. Read about it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/senator-elizabeth-warren-_b_4437313.html

Senate Democrats successfully ended the filibuster on judicial nominations, but that alone won’t stop rampant GOP obstruction. The next tactic Republicans can turn to is the arcane procedure of “blue slips.” When the president nominates a judge from a particular state, the Senate Judiciary Committee sends a “blue slip” to the state’s two senators—asking for their opinion. If one or both senators do not approve, it effectively kills the nomination by blocking a hearing. Blue slips are neither in the Constitution nor even an official rule of the Senate. This is a tradition the Senate Judiciary chair can do away with at any time, as Republicans frequently did when they last controlled both the Senate and the White House. Our federal judiciary is in crisis, and most court vacancies President Obama must fill are from red states—including seven in Texas alone. We cannot give Ted Cruz veto power over judicial nominees. Tell Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy: It’s time to end the “blue slips.”

for many years there have been rocks that were illegally captured and put into unnatural homes and cages. these rocks have been abused and tortured by being thrown into lakes, thrown at people, and run over by cars. Parents try to give these poor things to unhappy children as "pets". Rocks are NOT pets they are a legitimate resourceful object that must be set free and left to the wild for nature.

Have you seen the INSANE things that opponents of US-Iran diplomacy have been saying? Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) - a sitting member of the House Armed Services committee - said today that the U.S. SHOULD NUKE IRAN. (View the video here: http://bit.ly/1aAbBYn) At a time when the U.S. and Iran have entered historic talks to achieve a peaceful resolution to PREVENT the threat of more nuclear weapons, Hunter opposes the talks and instead wants to start a nuclear war. Hunter says the nuclear military option must be on the table and should include a “massive aerial bombardment campaign” utilizing “tactical nuclear devices” to set Iran “back a decade or two or three.” The American people do not want war, we want our leaders to utilize the power of diplomacy to peacefully resolve the standoff with Iran. We cannot be silent when our elected leaders condone the use of nuclear weapons and the killing of thousands of innocent Iranians. Take a moment to send a strong message to Rep. Hunter that will resonate with all our elected officials.

Michigan politicians have invoked a rarely-used legislative maneuver to try to ban private insurance coverage for abortion. The goal is to make coverage for abortion only available through an impractical “rider” system, and eventually decrease women’s access to this particular form of care. The proposed measure has no exception for survivors of rape, incest or health of the woman and is out-of-step with Michigan voters. Michigan women would be harmed if this passes. Jenni Lane of Ann Arbor is thankful for insurance coverage that allowed her to make the "incredibly difficult" decision to end a pregnancy that would not survive. Having the health coverage she needed allowed her to choose the safest procedure. Nearly two out of three Michigan voters do not want to see this harmful measure become law. In fact, this proposal is so extreme that it was vetoed by two separate Republican governors. The Detroit Free Press “believe[s] that this measure isn’t fair, that it is cruel and intrusive. […] To allow hundreds of thousands to subvert the law of the land by larding a legal medical process with special requirements is contrary to the spirit of democracy. If you think voters, not politicians, should decide if insurance coverage should exclude abortion, let your voice be heard!

Because i care and i believe you should too.

The children will suffer so much without Cile Precetaj's presence. Let's not create broken homes unnecessarily. Allow and aid her to go through the proper channels on the road to citizenship.

I am a grand parent that has helped raise my grand daughter since the day she cried into this world, and I am now not allow to see her and she was ribbed out of my home because the mother and I don't get along. This is not right because of the emotional distress that it plays on the child and the grand parent. Let's change the laws to say that the grand parent has a right to have visitation as well. There are many of us that are raising our grands now with no laws that will side with us should this happen to you. Don't you want to fight back?

Women in Sudan are being flogged for reasons such as not covering their hair or choosing to wear pants. Article 152 is a vague Sudanese law that disproportionately affects women. Here is the Article in full: "(1) Whoever commits, in a public space, an act, or conducts himself in an indecent manner, or a manner contrary to public morality, or wears an indecent or immoral dress, which causes annoyance to public feelings, shall be punished, with whipping, not exceeding forty lashes, or with a fine, or with both (2) The act shall be contrary to public morals if it is regarded as such according to the standard of the person's religion or the custom of the country where the act takes place." In solidarity with Amnesty International's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, please sign this petition to end this barbaric practice and help women in Sudan freely choose what they wear.