The senseless failure of Washington D.C. has opened the door for increased gun violence. We the People are demanding Congress to stand up to the NRA, and put the American people before politics and their careers.

People with mental illness should not be allowed to own guns. In light of the recent rash of shootings in the United States, tell to draft and enact a comprehensive mental health policy in the United States and require regular mental health screenings for gun owners.

Ongoing mass murders to to US lax gun control laws

When I file my taxes every year, I can only deduct about $5,000 from my income for student loan interest. There is no cap on how much I can deduct for interest on a mortgage and I'm sure there are other unlimited deductions. So why is the system biased against students? I pay more to loans each year than I do for taxes or my mortgage. This has to affect millions of Americans by keeping their AGI too high.

Have you ever been a patient or had a love one admitted to Alta Bates? Have you ever delivered a baby at Alta Bates? If you SUPPORT your local community hospital then please come out and support our 8th strike against Sutter Health's Cutbacks to BOTH the community and the nurses on: Monday Dec 24th, 2012 2450 Ashby Ave in Berkeley, CA 7am-3pm. Please bring a canned food item or a new toy to those in need that will be donated following our picket line. Key concession demands at various Sutter hospitals (partial list): •Eliminating paid sick leave, effectively forcing nurses to work when ill, exposing already frail and vulnerable patients to further infection. •Forcing RNs to work in hospital areas for which they do not have appropriate clinical expertise, again a safety risk for patients. •Huge increases in nurses’ out-of-pocket costs for health coverage for themselves and family members. •Limits on the ability of charge nurses, who make clinical assignments for nurses, to address staffing shortages, subjecting patients to the danger of unsafe staffing. •Forcing RNs to work overtime, exposing patients to care from fatigued nurses who are more prone to making medical errors. •Cutting the rest time between shifts to 6 hours, an unsafe precedent for patients and the hospital workforce. •Eliminating all health coverage for nurses who work less than 30 hours per week and slashing the pay in lieu of benefits for all non-benefited nurses.-- 435 RNs and 31 Techs would lose all health coverage at Alta Bates Summit, and 100 RNs at Eden and San Leandro. •Reduced pregnancy and family medical leave, undermining RN families. Sutter does not need to make these drastic cuts: •Sutter has accumulated nearly $4.2 billion in profits since 2005, according to its own audited financial statements. •Sutter is among the wealthiest hospital chains in the U.S. – and has the highest net patient revenue per employees among U.S. hospital systems, according to a Modern Healthcare survey •Sutter paid 28 top executives more than $1 million in compensation, an agregate $46.7 million in 2010 alone, by far the most lavish spending on executives among all California hospital systems. •Sutter is presently building a massive new, 300,000 square foot administrative office center in Roseville, another sign of its expansive wealth, and spending away from the bedside. •Sutter is spending tens of millions of dollars on a questionable computerized electronic medical system, Epic Systems, the same controversial system that has been charged with putting patients at risk at Contra Costa County’s correctional facility Sutter’s record of abandoning communities and patients (partial list): •End breast cancer screening for women with disabilities and most bone marrow transplant services for cancer patients at Alta Bates Summit in Oakland and Berkeley. •Stop providing psychiatric services under contract with Sacramento County for more than 225 Sacramento children. •Close acute rehabilitation services, skilled nursing care, and psychiatric services, and substantially downgrade nursery care for sick children at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley. •Sharply cut psychiatric care at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley. •Close a birthing center at Sutter Auburn Faith, forcing new mothers and families to travel up to 75 miles for obstetrics care, while giving a $1 million gift to the Sacramento Kings

The Republicans are demanding entitlement cuts. Give House Speaker Boehner and the Republicans what they are asking for but from a different list than social services. President Obama should offer a list of cuts from corporate entitlements. Avert the fiscal cliff with cuts to corporate entitlements: industrial agriculture, energy, forestry, mining, outsourcing, banking, to name a few.

Every year more and more people leave a federal courthouse with a felony conviction that they cannot have taken off their record. It affects their ability to obtain housing, work, and lead normal lives. After the debt has been paid to society by the convicted, there should be a path to having: rights restored, record sealed from the public, and/or record expungement

Next week the Senate is taking up the reauthorization of George Bush's warrantless wiretapping scheme. Opposition to it used to be in every Democrat's stump speech, but now It looks like Democrats and Republicans alike are lining up to support extending it for 5 more years -- without even having a meaningful debate about these invasive powers! Advocates -- and even many senators -- believe these powers are regularly abused to spy on Americans. But law enforcement agencies are refusing to provide meaningful data on how they use them and whom they're snooping on. This spying regime is likely even unconstitutional, with the Supreme Court about to take up a case in opposition to warrantless wiretapping. Tell the Senate to reject the extension of warrantless wiretapping, and, at the very least, to make sure that there's a serious debate.

In 1791 we passed the right to bear arms, but we need stronger controls and back round checks as well as a ban on automatic weapons. The NRA is wrong, support the Brady amendment allowing the right to own guns. Stop the killing of innocent children and adults.

Gun control and school shootings need to be dealt with. For someone to walk into an elementary school and shoot children is disgusting. We need to come together and show Washington that this is something we will not stand for in this country. Something must be done, NOW. Government has one true responsibility and that is to protect the people of this country from threats foreign and domestic, its time they start to focus on the domestic side.

America agrees that bullying is not acceptable on the school yard. Let's extend that to the Senate and the Cabinet Member confirmation process. Ambassador Rice had nothing to do with the attack in Benghazi. The withdrawal of her name for consideration as Secretary of State is the direct result of Republican bullying aimed at getting John Kerry to vacate his Senate seat to serve in Ambassador Rice's stead. Though Senator Kerry would be a brilliant Secretary of State, let's ensure that we have the right people in the best positions to help the USA navigate these perilous times. It's time to break the power of bullies, both here and abroad.

We have overpaid child support by 25 thousand dollars already and they claim that we owe another 11 thousand. Official payments were made to the court, but we were not ever given credit for them. The court says too bad because we did not get the legal advice nor help we needed in a "timely" manner according to the courts.