Seniors who have millions of dollars in the bank get social security checks in the mail and free heart surgeries that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This loophole should be stopped immediately. One of the most basic reforms for Medicare and Social Security would be means testing. (essentially if you have a million dollars or more in liquid assets, then you should not be eligible for social security or medicare). Todays workers are contributing billions of dollars into social security and medicare and they may never see a penny of that money if the federal government does not reform social security and medicare. Over 20% of the federal budget goes toward social security.Over 10% of the federal budget goes to Medicare. Please sign my petition letting Congress and the President know that you want means testing for Social Security and Medicare.

Our government is at a complete standstill due to the inability of those involved to compromise for the good of the country.

All public servants, including local, state and federal congressmen and women, should have Social Security as a retirement plan. There is no reason for Congress to have a different plan than the one that it votes for the rest of the country.

Why is Congress in gridlock? Because lobbyist Grover Norquist holds promises signed by 279 Republican Senators and Representatives that they will not ever vote for anything that would raise taxes. [CBS 60 Minutes, 11/20/2011] That’s why a Congressional majority votes as a solid block against many different kinds of bills—debt and deficit reduction, equal pay for women, clean air…anything, if they think it might raise taxes. When compromise is essential, they can’t do it because of Norquist’s pledge. Why did a majority of our Congress sign that pledge in the first place? Because Norquist uses his organization’s funding power not only to help elect candidates who sign it. He also blocks the re-election of any incumbent who breaks or doesn’t sign his pledge. How? Buy funding an opponent in the primary. That exactly how independent-minded Republican Richard Luger lost his Senate seat, even though he was admired on both sides of the aisle. Wrong as it is, more than half of our national representatives—279 out of 536—have nevertheless sold their votes to get that campaign money or avoid that threat. We never elected Norquist to anything. He has no right to control our Congress. We can break Norquist’s lock on how our Congress functions, because we voters have far more power than he does. Sign this petition to outlaw all such pledges.

Seeing yet another school shooting makes me wonder if this would still be going on if prayer was never taken out of schools. If you are a parent and pray that your child/children are protected as they go out everyday to get an education sign the petition.

After the shooting today at an elementary school in Connecticut, it is time to stop the NRA. Don't let anything get in your way!

Tennesse laws need to be more stricter on DUI drivers. I had a family friend recently killed by a lady that was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. She was let out on a 5000 dollar bond and now she is gone.

The deer were around my house, I saw some give birth. They were no trouble. They made me so very happy. Now they are all gone. And this is because hunters, cowards of the worst kind, enjoy shooting them with guns or bows and arrows. How sadistic can they get?

New Mexico requires Public Utilities to ramp up their use of renewable energy over time. The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) established that by 2020, companies like PNM will have to get 20 percent of their overall power from renewables. Attorney General King and the coalition, New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers (The City of Albuquerque, TheUniversity of NM, Honeywell and Intel), filed formal requests asking the PRC to ax the diversity requirements altogether. Two PRC Commissioners, Pat Lyons and Ben Hall, also want to cut the requirements.

Meteorologist Rhonda Lee from the Shreveport-based KTBS-TV was fired after responding to a racist facebook comment about her hair style.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear landmark cases regarding gay marriage, it is painfully obvious that justice Antonin Scalia should recuse himself based on his deeply held views which make him unfit to rule on these cases. He has recently equated homosexuality on the same moral plane as murder.First, let’s stipulate that people are entitled to be crackpots. They are entitled to hold absurd viewpoints; and in the United States, thanks to the First Amendment, they are even entitled to express them. But an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court has to play by different rules. We elect presidents and members of Congress precisely because of their political views; but we appoint judges only if we believe they will make every effort to transcend them. If they cannot or will not, it’s Congress’s job to take them out of the game. In Justice Scalia’s case, the time for that drastic action has long since arrived.

With his recent multiple change of stance on the casino issue, Mayor Alex Morse has severely damaged his credibility with the residents of Holyoke and thereby significantly reduced his effectiveness as a leader. His inability to make a decision and his ultimate repeated change of position, bowing to internal and external forces has left our city economically disadvantaged as we believe it will now be near impossible to attract any major development or developer who will be willing to negotiate with his honor for any project. Mayor Morse has not been transparent in the process of the casino issue and the recent needle exchange program. He has repeatedly mischaracterized his positions publicly, while privately made back room deals that have significant appearance of conflict of interests. We no longer have faith in his stewardship and seek to immediately have him replaced.