My petition would take several steps to clean up the federal election process so that one man, one vote actually means what it says. The current process is corrupted by corporate and private money, by political redrawing of election district lines, by voting restrictions and by the existence of the electoral college.

President Obama's recent change to the policies concerning federal student loans has undoubtedly helped students, but it has not gone far enough. We must call on the president and Congress to extend the benefits granted concerning graduate plus and other similar loans to Federal Direct Plus or "Parent Plus" loans as well.

Energy from renewable sources is more labor intensive than energy from fossil fuels, creating more jobs. Oil imports are responsible for nearly a billion dollars a day of the U.S. trade deficit. A price on carbon will reduce our use of coal, oil and gas and speed up deployment of renewable energy.

There is no good reason why political leaders should be on a retirement plan, income and health benefits, that is different and better than the rest of us. After all, we voted politicians into office to serve the public, not to be served by the public.

As many of you know, most federal subsidies go to factory farms and not small scale agriculture. If we equaled the amount between small scale and large scale agriculture, a much larger percentage of people would have access to healthier and better tasting food, a great deal more jobs would be created at the rural and urban levels, and our economy would keep more of its money at home, instead of other countries around the world.

After WWII veterans were capable of buying a house with no down payment and low interest. We have a terrible problem with so many foreclosed houses and abandoned housing stock which is killing the real estate industry until the backlog is resolved. Make them available to veterans based upon present values,write off the deficit, provide fix up funds and a VA no down payment mortgage. We help the veterans for all they have done and you will create new jobs and jump start the economy and the real estate industry.

There are still too many people underwater on their mortgages and contrary to government belief the Home save program isn't working for everyone. In fact a lot less people are getting home modifications than you think. They are being harrassed by the lenders and threatened. Freddie Mac among the worst! The bailouts were given, but they haven't responded with lowering the principals on the homes to what they are worth today. They should be forced to do this with a lower that normal fixed interest rate.

End tax exemptions for all religions, religious institutions and all related businesses and property related to religions.

Shortening bills being proposed to single line items instead of lumping together several issues that do not correspond to each other. This would substantially eliminate favors, earmarks, pork & blackmail. A common sense bill that everyone agrees on, such as recent Income Tax Holiday Extension could get signed thru without all the drama that large bills take on. Senate reviews a proposal, hammers out the details & sends it onto the house, for their review/modification & passes on. Example... recent extension of the income tax holiday lumped with unemployment insurance extension, & oil pipeline snuck in as bonus, should have been three seperate bills. 2011 was a stalemate in DC because the bills were too big, too lumped together. No one was ever happy with EVERYTHING, so NOTHING got done. Citizens have been terribly disappointed with our representatives, & this is one way to make sure they are actually earning their income & benefits by working harder for us, instead of saying NO to everything. This is fair for both parties, it still may be bypartisan, but common sense hopefully will prevail.

The current early onset of Daylight Saving Time in March creates more problems than it solves. It is far more disruptive to people's systems than when the change took place in April, when day length was already over 12 hours. Move the start of DST back to April and end it in October or just shift the day a half-hour later and leave it there all the time.

I believe we should regulate plastic trash bags --- no bags should be made, sold, distributed, etc that aren't degradable. This includes mandating that municipalities, gov't buildings, military, schools, hospitals, households, private businesses, ---- all mainstream waste stream bags sold in the US MUST be made from biodegradable plastics. No more curbside stacks of bagged leaves sealed in plastic! Reduce the shreds of plastic in the oceanic gyres (http://5gyres.org/)! I propose the market offer degradable alternatives available to retail and wholesale consumers, and we ban the sale/trade of non-decomposing trash bags. There are many options for degradable bags; but we must eliminate the option to continue buying single-use plastic bags.

Several states across the U.S. currently have Dr. MLK Commemorative license plates to honor one of our country's greatest heros of all time. The state of Georgia is the birthplace of Dr. King and where he and Mrs. King are buried. The State of Georgia DMV requires a minimum of 1000 applicants for the commemorative license plate and a representative design or logo prior to offering the item to vehicle owners. Commemorative license plates could preserve Dr. King's dream forever and proceeds could support the MLK historic site.