Vermont has passed legislation to establish what is basically a single-payer healthcare program. It now needs waivers from the federal government. This is about states rights and is about the states serving as 50 laboratories of democracy, trying out new ideas. We should petition the federal government to make Vermont free.

Corporations are not people so they should not have the same rights as human beings. The Constitution needs a new amendment clearly stating that the bill of rights applies only to humans.

We request to have no move from Ward 2 considered for us under any circumstance.

On May 13, three of my fellow San Jose Council Members and the Mayor proposed a fiscal and public safety emergency that would strip city workers of their benefits and take away their collective bargaining rights. This bill is substantially similar to the attacks on workers rights that were recently rammed through Wisconsin’s legislature by its rabidly anti-worker governor, Scott Walker. But then, there was a huge backlash. As part of that backlash, thousands of San Jose residents—and thousands more across the country—signed a petition I started to Mayor Reed and the San Jose City Council, urging them to resolve our city’s fiscal situation in cooperation with our workers. Because of our efforts, the bill has been postponed to August 2! Now, I need help to keep my petition growing. If I can get a total of 10,000 signatures by August 2, it will send a really powerful message that attacks on collective bargaining won't be tolerated in San Jose. I will do everything within my power to convince the Mayor and my fellow council members to work with our city’s workers to solve our San Jose’s budget challenges, rather than attacking them. So far, this has been a tough fight. But with the votes postponed, we're winning. On Aug. 2, the city is scheduled up the "fiscal and public safety emergency" proposal, as well as proposals to retroactively reduce pension benefits that our workers have already earned and are contractually entitled to. Measures like these historically have been held to be illegal, and will no doubt lead to lengthy and expensive lawsuits. Instead of using these extreme tactics, we should work with our employees, who have shown their willingness to do their part to achieve fiscal reform. By myself, I am one City Council member. But together, we are powerful. I need your help to make sure our Mayor and City Council know that attacks on workers won’t be tolerated.

No one is safe until justice is restored. There is evidence that citizens have been targeted for political reasons. Although there was an investigation on the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys General in late 2006, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned, the same people who abused their power are still in the Justice Department. In the case of former Governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, there were so many red flags on the unfairness of his case that ninety one former State Attorneys General, both Republican and Democrat have said that what he did is not a crime and are asking for a full investigation. Don Siegelman's story was on Sixty Minutes, The New York Times, Time Magazine and MSNBC to name a few. Since the Justice Department is not investigating itself, the Restore justice Petition is asking for a full investigation of the Don Siegelman Prosecution by the Senate.

We need more Americans to buy American textiles. If we just spend an additional $30.00, per year on clothes made in America we would save hundreds of thousands of jobs! Not to mention the help it would be to our economy and the individual businesses! Most unionmade products available here are made in America!!! Just think of the economic boost it will be to keep all that money here, instead of sending it to China!!!

Capitol Hill needs to get priorities straight and stop putting the cart before the horse. What we need first is jobs! Nothing will get better until we have created jobs to provide income to American households... not the housing market, not the deficit, not the any part of the free market. Our nation's infrastructure is crumbling, so doesn't it make sense to focus on the horse that pulls the cart carrying all those ancillary issues? Any stimulus money our government has at it's disposal needs to be used to repairing and rebuilding roads, bridges, levees and dams we have depended on since FDR's program created them and brought us out of The Great Depression? Doing so would put countless numbers back to work, and that horse would be better able to pull the wagon that holds the debt ceiling and deficit issues we must ultimately address.

Most talk radio stations in the US are dedicated to partisan politics and pro corporate propaganda. On most, only a small percentage of their prime time broadcasting includes non-partisan programing including state and local sports, weather, and traffic. 
By broadcasting athletics on these stations our universities endorse and give community credibility and acceptability to talk stars like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage, and significantly increase their local ad revenues. Most national talkers are protected by call screeners from challenge and correction. There is evidence of regular participation by paid callers. 
Long term attacks by these and other national and local talkers directed at teachers, unions, global warming science, as well as coordinated political disinformation and direct and inferred racism, sexism, and hate mongering, make radio stations that broadcast them unacceptable partners for American institutions of higher learning, as well as their students and faculty. Please feel free to adapt this petition to your university or college.

Our State and National Legislators are attempting to roll back women's rights from cradle to grave. They were sent to office in the 2010 elections to work on jobs, jobs, jobs. But yet, they have spent the past months writing legislation that takes healthcare away from women, infant formula away from babies, early education away from children, daycare away from working women, the most extreme anti-abortion legislation in the history of our country, the possiblilty of banning any forms of birth control, redefining rape. Are you kidding me? Must we women really go back to the horrors of the days when I, as a young woman in the workplace was "sexually harassed", but had to put up with it because it didn't even have a name? Back to a time when a woman was blamed for her own rape because of what she was wearing? Really?

Marijuana prohibition is based upon multiple falsehoods. Such as Marijuana is classified as a schedule one drug that essentially says it is deadly addictive and with no medical use. It is also has it's origins in racism that affects people of color, as evidenced by the fact that while 72% of drug users are white and 15% are African-Americans, African-Americans make up 37% of those arrested and 57% incarcerated for drug felonies; We the United States has the world’s largest prison population, fueled by the War on Drugs. It is time to legalize marijuana.

The Budget put forward by the House Progressive Caucus reduces the debt responsibly while protecting Medicare, Social Security and the Middle Class. Please know that when you stand firm behind our Party's true Progressive Principles that focus on creating good jobs for the middle class, investing in public education, ending Corporate Welfare and taxing the rich and corporations fairly, that we will all stand with you! We will support you, help to raise money for your campaigns and work to get out the vote to elect you! We will turn out in huge numbers to support you if you make our best case to the American people! You stand on the shoulders of courageous people like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Harry Truman, President John F. Kennedy, Robert and Ted Kennedy, and Reverend Martin Luther King. Men who risked everything to fight to create a Middle Class and defend the rights and dignity of every American! These great leaders knew that when you call on the people of this Country to do great things we answer the call! The CPC proposal: • Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021 • Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program • Protects the social safety net • Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq • Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly) What the proposal accomplishes: • Primary budget balance by 2014. • Budget surplus by 2021. • Reduces public debt as a share of GDP to 64.1% by 2021, down 16.5 percentage points from a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch. • Reduces deficits by $5.6 trillion over 2012-21, relative to this adjusted baseline. • Outlays equal to 22.2% of GDP and revenue equal 22.3% of GDP by 2021. Here is a link to the Peoples Budget http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/The%20CPC%20FY2012%20Budget.pdf Eliminates National Deficit by 2021! We want to see every Democrat in Congress speaking in support of our values, our needs, our communities and our People's Budget! It's the way to victory for every American and for the Democratic Party in 2012! Please call a Press Conference and stand together on the Capitol Steps in support of "The People's Budget"!

Congress has been identifying government organizations and programs that they think are too expensive, but I haven't heard a word about Congress's attempt to reduce the cost of Congress. I've sent emails twice to Maine Senators and the rep from this part of Maine, asking for a copy of a detailed plan, with objectives, milestones, deliverables, schedule, and anticipated savings, and got nothing back.