Congressional Reform Act of 2012 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and Participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

Allow former California parolees with completion of their parole term without any violations and proven exempliary citizenship for a period of five years to have their criminal record expunged.

The unanimous Declaration of the fifty states of the united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people of all lands and Nations of the World to embrace the political and moral bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to embrace each other and caste off any offending influence of division and contempt for All Present and Future Generations. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That when any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them to seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transparent causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these United State and the World; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of Government. The history of the present Kings of Corporate Empires working in collusion against the best interest of the vast majority of the people of these States and the World is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States and the Earth. To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid world. They have refused to Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. They have expended great wealth to frame the notion of protecting and nurturing the public good as “Socialism”, and “Communism” and an evil while proclaiming the virtues of extracting value from that which belongs to all and disproportionately enriching themselves while abandoning the ugly consequences of their actions upon the many and future Generations. They have forbidden their sanctioned Governmental minions from passing Laws of immediate and pressing importance to the public good, unless suspended in their operation till their Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, they have utterly neglected to attend to them unless self-serving benefits were realized. They have refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of the environment, and human health and safety for large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature for token rights to the Corporate Kings through their artifices—The Corporate Structure, including “personhood” and The World Trade Organization, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. They have called together legislative and Regulatory bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, and they have gerrymandered the processes for the sole purpose of fatiguing the people into compliance with their measures. They have manipulated and strong-armed the Governing process repeatedly, for opposing with human firmness their invasions on the rights of the vast majority of the people. They have refused for a long time, after such manipulations, to cause genuinely representative officials to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned only symbolic control to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, convulsions within—division among families; friends, and shameful inequality. They have endeavoured to prevent the middle and working class population of these States from continued abundance; having enriched themselves in prospects availed by these States they now burn the bridge of opportunity; moving jobs hither, denying livable wages at home all the while exaggerating the value of cheap goods from distant lands; refusing to pay sustainable wages and the cost of protecting the earth from poisons produced from their business activities in off-shored lands. In s...

Student Loan Forgiveness Act Of 2012

Stop the rising debt among students today.

The purpose of this petition is to amend Florida's civil rights statutes concerning employment, public accommodations and benefits to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

"Review,Restructure and Reform The Current Child Support Guidline Governing The United States"!!

Put Medicinal Marijuana on the 2012 Ballot for the state of Florida and let the citizens make the decision themselves. Legalizing Medicinal Marijuana will bring much needed revenue to our state. One only needs to look at California to see all the pros of this legislation. Residents of Florida should have the right to make their own decision.

Open Letter to Sendai city government in Japan, Dear Sendai city government We are professionals and scholars from the Pacific Rim community, including Taiwan, US, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Canada, etc. We believe community-based design and planning is the best and only way to better built environment for and of the people. Recently, we have been deeply concerned about the ongoing post-earthquake reconstruction in Japan, especially the case of Arahama in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. We’ve learned that a wide range of communities were forced to relocate collectively due to their homeland being designated as disaster-zone neighborhood, an area of 700ha. Though we can understand that the relocation is arranged with concern for safety and efficiency, we strongly oppose this kind of forced-relocation regardless of local community’s will and complex needs. Plenty of previous reconstruction cases over the world have made it clear that what people need to survive and thrive as communities is much more than houses. Place matters in sustaining community network and human beings’ attachment with locality and spaces. A convenient removal of neighborhoods from bay area to high lands without the consent of the residents could become violence and cause serious aftermaths such as loss of jobs and industry, stress, suicides, disruptions of social relations, etc., if not paying attention to histories and geographies of community. Moreover, tremendous social capital can be lost and may be irreversible in the careless relocation process. We’ve learned that communities in Arahama are acting out to express their opposition to the government-led relocation. They are calling for a more caring plan that integrate community economy and rehousing with respect to Arahama community’s long-existing cultural practices and affections for ocean. We are deeply touched by their call and the "yellow handkerchief, " an evocative symbol used by Arahama community to flag an urgent signal to the world. In writing this letter, we want to express our support to the community. Please listen carefully to the people who are desperately longing for conversation and a community-based reconstruction to replace current top-down relocation. We respect all of your continuous efforts in reconstruction. However, it is more important to do things right rather than do things fast. We believe that by working with community Japan can present to the world again its tenacity and dignity. Sincerely, Pacific Rim Community Design Network1（環太平洋社區設計網絡） --- About Pacific Rim Community Design Network In countries and regions across the Pacific Rim, participatory community design has become an increasingly important component of the urban planning and design process. From advocacy planning and citizen participation developed in the United States, models of participatory community design now can also be found in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, specifically in forms of the Machizukuri Movement in Japan, Community Building Movement in Taiwan, and an emerging challenge to the top-down urban planning and redevelopment process in Hong Kong. The Pacific Rim Community Design Network was launched following a working conference at University of California, Berkeley in 1998. Titled "Coastal Echoes: Democratic Design in the Pacific Rim," the conference brought together leading community design scholars and practitioners from Japan, Taiwan and United States. The purpose of the conference was to provide the practitioners and scholars working in the field of participatory design and planning across the Pacific Rim region with an opportunity to share and compare each other's experiences and advance their practice and research. Through conferences and joint projects, the network has provided a vehicle for collaboration and mutual support, as well as a forum for comparative understanding of community design in the fast changing political and social context of the Pacific Rim. 環太平洋社區設計網絡成立於1998年，在一個舉辦於加州大學柏克萊分校的會議「海岸迴聲：環太平洋的民主設計」（”Coastal Echoes: Democratic Design in the Pacific Rim,”）結束後，一群主要來自日本、台灣、美國、致力於社區設計領域的學者和專業實踐者發起了這個網絡召集，透過定期會議交流、合作計畫，環太平洋社 區設計網絡期望能促進有志參與式設計和規劃的跨域、跨境交流，分享經驗，促進彼此的專業實踐和研究，形成討論平台，使社區設計在這個政治和社會脈絡均迅速 變遷的環太平洋區域保持能量。十多年來成員持續增加，香港、韓國、泰國、加拿大也陸續有新成員參與。 webpage: http://faculty.washington.edu/jhou/pacrim.htm

We the undersigned demand that the attempt at disenfranchisement known as the Photo ID law be REPEALED as soon as possible and that the requirements for voting in Pennsylvania prior to this bill's passage remain in force.