Post Your Online Petitions Here!

[Hollylane]

Next week, the USDA will decide whether to allow Monsanto and Dow to introduce one half of the chemical mixture Agent Orange into our food supply. Widescale use of Roundup has led to a new generation of resistant weeds, and the next step in the pesticide arms race is 2,4-D -- a chemical linked to cancer, Parkinson's and reproductive problems.

Farmers that sign up to use genetically-engineered 2,4-D-resistant corn will be required to spray down their fields with both 2,4-D and Roundup, double-dosing our food, our soil and our waterways with the toxins. Some experts estimate this will increase the use of 2,4-D 50-fold, even though the EPA says the chemical is already our seventh-largest source of dioxins -- nasty, highly toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate as they move up the food chain and cause cancer, developmental damage, and birth defects.

We can stop this. The use of 2,4-D is banned entirely in parts of Canada and Europe, and right now the US Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments on 2,4-D to decide whether or not to approve the widespread industrial use of the toxin.

Add your name to our letter to the USDA urging them to deny approval for Dow's 2,4-D-resistant GMO corn.

This is part of a growing problem, an escalating herbicide war going on across America’s heartland. From 1996 to 2008, herbicide usage increased by 383 million pounds. Nearly half of this took place between 2007 and 2008 after the introduction of another strain of herbicide-resistant plant pushed by Dow. Like Roundup before it, 2,4-D is only a temporary solution that will require more and more tons of toxins and more and more potent chemicals leaching into our food supply.

2,4-D is nasty stuff and has been linked to a number of health problems, such as tripling the rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Nebraska farmworkers exposed to it and causing reproductive problems -- birth defects and high rates of miscarriage -- in both mice and men exposed to it in the lab and field.

Tell the USDA - we don’t want Monsanto’s toxic pesticide.

-Kaytee, Claiborne Taren and the rest of the team

[Hollylane]

In 2002, a special needs student named Andre McCollins was allegedly strapped down and electrocuted for hours, leaving him with permanent brain damage, all because he refused to take off his jacket. The people torturing Andre were officials at his school. You can watch what happened on video.

The video was shot at a Massachusetts school for special needs kids called the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC). Gregory Miller used to be a teacher there, and he says electrocuting kids as punishment is extremely common -- even for minor offenses like raising your hand to go to the bathroom.

"A non-verbal, nearly blind girl with cerebral palsy was shocked for attempts to hold a staff member's hand -- her attempts to communicate and to be loved," Gregory says.

Gregory desperately wants to help the kids at the JRC --that's why he started a petition on Change.org demanding that the JRC stop using electroshock to punish kids. Click here to add your name.

Gregory says the JRC's founder created electroshock devices which are even stronger than police stun guns to punish students for bad behavior. An official at the United Nations said that using these devices on children is considered torture.

According to the Boston Globe, the JRC’s founder resigned after being charged with misleading a grand jury by destroying video footage of other students being shocked.

Gregory believes that if thousands of people sign his petition, his former bosses will capitulate in the intense pressure generated by a national spotlight.

Click here to sign Gregory's petition demanding that the JRC immediately cease its practice of punishing special needs kids with electroshock devices.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Jon and the Change.org team

[Andrea]

Greyhound: Stop Racial Profiling on your buses

http://www.change.org/petitions/greyhound-stop-racial-profiling-on-your-buses?utm_campaign=KICOlrkBiT&utm_medium=email&utm _source=action_alert

[Soon]

Include Marriage Equality on the DNC Platform

[DapperButch]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...655363-EUfOfPx

Thank you!

[Hollylane]

Who Will Take a Stand for Dogs?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a landmark rule to require that all large-scale dog breeders be subject to federal inspection to ensure their dogs are humanely treated. But the American Kennel Club, which says it's the "dogs' champion," is working to stall and stop this critical advance for the welfare of dogs.

A new report issued by The Humane Society of the United States shows that the AKC has opposed more than 80 laws and ordinances designed to crack down on puppy mills over the last five years. This includes the landmark USDA rule that would regulate puppy mills that sell dogs direct to the public through the Internet.

Take action now and tell the USDA that, unlike the AKC, you support stronger oversight of Internet puppy mills. Please hurry -- this is the last week to submit comments!

Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO

[Soon]

GOAL: 100,000 STRONG TELLING MITT ROMNEY TO RELEASE HIS FULL TAX RETURNS

BREAKING NEWS: Mitt Romney says he'll only release his 2010 and 2011 tax records.

Two years isn't enough. President Obama has released his tax returns going back to the year 2000. In fact, Mitt’s own father, George Romney, started the tradition of Presidential candidates releasing their tax returns in 1968, releasing 12 years of returns.

Something doesn’t add up. Americans deserve to know whether Romney is taking advantage of the tax system.

Sign our petition calling on Mitt Romney to release his full tax returns now >>

[DapperButch]

HELP A TRANS COLLEGE KID GET GENDER APPROPRIATE HOUSING.

https://www.change.org/petitions/geo...campus-housing

Thank you!