Hillary hires Monsanto lobbyist

Dear hans friedhoff,

Preparing for the Democratic presidential primaries, prospective candidate Hillary Clinton appointed long-time Washington insider Jerry Crawford as adviser to her Ready for Hillary super PAC.

Crawford had worked on the Clinton, Gore, and Kerry presidential campaigns in past elections. He also worked as a lobbyist for the genetically-modified seed supplier Monsanto.

In 2010, the corporation hired Crawford to back Republican Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey against anti-trust Democrat Francis Thicke. Thicke was a critic of Monsanto, who uses copyright claims on the DNA in its seed to protect its agricultural monopoly. With Crawford's endorsement, Thicke lost the race, and Republican Northey kept his office.

Now Crawford is gunning for Hillary. As journalist Zaid Jilani writes, "It is telling...that someone who worked as a hired gun for Monsanto to defeat a progressive Democrat is so enthusiastic about a potential Clinton presidency."

PETITION TO HILLARY CLINTON: We call on you to replace campaign adviser Jerry Crawford on the Ready for Hillary super PAC. As long as agricultural monopolies support your campaign, we won't.

Click here to sign -- it just takes a second.
Thanks,
-- The folks at Watchdog.net
P.S. If the other links aren't working for you, please go here to sign: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/5084?n=96261639.RkuonO

Police Overreach with "Sneak-and-Peek"

Dear hans ,
Thanks to the Patriot Act, law enforcement agents have had a lot of leeway in conducting searches and surveillance over the past thirteen years. The post-911 argument for this has always been that bending the rules around civil liberties is necessary in order to prevent terrorism.

But records show that one of the more controversial provisions in the Patriot Act––Section 213, also creepily known as "Sneak-and-Peek"––has been used far more broadly than this argument lets on.

With Sneak-and-Peek, law enforcement can conduct searches without informing the suspect right away. The Department of Justice has argued that this is necessary in order to avoid "tipping off terrorists." But in 2013, law enforcement agencies made 11,000 requests for sneak-and-peek searches, and only 51 were for terrorism cases.

The vast majority of sneak-and-peeks were used against suspects in narcotics cases.

As critics warned, Sneak-and-Peek has gone from a relatively rare occurrence to a run-of-the-mill practice, normalizing a serious violation of civil liberties.

Join us in calling on the Department of Justice to reign in this runaway provision and restore the rights of every American to be duly informed when law enforcement obtains a search warrant against them.

PETITION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Issue a memorandum curtailing law enforcement's use of Section 213 of the Patriot Act.

Click here to sign -- it just takes a second.
Thanks,
-- The folks at Watchdog.net
P.S. If the other links aren't working for you, please go here to sign: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4886?n=80980370._kM5Xt

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Slovakia puts gay marriage ban in constitution

The leading leftist pary just drafted and passed an amendment defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman. Sign the Petition! Share on Facebook!

Dear hans,
Slovakia has decided to buck the EU trend and deny equal rights to same-sex couples, amending its constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
It's scandalous enough that Slovakia has joined fellow EU state Croatia in denying LGBT couples the right to marry. What's more shocking is that the law was drafted and (partly) passed by the leftist Smer-Social Democraty party!

We're not asking Slovakia to infringe on the rights of any churchgoer. We're just calling for every citizen to have the same right to happiness as any other.

Join us as we say: SHAME ON YOU, SLOVAKIA!

Click here to sign -- it just takes a second.
Thanks,
-- The folks at Watchdog.net
P.S. If the other links aren't working for you, please go here to sign: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4731?n=75675602.9LRu9i