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Join the Election Protection Coalition

Nation Action on October 19, 2012 - 1:32 PM ET

In the face of a wave of GOP-inspired efforts to enact draconian voter suppression bills in pivotal swing states, Ari Berman reports that the Election Protection coalition plans to recruit 10,000 volunteers to assist at the polls during early voting and on election day in twenty states, particularly in high-turnout minority voting areas and historically disenfranchised communities.

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Bring the Robin Hood Tax to The US

Nation Action on October 17, 2012 - 3:26 PM ET

Katrina vanden Heuvel blogged recently about a piece of unadulterated good news: At a meeting of European Union finance ministers last week, eleven European Countries agreed to support a financial transaction tax. Such an act could raise revenue to avert austerity, while discouraging speculation to avert the next Wall Street-induced disaster.

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Stop Stop-and-Frisk

Nation Action on October 10, 2012 - 1:03 PM ET

An explosive new profanity-laced audio recording obtained by The Nation showing the NYPD performing a particularly aggressive and racially charged stop-and-frisk of a 16-year-old Harlem student is generating an uproar and fueling renewed efforts to end the controversial practice.

Today, in New York’s City Council, members are debating proposals aimed at halting the NYPD’s hundreds of thousands of “stop-and-frisk” stops each year. After years of complaints that the stops are racially discriminatory, the hearings signal that the public debate has gotten loud enough that lawmakers feel they have to be a part of it, whether they want to join the chorus of critics or defend the program.

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Help Re-Elect the President

Nation Action on October 4, 2012 - 10:39 AM ET

As The Nation editorialized this week, “a victory for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in November would…represent the triumph of social Darwinism, the religious right, corporate power and the big money donors who thrive in a new Gilded Age of inequality.” Despite his capitulations and compromises, the president must be re-elected if progressives are to avoid four years of desperate rear-guard actions on a wide range of critical issues.

TO DO

Are all your friends and family registered and planning to vote? Anyone unsure of their status? Confused about where to find their polling place? Make sure they’re ready for Election Day by directing them to Color of Change’s comprehensive voter registration center. Then, share this post with your Facebook and Twitter communities.

Let Former Felons Vote

Nation Action on September 27, 2012 - 10:08 AM ET

Before 2007, Florida was one of three states that permanently disenfranchised ex-felons. Former Governor Charlie Crist amended the rules so that nonviolent ex-felons could more easily regain their voting rights. However, as Brentin Mock details in a report from Florida in The Nation, as soon as Rick Scott took office in 2011, he began to reverse Crist’s reforms. Now, those with non-serious felonies convictions have to wait five years after release before they can even be considered for rights restoration.

TO DO

Florida is not alone in limiting the ability of ex-felons to vote. Iowa, Virginia and Kentucky permanently disenfranchise everyone with felony convictions and at least twelve other states impose some restrictions. The Democracy Restoration Act would restore voting rights in federal elections to all former felons. Add your name to the growing chorus of Americans calling for felon voting rights. After weighing in, share this post with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities.

Help Halt Fracking

Nation Action on September 13, 2012 - 10:28 AM ET

In recent years, the dangers of fracking have become more apparent, as Nick Kusnetz reports in The Nation. In 2011 the EPA linked the practice directly to groundwater pollution while public heath researchers have found that intensive drilling and fracking has pushed smog levels in some rural western valleys beyond those of Los Angeles. Yet, fracking continues apace in numerous mid-Atlantic and Western states and New York, the only state to date with significant shale gas reserves to prevent energy companies from fracking, is currently weighing whether to allow the practice.

TO DO

In response to reports that Governor Cuomo will soon allow fracking, a wide coalition has assembled to educate the public and sign up pledges from New York state residents to engage in nonviolent acts of protest to resist hydrofracking. No matter where you live, implore your reps to support the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act which aims to repeal the exemption for hydraulic fracturing in the Safe Drinking Water Act. After weighing in, share this post with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities.

Help Prevent a Bhopal in the US

Nation Action on August 14, 2012 - 11:04 AM ET

The bulk use and storage of poison gases like chlorine at chemical facilities and wastewater and drinking water plants currently puts millions of Americans at risk of a Bhopal magnitude chemical disaster. In fact, as Greenpeace's John Deans points out at thenation.com, one in three people in this country live in the danger zones around the highest risk plants.

TO DO

It is time for President Obama to authorize the EPA to fully implement chemical disaster prevention under the Clean Air Act. This could help temper the risk of chemical disaster. In recent months, fifty-nine organizations filed an official petition with the EPA while more than 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for safer chemical plants. Add your name to the cause. After weighing in, share this post (and this interactive map) with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities.

End Polluter Welfare

Nation Action on July 26, 2012 - 10:47 AM ET

Summer 2012 has broken thousands of heat records so far, bringing misery to millions of Americans. The United States is suffering its worst drought in fifty years, leading the Department of Agriculture to declare 1,000 counties—one of every three in the nation—natural disaster zones. Meanwhile, President Obama, writes Mark Hertsgaard in the new issue of The Nation, has remained shamefully silent on climate change, refusing to say a word about what is fueling these disasters.

TO DO

There's still time to trigger the reaction that would make the 2012 heat wave a landmark event, but the impetus will have to come from citizens rather than mainstream politicians. Implore your elected reps to support the End Polluter Welfare Act—sponsored in the House by Keith Ellison and in the Senate by Bernie Sanders—which seeks to end the $11 billion annual subsidy that taxpayers give the richest industry in history. After you’ve weighed in, share this post with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities. And, if you have children, sign on to Climate Parents, a new initiative co-founded by Hertsgaard and longtime organizer Lisa Hoyos to demand action on behalf of a huge, yet largely voiceless constituency: America's youth.

Paid Sick Days for All

Nation Action on July 25, 2012 - 12:16 PM ET

As Katrina vanden Heuvel blogged recently, paid sick leave is the kind of pro-family policy that we should be able to take for granted in a civilized democracy. By averting senseless firings, it reduces unemployment. By letting sick people stay home, it advances public health. Momentum is growing on the local level but federal legislation has stalled in the face of the anti-regulation crowd's well-funded opposition.

TO DO

Urge your elected reps to support the Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee up to seven paid sick days per year for workers to recover from their own illness or care for a sick family member. After weighing in, share this post with your friends, family and Twitter and Facebook communities.

Investigate Sex Abuse at Lackland

Nation Action on July 19, 2012 - 1:26 PM ET

Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has become the center of the nation’s biggest military sex abuse case in years. Over the past several months, a widespread sexual crime epidemic has been uncovered at the camp, reports Soumya Karlamangla in a new report at thenation.com. Twelve of the base’s instructors have been accused of either rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual assault and at least thirty-one female trainees have been identified as victims.

TO DO

Dozens of lawmakers are calling for a Congressional hearing to investigate the incidents at Lackland. Hoping to build momentum, Protect Our Defenders, an organization dedicated to combating the prevalence sexual violence in the military, recently launched a petition demanding an immediate hearing. Add your name to the call. After weighing in, share this info with friends, family and your Twitter and Facebook communities.