Take Action

Tell AT&T to Stop Funding ALEC

Nation Action on March 27, 2012 - 5:34 PM ET

The Sanford Police maintain that George Zimmerman's lethal shooting of Trayvon Martin was legally justified under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" legislation. The law eliminates the duty to avoid a confrontation and authorizes the use of deadly force upon a "reasonable belief" that it's necessary to "prevent death or great bodily harm."

As The Nation editorialized this week, the Sunshine State's "Stand Your Ground" law may be the first and most famous of its kind, but similar measures exist in more than twenty other states. Lurking behind this wave is the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, better-known as ALEC, which has peddled the bills for years at the behest of one of its largest funders, the NRA. Florida's law was sponsored by Republican legislators who were ALEC members. They dismissed repeated warnings that the measure would encourage needless shootings, as did Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who signed the bill and declared it a “common sense” reform. While the ink was still drying on the Florida law, ALEC moved to take it nationwide.

The Center for Media and Democracy has worked to expose ALEC and is now focusing on its funders, not just the NRA, but a range of prominent household names like Kraft, Wal-Mart, UPS, Bayer, State Farm and AT&T who all help fund ALEC's work, sit on its board, vote on its task forces, and access lawmakers through its networking. The CMD is calling on the corporate leadership of ALEC to withdraw its funding from the group.

TO DO

The Nation is asking readers to join the CMD's call and implore one of the ALEC corporations with which many Nation readers may do business, AT&T, to refrain from giving the organization any more money. Email senior executives in charge of "Corporate Citizenship" Channing Barringer (cbarringer@att.com) and Mark Siegel (mark.a.siegel@att.com) and call the executive charged with legislative and regulatory issues Walt Sharp (210-821-4105) and politely tell them that it's not helpful to their business to fund a group that has worked to suppress voter turnout, privatize public schools, Medicare and Social Security, hand out tax breaks for new tobacco products, promote concealed gun laws, harass immigrants and gut minimum wage laws. After making your voice heard, share this info with friends, family, Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

TO READ

Paul Krugman recently highlighted CMD’s work exposing ALEC and explained the corrupt practice of how “model” bills like "Stand Your Ground" get approved in closed-door meetings of corporations and politicians and then rolled out coast to coast.

TO WATCH

In this segment of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur offers a history of "Stand Your Ground" and details ALEC's critical behind-the-scenes role in passing the controversial legislation in twenty-one states.

A weekly guide to meaningful action, this blog connects readers with resources to channel the outrage so many feel after reading about abuses of power and privilege. Far from a comprehensive digest of all worthy groups working on behalf of the social good, Take Action seeks to shine a bright light on one concrete step that Nation readers can take each week. To broaden the conversation, we'll publish a weekly follow-up post detailing the response and featuring additional campaigns and initiatives that we hope readers will check out. Toward that end, please use the comments field to give us ideas. With your help we can make real change.

Help Free Imprisoned Journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye

Nation Action on March 19, 2012 - 4:05 PM ET

On March 13, The Nation's National Security correspondent Jeremy Scahill posted a piece titled "Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen?" Scahill detailed how investigative reporter Abdulelah Haider Shaye's courageous reporting had exposed the lies of Yemen's corrupt government, a US ally in the battle against Islamic terrorism -- arousing the ire of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the suspicions of the Obama administration.

After Shaye revealed how a US counterterrorism strike on the village of al Majala in December 2009 had gone awry, killing fourteen women and twenty-one children, he was arrested, imprisoned and quickly released with a warning to stop talking about the incident. A month later he was arrested again, subjected to brutal conditions and then tried and sentenced in proceedings called “a complete farce” by a Western reporter who observed the trial and was interviewed by Scahill. After much protest from Yemenis outraged by his treatment, President Saleh was set to pardon Shaye — until President Obama called in February 2011 to express concern about Shaye’s release because of his alleged “association” with Al Qaeda. No one has provided credible evidence for this charge. Saleh withheld the pardon, and Shaye remains in prison.

TO DO

Multiple human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have decried Shaye's imprisonment and called for his immediate release. Add your name to this petition imploring President Obama to un-do the damage he's caused and insist that Shaye be freed. After making your voice heard, share this info with friends, family, Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

TO READ

In a post elaborating on Scahill's original reporting, Salon's Glenn Greenwald makes clear why the Obama White House sees Shaye as such a threat.

TO WATCH

This report from Democracy Now! features Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists and The Nation's Scahil detailing the complicated story of Shaye's imprisonment and making the case that everyone concerned with freedom of the press should be alarmed by Shaye's continued detention.

Help Resist Big Bank Foreclosures and Evictions

Nation Action on March 13, 2012 - 5:20 PM ET

To casual observers, it might appear as if the Occupy movement faded away this winter as suddenly as it burst onto the scene in September. But, in fact, in living rooms, in donated office spaces and in indoor parks, Occupy organizers are busy planning for a spring of concerted action.

Occupy Our Homes has been particularly active in resisting foreclosures and evictions in dozens of cities nationwide. Meanwhile, other Occupy activists have been undertaking an aggressive effort to get the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) to do its job, which seems impossible under the leadership of Edward DeMarco. A host of community groups are calling for his resignation, on the grounds that he has repeatedly sided with Wall Street and big banks and blocked requests by Congress and the Obama administration to provide relief to millions of homeowners by reducing mortgages to their fair market value.

TO DO

The FHFA is supposed to do everything in its power to help Americans avoid foreclosure, but DeMarco's FHFA has consistently backed Wall Street and the banking sector and rebuffed efforts to restore mortgages to fair market value. President Obama can show that he’s serious about standing with the 99 percent by firing DeMarco. Join the call and implore the President to find a new FHFA director who will work on behalf of homeowners, not the big banks. After weighing in, share this info with friends, family, Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

TO READ

This examination by Huffington Post business editor Peter Goodman explaines why the single largest obstacle to meaningful economic recovery is a man whom most Americans have never heard of, Edward J. DeMarco.

TO WATCH

On March 7, the Congressional Progressive Caucus organized an event on the steps of the US Capitol, where Rose Gudiel, a homeowner who successfully challenged her dubious foreclosure, told her inspiring story and called on President Obama to fire DeMarco.

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Demand a Federal Probe into NYPD Spying on Muslims

Nation Action on March 8, 2012 - 11:10 AM ET

As The Nation editorialized this week, while the details of the NYPD spying on Muslims are shocking—targets included a small elementary school and some students' whitewater rafting trip—in many ways the program is merely business as usual as the NYPD has morphed in the decade since 9/11 into an imposing and largely independent and unchecked counterterrorism force.

Given the blatant discriminatory nature of the spying, at least thirty-four members of Congress have called for the Department of Justice to investigate; New Jersey Congressman Rush Holt has been particularly outspoken. The ACLU and CAIR have also called for an investigation.

TO DO

The ACLU is demanding a federal probe into the use of White House funds to underwrite the NYPD's religious profiling. Contact the DOJ and implore Attorney General Holder to open up an investigation. Explain that spying on innocent Americans without probable cause is un-Constitutional and un-American. Call the DOJ Public Comment Line at 202-353-1555 and email to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov. After weighing in, share this info with friends, family, Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

TO READ

A team of Associated Press reporters first exposed the NYPD's intelligence operations surveilling Muslim citizens. To get a sense of the scope and enormity of the program, start with this story.

TO WATCH

Al Jazeera English's Cath Turner details the history of spying on Muslim communities in the US.