Last night Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) took to the twitters to annoucne he’s co-sponsoring Senator Gillibrand’s Amendment which would improve how the military responds to rape and sexual assaults. Check out who else is behind this important amendment and what you can do today to help end the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the Armed Forces.

Booker is one of the nearly 50 supporters of the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) which  ”moves the decision whether to prosecute” rape and sexual assault out of the chain of command and “to independent, trained, professional military prosecutors.” This would be a step against impunity enjoyed by attackers and  embolden survivors to report the crimes because it would increase impartiality and decrease the chance of bias and retaliation.

BREAKING– as I write this, another Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev) has joined the list of supporters.

Let’s get the number even higher! We’re only 11 senators shy of the 60 needed to pass the amendment. Join another lunch-time twitter storm, which is being organized by SWAN (Service Women’s Action Network).

1. Between 1 and 2 today, tweet at the senators who are not yet in support of the MJIA. (see the list below).
2. To find their twitter handles, look here.
3. Check out the sample tweets here. Use the hashtags  #PassMJIA and #EndMilitaryRape.
4. If your senator is on the list of non-supporters listed below, call him or her at 1-888-659-8549.

List of senators who have not expressed support for MJIA.
• Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
• Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
• John Barrasso (R-WY)
• Max Baucus (D-MT)
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• John Boozman (R-AR)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Richard Burr (R-NC)
• Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
• Dan Coats (R-IN)
• Tom Coburn (R-OK)
• Thad Cochran (R-MS)
• Bob Corker (R-TN)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Michael Enzi (R-WY)
• Deb Fischer (R-NE)
• Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
• Lindsay Graham (R-SC)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Dean Heller (R-NV)
• John Hoeven (R-ND)
• James Inhofe (R-OK)
• Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
• Ron Johnson (R-WI)
• Tim Kaine (D-VA)
• Angus King (I-ME)
• Mike Lee (R-UT)
• Carl Levin (D-MI)
• Joe Manchin (D-WV)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Jerry Moran (R-KS)
• Chris Murphy (D-CT)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Rob Portman (R-OH)
• Jack Reed (D-RI)
• Harry Reid (D-NV)
• James Risch (R-ID)
• Pat Roberts (R-KS)
• Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Tim Scott (R-SC)
• Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
• Richard Shelby (R-AL)
• Jon Tester (D-MT)
• John Thune (R-SD)
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)
• Mike Warner (D-VA)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
• Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Originally published on November 19, 2013 on Feministing.

You probably know the U.S. Military is plagued by an epidemic of sexual assault: there were an estimated 26,000 cases of rape, sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact in 2012. But did you know you could do something about it? Today?

Today, join Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) for a lunch-time twitter storm in support of a bill that would empower survivors of rape and sexual assault and decrease the rampant immunity enjoyed by those who commit these heinous crimes. The  Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) would move the decision to prosecute sexual assault and rape out of the chain of command. Why does this matter? In the current system, a victim of rape or sexual assault has to report the crime to his or her superior, which means the superior will know the victim. Given that 25% of women and 27% of men who received unwanted sexual contact said the offender was someone in their military chain of command, it is likely that their superior will know the criminal or, even worse, be the criminal. So survivors are understandably reluctant to report these crimes. Under-reporting is rampant:

• The Defense Department itself estimates that while there were 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact, only 3,374 cases were reported!

And with good reason:

• 62% of those who did report a crime experienced some form of professional, social, and/or administrative retaliation.

Of the 67% of women who experienced unwanted sexual contact but did not report,

• 47% said fear of retaliation or reprisal prevented them from reporting. 
• 43% heard about negative experiences from other victims who had reported. 
• 50% thought nothing would be done.

Under the MJIA, the cases would be handled by independent, trained, professional military prosecutors. The bill is so logical, that it has the support of not only Senator Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY], who spearheaded it, and several other Democrats, but Republicans like Rand Paul [R-KY] and Ted Cruz [R-TX].

So, help get this bill passed! Join the twitter storm!

Between 1 and 2 today, tweet at the senators who are not yet in support of the MJIA.

Find out who isn’t in support and their contact info here.

Check out the sample tweets here.

Come back here for updates on what to do next.

Originally posted on Feministing.

3,278 people have been condemned to die behind bars for non-violent crimes, like stealing a tool from a shed or borrowing a co-workers truck. I feel so much safer.

None of the 3,278 people who are currently in jail sentenced to die behind bars committed a violent crime. I know it is self-explanatory, but none of these 3,278 people “will ever come home to their parents and children,” as the ACLU points out in a chilling report A LIVING DEATH: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses released on Wednesday. What are the crimes that deprived some of these people of their liberty for the rest of their lives?

For Patrick Matthews it was stealing a welding machine, and tools from a tool shed when he was 22. He had never committed a violent crime but thanks to mandatory minimum sentences, an unarmed burglary he committed when he was 17 means that he will literally die in jail. He will never be able to go home to his children, aged 6 and 8who have been deprived of their father by our criminal “justice system.”  Matthews says, “I never in the world would’ve thought that could happen… Made one mistake and was treated like a murderer.”

When Teresa Griffin tried to leave her abusive boyfriend he hit her and vowed to kill her. A few years later, seven months pregnant and 26 years old, Griffin was arrested for  working as a  mule for her boyfriend. 22 years later and 47 years old, Griffin reflects, “I know I did something wrong, but not enough to take away my life.”

When Lance Saltzman, pictured here with his sister, was 21, he “broke into” his own home and removed his stepfather’s gun in order to protect his mother. The Stepfather had repeatedly threatened Saltzman’s mother and had shot it at her. Saltzman’s mother told the ACLU “As far as I’m concerned, I would be dead right now if he hadn’t taken the gun.” Saltzman was sentenced to life with no parole because of prior non-violent crimes.

Saltzman, Griffin and Matthews are just three of the 3,278 people who will breath their last breaths behind bars for committing non-violent crimes. Other people have been sentenced to life with no parole for crimes like shoplifting two jerseys or making a drunken threat to a police officer while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car. The fact that these people are condemned to life with no parole while a rapist can serve one year or even one month makes these punishments even more disturbing.

If you’re not outraged and appalled on a moral and emotional level (get thee to a therapist), you should be upset that the government is wasting money housing, feeding and providing health care for on people it would be much easier and cheaper to rehabilitate. In fact, it costs tax payers $1.8 billion dollars a year to keep these non-violent offenders in jail.

So, do something about this injustice. Sign this ACLU letter urging We urging President Obama to review these cases and consider reducing their sentences.

UPDATE: check out this post and chart on the racist application of life sentencing.

Originally published on Feministing.

Earlier, I wrote about a disturbing ACLU report on non-violent offenders being sent to jail for life without parole (LWOP). Here are some handy charts which point out just how egregiously racist the application of life sentences is.

Originally posted on Feministing.

The sentencing of Marissa Alexander to 20 years for shooting at the wall to scare off an abusive husband provoked national outrage. And Alexander was granted a new trial that will take place in March 2014. So why is this 32-year-old mother still in jail?

It should be unbelievable and shocking, but it’s tragically consistent with Marissa Alexander’s experience with the criminal justice system. Even Alexander’s ex-husband, who is the alleged victim of the shooting, wants Alexander to be out on bond until her trial in the spring. And yet a judge postponed her bail hearing and the District Attorney maintains that Alexander should be denied her freedom. Why? As Joy Reid explains at The Grio, it’s because of Angela Corey, the Florida DA, politics and PR.

Apparently Republicans aren’t racist. But the biracial family of future NYC mayor Bill de Blasio makes them want to vomit.

First Mike Bloomberg told us that Bill de Blasio was racist because he had a biracial family he didn’t keep locked up in a basement. Now, Washington Post Columnist Richard Cohen informs us that de Blasio’s family disgusts conventional people, who are not racist:

Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children.

First of all, it’s not clear what the hell Cohen is talking about. This reads more like a stream-of-consciousness-writing-without-lifting-your-pen-or-realizing-you’re-a-racism-apologist exercise than it does a column… meant for publication. But let’s try to break it down. Cohen is saying

• Harry Belafonte called the tea party racist.
• The Republican Party, however, is not racist.
• They just don’t like things like the government or the avant guard.
• The totally non-racist Republican Party is made up of conventional people who are nauseated by inter-racial marriage.

Here’s the thing. There are people who have visceral reactions to inter-racial marriage and relationships. And those people are racist. And it’s fine to write about these people. It’s just not cool to call them conventional. And when you are trying to prove that a group of people are not racist, you may want to not use evidence like nausea at the sight of interracial relationships.

What is still unclear, though, is what Cohen is saying about Harry Belafonte and the relationship between the tea party and the Republican Party. Is Cohen saying that while the tea party is racist, the Republican Party, which is distinct, is not? That Belafonte was right about the tea party? Is he saying that the Republican Party and the tea party are the same thing? And Belafonte was wrong to call them racist? I’m pretty sure Harry Belafonte’s racism-dar is more fine tuned than Cohen’s. Either way, I’m pretty sure Mr. Cohen owes Mr. Belafonte and Mr. de Blasio, and his entire family, and all bi-racial families, and all of New York City an apology.

First published on Feministing

This year, retail stores are facing pressure from consumers, workers and some politicians, to close on Thanksgiving, allowing their employees to spend the (admittedly problematic) holiday with their families and friends. After the jump you’ll find a handy infographic which shows you which stores are closing and which stores are forcing their employees to work on the holiday their CEOs undoubtedly take off. 

ThinkProgress is doing an excellent job documenting The War on Thanksgiving, a war Bill O’Reilly surprisingly doesn’t care about. They’ve compiled a list of stores staying open on the holiday (see below). They also reported on a Pizza Hut manager who was fired for refusing to open his store on Thanksgiving. The company asked Tony Rohr, who’s been with Pizza Hut for 10 years to resign. He chose to write them a letter instead, saying,

 I am not quitting. I do not resign, however I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company […] I hope you realize that it’s the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.

Check out the the news story about Rohr, which includes a video and transcript, here. Also, one of my favorite responses to the story is the argument that hospitals and police precincts remain open on Thanksgiving. So why shouldn’t Pizza Huts? Such a good point. Because pizza saves lives.

This is a follow-up to the July 1947 PM article about my hometown titled “Utopia in the Catskills” that appeared on the September 30 CounterPunch. Like the PM article, the documentary “Commie Camp“ that showed at the Tribeca Theater in New York last June celebrates the leftist subculture of resort areas within geographical and financial reach of working class Jews in the 30s and 40s—in this instance the children’s summer camps favored typically by those working in the garment district.

Among the powerful trade unions that existed in that period, none had a more openly Communist leadership than the furrier’s union. I have vivid memories of visiting relatives in Flatbush who worked in this trade in the mid-50s when I was 10 years old or so. I innocently tuned in “Amos and Andy” on their television (we did not yet have one of our own at home) and was instructed by the man of the house, a furrier, to turn it off since it was racist. It was the first time in my life that anybody had ever acknowledged that racism existed, let alone spoke against it.

“Commie Camp” was directed by Katie Halper who has worked both as a journalist at places like the Nation as well as on documentary films, most notably Naomi Klein’s “The Take”, an excellent study of worker-run factories in Argentina. The camp in question was Camp Kinderland that was founded in 1925 by the Communist faction of the Workman’s Circle. This organization played an important role in my own hometown (my grandfather Louis Proyect was the president of the Workman’s Circle there but affiliated with the Socialist Party faction.)

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/11/why-the-ruling-class-feared-camp-kinderland/

It comes as no surprise that Walmart, which made news recently for asking for donations for the workers they underpay, exploits their workers. But the creative way these Walmart employees responded is original, to say the least. And it will inspire you to boycott this corporation on Black Friday.

The video above features Walmart workers who were fired (illegally) for daring to try to organize a union. As you see, these employees refuse to take this discrimination lying down. Instead, they step.

This abuse of workers is hardly an isolated incident. And recently Walmart has come under fire for its abhorrent behavior. Last Monday, the National Labor Review Board, the federal agency tasked with enforcing labor law, announced it would prosecute the company, which “unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests” in “stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington.” Walmart’s tacky, shameless and oblivious decision to ask for donations for the very workers they were exploiting drew criticism from not only the usual suspects (whom we love) like Chris Hayes and Stephen Colbert, but the less usual ones, like Ashton Kutcher.

Even if you don’t have gazillion twitter followers on Twitter, a hit show on Comedy Central, or a presence on MSNBC and The Nation (#LeftyNerdSchwing), you can still support the employees Walmart is screwing over.

Check out OURWalmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart).

If you’re a Walmart associate, sign the pledge and join the strike on Black Friday.

Support striking Walmart workers by sponsoring a striker.

Attend a Black Friday protest near you.