Today's Action Items..

• Horse Slaughter: Nearly 100,000 horses are slaughtered for food yearly in the United States. Many thousands of live horses are also transported across the border to Canada for slaughter. Show horses, racehorses, foals born as a "byproduct" of the Premarin© industry (a female hormone replacement drug), wild horses, carriage horses, and family horses are victims of the horse slaughter industry. Horses have never been raised for human consumption in America. However, American horses are being killed to feed the palates of overseas diners in Italy, France, Belgium, and Japan. Click here to get instructions on calling your state representative, and sending an email, to ask that the Representative cosponsor H.R. 503 and vote for it when it comes to the floor.
• Voter Registration Restrictions: Sign the petition against Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s new regulations that severely restrict voter registration. The voter suppression going on in Ohio will have an impact on traditionally disenfranchised communities that could last for several election cycles. And if these kinds of tactics are accepted as “fair game,” they are sure to be employed in other states soon. Blackwell’s new rules threaten criminal penalties for individuals registering voters if they do not exactly conform to complicated, burdensome procedures. The resulting intimidation of registration workers has the potential to bring to a screeching halt efforts to register poor, young and African American voters. Click here to sign the Petition.
• Secret Kidnapping and Torture: Did you know our own federal government is secretly targeting people while changing planes in American airports, walking along streets in Italian cities, and going about their daily lives in other corners of the world? They target people, sometimes on the basis of mistaken identity, kidnap them without ever making an arrest or seeking charges in any court, and ship them off to places like Syria and Uzbekistan, where they are tortured and abused. The Bush administration claims that this practice — called rendition to torture — is perfectly legal, despite the fact that it clearly violates U.S. federal law. Click here for more