In Defense of Amazon
Though it's been well over a year since I left the Amazon fold, I'm still a fan of the company (and, truth be told, I do a lot of work with my old colleagues as a freelancer). So it was a bit disheartening, from my progressive standpoint, to see that Amazon had given a majority of its political donations to Republicans on the Buy Blue list. But I agree with Ezra at Pandagon, who makes a good point about avoiding a drastically partisan knee-jerk reaction:

While I'm generally enthusiastic about translating political beliefs into economic decisions, I'm a bit tentative at this trend. I'm ecstatic to drop corporations that violate ethical boundaries (sweatshops, child labor) or use their PACs to push an ideological agenda that I detest. That's why, to this day, I've never set foot in a WalMart. But cases like Amazon are more complicated. If you look at where the money's going, the trend is less ideological and more pay-to-play. Utah Republican Chris Cannon, for instance, got the most in congressional contributions, with $4,000. But he's been a leader on the internet tax moratorium. And following Chris Cannon is Democrat John Dingell, with $3,500. In the Senate, McCain leads with $4,000, and Byron Dorgan (D) and John Ensign (R) bring up his rear, with $2,500 each. No donations were made in the presidential race. Further, Amazon is a good company. Their reaction to the earthquake was inspiring. They've created a viable e-commerce model that bursts with ingenious and unbelievably helpful innovations.

Amazon is a complicated company with a wide swath of viewpoints internally. Working on the editorial staff, I found many kindred Democratic spirits, but I was always intrigued to find a few Right-leaning folks and listen to their viewpoints. Maybe I'm being ideologically wishy washy, but I'm willing to continue to do business with companies that have a blended approach to political contributions, as long as that blend is more moderate on the Right.

BTW - the Amazon donation page to the American Red Cross for tsunami disaster relief has over 85,000 donations for more than $5 million (as of midday on 30 December).