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Stories tagged with “Dennis Kucinich”

Justice

John Lewis And 50 Other Congressmen Ask Georgia Parole Board To Grant Troy Davis Clemency

By Zaid Jilani on Sep 16, 2011 at 11:30 am

Next Wednesday, Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. Davis’ case has drawn wide protests because seven out of the nine witnesses that testified against him have recanted their stories, and there is “no physical or scientific evidence” tying him to the death of the Savannah police officer he was convicted of killing.

Now, civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has joined with 50 members of Congress to write an open letter to the Georgia State Board of Pardon & Paroles asking it to grant clemency to Troy Davis because of the “cloud of doubt” that exists over his case:

It is clear now that the doubts plaguing Davis’s case can never be adequately addressed; the lack of scientific or relevant physical evidence has made it impossible to resolve with any degree of certainty. Over the last four years, the inability of our courts to resolve these uncertainties has shaken public confidence in our judicial system, and an execution under such a cloud of doubt would do nothing but further undermine that confidence. Public faith in the integrity of justice in Georgia is at stake and it is for this reason that we urge you to grant clemency to Troy Davis.

The 51 members of Congress join a growing chorus of voices calling for Davis to not be executed under such circumstances. Individuals and organizations ranging from former president Jimmy Carter to the Vatican to former Republican Rep. Bob Barr (GA) have made similar pleas.

The NAACP and Amnesty International are both running campaigns to stop the execution, and Troy Davis’s sister started a petition on Change.org calling for the execution to be halted that has gained more than 200,000 signatures in five days. Amnesty International is organizing a global day of solidarity with Troy Davis today with scores of rallies planned across the United States and internationally. Find a rally here.

Yglesias

Kucinich Will Vote Yes

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 17, 2010 at 11:36 am

I’m slow on the news, but I liked this part of the statement:

However after careful discussions with the President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Elizabeth my wife and close friends, I have decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation. If my vote is to be counted, let it now count for passage of the bill, hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform. We must include coverage for those excluded from this bill. We must free the states. We must have control over private insurance companies and the cost their very existence imposes on American families. We must strive to provide a significant place for alternative and complementary medicine, religious health science practice, and the personal responsibility aspects of health care which include diet, nutrition, and exercise.

Okay, I’m not sure about “religious health science practice” but I agree with the rest.

Compared to the health care system I would like to see, this bill doesn’t cover enough people, doesn’t do enough to control costs, doesn’t do enough to emphasize prevention and public health, and is too soft on the health care industry. But relative to the status quo, this bill covers a lot of people, helps to control costs, emphasizing prevention and public health, and reigns in the health care industry. The reasons to be disappointed with this bill are all reasons to be disappointed with the status quo, and the disappointing nature of the status quo is a reason to be enthusiastic about this bill. What’s more, if the bill passes you can pass more bills in the future! If it fails, politicians won’t want to touch health care again for decades.

Politics

Kucinich will vote for health care bill, says he’s bothered by ‘the attempt to delegitimize Obama’s presidency.’

By Zaid Jilani on Mar 17, 2010 at 11:01 am

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the vote in the House of Representatives for the Senate’s health care bill will be very close. One of the few progressive holdouts on the bill had been Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who had previously announced his intention to vote against the bill because it lacks both a strong public option and a waiver from ERISA laws for states to pursue their own single-payer systems. Today, during a press conference on Capitol Hill, Kucinich recounted his own struggles growing up with poverty and lack of health insurance and announced that he will vote in favor of the Senate health care bill, even though the bill “isn’t the one [he] wanted to support”:

KUCINICH: I lived in twenty-one different places by the time I was seventeen, including a couple cars. I understand the connection between poverty and poor health care…I struggled with Crohn’s disease for much of my adult life. [...] I have doubts about the bill. I do not think it a step towards anything I supported in the past. This is not the bill I wanted to support, even as I continued efforts until the last minute to try to modify the bill. However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth, and close friends, I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation. If my vote is to be counted, let it count now for passage of the bill — hopefully in the direction of comprehensive health care reform.

Kucinich explained his “real desire” see “our President succeed.” He added, “We have to look at what’s going on in this country. One of the things that’s bothered me is the attempt to delegitimize his presidency. That hurts the nation, when that happens. He was elected. Even though I’ve had some serious differences of opinion with the administration, this is a defining moment for whether or not we’ll have any opportunity to move off of square one on the issue of health care.” Watch it:

Kucinich is one of the co-authors of H.R. 676, which would create a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care system. It currently has 78 co-sponsors. The congressman ran twice for president on the platform of establishing a single-payer health care system, in 2004 and 2008. During the press conference Kucinich reiterated that he will continue to advocate for such a system.

Update

Donna Brazille tweets a comment Kucinich made during the press conference: “I have taken a detour in supporting this bill, but I know the destination.”

Yglesias

Kucinich Sides With Insurance Industry, GOP to Oppose “Insurance Industry Giveaway”

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

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When the original vote was taken, I assumed that from-the-left opponents of the health care bill would be brought around if their vote was needed on final passage. But Dennis Kucinich has made clear that’s not the case, that he wants to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sarah Palin, John Boehner, and Rush Limbaugh in killing the bill. His reason:

“This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry,” Kucinich told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. “$70 billion a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance…I’m sorry, I just don’t see that this bill is the solution.”

You know who agrees with Kucinich, Boehner, and Limbaugh that the health care bill is bad? Well, that would be the health insurance industry which after signaling some initial support for reform has ultimately decided it didn’t get the giveaway it wanted and wants to fight the plan. The US Chamber of Commerce agrees with AHIP, Kucinich, Palin, Boehner, and Limbaugh. In favor of the bill, by contrast, are the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, and the NAACP.

There’s something mighty fishy about this picture. Is expansion of Medicaid a “giveaway” to insurance companies? It sounds to me like life-saving medicine for millions of poor and near-poor Americans. Is an end to premium discrimination against women a giveaway to insurance companies? Sounds like a boon to American women to me. Right now, if the company you work for is mismanaged and needs to shut down, everyone who works there not only loses their job—they also lose their health insurance. The health reform bill would change that. If Kucinich thinks that sinking this bill is going to create a magical single-payer pony arrive, then I don’t know which US Congress he’s been serving in.

Progressives should be working to pass this bill, then working to pass Grayson’s Medicare buy-in law down the road. That’s a possibly feasible path to the preferred progressive end-state that has the benefit of making things better as we go along. Kucinich’s bold defense of the status quo isn’t going to change anything.

Politics

Kucinich’s convention speech edited.

By Amanda Terkel on Aug 27, 2008 at 1:33 pm

The Hill reports that the Obama campaign has, at times, been “tightening the reins on campaign speeches and stressing that speakers emphasize a rags-to-riches theme.” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) had one line redacted from his speech, which suggested some conservatives need to serve time in prison. The original line read: “They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”

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