Articles mentioning Kucinich

[eridani]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1107599678116250.xml

But Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich says sex-enhancing drugs should be added to the banned list and is co-sponsoring legislation that would do that. Iowa Rep. Steve King is expected to introduce the bill next week. Kucinich doesn't feel this is an appropriate use of Medicare money, said his spokesman Doug Gordon on Friday.

"The thought of Medicare wasting vital resources on performance-enhancing drugs is unconscionable, especially at a time when the focus should be on providing for truly needy seniors," Kucinich and 16 other representatives wrote in a December letter to Medicare chief Mark McClellan.

[LWolf]

1. Kucinich: Proposed Social Security price indexing would slash benefits

<snip>

In a speech this morning on the House floor, Kucinich said:

“Social Security benefits have increased over the years because they long have been calculated to wage increases, which on the average go up 3.6% a year. So Social Security benefits increase with rising wages. The Administration wants to change all that. They want to index Social Security benefits based on a price index, not wages.

“As a result, millions of future retirees will see their future Social Security benefits reduced as much as 40%. Because prices do not increase as fast as wages.

“Let me give you an example. If you began working in 1959 and retired in 2003, at age 65, under wage indexing, your benefits rise with rising wages, you would get $1158 a month. Under price indexing, your benefits would be frozen, you would get only $701 a month. So it would be a 40% cut in benefits with price indexing, and a person would lose $100,000 in retirement benefits over a lifetime.

“Why the switch to price indexing? Because, the privatization of Social Security will create an additional budget shortfall. The Administration is going to have to borrow money to set up private accounts. The shortfall is going to be for 45 years, and the Administration is going to have to borrow $15 trillion dollars.

“They are going to get the money off the backs of America’s retirees. It is wrong, say no to privatization, no to price indexing.”

More:

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5277

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Right on, Dennis! He's got the right idea!

These are becoming recreational drugs. And if I have to see one more of those sleazy TV ads, I think I'm going to scream!:thumbsdown:

[eridani]

3. More Kucinich on Social Security

http://www.westlifenews.com/2005/02-16/socsec.html

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, no stranger to controversy, is again in the thick of the fight. The battleground?

The Bush Administration's plans to privatize Social Security.
Before a crowd of more than 150 people Sunday in Bay Village, Kucinich took aim at the proposal, riddling it with derision and distain.

In a presentation Kucinich said he spent more than 100 hours researching, the congressman examined the history of the Social Security system, reviewed the administration's planned changes, and explained how these proposals would gut a system he says is sound now and well into the future.

"A crisis is being manufactured on Social Security," he said.

[goodhue]

4. watching Dean

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10983905.htm

Posted on Thu, Feb. 24, 2005

Liberal groups watching Dean to see if he'll keep his backbone

MALIA RULON

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A year ago, an activist group from the Seattle area presented Howard Dean with a thin, golden statue of a backbone.

The Oscar-like award honored the former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor for standing up against the Iraq war and other Bush administration policies.

Ohio Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Dennis Kucinich also have received the award, Tubbs Jones for objecting to Ohio presidential vote and Kucinich for his opposition to the Iraq war.

* * *

Kucinich said the problem with the Democratic Party is that it needs to stop talking in generalities and start articulating its message: "I don't know why the Democratic Party even exists if it can't advocate for universal health care and ending the war in Iraq."

As for whether Dean will be able to make that change, Kucinich said "everyone has to give him a chance to show what he can do."

* * *

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10983905.htm

[eridani]

5. Another similar article

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/25/dean.democrats.ap/index.html

Bill Moyer, executive director of the Backbone Campaign, said he hopes Dean will continue to be a leader among liberal Democrats and that his chairmanship will mark a turning point for the party.

"Dean is the link to this progressive movement," Moyer said. "The Democratic Party can either use that or squander it."

The latest recipient of the golden backbone was Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who challenged Ohio's electoral college results from last November's election in Congress, forcing a rare debate in the House and Senate.

Tubbs Jones said having a backbone, for Dean, may mean bringing liberal Democrats to the table with the rest of the party.

"There are some that worry that he will move the party too far to the left, but I'm not worried about that," she said. "I think he will give definition to the party and allow Democrats to define the party instead of allowing Republicans to define us."

Another golden spine recipient, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, said the Democratic Party's problem is that it needs to stop talking in generalities and start articulating its message: "I don't know why the Democratic Party even exists if it can't advocate for universal health care and ending the war in Iraq."

[eridani]

6. Fighting Glenn Center closure

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/11015137.htm?1c

Much of the region's political leadership sent supportive representatives, including Gov. Bob Taft, and Kucinich said Ohio's congressional delegation - divided last year along Bush-Kerry lines - was united in its determination to save threatened jobs.

"It's so important that we put this in a bipartisan way," said Kucinich, who urged top Republican leaders including Taft and Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich to lobby President Bush on NASA because of Ohio's pivotal role in re-electing the president.

Kucinich, who ran for president last year on an anti-war platform, said after the meeting that he didn't believe his campaign created a stumbling block for bipartisanship on the NASA Glenn issue.

"I didn't take a partisan tone," he said. "I never got personal. I talked about a vision for America and the very fact that I was able to get people in here from so many different political persuasions shows my approach works."

[eridani]

8. More on the Glenn Center

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/111269356672790.xml

Ohio politicians are working with leaders in Virginia, California and other states where aeronautics is crucial to the economy. "This is not something that Ohio is going to do on its own," Voinovich said.

Speakers at the event, including Democrats Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, whose district includes Glenn, also emphasized the center's role in space-related research.

Two scientists at Glenn won the Government Invention of the Year award for 2004 for a space-related innovation. Bruce Steinetz and Patrick Dunlap devised a way to block rocket combustion gases from reaching crucial, temperature-sensitive parts. Their thermal barrier will be put into service for a space shuttle mission expected to be launched in May 2007.

[eridani]

7. Dennis on Iraq and biodiesel

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0329/p01s02-woiq.html

This figure includes no adjustment for Iraqi military forces that may be absent without leave - a continuing problem in a nation where insurgents attempt to intimidate troops into leaving.

"This is like fantasyland. This is as fictive as the weapons of mass destruction," former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) of Ohio complained at the House hearing.

Yet such focus on the numbers per se may be missing the point. It's true that Iraqi forces differ sharply in capability - and that not even the best army units are the equal of their US counterparts, according to Mr. Cordesman.

But pay and leave policies present problems, too. Iraqi military installations generally do not provide housing for troops, and this leaves their families vulnerable. Many soldiers have to visit their families and turn over their pay in cash, which means that a high percentage will be on leave at any time. Consequently, they are not always available for duty, and they are vulnerable to insurgent attack.



http://www.yankton.net/stories/032405/opEd_20050324002.shtml

Exxon tells us to put a tiger in our tanks, but BioWillie suggests beans. Not only do you get a fuel that is better for your engine at a competitive price, but biodiesel also is much better for the environment, it can be an economic boon for America's family farmers, and your exhaust fumes can smell like donuts! Oh, and Willie notes that there's one more big plus -- we can put "farmers back on the land growing fuel and keep us from having to start wars for oil."

Rep. Denis Kucinich is preparing legislation to help develop of this new biodiesel industry for America. For information, call (202)-225-5871.

[eridani]

9. That "electable" thang

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/042605LA.shtml

When I worked as press secretary for Kucinich for President, I spoke to many, many people who told me that Dennis Kucinich was their favorite candidate, and that they would vote for him if he had a chance, or if he were serious. The media was actually reporting that he didn't really want to win. One-on-one and small-group communications have their strengths, but I saw room after room after room of people enthusiastic for Kucinich but planning to vote for a candidate that the media had told them was more acceptable. I would even go so far as to claim that Kucinich gave some speeches and presented a vision that inspired people in the way that Andy says has been missing. But, unless you happened to be in the room, no one heard about it. I've spoken to international union communications directors who had no idea what Kucinich's platform was - and who worked for unions that obviously based their endorsement decisions on something other than the candidates' platforms.

[eridani]

10. Gas Price Spike Act of 2005

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/4444243/detail.html

The local lawmaker who wanted to be president now wants to make a law to keep gas prices in check.

At his Lakewood office, Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced his plans Tuesday to introduce the Gas Price Spike Act of 2005.

Kucinich said gas companies are taking advantage of the American people, and he has questions about the White House's role in all of it.

"The oil companies are taking billions of dollars from the American consumers and how does that translate? It translates into people not having enough money for other things in their family," Kucinich said.

[eridani]

11. Kucinich in Maine

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1603467.shtml

Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich said he likes Mainers because they're feisty. He told a group of about 75 Mainers on Saturday that they can use that trait to affect national policy.

Kucinich, speaking to about 75 people Saturday at the Maine Progressive Caucus at Augusta City Center, urged them to raise their voices to stop the war in Iraq, to bring the troops home quickly and to stop the Republican administration from raiding the Social Security fund.

He said Vice President Dick Cheney and other top government officials lied to get America into war in Iraq by saying that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

[eridani]

12. Matt Taibbi interview.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/05/01/son_of_gonzo/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Ideas+Section

"Who's running?" That's (more or less) how one New Hampshirite responded during the Democratic primaries last year when Matt Taibbi, a journalist covering the race for the New York Press, The Nation, and Rolling Stone, asked who she'd vote for. After following the candidates around the country, Taibbi could relate. So as he recounts in his acerbic new campaign-trail diary, "Spanking the Donkey" (New Press), he did what any honest reporter should: He took drugs, went on a hunger strike, and wore a gorilla suit. Taibbi, who grew up in Hingham and in Westport, explained his antics last week via telephone from Louisville, Ky., where he was covering Bill Frist's anti-filibuster telecast.

IDEAS: Your book reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72," in which he chronicled his own excesses as he followed the McGovern campaign across America. Was Thompson a model?

TAIBBI: I love that book, and it has certainly influenced me. But look, the emotional center of that book is the fact that Thompson was a McGovern supporter – so it's a really suspenseful us-versus-them story. My book doesn't have that going for it, because I couldn't find a candidate I wanted to root for.

IDEAS: Why not? Didn't you decide that you admired Kucinich?

TAIBBI: Yes, because Kucinich was the only candidate who defiantly refused to dumb his ideas down and make speeches full of mechanized platitudes. But there's a corrective instinct among the national press corps, which ends up subtly endorsing some candidates and picking on others – that's why Howard Dean was asked 30 times a day if he was too prickly or too leftist to be president.... Also, I admire Kucinich for being an idealist, someone who questions our culture of violence and commercialism. But journalists painted him as a kook – because mature, sane people realize that force and commerce are the chief engines of social organization.... That's why I came to see the primaries as a commercial for political consensus.

IDEAS: Are you suggesting the press has a conservative bias?

TAIBBI: It's not that simple. From the first moment I stepped onto Kerry's campaign plane, it was high school all over again. The popular kids – the reporters who covered the campaign like it was a rolling sports story – sat up front while the unpopular kids were relegated to the back. Every morning Kerry came out and threw a football around on the tarmac, and every morning 80 nationally respected journalists followed him like herd animals, recording the scene. They filed reports on the size of the crowds, how much money Kerry had raised – but almost never asked him where he stood on the issues. That's why the guys who win elections tend to be handsome, football-throwing types.

[eridani]

13. In support of the direct student loan program

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/koff050405.html

But it could be preventing billions of dollars from flowing to financial aid for even more college students. If the federal government would cut back on the subsidy-hungry middlemen and just hand out more money directly for colleges to lend, it could come up with substantially more for debt-burdened students.

So suggest figures from, oddly enough, one of the biggest foes of big government: President George W. Bush's budget office. The fact that Bush's own budget supports the assertion is not lost on critics of the subsidy system, many of whom are Democrats.

"We waste billions of dollars in corporate welfare every year on student loans, and we cannot afford it any longer," Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said in March. "We should use scarce dollars to help students, not banks."

"There's a huge profit margin for Sallie Mae and for the banks that are in the business," said Marshall Smith, a ranking Clinton administration education official who has taught at Harvard and Stanford. "And they wouldn't be in the business if they didn't have a combination of that huge profit margin as well as that large guarantee."

There is a better deal for taxpayers, according to such sources as the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office. The idea is simple: Pare back the middleman.

Kennedy and colleagues, including a few Republicans, don't want to eliminate the subsidized private program. But they want to create an incentive for more colleges to offer direct government loans by letting them keep half the savings if they applied them toward grants and scholarships. Nationwide, this could create $17 billion extra for student aid over the next decade, sponsors say.

"We know that the federal government is spending billions each year subsidizing private lenders," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is among the House co-sponsors. "This direct loan program cuts out the middleman and saves the taxpayer money."

[eridani]

14. Marijuana Policy Project fundraiser

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050503-120701-5213r.htm

Nobody better than former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders to headline the Marijuana Policy Project's 10th anniversary fundraising gala on Capitol Hill this week.

Others speaking out in support of medicinal-marijuana patients are 2004 presidential candidate Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, and fellow Democratic Reps. Linda T. Sanchez of California and Sam Farr of California. (The latter is to receive a legislative leadership award).

Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, is expected to begin a drive this week to prevent federal government "attacks" on medicinal-marijuana patients.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/05/POT.TMP

Hundreds of suit-and-tie-clad marijuana advocates feasted on chicken Kiev and Petite Sirah on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night in what may have been the most button-down gathering of pot enthusiasts in history.

The music was contemporary jazz, not reggae. The dessert was a caramel parfait with chocolate drizzle, not Oreos. And the featured Cheech and Chong video was a snippet of a documentary on actor Tommy Chong's recent imprisonment.

The event, a strictly nonsmoking affair that drew members of Congress, a prominent television talk show host, and seasoned Washington operatives, was a mainstream coming-out of sorts for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's pre-eminent marijuana lobbying organization"Often people joke about marijuana, but due process and respecting state laws is a serious issue," Farr said. "Beyond that, I think it's high time the federal government recognized that one of the best ways to prevent recreational use of a drug is to let doctors prescribe it in closely regulated ways.'' Farr was joined at the gala by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood (Los Angeles County).

Intellectually, it's very easy,'' Frank said of convincing his colleagues. "Politically, it's hard.''

[eridani]

15. Health Care workshop in Pennsylvania

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7124/1/271

They lent faces, breath and passion to the statistics of pain and crisis in the country’s for-profit health care system. Over 200 workers and their families jammed the Aliquippa Croatian Club here May 21, with one thing on their minds — action to create national health care. Steelworkers, construction trades people and airline workers broke new ground by testifying at the first of a series of citizen hearings, hosted by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Kucinich have introduced legislation into the House, HR676, to create a universal, single-payer health care system. The Aliquippa hearing provided the vital resident clout to secure serious congressional consideration, build a grassroots movement and, ultimately, win passage.

The bill answers the criteria outlined by labor unions and advocacy groups who point out that 45 million working families have no health care in the richest country in the world. HR676 covers everyone without deductibles and co-pays. Patients select their own physician who decides treatment and care, not an insurance company. In addition to primary health care, HR676 provides dental, optical, and mental health services. Modeled on the current system of Medicare, the bill would slash health care administrative costs by 11 percent, and it is estimated it would reduce overall health spending by $50 billion in the first year (more info: cnhpn.org).

[eridani]

16. Kucinich in Alaska and Oregon

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1118051702798610.xml&coll=7

Dennis Kucinich, Ohio congressman and former Democratic presidential candidate, made his first return visit to Portland on Sunday since he was on the campaign trail in spring 2004.

Kucinich spoke to a crowd of more than 100 at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland. The church was the site of an afternoon program with about 12 guest speakers promoting peace, unity and an upcoming bill that Kucinich plans to present to Congress that would create a Department of Peace.

"We need to create a community consciously dedicated to peace," Kucinich said. "So much of culture today is bound up in violence and anger. But war isn't inevitable. We can make peace inevitable."


http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/060605/news_0606new003001.shtml

U.S. Representative and 2004 presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich promoted a plan to create a universal health care system at Wednesday's Kenai Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said the bill he sponsored with Reps. John Conyers, D-Michigan, and James McDermott, D-Washington, would create a universal, single-payer nonprofit Medicare system.

"Something is wrong in America when you can work a lifetime, build a nest egg and have it wiped out with one illness in the family," Kucinich said.

The bill, called the U.S. National Health Insurance Act (HR 676), would stop a condition in this country where people are losing everything they have, he said.

"Insurance companies and health care companies have a death grip on our politics," he said.

[eridani]

17. Kucinich supports medical marijuana

http://www.mpp.org/hincheyvote/
Record House Vote for Medical Marijuana
161-264 Vote to Stop Raids on Patients

On June 15, a record 161 House members voted to stop arresting medical marijuana patients -- an all-time record of support for medical marijuana access. The amendment was defeated 161-264.
The vote was a much stronger showing than political observers had predicted. The legislation received 13 more votes than it did last July, with fully 72% of House Democrats voting for the amendment and 15 House Republicans bucking their hostile congressional leaders and the White House to vote "yes."

The bipartisan amendment, introduced by U.S. Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), sought to prohibit the U.S. Justice Department -- which includes the DEA -- from spending taxpayer money to arrest or prosecute medical marijuana patients in the 10 states where medical marijuana is legal: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Congresspeople Hinchey, Rohrabacher, Barney Frank (D-MA), Sam Farr (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Shiela Jackson Lee (D-TX) all spoke in support of the amendment.