January, 08 2010, 05:52am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kevin Zeese 301-996-6582,kzeese@
Mark
Dudzic 201-314-2653,
mdudzic@thelaborparty.org
Margaret Flowers, M.D. 410-591-0892,
mdpnhp@gmail.com
Russell Mokhiber 202-468-8868,
russellmokhiber@gmail.com
Carol
Paris, M.D. 301-904-6210,
caparis52@hotmail.com
Katie Robbins 212-475-8350,
healthcarenow08@gmail.com
Pat
Salomon-Rodriguez, M.D., drpatsalomon@aol.com
Adam Schneider 410-215-8319, asch
Probation Ends for Baucus 8. Group Vows: "The Fight Will Continue Until Every Person in Our Nation Has Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care.'
Members of the Baucus 8 appeared at the
H. Carl Moultrie I Courthouse today for their final hearing following 6 months
of probation and, for 3 members, 40 hours of community service. The Baucus 8, all of whom are doctors or
health advocates, were arrested in the Senate Finance Committee Health Care
Roundtable on May 5th for standing up and asking why single payer
advocates were not allowed to testify.
WASHINGTON
Members of the Baucus 8 appeared at the
H. Carl Moultrie I Courthouse today for their final hearing following 6 months
of probation and, for 3 members, 40 hours of community service. The Baucus 8, all of whom are doctors or
health advocates, were arrested in the Senate Finance Committee Health Care
Roundtable on May 5th for standing up and asking why single payer
advocates were not allowed to testify.
Dr.
Pat Solomon, a retired pediatrician noted that, "When we looked at the list of
41 people testifying in the 3 days of Roundtables, we saw that not a single
witness was an advocate of the principle that healthcare should be a fundamental
human right for all in America, nor was there anyone to speak for the majority
of the American people who support single payer/Medicare for
All."
Senator
Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, convened the May Roundtable to
kick off the public consideration of the 111th Congress' legislative proposals
for healthcare reform. The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, a
coalition of nurses, doctors, labor, faith, health advocate and community groups
representing over 20 million people nationwide, sent a request to the Finance
Committee for one of their leaders testify. When this was denied, thousands of
single payer supporters across the nation contacted the committee to request
that single payer be included.
"Despite
the outpouring of requests," said Katie Robbins of Healthcare-Now.org, "we were
clearly told that we would be excluded. This cemented our growing impression
that the healthcare debate was at best, political theater, and that we would
have to try a different tactic in order that the only really affordable health
reform solution, that addresses the real health care needs of 100% of our nation
be heard."
Kevin
Zeese of ProsperityAgenda.US called the committee "pay to play" because, as he
said, "Every seat at the Roundtable was bought by the lobbyists. Senator Baucus
received nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the health industry in
2008 and the entire Senate Finance Committee received over $13 million in
2008."
"Congress
and the White House keep calling the medical industry corporations the 'stakeholders' in this reform
process," said Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program
(PNHP), "But we know that the true stakeholders are those who provide and
receive medical care, not those who profit off the current
situation."
"After
we were arrested, Senator Baucus admitted that it was a mistake to take single
payer off the table," said Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action. "Clearly it
was. Both the House and Senate bills would require Americans to buy a junk
insurance at an inflated price. This bill is a bailout of the insurance
industry. Instead of bailing out the private insurance companies, we ought to
get rid of them and replace them with one public insurance pool. Everybody in,
nobody out. Congress ought to defeat this monstrosity, start from scratch and
pass single payer. We will get single payer sooner or later. Better
sooner."
"
Wendell Potter, formerly of CIGNA and Humana (not a
member of the Baucus 8) calls this legislation 'The
Private Health Insurance Profit Protection and Enhancement Act,'" stated Dr.
Carol Paris, also of PNHP and a practicing physician in Southern Maryland. "And we agree because the final
legislation will benefit the medical corporations, further strengthening their
ability to buy members of Congress, and will continue the expensive and
complicated health situation that we have in this country right now which makes
it difficult for patients and doctors to focus on health
care."
In
fact, as an
example of the revolving door between those who are lobbyists and those who are
staff, Liz Fowler, former Vice President of Public Policy at Wellpoint, one of
the largest health insurers in the nation, left her lucrative position to work
as the point person in the Senate Finance Committee to oversee the legislation.
Her name is cited as author of the Senate Finance Bill.
Mark
Dudzic of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer said the group's action has been
vindicated by the subsequent actions in the Senate. "The current deplorable proposals for
healthcare reform under consideration in Congress show what happens when you
start bargaining by conceding all of the terrain to your opponent. Any shop
steward in America would have done a better job
than the leaders of the political party in control of overwhelming majorities in
both houses of congress."
In
addition to probation, the prosecutor insisted that the three defendants who
lived in the Washington,
DC area also perform 40 hours of
community service. "I spend every day serving my community," said Adam Schneider
who is employed by Health Care for the Homeless. "I'm proud of the stand we took
and had no problem doing an extra 40 hours of service to my community. But if
there was any justice in the world, Senator Baucus and his corporate sponsors
would have also been required to spend 40 hours with my clients to understand
their desperate need for access to healthcare before they give a $500 billion
bailout to the private health insurance industry."
The
group is unanimous that no matter what passes this year, health care reform is
not over in this nation. Patients will continue to suffer and die needlessly,
families will continue to face bankruptcy and foreclosure because of medical
debt until we have a national publicly-financed and privately-delivered single payer/Medicare for all health
system. Such a system would be transparent and accountable to the people unlike
the current situation in which private insurers are experts at hiding
information from the public and at violating their own written rules without
recourse.
This year saw tremendous growth in a
national movement for Medicare for all. The Baucus 8 vow to continue to do
whatever it takes, even facing arrest again, to get an honest and open-minded
debate about what type of health system is best so that people in this nation
can be healthy and productive and stop worrying about what they will do if
accident or illness strikes.
LATEST NEWS
'Indomitable' Gaza Journalist Bisan Owda Awarded Peabody for War Coverage
"We rise simply to document the genocide happening to our people," said the Palestinian reporter who dedicated her award to protesters around the world speaking out against Israel's military assault.
May 09, 2024
"It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive."
The line has become familiar to social media users and viewers of the Al Jazeera Media Network's show of the same name, hosted by Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda. On Thursday the show was lauded by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors as it awarded Owda one of journalism's highest honors.
"Despite a lack of clean water and the increasing scarcity of food, she draws on her indomitable spirit to keep the world informed," said the board. "For showing bravery and persistence in the midst of imminent danger, and for carrying a heavy journalistic burden as the entire world looks on, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive is honored with a Peabody Award."
Since Owda first broadcast from her bombarded home of Gaza in early November, less than a month into the Israeli onslaught that has now killed at least 34,904 Palestinians, she has given viewers a glimpse into how civilians across the enclave are impacted by air and ground attacks.
Her first broadcast—opening with the words: "Good morning, everyone. This is Bisan from Gaza. I'm smiling because I'm alive"—documented the makeshift tent encampment Owda was living in at Al-Shifa Hospital, after fleeing her home in Beit Hanoun with her family.
Since then Owda has interviewed her neighbors and documented the spread of disease at overcrowded shelters; the plight of families forced to leave northern Gaza due to Israel's total blockade on aid, pushing them toward starvation; and her family's experience marking Ramadan "in the rubble" left by relentless Israeli airstrikes.
On Thursday, Save the Children International featured Owda's reporting on Israel's takeover of the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border as it invaded the city of Rafah this week.
"No people can evacuate to a safe place, no humanitarian aid trucks entering," she said in the video. "Now I am in the middle of Rafah, and these people behind me are trying to gather their stuff. Their mattresses, some food. And they're taking now their stuff again to be displaced again after living [here] for months."
The situation in #Gaza is devastating.
The takeover by Israeli forces of the #Rafah crossing means no aid can enter.
Due to the rise in violence & evacuation orders, families are fleeing again, despite there being nowhere safe to go.
Bisan reports from Rafah👇#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/5vISDNweOl
— Save the Children International (@save_children) May 9, 2024
Accepting the Peabody, Owda said she and other journalists in Gaza "rise simply to document the genocide happening to our people."
"The victory of the Palestinian cause was never just for Palestinians," she said. "It is rather a victory for humanity."
She dedicated the award to people around the world who are helping to defeat "one of the [Israeli] occupation's strongest tools": dividing people "so we can never support one another."
"I dedicate this award to all the college students who are protesting," she said. "To all the people who took to the streets. To all the people at home who are participating in boycotts. To all the people worldwide, regardless of their religion, color, and ethnicity. Regardless of what makes them different, they're united in one mission: in their demands for a free Palestine. You deserve this award. And so do we."
Bisan Owda has just won one of broadcast journalism’s highest honors – the Peabody Award – for her work with AJ+.
Bisan is currently facing intense Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the occupied Gaza Strip. This is her message to the world: pic.twitter.com/rFTV7jjBIN
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 9, 2024
"And one day, this genocide will end," she continued. "And Palestine will be free. And we will welcome you here on Gazan soil. All of you... Thank you so much for this award and for always supporting us, standing by us, and for continuing to do so until we reach our demands: an end to the genocide, a cease-fire, and a free Palestine."
Tony Karon, editorial lead at AJ+, which has collaborated with Owda since Israel's onslaught began, applauded Owda's "heroic storytelling."
"We strive to tell the human story from where the missiles land, to elevate the human spirit and the hope that it brings for better days, to shine a light on places and stories those in power would rather keep shrouded in darkness," he said.
Zahira Jaher, a professor at University of Sussex in the U.K., said Owda and other journalists in Gaza "are rewriting how reporting is done... She is the future of Palestine."
The award was announced days after the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded a "special citation" for all journalists covering Israel's attack on Gaza—without giving recognition to those who are reporting from the frontlines, more than 100 of whom have been killed by Israeli forces.
"No one deserves this award more than Bisan, who is risking her life to ensure that the world bears witness to Israel's atrocities," said writer and foreign policy analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa. "But no award will bring back the over 100 Palestinian journalists Israel has killed over the last seven months."
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UNICEF Warns Area Israel Pushing Rafah Residents to Is 'Not Safe'
"It is a narrow strip of beach on the coast that lacks the basic infrastructure—like toilets and running water—needed to sustain the population," said the agency chief.
May 09, 2024
As Israel's tanks and warplanes continued attacking eastern Rafah on Thursday amid fears of a full-scale invasion, United Nations leaders warned that the area to which Israeli forces are directing Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip city is unsafe.
The Israel Defense Forces this week has
circulated a map and claimed that "the IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza. This expanded humanitarian area includes field hospitals, tents, and increased amounts of food, water, medication, and additional supplies."
However, in an interview published Wednesday, Tess Ingram of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
said that "the area that they're being directed to evacuate to is not safe. It's not safe because there aren't the services there to meet their basic needs, water, toilets, shelter."
"But it's also not safe because we know that that area has been subject to strikes despite being a so-called safe zone. So we're really concerned about that impact of a ground offensive on one of the most densely populated areas in the world," she told The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.
"Israel's latest evacuation orders and their ground operations will bring more death and displacement."
Rafah was home to about a quarter-million people before October 7, but since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has
called a "plausibly" genocidal assault on Gaza—killing at least 34,904 Palestinians and wounding another 78,514 as of Thursday—the city's population has swelled to over 1.4 million.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell
said last week that a major military operation against the crowded city "would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe" for the young people there, explaining that "nearly all of the some 600,000 children now crammed into Rafah are either injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities."
Noting that "many of them have been displaced multiple times already," Ingram, who recently returned from Gaza, similarly told Scahill that "they're exhausted, traumatized, sick, hungry, and their ability to safely evacuate is limited."
Despite warnings from humanitarian leaders and the U.S. government—which has continued to arm the IDF throughout the war—Israeli forces attacked Rafah this week and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt, further restricting aid delivery.
U.S. President Joe Biden previously called attacking Rafah a "red line." While criticizing the IDF assault on the city Wednesday, the American leader was accused of "moving the goal post" because he merely threatened to cut off arms if Israel pursued a major invasion, rather than stopping the flow of arms immediately.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Thursday that he has no intention of backing down, saying in a video message in Hebrew that "if we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone."
Russell said in a statement Thursday that "the intensification of military operations in the Rafah area and the closure of key border crossings into southern Gaza have severed our access to fuel, threatening to grind humanitarian operations to a halt."
According to the UNICEF chief:
If the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings are not reopened to fuel and humanitarian supplies, the consequences will be felt almost immediately: Life support services for premature babies will lose power; children and families will become dehydrated or consume dangerous water; sewage will overflow and spread disease further. Simply put, lost time will soon become lost lives.
I strongly urge the relevant authorities to provide humanitarian actors with actionable measures and concrete assurances to facilitate safe and secure movement of humanitarian cargo, via all routes, into and within the Gaza Strip.
"I am also deeply concerned about the movement of civilians in Gaza to unsafe areas," Russell continued. "In response to evacuation orders in eastern Rafah, at least 80,000 people have reportedly fled the area, with many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi and among the ruins of Khan Younis. We have been warning for months that Al-Mawasi is not a safe option. It is a narrow strip of beach on the coast that lacks the basic infrastructure—like toilets and running water—needed to sustain the population."
Plus, as Scott Anderson, deputy director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, toldPolitico on Wednesday, "there's already 450,000 people in that general area. It is crowded."
Anderson also warned about dwindling supplies, saying that "we're down to no fuel. We're basically out. We've kept enough to meet the minimum security standards we have to meet for the U.N. so we can continue to stay here. But we're down to that level. Some hospitals will start shutting down their generators in three days if we don't get fuel in."
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, stressed in a Thursday statement that "civilians must be protected and have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay."
While warning that "Israel's latest evacuation orders and their ground operations will bring more death and displacement," Griffiths also said that "we remain committed to providing aid to people, regardless of where they are."
"The decisions that are made today and their consequences in human suffering will be remembered by the generation that follows us," he concluded. "Let us be ready for their reproaches."
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'Protest Works': Trinity College Dublin Agrees to Divest From Israeli Firms
Trinity's incoming student union president stressed that the school "refused to follow the U.S. example of bringing police in and made it clear that it would not pursue anything like that here."
May 09, 2024
Students at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland protesting the school's complicity in Israeli crimes in Palestine began dismantling their encampment Wednesday after administrators agreed to divest from three companies with ties to Israel's illegal settler colonies in the occupied West Bank.
TCD—which earlier this week
decried the "disproportionate response" to some pro-Palestine campus protests abroad—said an agreement between protesters and administrators had been reached on Wednesday afternoon, and that "plans are being put in place to return to normal university business for staff, students, and members of the public."
"We are glad that this agreement has been reached and are committed to further constructive engagement on the issues raised," senior dean Eoin O'Sullivan said. "We thank the students for their engagement."
Outgoing Trinity College Dublin Students' Union (TCDSU) president László Molnárfi called the agreement a "testament to grassroots student-staff power."
Incoming TCDSU president Jenny Maguire contrasted the situation at her school to the violent repression of student-led protests on some U.S. campuses.
"The college was determined that it would be an example going forward," Maguire said, according toThe New York Times. "It refused to follow the U.S. example of bringing police in and made it clear that it would not pursue anything like that here."
TCD's statement affirmed:
We fully understand the driving force behind the encampment on our campus and we are in solidarity with the students in our horror at what is happening in Gaza. We abhor and condemn all violence and war, including the atrocities of October 7th, the taking of hostages, and the continuing ferocious and disproportionate onslaught in Gaza. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dehumanization of its people are obscene. We support the International Court of Justice's position that "Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip."
"Trinity will endeavor to divest from investments in other Israeli companies," the school added, vowing to establish a task force on the issue.
"A real and lasting solution that respects the human rights of everyone needs to be found," the TCD statement said.
The protest camp—which was spearheaded by TCDSU and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement—was erected Friday night on Fellow's Square, at the heart of Ireland's oldest university. Students demanded that TCD sell off its investments in three Israeli companies included on a United Nations "blacklist" first published in 2020 for their links to human rights violations committed by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The TCD protest came amid Israel's 216-day assault on Gaza, which has left at least 124,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in what the International Court of Justice in January called a "plausibly" genocidal campaign. Support for Palestine runs strong and deep in Ireland, which, like Palestine, was also colonized by the British, and where many people see parallels between their historic repression and Israel's crimes against Palestinians.
TCD's campus—which is located in the center of the Irish capital—had been shut down for five days, a move that affected the school's income as it houses the Book of Kells, an ancient Celtic manuscript visitors pay from €16-€33.50 ($17-$36) to see. According toThe Irish Times, the Book of Kells generates approximately €350,000 ($377,000) in weekly income during the busy summer months.
Last week, the TCD fined TCDSU €214,000 ($231,000) for financial losses stemming from multiple protests held throughout this academic year.
Meanwhile in the United States—where a pair of Republican senators this week introduced legislation to brand students protesting for Palestine as "terrorists" and add them to the no-fly list—campus encampments continued to spread from coast to coast.
On Wednesday, progressive U.S. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) spoke alongside student protesters from George Washington University outside the U.S. Capitol.
https://t.co/MvLg0MMN90
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) May 8, 2024
"We will not stop in defending these students until [the] end in regards to the genocide... until there is an immediate and permanent cease-fire that includes complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza," said Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. "We're proud to use our positions in office to bring these voices, so you all don't forget why there are encampments, why there are movements and dissent around this country."
While crackdowns and violence by police and Israel supporters have garnered most of the headlines in the U.S., at least eight schools across the country including California State University, Sacramento; Evergreen State College; University of California, Riverside; Brown University; Rutgers University; State University of New York, Purchase; Northwestern University; and University of Minnesota have agreed to some or all of students' demands.
After a week of demonstrations at a student-led encampment at California State University, Sacramento, administrators said they would revise the school's socially responsible investment policy and refrain from investments linked to Israeli human rights violations in Palestine.
"I think it's so significant what we did here because we're essentially raising the bar for all universities," Sacramento State sophomore Michael Lee-Chang toldThe Intercept. "We've had every single one of our demands met, and that's how it should be. We're here for Palestine, and student power shouldn't be underestimated. I can't state just how excited I am and can't wait to see how our win helps other campuses reach their victories too."
Faculty at U.S. colleges and universities have also been taking a more active role in the protests. Professors and other staff at the New School in New York City set up a solidarity camp on Wednesday, erecting tents with signs including "Faculty Against Genocide" and "Jews for Palestine."
As of Thursday, more than 800 Jewish professors had signed an open letter demanding that lawmakers and U.S. President Joe Biden oppose the so-called Antisemitism Awareness Act, House-approved legislation the educators warn will "amplify the real threats Jewish Americans already face" by "conflating antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel."
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