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Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today went to the House floor to outline the steps we can take to avoid default and lead America out of debt.
See the video here. The full text of Congressman Kucinich's remarks follow:
"Here is what we should do to avoid default: increase the debt ceiling with no strings attached.
"Here is how to get out of debt: End the wars -- save one trillion over ten years. Repeal tax cuts to the wealthy: Save another trillion.
"Medicare for All: End the four hundred billion yearly subsidies for health insurance industry.
"Renegotiate trade agreements with workers rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles: save millions of jobs and billions of dollars.
"The Fed creates money out of nothing and gives it to banks. Why should our country go into debt, borrowing from banks when we have the constitutional power to create money and invest in jobs?
"We can have another New Deal where we put millions to work rebuilding our bridges and transportation system.
"We can have a Works Green Administration where NASA is the incubator of jobs designing and engineering wind and solar micro technologies for private sector manufacturing, distribution, installation and maintenance in millions of homes, saving money, energy and protecting the environment.
"We are the United States of America, the greatest country on earth. We envision wealth. We don't default. We create wealth. We don't default. We build wealth. We don't default."
Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.
The witness—who claims he falsely identified Owens as the killer because he feared for his life—said that barring a stay, the condemned man "will die for a crime that he did not commit."
Barring an unlikely 11th-hour reprieve from South Carolina's governor or U.S. Supreme Court, correctional officials are set to carry out the state's first execution in 13 years after its attorney general brushed off a key prosecution witness' bombshell claim that the convicted man did not commit the murder for which he is condemned to die.
Freddie Owens—who legally changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while imprisoned—was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection for the shooting death of convenience store cashier Irene Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three, during a 1997 robbery.
Although there was no forensic evidence linking the then-19-year-old man to the murder, state prosecutors relied upon the testimony of co-defendant Steven Golden, who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Owens as part of a plea deal to spare his own life.
On Wednesday Golden filed an affidavit in the South Carolina Supreme Court in which he declared that he lied about the identity of Graves' killer.
"If this court does not grant a stay, Freddie will die for a crime he did not commit," he wrote.
However, on Thursday the state's highest court rejected Owens' bid.
"Freddie Owens is not the person who shot Irene Graves at the Speedway on November 1, 1997," Golden's filing stated. "Freddie was not present when I robbed the Speedway that day."
"The detectives told me they knew Freddie was with me when I robbed the Speedway," wrote Golden, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime. "They told me I might as well make a statement against Freddie because he already told his side to everyone and they were just trying to get my side of the story."
"I was scared that I would get the death penalty if I didn't make a statement," he continued. "I signed a waiver of rights form and then signed a statement on November 11, 1997."
"In that statement, I substituted Freddie for the person who was really with me in the Speedway that night," Golden claimed. "I did that because I knew that's what the police wanted me to say, and also because I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to the police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was actually not there."
Golden—who said he did not name the person who he says killed Graves for fear of his life—added: "I'm coming forward now because I know Freddie's execution date is September 20 and I don't want Freddie to be executed for something he didn't do. This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience."
The office of Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson responded to Golden's affidavit on Thursday, calling his claim "inherently suspect" and stating that he "has now made a sworn statement that is contrary to his multiple other sworn statements over 20 years."
The attorney general's statement came after a federal judge on Wednesday declined to halt Owens' execution over his legal team's concerns about the provenance of South Carolina's supply of pentobarbital, which is used in lethal injections.
South Carolina unofficially paused executions in 2011 as lethal injection drugs became increasingly difficult to obtain because pharmaceutical companies enacted bans on their use for capital punishment. The state subsequently passed a law protecting the identity of drug suppliers, resulting in renewed stocks.
Additionally, the state Supreme Court ruled in July that executions by firing squad and electrocution do not violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, validating a law signed in 2021 by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster that forces condemned inmates to choose between the two methods of execution at a time when lethal injection drugs were still scarce.
Anti-death penalty campaigners on Wednesday submitted a petition with more than 10,000 signatures asking McMaster to grant Owen clemency.
Although the number of U.S. executions has been steadily decreasing from 85 in 2000 to 24 last year, a flurry of impending state killings has raised alarm among human rights activists. Amnesty International says that in addition to Owens, seven men are scheduled to be put to death in the coming month.
"No government should give itself the power to execute people," Amnesty said Thursday on social media. "It is past time for the U.S. to align with other countries that no longer carry out this cruel and inhuman punishment."
A 2014 study determined that at least 4% of people on U.S. death rows were likely innocent.
"I don't think we have seen before, a violation that is so massive, as we are seeing in Gaza now," said one committee leader.
A United Nations committee on Thursday called out Israel for "serious violations" of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly with its nearly yearlong assault on the Gaza Strip.
"The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history," said Bragi Guðbrandsson, vice chair of the U.N. Child Rights Committee, which also released its findings on five other parties to the global treaty—Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Mexico, and Turkmenistan.
Since the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed at least 41,272 Palestinians in Gaza and injured another 95,551, according to local officials. Many more remain missing and are believed to be dead and buried in the rubble of bombed civilian infrastructure. The vast majority of the enclave's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, often numerous times.
Earlier this week, the Gaza Health Ministry publicly identified 34,344 Palestinians who have been killed in the Hamas-governed enclave as of August 31. The document spans 649 pages, the first 14 of which are filled with the names of babies. In total, there are 11,355 children.
The U.N. report states that "the committee is gravely concerned about... the outrageously high number of children in Gaza who continue to be killed, maimed, injured, missing, displaced, orphaned, and subjected to famine, malnutrition, and disease, as well as the multiple displacements of the Gazan population, as a result of the state party's indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas and its denial of humanitarian access, with at least 1 million children displaced, 21,000 children reported missing, 20,000 children who have lost one or both parents, 17,000 children unaccompanied or separated from their families in Gaza, dozens of child deaths due to malnutrition, and 3,500 children at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food."
The panel also expressed alarm over "attacks on and destruction of hospitals, schools, residential buildings, refugee camps, and essential infrastructure, including power facilities and water tanks, by the armed forces, restricting access to health services, education, and housing for the nearly 1 million children living in Gaza."
Guðbrandsson said that "I don't think we can identify any measure that was taken to save children's lives in this military operation in Gaza."
"I don't think we have seen before, a violation that is so massive, as we are seeing in Gaza now," he noted. "These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see."
As Reuters reported:
Israel, which ratified the treaty in 1991, accused the committee of having a "politically-driven agenda," in a statement sent by its diplomatic mission in Geneva.
It sent a large delegation to a series of U.N. hearings in Geneva in early September where they argued that the treaty did not apply in Gaza or the West Bank and said that it was committed to respecting international humanitarian law.
It says its military campaign in Gaza is aimed at eliminating the Palestinian enclave's Hamas rulers and that it does not target civilians but that the militants hide among them, which Hamas denies.
Anne Skelton, chair of the U.N. committee, pushed back against Israel's position on Thursday, telling journalists, "They were not, in our view, facing up to the reality that 17,000 children are dead and that there have been repeated attacks on schools and hospitals."
The report also addresses Israel's claims, saying that "the committee deeply regrets the state party's repeated denial of its legal obligations under the convention in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) based on its position that the convention 'does not apply... to areas beyond a state's national territory' and 'was not designed to apply in situations of armed conflict,' and that international humanitarian law is the relevant and specific applicable body of law in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."
"The committee also regrets the limited information it received on the situation of children living in the OPT due to such a position," the 22-page "concluding observations" document continued. "The committee is of the view that the state party's denial of the application of the convention cannot be used to justify its grave and persistent violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."
The panel cited the International Court of Justice advisory opinion from July that found "international human rights instruments are applicable." The ICJ—which has taken up a genocide case against Israel—also said at the time that the decadeslong Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and must end "as rapidly as possible."
The new report says that the Child Rights Committee, "aligning its position with the position of the ICJ, reiterates that the convention applies to all children at all times and is directly applicable in all territories over which the state party exercises effective control, and reminds the state party of its legal obligations both under the convention and international humanitarian law concerning children in the OPT."
Skelton also argued that "the only real way to serve children's rights in this situation is a cease-fire."
However, Israel has shown no signs of ending its assault on the Palestinian enclave—in fact, fears of a wider regional conflict are heightened this week due to bombings of pagers, walkie-talkies, and other devices across Lebanon, attacks supposedly targeting Hezbollah members that Israeli and U.S. officials attributed to Israel's military and intelligence operatives.
The Child Rights Committee's report follows U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres adding Israel to the so-called "List of Shame" of nations that kill and wound children during armed conflicts, a June decision that outraged Israeli officials but was praised by human rights advocates as long overdue.
"The need for U.S. support is more urgent than ever," said one advocate. "The lives and well-being of millions depend on it."
Rights groups on Thursday applauded three Democratic lawmakers for their proposal of a bill to restore United States funding to the United Nations' key agency tasked with providing services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, six months after the U.S. suspended contributions following unverified accusations against the agency.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, expressed gratitude to Reps. André Carson (D-Ind.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) for introducing the UNRWA Emergency Restoration Act of 2024, aimed at restoring funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East—legislation that Zogby said would be "lifesaving" if passed into law.
"UNRWA plays a vital role in providing essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria," said Zogby. "The ongoing genocide in Gaza has resulted in increased displacement, starvation, and death. It is both inhumane and unconscionable to continue withholding financial support from UNRWA."
The U.S.—the largest international funder of the agency, which relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions from donor states—promptly suspended funding for UNRWA last January after Israel claimed without evidence that 12 out of the agency's 13,000 staff members in Gaza had been involved in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel last October.
Congress later passed a bill prohibiting UNRWA funding through at least March 2025.
In 2022, the U.S. contributed more than $343 million to the agency.
"UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. U.S. funding should be restored immediately."
The Biden administration's decision to suspend donations to UNRWA pushed a number of U.S. allies to do the same, but countries including Germany, Sweden, Japan, and the United Kingdom have since reinstated their funding after an independent probe found that Israel had provided no supporting evidence of its claim.
"The United States should join our key allies in restoring this urgently needed funding for UNRWA. There is no time to lose," said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, expressing support for the newly introduced bill.
Bridget Moix, general secretary for the group, added that cutting of funding was "simply unconscionable" because the U.S.—as the Israeli military's largest international funder—bears responsibility for the "horrific violence and a massive humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.
"UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip," said Moix. "U.S. funding should be restored immediately."
Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser for Demand Progress, noted that since the U.S. suspended funding to UNRWA, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened, with U.N. experts warning in July that famine had spread across the enclave.
"The need for U.S. support is more urgent than ever," said Kharrazian. "The lives and well-being of millions depend on it."
"We call on leaders in Congress to take principled stands like this as future funding bills move," he added, "removing these harmful prohibitions against UNRWA funding."