RandySF
RandySF's JournalHillary Clinton roars, Bernie Sanders stumbles on guns, and more
Check out five opinions trending online, from the NRA’s fact-checking unit to the “Cadillac tax.”
Clinton roars: Hillary Clinton deftly threaded the needle on policy positions during Tuesday night’s CNN debate, writes New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, dubbing her a “seamstress.” And Bernie Sanders made her seem like a young comer with little to lose.
“For much of the debate, Sanders somehow came across as the embattled incumbent, targeted by the other four candidates, while Clinton came across as the energetic upstart. He seemed bowed, irascible. She seemed buoyant, effervescent. It was as poised a performance as she’s finessed in a long time, and while I’ve just about given up making predictions about this confounding election — I never thought Donald Trump would last so long, and I never saw Ben Carson coming — I think Clinton benefited more from Tuesday’s stage than Sanders did. She mixed confidence and moments of passion with instances of humor, and her manner was less didactic and robotic than it can often be.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/14/hillary-clinton-roars-bernie-sanders-stumbles-guns-and-more/94qo875Y57GbvZ9WEva0bM/story.html
Arizona Republican "compromises" on gun control.
A former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party tweeted Tuesday night during the first Democratic presidential debate that guns should be taken away from "blacks" because "they are the main killers."
At one point, debate moderator Anderson Cooper asked the candidates where they stood on the "Black Lives Matter" movement. The question of whether "black lives matter" or "all lives matter" had tripped up some of the candidates before, but on Tuesday night they all said the movement was legitimate.
Former Arizona GOP chair Randy Pullen, who is white, offered his unsolicited take on Twitter.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/randy-pullen-democratic-debate-blacks-guns
UC Professor began sexually harassing students FOURTEEN years ago and was just now disciplined.
Dr. Marcy and Paul Butler, now of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, became famous 20 years ago as the leading American hunters and discoverers of planets around other stars, known as exoplanets. Dr. Marcy was mentioned only a few weeks ago as a potential Nobel Prize honoree. But he also left a trail of complaints and rumors about inappropriate behavior over the years.
This summer, in response to a formal complaint by four former students, the University of California concluded that Dr. Marcy had violated its policies on sexual harassment. The violations, spanning 2001 to 2010, included groping students, kissing them and touching or massaging them inside their clothes.
Dr. Marcy was informed that another harassment violation would leave him subject to immediate suspension or dismissal — a decision that was not widely known until BuzzFeed News reported it last week.
On the eve of the report’s release, Dr. Marcy posted an apology on his website, disagreeing with some aspects of the harassment complaints but saying he took responsibility. “It is difficult to express how painful it is for me to realize that I was a source of distress for any of my women colleagues, however unintentional,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/science/geoffrey-marcy-to-resign-from-berkeley-astronomy-department.html
Hillary Clinton Punched Down During The First Debate -- And It Worked
LAS VEGAS -- The first debate of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary will be defined by two moments: When the topic turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) chief vulnerability, Hillary Clinton jumped at the opportunity to draw a sharp contrast. When the roles were reversed, Sanders threw her a lifeline.
Those two exchanges -- the first on gun control and the second on Clinton's use of a private email account as secretary of state -- exemplified not just the different political DNA of each candidate, it underscored the brewing intensity of a Democratic primary that few thought would be competitive.
Clinton's overall performance will be remembered as the more forceful one, in part because the early questions played to her strengths. A back-and-forth on why Sanders didn't consider himself a capitalist led to her defending robust regulations, with him touting Denmark.
But the truly defining segment dealt with guns, perhaps Sanders' biggest vulnerability in the Democratic primary. Clinton previewed her attack a few weeks ago when, among the series of proposals she unveiled after the Oregon mass shooting, she called for ending legal immunity for gun manufacturers -- something Sanders voted for as a congressman. And once the topic surfaced at the debate, she pounced.
"For this immunity provision, I voted against it," Clinton said. "I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn't that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cnn-democratic-debate_561dd837e4b0c5a1ce611bf6
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders call for Edward Snowden to face trial
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over Edward Snowden during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate with both calling for him to face trial, but with the Vermont senator saying he thought the NSA whistleblower had “played a very important role in educating the American people”.
Clinton was unmoved by public approbation for Snowden, who exposed the depths of US and UK surveillance to media including the Guardian in 2013.
“He broke the laws of the United States,” she said. “He could have been a whistleblower, he could have gotten all the protections of a whistleblower. He chose not to do that. He stole very important information that has fallen into the wrong hands so I think he should not be brought home without facing the music.”
Snowden has said he did not believe he was granted adequate protection from reprisal under whistleblower laws. Laws protecting whistleblowers in intelligence agencies are written differently from laws protecting others who oppose their employers – including in the government – on grounds of conscience, and are generally considered comparatively weak.
Sanders – Clinton’s main challenger for the Democratic nomination – was more lenient. “I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American public,” the Vermont senator said. He, too, said that Snowden had broken the law and suggested that he ought to be tried. “I think there should be a penalty to that,” he said. “But I think that education should be taken into consideration before the sentencing.”
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/13/clinton-sanders-snowden-nsa-democratic-debate
Eighteen earthquakes in the East Bay in the last 24 hours.
And I am sitting less than a mile from the Hayward Fault. I'm getting nervous (probably for no good reason).
Quick conclusions on tonight's debates.
1. Hillary and Bernie reinforced their current supporters.
2. Biden lost big if he had any plans of running because Hillary likely reassured people who were on the fence.
3. O'Malley is done.
They have Ted Nugent, we have Sheryl Crow.
That alone makes me proud to be a Democrat.
Field Poll: Obama’s approval rating in California highest since second term’s start
President Barack Obama, in California this weekend for fundraisers in San Francisco and Los Angeles plus a stop in San Diego, is more popular now with Golden State voters than at any other time since the start of his second term, the Field Poll reports.
Sixty percent of the state’s registered voters approve of Obama’s performance in office while 33 percent disapprove, according to the poll of 1,002 voters conducted Sept. 17 through Oct. 4. That’s up from his 53 percent approval rating in May, and far better than his 45 percent approval from September 2014.
“He’s letting his hair down and voters here like that — it’s a very Democratic state,” Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said. “This year he has gone back to his Democratic roots. In earlier years, he was trying to take compromise positions and get things through the Congress by working with the Republican side. I think voters here didn’t like the positions he was taking.”
Obama wishes he could have such numbers nationwide — 45 percent of Americans approve of his job performance while 50 percent disapprove, according to the latest averages of nationwide polls compiled by Real Clear Politics.
The Field Poll also found more Californians approve than disapprove of the president’s handling of both the nation’s economy — 58 percent to 36 percent — and foreign policy, 49 percent to 42 percent. Unsurprisingly, Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive while Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20151011/field-poll-obamas-approval-rating-in-california-highest-since-second-terms-start
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