Democrats debate guns, health care as voting nears

With Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a near dead heat in the election season’s first two contests, the leading Democratic presidential candidates Sunday engaged in heated exchanges over firearm policy, health care and income equality in their last meeting before the Iowa caucuses.

The Charleston, S.C., debate, which also featured lower-polling candidate and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, opened just hours after the first of five Americans freed following a dramatic prisoner swap with Iran stopped over in Europe on Sunday on their way back to the United States.

The five Americans, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, who had been held since July 2014, were released in exchange for seven Iranian citizens who had been held on sanctions-related offenses. Clinton and Sanders both said they were encouraged by the developments, which came as Iran began dismantling its nuclear program.

"We have had one good day over 36 years,'' Clinton said of the U.S.'s long-troubled relationship with Iran and the need to continue monitoring Tehran's nuclear compliance.

From the debate's opening moments, the candidates sought to stake out sharp differences with Clinton, emphasizing her long experience in government as preparation for the presidency, while Sanders began defending his reversal on legislation that provided gun makers and dealers immunity from lawsuits filed by victims of violent crime involving firearms.

"I am pleased to hear that Sen. Sanders has reversed his position on immunity,'' Clinton said, adding that "no other industry'' had been provided such protection.

O'Malley, meanwhile, highlighted his own record of supporting some of the strictest gun legislation in the country during his tenure as Maryland governor. Through much of the debate, however, O'Malley was a forgotten candidate who was often forced to plead for more time to talk as the debate focused on Clinton and Sanders.

The quick attention to guns came as the candidates gathered in Charleston, where just seven months earlier nine worshipers were killed in an attack on a Bible study session at the iconic Emanuel AME Church.

From guns, the candidates quickly pivoted to criminal justice reform, police brutality and the scourge of heroin addiction and health care policy.

Clinton was sharply critical of Sanders' Medicare-style health care plan, saying that such a proposal would thrust the government back into yet another contentious fight that could endanger the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature health care law.

The former secretary of State described the Obama program as "historic'' and in need of expansion along with stronger political support.

Just two hours before the debate's start, Sanders unveiled the long-awaited details of his plan that would be supported by a mix of taxes on employers, middle-class workers and wealthiest Americans.

Responding to Clinton's criticism, Sanders said his proposal would lower health care costs for average Americans by $5,000.

"To tear it up,'' Clinton said of Obamacare, "is the absolute wrong direction.''

source : us today nes

Obama allows sale of aircraft to Iran as nuclear deal nears implementation

WASHINGTON — President Obama took another step toward implementing the Iran nuclear deal Friday, empowering the secretary of State to allow the export of civilian passenger aircraft to Iran.

White House officials stressed Friday that no sanctions relief will happen until Iran lives up to its end of the deal — and the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies its compliance. That verification may be imminent, they said.

"They have nearly completed their major nuclear steps, and that's nothing to gloss over," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said at a luncheon hosted by Bloomberg News Friday. "It's a significant rollback in the Iranian program."

Rhodes said that the IAEA certification will trigger what's known as "Implementation Day."

"That should happen relatively soon, certainly in the coming days. That is when sanctions relief is initiated," he said.

The nuclear agreement lifts only part of the U.S. sanctions against Iran, and sanctions for Iran's human rights violations and support of terrorism will remain in place. And while the U.S. trade embargo remains largely intact, the agreement makes two exceptions: Iran can buy U.S. civilian passenger aircraft, and sell certain crafts — specifically, carpets and rugs — to the United States.

In 2010, Congress granted Obama the authority to allow exports of goods, services, or technologies to Iran if he determines those sales "to be in the national interest." On Friday, Obama delegated that authority to Secretary of State John Kerry through a presidential memorandum, a presidential directive similar to an executive order.

In a letter to Obama Friday, 13 Republican senators called for new sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile tests it conducted last year. "Iran’s belligerent actions have thus far gone unpunished," said the letter, written by Sen. David Purdue, R-Ga.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that the sanctions relief under the nuclear deal doesn't preclude the United States from taking action against Iran on other fronts.

"We have been quite clear from the very beginning — long before a deal was even reached — that the negotiations were focused primarily on Iran’s nuclear program. That was our number one concern. It’s also the number one concern of our allies in Israel, as well," he said. "And we’ve been pretty clear about the fact that Iran is potentially subject to significant sanctions as a result of the ballistic missile testing that has been reported. So we're going to continue to apply pressure to them."

SOURCE: US TODAY NEWS

Bill Clinton returns to New Hampshire and the campaign trail

Former President Bill Clinton used a New Hampshire campaign appearance to say there's never been a presidential candidate, "better qualified by knowledge, experience and temperament to do what needs to be done now to restore prosperity." (Jan. 4) AP

NASHUA, N.H. — He's back.

Bill Clinton's hair was whiter, his voice hoarser and his demeanor more subdued than when he was seeking to rescue his own beleaguered presidential campaign in New Hampshire in 1992, or even when he was stumping for his wife in her 2008 campaign.

In his solo campaign debut for the 2016 race, the former president gave a capacity crowd of about 700 in Nashua Community College gym a ruminative endorsement of Hillary Clinton that was more personal than political. He didn't mention his own potential impact on her prospects, and there were none of the hecklers or questions that she occasionally has had to face about him.

"This is what I want to say: When we met soon-to-be 45 years ago in a couple of months, when we met, we fell in love," he told them. "I thought she was the most amazing person," he said, as he traced her career from Yale Law School and her early work in Arkansas on behalf of children and the poor. "She hadn't been elected to anything, but everything she touched became better."

He concluded with a history lesson about why New Hampshire native Frankin Pierce was an unsuccessful president and Abraham Lincoln a successful one — in large part because Lincoln matched the demands of his time.

SOURCE : USA TODAY NEWS

Weeks after being declared an Islamic republic, Gambia orders female civil servants to cover their hair

It's not yet a month since President Yahya Jammeh declared Gambia an Islamic Republic - ostensibly in a bid to break away from its colonial past - but the implications of that announcement are only coming into play. The president maintained that other faiths retained their freedoms regardless but all female civil servants are now required to cover their hair.

No reasons were given for the introduction of the new rule, which was announced in a memo that was leaked to local opposition newspapers.

The memo, published by Freedom stated 'all female staff' within government departments were no longer allowed to expose their hair during working hours, effective from December 31.

It went on to urge female staff 'to use a head tie and neatly wrap their hair'.

'All heads of departments and agencies are urgently advised to implement this directive and bring it to the attention of their female staff,' the memo concluded. 

Although it doesn't appear that the president's announcement changes Gambia's laws or its constitutional status as a secular state, it could yet form the justification for rules such as that now affecting its female employees.

'Gambia cannot afford to continue the colonial legacy,' Jammeh said of his country, which gained independence from Britain in 1965.

Jammeh said the rights of Gambia's Christian community will be respected and there would be no mandates on dress.

'We will be an Islamic state that would respect the rights of all citizens and non-citizens.'

However, the head of the country's Islamic body wouldn't say if he endorsed the declaration.

'We haven't met yet to discuss over the presidential announcement,' said Gambia's Supreme Islamic Council Chairman Imam Momodou Lamin Touray.

Hamat Bah of the opposition National Reconciliation Party criticized the decision.

'There is a constitutional clause that says that Gambia is a secular state. You cannot make such a declaration without going through a referendum.'

Jammeh has ruled Gambia since seizing power in 1994.

SOURCE: LINDAIKEJI.BLOGSPOT.COM