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n2doc's JournalBernie Sanders Has Already Taken More Press Questions Than Hillary Clinton
The Vermont senator starts his presidential campaign by engaging with the press, something Clinton has so far avoided.
—By Patrick Caldwell
Unlike Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders didn't use a splashy, big-budget video to announce his campaign. Instead, the Vermont senator opted for a series of one-on-one television interviews Wednesday followed by a low-key launch event outside the US Capitol Thursday morning. "I believe that in a democracy, what elections are about are serious debates over serious issues," he said Thursday. "Not political gossip, not making campaigns into soap operas. This is not the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, this is the debate over major issues facing the American people."
Pundits are already dismissing Sanders—who has, in the past, described himself as a socialist rather than a Democrat—as a long-shot candidate with little chance of defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democrats' 2016 nomination. But Sanders is already beating Clinton on one metric: Answering questions from the press.
Earlier this week, National Journal's Zach Cohen counted all of the times Clinton has answered press questions since she announced her presidential campaign on April 12. Cohen counted just seven "answers"—about half of which ignored the actual question. When asked about whether a super-PAC would support her campaign, she said, "I don't know." When she was quizzed about her chances in Iowa, she said "I'm having a great time, can't look forward any more than I am."
Sanders, who needs all the press attention he can get, kicked off his presidential campaign by fielding a barrage of questions from TV news reporters in interviews Wednesday. Over the course of one five-minute exchange with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, Sanders answered seven separate questions. The trend continued at Sanders' campaign launch event Thursday morning, where he took six more questions.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrat-2016-press-questions
Communication not obfuscation
Michael Moore: Disarm the police
Filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday called for the release of all blacks jailed on drug sentences to be released, and for the police to be disarmed.
“Here’s my demand: I want every African-American currently incarcerated for drug ‘crimes’ or non-violent offenses released from prison today,” Moore tweeted.
“Next demand: Disarm the police,” he continued.
Moore’s tweets were in response to the rioting in Baltimore earlier this week, which was triggered by the death in police custody of a 25-year-old black man.
“We have ¼ billion 2nd Amendment guns in our homes 4 protection,” Moore wrote. “We’ll survive til the right cops r hired.”
more
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/240634-michael-moore-disarm-the-police
House GOP Wants to Eviscerate NASA Earth Sciences in New Budget
By Phil Plait
There’s no other way to put this, so I’ll be succinct: A passel of anti-science global warming denying GOP representatives have put together a funding authorization bill for NASA that at best cuts more than $300 million from the agency’s current Earth science budget.
At worst? More than $500 million.
The actual amount of the cut depends on whether some caps enacted in 2011 are removed or not. If they are, then Earth sciences gets $1.45 billion. If not, it gets $1.2 billion. The current FY 2015 budget is $1.773 billion.
Compare that with the White House request for FY ’16 of $1.947 billion for Earth sciences. The bill will be marked up (amended and rewritten) by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee today.
This, for the space agency which has a critical role in understanding climate change and its effects on our planet.
more
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/04/30/nasa_budget_gop_committee_wants_to_slash_and_burn_earth_sciences.html
Report Says American Psychological Association Collaborated on Torture Justification
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists.
The report is the first to examine the association’s role in the interrogation program. It contends, using newly disclosed emails, that the group’s actions to keep psychologists involved in the interrogation program coincided closely with efforts by senior Bush administration officials to salvage the program after the public disclosure in 2004 of graphic photos of prisoner abuse by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
“The A.P.A. secretly coordinated with officials from the C.I.A., White House and the Department of Defense to create an A.P.A. ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the C.I.A. torture program,” the report’s authors conclude.
The involvement of health professionals in the Bush-era interrogation program was significant because it enabled the Justice Department to argue in secret opinions that the program was legal and did not constitute torture, since the interrogations were being monitored by health professionals to make sure they were safe.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collaborated-on-torture-justification.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1
Ohio man accidentally shot himself in Chick-fil-A while pulling up his pants
This is what happens when you come into a chicken restaurant cocked.
An Ohio man accidentally shot himself in a Chick-fil-A while pulling up his pants in the bathroom Tuesday afternoon, police said.
The 45-year-old man was licensed to carry the concealed Glock pistol that fired one shot, grazing his leg, but the weapon did not have a safety, the Journal-News reported.
Customers reportedly didn’t hear the blast from the bathroom in the Hamilton restaurant, according to WMOH.
The man walked out of the restaurant and went to the hospital as a precaution. He was not seriously injured and won’t be charged for his fast food firearm flub.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-man-shot-chick-fil-a-pulling-pants-article-1.2202960
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