Clinton & Sanders Duke It Out Before Iowa & New Hampshire
/
The race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is a virtual tie in Iowa, with Clinton leading by just two points. According to a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll released Thursday, Clinton has 42 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers, compared to 40 percent for Sanders.
Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said the election is more about issues than it is about leadership. "Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say this is an election about issues, rather than leadership. That really explains the division in the party," explained Selzer, according to Bloomberg Politics.
The top issues Democratic caucus-goers, according to the poll, are the economy, civil rights, the wealth gap and national security.
Clinton opens the spigots on Sanders Politico
Cologne Attacks Raise Major Questions About Arab Men & Women's Safety In Western Countries
/
Cologne Attacks Raise Major Questions About Arab Men & Women's Safety In Western Countries
Over the New Years holiday, Germany experienced significant attacks of a wide-ranging nature on women living there. Writing for The New Yorker, Amy Davidson describes the scene -- NPR estimates that 1000 men gathered by Cologne's famous cathedral and central hub train station -- on New Year's Eve in Cologne as reported in Der Spiegel:
That night, as revellers filled the station platforms and—following a dubious German tradition—tossed firecrackers, they were pushed out into already crowded streets. There, groups of men who, according to eye-witness accounts and subsequent police investigations, were primarily foreigners from nations in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, targeted women and surrounded them. Some of the men groped and taunted them, while others stole their wallets and their cell phones. Women, accompanied or not, literally ran a ‘gauntlet’ through masses of heavily intoxicated men that words cannot describe.” The atmosphere was “chaotic and shameless.” Women reported men grabbing at their breasts and between their legs, among other violent and sexual assaults. With the press of the crowd, there was nowhere for the women to go and, although they screamed for help, the police had no effective response; the report described them as overwhelmed, and some witnesses said that they seemed to stand by in confusion. The police report expressed relief that no one was killed, but that appears to have been a matter of luck, not the result of any actions on the part of law enforcement. The chief of police has already been pushed into early retirement.
"A lot happened on New Year's Eve in Cologne, much of it contradictory, much of it real, much of it imagined," wrote the staff of Der Spiegel, who obtained an internal police document about the night's events. "Some was happenstance, some was exaggerated and much of it was horrifying."
