Issue. Secretary clinton changes her position on this every election year, seems, having one position in 2000 and then campaigning against president obama and saying we dont need federal standards. Amy we will air highlights from the debate, speak to Phyllis Bennis and bill curry. We will also go to burlington, vermont, to stick with the Sanders Campaign about why it sued the Democratic National committee and why senator sanders fired a top data staffer and suspended to others. Only do i apologize to secretary clinton and i hope we can Work Together on an independent investigation from day one, i want to apologize to my some orders. This is not the type of campaign that we run. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, vermont senator Bernie Sanders and Martin Omalley faced off saturday in the third democratic president ial debate. The candidates met just one day after the Sanders Campaign sued the Democratic National committee for blocking access to key voter data files. The dnc took action after a Sanders Campaigns effort improperly accessed clintons Sanders Campaign staffer improperly accessed clintons voter files, taking advantage of a glitch in the system. The Sanders Campaign fired the staffer involved and the dnc has restored access to the files. Sanders apologized for the breach during saturdays debate, which focused largely on Foreign Policy. Clinton and sanders sparred over the role of the u. S. Military. The United States must lead, but it is not the policeman of the world. The United States must not be involved in perpetual warfare in the middle east. The United States at the same time cannot successfully fight assad and isis. Isis is the major priority. If the United States does not lead, there is not a leader. There is a vacuum. Amy both the omalley and Sanders Campaigns have accused the dnc of trying to help clinton by limiting the number of debates and scheduling them on lowviewership periods like saturday nights. According to nielsen, just 6. 7 Million People tuned in to abc on saturday, a fraction of the 18 million who watched tuesdays Republican Debate on cnn. Well have more on the democratic debate after headlines. The United NationsSecurity Council has for the first time endorsed plans for a Peace Process and ceasefire in syria. The resolution calls for new elections within 18 months after the beginning of political talks, although its unclear , when those talks will begin. It does not specify if syrian president Bashar Alassad will be able to run. Secretary of state john kerry praised the resolution. Resolution approved today, the purpose of those negotiations between the responsible opposition and the government is to facilitate a transition within syria through a credible, inclusive, nonsectarian governance within six months. The process would lead to the drafting of a new constitution and arrangements for internationally supervised election within 18 months. Amy the news comes as rescue workers say airstrikes believed to have been carried out by russia in the rebelheld syrian city of idlib have killed scores of people. Republican president ial candidate donald trump has taken a stand for russian president vladimir putin, after putin called trump a very colorful, talented person. Trump responded by saying its a great honor to be so nicely complemented. In a series of interviews over the weekend, trump disputed reports of the kremlins involvement in the killings of journalists, saying our country does plenty of killing also. Meanwhile, hundreds of people rallied outside trump tower in manhattan sunday to protest trumps recent proposals to ban all muslim immigrants, as well as deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The dump trump protest also took aim at Major Cable Networks that have given trump twice as far more airtime than any other candidates. Maha hilal of the National Coalition to protect civil freedoms said the Corporate Media has served as a megaphone trumps campaign. Why can donald trump have a universal platform to say these things about muslims . We need to stop that. We are not here to make a moral here because we need to mobilize. They are not going to listen to us because of her feelings or because it is not ok to be racist, theyre going to listen to us when we come out in the streets and march and demand our rights. Amy president obama has signed a 1. 8 trillion spending and tax cut package after Congress Passed the deal in a rare moment of bipartisan unity. The measure expands military spending and provides a billiondollar tax loophole sought by the hotel, restaurant and gambling industry. It also lifts the 40year ban on exporting usproduced crude oil, a move Oil Change International called a disaster for the climate. Democratic leaders said lifting the ban was crucial for winning republican support. President obama praised congress for passing the bill. Bipartisan budgetd today deal. Im not wild about everything in it. Im sure it is true for everybody. It did is a budget as i insisted that invested in our military a middleclass without ideological provisions that would have weakened wall street reform or rules on big polluters. Amy privacy advocates have objected to the spending bills quiet inclusion of the cybersecurity information sharing act, or seesa, a measure they say will expand mass surveillance under the guise of cybersecurity. Among other provisions are new restrictions on the visa waiver program, which could force europeans deemed to be nationals of iran, iraq, syria or sudan or people who have visited those countries since 2011 to obtain a visa before entering the United States. Since the move is likely to trigger reciprocal restrictions from european countries, critics warn iranian americans could now be treated as second class citizens when traveling abroad. The Israeli Military has fired artillery into southern lebanon in what it said was retaliation for rocket fire from the lebanese side. The exchange comes after israel assassinated a Top Commander with the Lebanese Group hezbollah in syria. Samir kuntar was freed in 2008 after spending nearly 30 years in israeli prison for his role in the killings of three israelis in a 1979 attack. Kuntar died saturday when israel bombed a residential building in a crowded neighborhood of damascus. The attack reportedly destroyed the fivestory building and killed an unknown number of civilians. Residents reported seeing the bodies of women and children in the rubble. In iraq, an airstrike by the Usled Coalition has killed 10 iraqi soldiers in the latest incident of socalled friendly fire. U. S. Defense secretary ash carter acknowledged a us aircraft carried out the strike but said it resulted from friday, mistakes on both sides. Carter said he had spoken to iraqi Prime Minister haider al abadi. I explained to him our regrets. He and i agreed that this was that this was in event that we both regretted and that there would be an investigation of it, but that these kinds of things happen when youre fighting sidebyside, as we are. Amy in news from afghanistan, a key district in the Southern Province of helmand has reportedly fallen to the taliban. Taliban militants overran the sangin district after two days of fighting which reportedly killed more than 90 afghan soldiers. Helmands Deputy Governor had pleaded for help from afghan president ashraf ghani on sunday saying, helmand stands on the brink. In china, at least 91 people are missing after a massive landslide in the Southern City of shenzhen. A massive manmade pile of construction waste plowed into an industrial park, burying 33 buildings. In iran, authorities have shuttered all schools and kindergartens for two days due to Dangerous Levels of air pollution. The move comes after authorities in beijing, china issued their first ever red alert over smog earlier this month. In spain, a surge in support for the antiausterity Podemos Party has dealt a major blow to the Ruling Peoples Party in national elections. Sundays elections resulted in a deeply divided parliament, leaving the future of rightwing Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy in doubt. Rajoys Peoples Party won 123 seats, while the socialist party won 90 seats and the podemos , party won 69 seats. The Podemos Party grew out of the indignados protest movement. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias celebrated the results. , we are very happy for the fact that in spain, the twoparty system has ended. And we are happy because we are starting a new political europe in our country. Era in our country. Our fight against corruption will be the political lines of our group in the spanish congress. Spain is not going to be the same anymore. We are very happy. And now the agenda is the constitutional reform in our country. Amy in the latest on the scandal surrounding soccers international governing body, fifa president sepp blatter has been barred from soccer for eight years for ethics violations. The probe by fifas independent Ethics Committee surrounded a payment of 2 million blatter approved for michael platini, president of the group that oversees soccer in europe. Platini was also banned from soccer for eight years. Officials in nashua, New Hampshire have shut down all , Public Schools for the day after receiving a detailed threat of violence. This comes after schools in augusta county, virginia closed friday amid outrage over a homework assignment on arabic calligraphy. The assignment asked students to copy an islamic statement of faith, known as the shahada, in order to gain an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy. But angry parents accused the teacher, cheryl laporte, of trying to convert their children to islam. After a torrent of phone calls, emails and social media , postings, officials closed schools, citing the tone and content of the messages. President obama has commuted the sentences of 95 federal prisoners, most of them nonviolent drug offenders serving lengthy sentences, including 40 sentenced to life terms. Obama also pardoned two prisoners convicted of counterfeiting and bank fraud. The move more than doubles the total number of commutations obama has granted since taking office. Newly released cellphone footage appears to show los angeles sheriffs deputies shooting a man in the back as he lies pinned to the ground. Last may, deputies stopped noel aguilar for riding his bike with headphones. Authorities initially claimed aguilar shot one of the deputies as they were handcuffing him, but officials later revealed the shot came from the other deputys gun. Video just released by oc weekly shows aguilar pinned to the ground, asking one of the deputies why he has his gun out. The deputy fires a shot into aguilars stomach, then the second deputy then fires three shots at aguilar. An attorney for aguilars family said the shooting seems like its murder. And the fbi has released its extensive file on the late legendary folk singer and activist pete seeger. The file, obtained by mother jones through a freedom of information act request, shows the fbi began spying on seeger when he was an army private in 1943 because he wrote a letter protesting a proposal to deport all japanese american citizens at the end of world war ii. The government continued to spy on seeger through the early military intelligence agents 1970s. Visited his grade school and high school, investigated his father and his wife, toshi ohta, who was japanese american, and interviewed fellow folk singer woody guthrie. Seeger died last year at the age of 94. His fbi file runs to nearly 1800 pages with about 90 pages still , withheld by the government. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, senator Bernie Sanders and former maryland , governor Martin Omalley sparred in the third democratic wednesday debate. The candidates met just one day after the Sanders Campaign sued the Democratic National committee for blocking access to crucial voter data files. The dnc took the action after a Sanders Campaign staffer improperly accessed clintons voter files taking advantage of , a glitch in the system. The Sanders Campaign fired the staffer involved and the dnc has , restored access to the files. During saturdays debate sanders apologized for the data breach. Not only do i apologize to secretary clinton, and a hope we can Work Together on an independent investigation from day one, i want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that we run. And if i find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired. Amy the incident highlighted a growing riff between the Democratic National committee and sanders and omalley. Both campaigns have accused the dnc of trying to help clinton by limiting the number of debates and scheduling them on lowviewership periods like saturday nights. According to nielsen, just 6. 7 Million People tuned in to abc far less than the 18 million who saturday, watched tuesdays Republican Debate on cnn. It was the Second Democratic debate in a row held on a saturday. Ahead of the debate sanders , Campaign SpokesmanMichael Briggs blasted the dnc for scheduling saturday debates saying, i guess Christmas Eve was booked. The next democratic debate is scheduled for during the martin sunday, january 17, luther king day three day long weekend. Saturdays debate focused largely on national security, foreign polity, gun control and economics. On the issue of gun control, Martin Omalley accused both of his rivals of being part of the problem. Isil videos are telling lone wolves the easiest way to buy combat assault was been is at a gun show and it is because of the flipflopping political approach of washington that both of my two colleagues on this stage have represented for the last 40 years. Whoa call down a little bit, martin. Lets tell the truth, martin. Amy on the Foreign Policy front, Bernie Sanders accused Hillary Clinton of being too quick to push for regime change overseas. Difference of opinion with secretary clinton on this. Are fairly deep on this issue. We disagreed on the war in iraq. We both listened to the information from bush and cheney. I voted against the war. But i think and i say this with due respect that i worry too much that secretary clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be. Saddam could get rid of hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of gaddafi, a terrible dictator, forthat created a vacuum isis. Yes, we could get rid of assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit isis. So, yeah, regime change is easy. Getting rid of dictators is easy. But before you do that, you have to think about what happens today the day after. With all do respect, senator, you voted with regime change with respect to libya. You joined the senate in voting to get rid of gadhafi and you asked that there be a Security Council validation of that with a resolution. Difficultse are very issues. I know that. Ive been dealing with them for a long time. And of course, we have to continue to do what is necessary when someone like gaddafi, a desperate with american blood on his hands, is overturned, but i will tell you what would have happened if we had not joined with our European Partners and our arab partners to assist the people in libya, you would be looking at syria. Now the libyans are turning their attention to try to dislodge isis from its foothold and begin to try to move together to have a unified nation. Talks i was not amy to talk more about saturdays democratic debate we are joined by two guests. Bill curry is a weekly Political Columnist at s