At
The Atlantic, Matt Ford writes
The Limits of Obama's Clemency. An excerpt:
Few presidential powers are as unconstrained as the pardon. Neither Congress nor the courts need be consulted, and neither branch can override its application. President Lincoln, the pardon's most prolific wielder, liberally exercised the power of mercy. "Gen. Joseph Hooker once sent an envelope to the president containing the cases of 55 convicted and doomed deserters," wrote one historian. "Lincoln merely wrote 'Pardoned' on the envelope and returned it to Hooker."
Barack Obama has been more restrictive. On Wednesday, the president granted clemency to 20 individuals—eight commutations and 12 pardons—for crimes ranging from counterfeiting in 1988 to "possession of an unregistered distilling apparatus" in 1964. This will change the recipients' lives, but thousands of applicants are not so lucky.
Presidential pardons have declined since World War II, excluding cases of mass amnesty like Jimmy Carter and the Vietnam draft-dodgers, but Obama's sparing use still stands out: Until Wednesday, one in seven of his pardons had been issued for Thanksgiving turkeys. A 2012 investigation by ProPublica found that an applicant's chance of receiving a pardon under Obama was only one in 5,000, compared to one in 1,000 under George W. Bush and one in 100 under Ronald Reagan. […]
Even when pardons are made, they are susceptible to the same biases that plague the rest of the criminal-justice system. A 2o11 ProPublica investigation found significant racial disparities in the process. Although the pardon office's clemency recommendations to the White House do not mention race, all but 13 of the 189 pardons issued under the George W. Bush administration went to white defendants, including all 34 of those who had committed drug-related offenses. Black inmates constitute 38 percent of the federal prison population but only received an estimated 2 to 4 percent of the pardons issued. […]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Blix to US, UK: pony up evidence:
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix challenges the US and UK to reveal evidence that Iraq has WMD.
"If the UK and the US are convinced and they say they have evidence, well then one would expect that they would be able to tell us where is this stuff," he told BBC radio. |
Ain't gonna happen. I don't believe they have any evidence. Otherwise, what better way to rally world support than to prove once and for all to everyone that Iraq was lying? Give the inspectors the name of just ONE facility suspected of having WMD, have the inspectors swoop in, find the evidence, and reveal it to the world. Bush's invasion would get A LOT easier at that point.
But Blix gets nothing, while Bush and Blair rant on about Hussein's lies. This was tiresome from day one, and it hasn't gotten any better since.
Tweet of the Day
Forget top-down global agreements - 2014 has been the year of bottom-up action on climate and energy.
http://t.co/... @nextgen_usa
— @katenrg
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, A rare joint appearance by
Greg Dworkin &
Armando, featuring discussion of the Colbert finale, Cuba, the mess surrounding
The Interview (on which even George Clooney weighs in). Why Planned Parenthood supported a CRapnibus full of abortion restrictions. More on the "nuclear option" & it's effect on the judiciary. Been committed to a mental institution but want your guns back? OK. A
Rosalyn MacGregor update from Michigan. Republicans <3 judicial activism. The Ferguson grand jury's "Witness 40" is a bigger wacko than anyone originally thought. And the thing we didn't get to, but you should:
Shaun King on what to do about it.
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