Photo of the Day: Pillars of Creation

This kind of thing absolutely takes my breath away.

From NASA:

Although NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken many breathtaking images of the universe, one snapshot stands out from the rest: the iconic view of the so-called “Pillars of Creation.” The jaw-dropping photo, taken in 1995, revealed never-before-seen details of three giant columns of cold gas bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young, massive stars in a small region of the Eagle Nebula, or M16.

Though such butte-like features are common in star-forming regions, the M16 structures are by far the most photogenic and evocative. The Hubble image is so popular that it has appeared in movies and television shows, on T-shirts and pillows, and even on a postage stamp.

And now, in celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary in April, Hubble has revisited the famous pillars, providing astronomers with a sharper and wider view. As a bonus, the pillars have been photographed in near-infrared light, as well as visible light. The infrared view transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes seen against a background of myriad stars. That’s because the infrared light penetrates much of the gas and dust, except for the densest regions of the pillars. Newborn stars can be seen hidden away inside the pillars. The new images are being unveiled at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

An Update on President Obama's Clemency Initiative

Eight months ago, the Department of Justice announced the Obama administration's clemency initiative. The goal of this effort was to reform the Office of the Pardon Attorney - which is the department that serves as the liaison between DOJ and the President on recommending individuals for clemency. As was reported at the time:

The president complained that the pardon attorney's office favored petitions from wealthy and connected people, who had good lawyers and knew how to game the system. The typical felon recommended for clemency by the pardon attorney was a hunter who wanted a pardon so that he could apply for a hunting license.

And so the person in charge of the Office of the Pardon Attorney was replaced by Deborah Leff and a new initiative was launched to commute the sentences of nonviolent drug offenders who were caught up in the disparities in laws governing crack and powder cocaine.

Along with many others, I was a bit disappointed that in December, all of this led to commutations for only 8 people currently in prison. But I've been keeping my eyes open for any reporting on how the process is going. The first comprehensive look at that came yesterday from Josh Gerstein. Of course he has to feed the cynicism beast by calling the whole thing a "quagmire" and searching desperately for reasons why its an absolute failure. But sifting out the wheat from the chaff, there are some helpful nuggets of information included.

The first thing that literally jumps off the page is that 25,000 prisoners have come forward since the initiative was announced. Since the President had previously criticized the process as favoring "wealthy and connected people," AG Holder set a different goal for this initiative.

"We have to have a process that I think works better, we need to come up with ways in which we identify people who are worthy of clemency, commutations, and not in the way I think we have traditionally done," Holder said.

Working with state bar associations, independent outside groups, U.S. Attorneys and the Bureau of Prisons, DOJ attempted to get the word out to all potential applicants about the process and the availability of pro bono attorneys to assist them in applying. I'd suggest that 25,000 people showing interest means they were successful in reaching the goal Holder identified as a first step.

The next stage is for eligible prisoners to fill out a clemency petition. Assisting in that process is a group of organizations called the Clemency Project. Given the volume of applicants they are dealing with, it should come as no surprise that in October 2014 the ABA (one of the participating organizations) put out a call for more volunteers.

Gerstein points out one of the biggest reasons (other than the sheer numbers involved) for delays.

In addition, attorneys inside and outside the project say it has been hamstrung by a fairly mundane problem: protracted delays in getting basic paperwork from courts such as probation reports and judges’ detailed explanations for why prisoners received particular sentences — documents readily available only to government lawyers or the defense attorneys assigned to a case.

“That’s sort of the sticky wicket in the process,” Clemency Project manager Cynthia Roseberry acknowledged in an interview. “The clog in the system is waiting for that data to come back.”

Finally, clemency petitions are reviewed by staff in the Office of the Pardon Attorney for possible recommendations to the President. Here Gerstein reports that - even in the era of sequestration - that office has managed to double the amount of attorneys and staff working on this project. Of course, that means going from six attorneys to twelve - which is probably woefully too few.

Given all that, this is an initiative that will likely require a long term view in order to see it come to fruition. I would expect additional results as President Obama goes all in on initiatives like this in his "fourth quarter." But it will also behoove us to look for presidential candidates in the future who will commit to appointing an Attorney General that is likely to continue Eric Holder's efforts to reform our criminal justice system - especially projects like this.

President Obama as Stringer Bell

Hawkish Republicans face a big challenge these days: how to distance themselves from the foreign policy failures of the Bush/Cheney administration but not buy into the isolationism of libertarians like Sen. Rand Paul. Today Colin Dueck and Roger Zakheim took on that challenge in an article titled: Toward a Reform-Conservative Foreign Policy.

Throughout the article, they define President Obama's foreign policy approach as "retreat." What strikes me is that their underlying assumption is that military power is the only power. In other words, a nation is in retreat if it is not either waging war or threatening to do so. It is the only tool in their tool box.

Those of you who read here regularly will recognize that I have often referred to this as a reliance on dominance as the only form of power. Because some of us recognize partnership as an alternative form of power, we are able to see a President who is not in retreat - but is actively engaging and providing leadership all over the globe.

As I was contemplating all of that, I thought about the character Stringer Bell (played by Idris Elba) in HBO's series The Wire. Those of you who have watched the series will remember that Stringer is second-in-command of the Barksdale gang. While the leader - Avon Barksdale - is in prison, Stringer attempts to bring all the rival Baltimore gangs together to stop killing each other and instead, share territory, product and profits. But some of the leaders - including Avon once he gets out of prison - have a hard time imagining anything but war.

Here is a clip from Season 3 where Stringer tries to talk Avon into seeing the possibilities of partnership instead of constant war (you will have to click the link to watch because embedding is not allowed). Rather than wasting all of their resources on killing each other and constantly going in and out of jail, Stringer explains the possibilities of "seeing nothing but bank" and that "we can run more than corners B...[we can] run this goddamn city."

In the end, of course, Avon lacks Stringer's vision and can't see the possibilities. These "reform conservatives" sound exactly like Avon in their inability to contemplate anything other than failed attempts at military dominance.

President Obama echoes Stringer in being able to envision a different way.

For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes -- and, yes, religions -- subjugating one another in pursuit of their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; our progress must be shared.

P.S. I know that Avon had Stringer killed - in part over this disagreement. But no, we don't need to take the analogy that far :-)

McConnell's New Strategy: Paint President Obama as the Obstructionist

Let's start with a short walk down memory lane.

Back in 2008, the Republican Party was in trouble. As a result of the Bush/Cheney administration, the country's economy was in free-fall and we were entangled in two wars in the Middle East that seemed to be accomplishing nothing more than to kill thousands of people and empty out the coffers of the U.S. treasury.

Beyond that, there was no real leader of the Party for folks to rally round. Sarah Palin might have been that figure for the truly delusional on the right. But even the McCain campaign that chose her as a running mate was done with her antics.

Into that vacuum stepped Senator Mitch McConnell. He'll never be the "face of the Republican Party." But he is a master political strategist. And as Michael Grunwald told us, he and Rep. Eric Cantor developed a strategy the Republicans in Congress would use in response to a popular in-coming president as well as a Senate and House controlled by Democrats.

...the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office, including secret meetings led by House GOP whip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) in which they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular President-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio Senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.”

Now, here we are six years later with a Republican-controlled House and Senate. The master strategist needs to come up with a new game. Since the party of no government doesn't have to worry about actually passing any legislation, the plan is to try to make President Obama look like the obstructionist. Here's how Sen. McConnell talked about that yesterday.

“We’ll be voting on things I know he’s not going to like,” McConnell said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“And I hope we can put them on his desk,” he said.

McConnell went on to say that, first up will be a vote on approving the Keystone Pipeline. Never mind that the Nebraska Supreme Court is about to rule on whether or not to let that project pass through their state. It's all about setting President Obama up to use his veto pen. After that - McConnell suggests that they'll pass legislation gutting Obamacare. They know exactly how the President will respond to that.

Of course Sen. McConnell mouths all the right platitudes.

McConnell stated he’s “not opposed” to working in a bipartisan fashion with the Obama administration. Americans want the “dysfunction” to stop, he said. “When the American people elect divided government, they’re not saying they don’t want anything done. What they are saying is they want things in the political center, things that both sides can agree on.”

But if he really meant that he would do as President Obama has done - talk about starting with things where there is the possibility of finding common ground, like trade deals, tax reform and rebuilding our infrastructure. Instead, Sen. McConnell just put it right out there - they'll be working to pass "thinks I know he's not going to like," counting on the President to veto them, and then claiming that he's the obstructionist.

To be honest, you have to give McConnell credit for being an expert at playing these kinds of games. If he would use them to actually try to get something done for the American people, he could go down in history as one of the great Senators. But for anyone who is actually paying attention, these moves are all about positioning for power - not about getting anything done.

As long as Sen. McConnell is only interested in playing games, President Obama will rely on his "pen and phone" strategy to actually move the ball down the field during this fourth quarter.

Odds & Ends

When an Al Jazeera headline includes the phrases “ISIL is Losing” and “Iraqis Optimistic,” you know it’s an important story.

Pope Francis continues to rattle cages. This time by naming 15 new cardinals from 14 countries (including places like Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar) as well as seeking the abolition of nuclear weapons.

On its 92nd anniversary, Denise Oliver Velez asks us to both remember and contemplate the lessons from the massacre that occurred in Rosewood, Florida. 9/11 was certainly not the first time that terrorism reached our shores.

Remember the time when Republicans used to complain about “judicial activism?” These days - not so much. As a matter of fact, they are increasingly turning to the courts to aid their agenda. Don’t you just love how Republicans always stand on principle…except when they don’t?

Speaking of Republicans, looks like Mike Huckabee is the second to throw his hat into the ring for the 2016 presidential nomination. And Laura Ingraham is the first to say she’s not impressed.

For those of you who’ve been concerned about the news that the world is running out of chocolate, the University of Reading is on it!

Finally, a few years ago Jim Wallis told Jon Stewart that comedians like him often played the role of prophetic court jesters. Here is John Oliver doing just that on an issue I wrote about earlier today.

Encouraging Signs on an Iran Nuclear Deal

Over the last couple of days we've gotten some encouraging news on the negotiations with Iran over their nuclear weapons. On Friday we learned this:

Iran and the United States have tentatively agreed on a formula that Washington hopes will reduce Tehran’s ability to make nuclear arms by committing it to ship to Russia much of the material needed for such weapons, diplomats say.

In another sign of progress, two diplomats told Associated Press that negotiators at the December round of nuclear talks drew up for the first time a catalogue outlining areas of potential accord and differing approaches to remaining disputes.

The diplomats said differences still dominate ahead of the next round of Iran six-power talks on 15 January in Geneva. But they suggested that even agreement to create a to-do list would have been difficult previously because of wide gaps between the sides.

And here's the news today:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that ongoing nuclear negotiations with world powers are a matter of “heart”, not just centrifuges ahead of talks next week in Geneva.

Speaking to an economic conference in Tehran, Rouhani both countered hard-line critics worried Iran will give up too much while also attempting to signal his administration remains open to negotiation with the six-nation group leading the talks.

If “we are ready to stop some types of enrichment which we do not need at this time, does it mean we have compromised our principles and cause?” Rouhani asked.

He responded: “Our cause is not linked to a centrifuge. It is connected to our heart and to our willpower.”

Negar Mortazavi responded to the latest by tweeting: "Iran President Rouhani is preparing the ground for a nuclear deal. Watch this closely."

Trying to decipher the signals sent in the middle of these negotiations is perhaps a bit too much like reading tea leaves. And we know far less about the challenges Rouhani is facing from the hardliners in Iran than we do about the one's facing the Obama administration here at home. But today those tea leaves are looking hopeful.

NJ Student Racks Up Debt While Volunteering for Christie. Gets Relief From President Obama

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel has the story:

By the time Wayne Tibak graduated from college this spring, he had more than $118,000 in student debt. Then came the monthly payments, $1,700 due every month. Tibak started working two jobs, one during the day at Home Depot and another at night at Wal-Mart. But it wasn’t nearly enough to make the math add up...

While in school, he did an unpaid internship with New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s re-election campaign. To fit that into his schedule, Tibak cut back his hours at Home Depot and used credit cards to cover expenses. As result, he racked up $8,000 in credit card debt.

Yowza!!! After doing some research, Tibak learned about an Obama initiative that provides flexible repayment plans that let borrowers cap their monthly loan payments depending on how much income they’re earning. The result:

After his Google search and a subsequent post seeking advice on Reddit, Tibak asked his loan servicer, Navient, about the repayment options available to him. The company told him he was eligible to have his federal loan payments lowered from $976 a month to $105 a month through IBR.

The article doesn't tell us whether Tibak is still a Christie supporter. But we all might want to ask him, "So Wayne, what's the Gov done for you lately?"