President Obama issued 12 pardons and 8 sentence commutations today. Some of the commutations went to those serving life sentences under the old, unduly harsh crack cocaine guidelines.

The full list is here.

These are the first commutations under Obama's new clemency guidelines.

The media is reporting that the new Secretary of Defense will be Ashton Carter. Republicans apparently like the choice.

Carter will be Obama's 4th Secretary of Defense in six years.

Update: Here's the White House Fact Sheet with details of Obama's plan.

Airing now on CNN. Felons, not Families.

Three components:

• More money for law enforcement at the border
• Easier and faster process for skilled workers to stay here
• Temporary relief against deportation for some undocumented immigrants

As to the undocumented, he is offering temporary protection against deportation for those:[More...]

Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning. But he is still initiating long overdue policies that have immediate welcome effect.

Yesterday he issued a memo to U.S. attorneys telling them not to use recidivist charges (called 851 charges after the statute number) as a leverage tool or a hammer:

Holder sent a memo to U.S. attorneys Wednesday urging them not to use sentencing enhancements known as "851" tools to gain leverage in plea negotiations with defendants — in essence, threatening defendants into avoiding trial with huge amounts of prison time.

He is also in the process of issuing a memo telling prosecutors not to put appeal waivers for ineffective assistance of counsel in plea agreements (something many districts have banned as unconstitutional). He will issue new racial profiling guidelines that "will make clear that sexual orientation, ethnicity and religion are not legitimate bases for law enforcement." suspicion.

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President Obama addressed the U.N. today. Here is the full text of his remarks.

Here is the transcript of President Obama's remarks today on the Yazidis, ISIS and Ferguson.

He said air strikes would continue in Iraq, but maintains there will be no boots on the ground.

Wherever we have capabilities and we can carry out effective missions like the one we carried out on Mount Sinjar without committing combat troops on the ground, we obviously feel a great urge to provide some humanitarian relief to the situation.

On Ferguson, he said the FBI will investigate the death of Michael Brown. As to last night's violence, he said while there are differing accounts: [More...]

President Obama drew a large crowd in Denver when he and Governor Hickenlooper stopped by the Wynkoop Brewery for some beer and pool tonight.

Obama clearly had a good time, he even whistled along with "Brown-Eyed Girl" as it played on the stereo system. Earlier he had pizza with some letterwriters from Denver. [More...]

Seven Democrats joined Republicans today to defeat the nomination of Debo Adegbile to head DOJ's civil rights division. The objection was that when head of the Legal Defense Fund, the group had filed briefs in support of overturning the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal based on improper jury instructions. Two appellate courts ruled the jury instructions were erroneous and Abu-Jamal's death sentence was overturned. He was resentenced to life in prison. Adegbile's involvement in the case came after the Legal Defense Fund had taken the case.

Obama's statement:

"The fact that his nomination was defeated solely based on his legal representation of a defendant runs contrary to a fundamental principle of our system of justice -- and those who voted against his nomination denied the American people an outstanding public servant."

The vote was 47-52. Veep Biden was present in case he needed to break a tie vote, but with the Democrats crossing over, it wasn't necessary.

Law enforcement groups lobbied heavily against the nomination.

My view: This is just another example of the country's misguided over-glorification of crime-fighters. Shame on those Democrats who voted against Adegbile, especially Bob Casey of PA. [More...]

President Obama delivers his State of the Union Address. Here's a place for your thoughts.

President Obama's State of the Union speech is tonight. He's expected to lay out a strategy for getting around Congress to implement some of his goals.

Obama will make clear in his 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday) address that he is willing to bypass U.S. lawmakers and go it alone in some areas by announcing a series of executive actions that do not require congressional approval.

..."What you'll hear in the speech tonight is very concrete, realistic proposals as it relates to wages, as it relates to education, as it relates to training, high-tech manufacturing, retirement security, those are the things that he's focused on," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on NBC's "Today Show."

He will mostly focus on economic issues and once again ask Congress to act on immigration reform, and of course, he'll plug ObamaCare. [More...]

The New Yorker has an extensive interview with President Obama, on a variety of topics.

On marijuana:

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

Is it less dangerous? I asked. Less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.”

On Colorado and Washington's legalization laws: He said it's important "they go forward." [More...]

On January 17, President Obama will present a plan for the reform of NSA surveillance practices.

The Pentagon now says Edward Snowden downloaded 1.7 million files.

In related news, the State Department has issued a new FAQ on terrorism classifications.