Congressman Michael Grimm does not believe that pleading guilty to a felony is any reason to lose his job.

"What do you mean what an I doing here today? I work here."

Courtesy of The Washington Times:  

Rep. Michael G. Grimm, New York Republican, said Tuesday he does not plan to resign his seat after pleading guilty to one felony tax charge tied to activities involving a restaurant he co-owned prior to winning election to Congress in 2010. 

Grimm pleaded guilty to helping prepare a false tax return, a charge stemming from a 20-count indictment against the congressman handed up in April. The former FBI agent faces up to three years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced June 8. 

The indictment accused Grimm of understating gross receipts and employee wages at a health restaurant he had co-owned by more than $1 million. 

After his court appearance, Grimm apologized for his actions and said what he did was wrong but said he does not plan to step down. 

“I’m going to get back to work and work as hard as I can,” he said. 

No you're not. You don't get to do that.  Does he?

Well apparently so far nobody is locking him out of his office or dragging him off the floor of Congress in handcuffs, so I guess he can.

I mean sure the Democrats are pitching a fit and calling for Boehner to give this criminal the heave ho, but who listens to them anymore?

And don't forget that this is the same asshole who threatened to break a reporter in half and throw him off a balcony.

If you want to watch a brilliant take on this Rachel Maddow has that very thing for you.

Instead of accepting defeat after the 2014 drubbing at the polls, President Obama has decided to come out swinging.

"So you're saying I can just kick ass, and not bother to take names?"

Courtesy of Politico: 

Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top. 

“'Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose' — Barack and Bobby McGee,” says former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. “President Obama is free to take the risks and use executive authority that will either make him a much more popular president with rising approval rates or get him impeached by a Republican Congress that won’t be able to control itself. We can contemplate the possibility of each result while smoking a Cuban cigar.” 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Obama’s newly aggressive stance – exemplified by his unilateral moves on immigration and Cuba – poses an early challenge to new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and to House Speaker John Boehner, who are trying to re-shape the GOP into a party that can actually run a government. “Mitch and Boehner have to deal with the fact that Obama is becoming bolder and more radical,” Gingrich told me a few days before Obama announced his move to normalize relations with Cuba. 

I don't know about everybody else but I REALLY like the change in our President and I hope he only gets more confident and aggressive as the last of his final term plays itself out.

Hell he may actually finally achieve that fundamental change in American that Sarah Palin is always warning us about. And it will most likely be a good fundamental change that history will forever attribute to the hard work and tenacity of the 44th President.

Louie Gohmert for President? Is ANYBODY wingnutty enough to want that to happen? Oh yeah.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

Anti-immigrant activist William Gheen, the head of Americans for Legal Immigration, stopped by VCY America’s “Crosstalk” program yesterday to discuss how a coalition of “big tycoons and kings and princes and emperors” is trying to take America down through immigration, thus taking away power from Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July, and his cunning plan to stop this from happening by having Rep. Louie Gohmert or Rep. Steve King ascend to the presidency. 

“The megawealth of the planet has never really been happy about the United States of America and this entire concept that we the people are self-governed and in charge and that big tycoons and kings and princes and emperors, like Obama’s acting like, are not in charge,” Gheen said. “And they’ve found a way to take over our corporations, to take over our media, to take over our country by facilitating a very costly and deadly illegal alien invasion.” 

He warned that Americans are in “mortal danger” from immigration and from the “growing anti-Christ spirit and anti-Christ movement in this country that is becoming stronger and more emboldened as the traditional conservative center-right Americans are displaced in our jobs and our politics and elections.” 

Aww, the brown people are giving this William Gheen guy a case of the sads.

So does he have some plan for turning this whol thing around?

Oh hell yeah!  

But luckily, Gheen has a solution. When a caller asked about how to “remove Obama from office,” Gheen proposed a simple plan. First, he said, “we’re working on Boehner and McConnell right now because those dominos have to fall and we can move to the next phase.” 

The next phase, he said, would be for Congress to impeach and remove both President Obama and Vice President Biden. 

Then the final piece of the puzzle comes into place: get Rep. Louie Gohmert or Rep. Steve King elected Speaker of the House, so he can ascend to the presidency until the next election is held.

Okay well first off that is the most convoluted plot I have heard in some time, and I have been binge watching the BBC series "Sherlock" for the last several days.

And secondly, though I do not usually consider myself the type to take up arms against my government, if somehow Louie "freaking" Gohmert were to be put in charge of the country you can bet I will be leading the northern resistance out of Alaska. 

And here I thought the worst thing that could happen is for Sarah Palin to be elected President.

Republicans file lawsuit against President Obama over the Affordable Care Act.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

House Republicans filed a long-threatened lawsuit Friday against the Obama administration over unilateral actions on the health care law that they say are abuses of the president’s executive authority. 

The lawsuit — filed against the secretaries of the Health and Human Services and Treasury Departments — focuses on two crucial aspects of the way the administration has put the Affordable Care Act into effect. 

The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties. (Larger companies are defined as those with 50 or more employees.) 

In July 2013, the administration deferred that requirement until 2015. Seven months later, the administration announced a further delay, until 2016, for employers with 50 to 99 employees. 

The suit also challenges what it says is President Obama’s unlawful giveaway of roughly $175 billion to insurance companies under the law. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the administration will pay that amount to the companies over the next 10 years, though the funds have not been appropriated by Congress. The lawsuit argues that it is an unlawful transfer of funds.

I can't believe they finally did it.What a waste of time, money, and resources.

So they are going to sue the President over this, but allowed George W. Bush to lie to the American people and members of Congress and start an illegal war without receiving so much as an order of cease and desist?

Hypocritical bastards!

Well I guess we know what this new Congress will be focused on for the next two years.

How President Obama's immigration move has derailed the Republican agenda and forced them into a conversation they were desperate to avoid.

"Goddammit, we have things we want to get done here."

Courtesy of LA Times: 

House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio says the president's executive action — expected to be announced Thursday — will "poison the well" for cooperation with the upcoming Republican-controlled Congress. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky compared it to "waving a red flag in front of a bull." Tea party conservatives have renewed talk of censuring or impeaching the president. 

But the strong reaction by Republican leaders has less to do with opposition to the nuts and bolts of the president's immigration policy and more to do with fear and anger that the issue will derail the agenda of the new Republican majority before the next Congress even convenes. 

Republican leaders who had hoped to focus on corporate tax reform, fast-track trade pacts, repealing the president's healthcare law and loosening environmental restrictions on coal are instead being dragged into an immigration skirmish that they've tried studiously to avoid for most of the last year. 

That's largely because the question of how to handle the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. bitterly divides Republicans, and the party has been unable to agree on an alternative to the president's plan.

The President's plan to use executive action to push through an immigration plan has the Right Wing demanding impeachment and threatening another government shutdown, which are two things that Boehner and McConnell are desperate to avoid.

With nothing left to lose, and everything to gain, the President is essentially double dog daring the Republicans to use up these last two years of this presidency in a battle that will waste their time and demonstrate to the American people that the only thing that they can focus their attention on for more than a few minutes is destroying this President.

In the meantime the focus has been taken off of dismantling Obamacare, or introducing bills that the President and the Democrats do not want passed.

All in all it is a rather brilliant strategy, and I have to imagine that after this one plays itself out that Obama has more tricks up his sleeve to keep the Republicans off balance until 2016 when many more voters will turn out to vote, and the Republicans will be at a political disadvantage.

Second law firm refuses to move forward with Republican plan to sue the President.

Courtesy of Vox:  

Back in July, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to file a historically unprecedented lawsuit against President Obama for delaying Obamacare's employer mandate. But months have since passed, with no news that a lawsuit has been drawn up or filed. There's been some speculation that Speaker John Boehner was intentionally slow-walking the process until after the election, not wanting to jeopardize the party's potential Senate gains by reviving headlines of House GOP overreach. 

This week, however, Politico's Josh Gerstein and Maggie Haberman reported that Boehner's actually been having serious problems even finding a law firm willing to file the suit — two have tentatively signed on, and then gotten cold feet. Originally, attorney David Rivkin — who crafted the unique legal arguments Boehner used to justify the suit — was supposed to draw up the suit itself. But his firm, Baker Hostetler, pulled out. More recently, Bill Burck of the firm Quinn Emanuel was also tentatively hired, until similarly backing away.

Of course John Boehner does not actually want to sue the President. 

The lawsuit is just a bone that Boehner threw to the rabid Right Wing to keep them from pushing Congress to impeach Obama. Which Boehner knew would, number one fail, and number two energize the liberal base making it almost impossible for the Republicans to hang on to closely contested seats in this election cycle.

However, and this is what we need to keep in mind, IF the Republicans gain control of the Senate there is literally nothing holding them back from actually attempting to impeach the President, dismantling Obamacare, and undoing many of the President's most important policies.

That is why it is beyond critical for all of us to show up and vote at the polls.

If we think things are bad now, we are in for a very rude awakening once the Republicans get a lock on power in Washington.