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.

President Obama restores diplomatic relations with Cuba. Republican heads to explode in 3..2..1 Update!

Courtesy of Reuters: 

The United States will restore diplomatic relations it severed with Cuba more than 50 years ago, a major policy shift ending decades of hostile ties with the communist-ruled island, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. 

Announcing the end of what he called a "rigid" policy of isolation of Cuba that had been ineffective, Obama said the United States would move toward normal ties and would open an embassy in Cuba. 

Obama discussed the changes with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday in a nearly hour-long telephone call. Castro spoke in Cuba as Obama made his announcement on a policy shift made possible by the release of American Alan Gross, 65, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.

At the end of this article the reporter writes this:

Obama will likely face resistance on this.

Gee, ya think?

Republicans are going to lose their freaking minds over this. Especially since he is doing it on his own, and without working with Congress.

In fact Hillary's 2016 opposition has already expressed his displeasure.

Here is a timeline of US relations with Cuba just to give you an idea as to how big of a deal this will be.

Update: Oh yeah Marco Rubio is throwing quite the hissy fit over this:  

"This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, based on a lie,” Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants, told reporters on Capitol Hill. 

"The White House has conceded everything and gained little." "I’m committed to doing everything I can to unravel as many of these changes as possible," he added. 

"This Congress is not going to lift the embargo," Rubio declared at the end of his news conference.

You know I think Rubio is just pissed that Obama undermined his base with this decision, and is making all of the Republicans look like obstructionists on ending an embargo that has gone on for far too long.

I think he just needs to take a drink of water and calm down.

Better?

Posted on Sarah Palin's Facebook page. Just in case you forgot she was a racist.

Source

I guess the message here is that the riots and looting that resulted from the verdict in Ferguson were carried out by undocumented immigrants? Is that it?

Or is it simply suggesting that any illegal activity that is carried out mainly by non-white people will soon be excused by executive order from our non-white President?

Well, either reason is pretty ugly. Which means I guess that Palin has finally completed her metamorphosis into every family's racist old aunt who is always using Facebook to send derogatory messages and racially insensitive memes to other family members.

Of course her fans certainly eat it up with a spoon:  

Goes with his undocumented citizenship 

I WOULD NOT PUT IT PAST HIM TO ISSUE AN INSANE ORDER SUCH AS THAT. THIS PRESIDENT SADLY IS NOT OPERATING WITH A FULL DECK. HE IS HARBORING A LIFETIME FULL OF HATE FOR THIS COUNTRY, THE VERY COUNTRY THAT HAS GAVE HIM THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE WHERE HE IS AT TODAY. SAD 

Sounds like something he would do. 

Impeachment this worthless president

Yep she knows her demographic alright.

Since when did SNL become an outlet for Fox News propaganda?

So earlier in the day I saw a post about this skit some website or another suggesting that it was great.

I did not read the whole thing because I didn't want the skit to be spoiled before I had a chance to see it. (#Alaskaproblems.)

But as I'm watching the damn thing I kept shaking my head and saying out loud, "WTF? That's not what happened at all!"

Think Progress noticed the same thing:  

“BILL: And if I pass the legislative test, then I wind up on the President’s desk… 

BOY: President Obama what’s the big idea? That bill was trying to become a law.” 

In the sketch, once the bill reaches Obama’s desk, he pushes the bill down the steps. But this is the opposite of what actually happened. Obama was desperate to see an immigration bill — of virtually any type — cross his desk. In May 2013, he reached a tentative deal with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, which would have been substantially more conservative than the Senate bill. It was ultimately rejected by Republican House leadership. 

“BILL: Don’t you have to go through Congress at some point? 

EXECUTIVE ORDER: Oh that’s adorable, you still think that’s how government works.” 

The implication here is that presidents before Obama didn’t use executive action for major policy areas. In fact, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan both used executive orders to protect undocumented immigrants. In 1989, Bush’s order protected about 40% of the undocumented population, roughly the same percentage as Obama’s order.

Think Progress ends the article by saying that SNL is under no obligation to get their facts right in order to do parody, but I disagree with that.

Maybe back in the 70's SNL could be a little sloppy, and get by with it because their viewers were not nearly as well informed as viewers today. But in a world where they are competing with brilliant satirists like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and HBO's John Oliver, they need to cross their fucking 't's" and dot their fucking "i's."

Do you know how you know when you have really screwed the pooch while presenting a political parody? When freaking Ted Cruz is quoting you while attacking the President, that's how.

I have been pretty underwhelmed with SNL this season, but I thought I would give them a chance to his their stride.

Yeah well forget that shit now. I am done with them.
 

If we impeach Presidents for using executive privilege to alter immigration laws, then how did these avoid a similar fate?

Courtesy of Pensito Review: 

Pres. Dwight Eisenhower: 

1956 

By executive order, circumvented immigration quotas to allow 900 orphans to join their adoptive families in the U.S. 

1956-1958 

By executive order, allowed 31,000 Hungarian anti-Soviet insurgents to emigrate. 

1959-72 

By executive order, allowed 600,000 Cubans fleeing Castro to emigrate. 

Pres. Gerald Ford: 

1975 

By executive order, allowed 360,000 refugees, mostly from from Vietnam, to emigrate. 

1976 

By executive order, allowed 14,000 Lebanese nationals to emigrate. 

Pres. Ronald Reagan: 

1981 

By executive order, allowed 7,000 Polish anti-Communists to emigrate. 

1982 

Allowed 15,000-plus Ethiopians to emigrate. 

1987 

By executive order, rescinded deportation of 200,000 Nicaraguans. 

1987 

By executive order, deferred deportation of undocumented children of 100,000 families. 

George H.W. Bush: 

1989 

By executive order, deferred deportations of Chinese students. 

1989 

By executive order, reversed visa denials of 7,000 Soviets, Indochinese. 

1990 

By executive order, deferred deporations of previously amnestied citizens’ 1.5 million spouses and children. 

1991 

By executive order, deferred deportation of 2,000 Gulf War evacuees. 

1992 

By executive order, deferred deportations of 190,000 El Salvadorans. 

George W. Bush: 

2002 

By executive order, expedited naturalization for green-card holders who joined military. 

2005 

By executive order, deferred deportation of students affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

2006 

By executive order, enabled 1,500 Cuban physicians to seek asylum at US embassies. 

2007 

By executive order, deferred deportation of 3,600 Liberians.

Strange but I remember hearing nothing about impeachment, or the threat of impeachment, concerning any of these "amnesties." 

Is it just the fact that they are Republicans that protects from conservative anger at their "shredding of the Constitution?"  Or is there another differnce that I just can't quite put my finger on right now that sets President Barack Obama apart from his predecessors?