President Obama and Cuba Policy – Summary:

• Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced the restoration of full relations between the United States and Cuba, along with a raft of reconciliatory actions. Obama said the US and Cuba have chosen “to cut loose the shackles of the past”, and Castro called for the embargo to end.
• Cuba released American Alan Gross from prison after nearly five years of captivity. Cuba also freed a spy held for more than 20 years, an act the US intelligence chief called “a fitting closure to a Cold World chapter”.

• The US announced overhauls to commerce, travel and internet restrictions, and the restoration of an American embassy in Havana. Cuba said it will release 53 political prisoners, allow greater internet services, and work with international groups like the UN. The White House refused to rule out a visit by President Obama to Havana.

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WASHINGTON DC – President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.
When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the “Do Nothing Congress” almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.
Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He’s used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration. (more…)

(Via Daily Mail) A manhunt has been launched to find two young men who were filmed slapping and taunting an elderly man on a subway train in Chicago.
The men, both African American in their late teens or early 20s, towered over their victim as they laughed and jumped around him, hitting his head, on a CTA Blue Line train. At one point the slaps become so hard they are audible on the clip, which was filmed by their friend and posted on Facebook.

Though the man tries to kick back and gingerly lifts an arm to swipe at them, they cackle with laughter and jump out the way. (more…)

On Wednesday August 13th 2014 the FBI and local investigators sat down with Dorian Johnson in the office of his attorney, Freeman Bosley Jr. This was five days after the shooting death of his cohort, and strong arm robbery suspect, Michael Brown.
Wednesday August 13th was the day after Police Officer Darren Wilson had also given recorded statements to the investigators.
Prior to today the Federal Department of Justice had refused to release the official record and transcript of that interview with Dorian Johnson. Speculation has grown as to what the motives of the FBI would be to keep it hidden.
Apparently the FBI changed position and allowed Saint Louis Prosecutor to release the information.   Today the transcript was released.
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The last federal budget was signed into law September 2007 by President Bush. Since then the past 7 fiscal years have been funded under continuing resolution bills.
In a sane world the Republicans would have only funded Fiscal Year 2015 through April, and taken the position of waiting to see President Obama’s budget proposal for FY 2016 which is due in February. (President Obama has never met a statutorily required budget submission deadline). Alas, another year funded by CR.
Via Politico – In a big win for House Republicans and President Barack Obama, the House passed a $1 trillion-plus funding bill Thursday night that will keep the government open into next year.
The final vote, which came after a high drama day of behind the scenes arm twisting and vote counting, was 219 to 206.
The Senate passed a two-day funding bill following the House vote, avoiding a government shutdown starting at midnight Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), however, warned that the “cromnibus,” as the massive spending package has come to be called on Capitol Hill, may not pass the Senate until Monday. (more…)

Forbes picks up on the IRS scandal being coordinated by the DOJ…
(Via Forbes)  Sadly, the 18 month investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups isn’t over, and it may be worse than anyone thought. A federal judge has broken loose more emails that the DOJ had surely hoped would never surface. The picture it reveals isn’t pretty. The documents prove that Lois Lerner met with DOJ’s Election Crimes Division a month before the 2010 elections.
It has to be embarrassing to the DOJ, which may not be the most impartial one to be investigating the IRS. In fact, the DOJ withheld over 800 pages of Lerner documents citing “taxpayer privacy” and “deliberative privilege.” Yet these internal DOJ documents show Ms. Lerner was talking to DOJ officials about prosecuting tax-exempt entities (yes, criminally!) two years before the IRS conceded there was inappropriate targeting. (more…)

Nothing says “justice for Eric Garner” quite like looting a 7-11 in honor of Saint Swisher of Sweets…
CALIFORNIA – After marching through Oakland, protesters went up San Pablo Avenue into Emeryville Tuesday night, where police said businesses including a Pak N Save, 7-Eleven and CVS were vandalized and looted. Emeryville police made no arrests.

Surveillance video surfaced Wednesday showing several people breaking into the 7-Eleven store at the same time as the march. Most of the demonstrators stress peaceful protest, but some people turned violent. (more…)

We said it four months ago, and we’ll say it again:  Virginia’s Got A Problem They Won’t Admit To… and it’s getting worse.

The same Police Chief who was passionate about Hannah Graham’s murder has another homicide on his hands in the same area of Charlottesville. This time a woman and her teenage daughter were beaten to death by the suspect, their house then set on fire.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The elementary school teacher and her teenage daughter murdered in their Charlottesville home Friday night were not random crime victims, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said during a Tuesday morning news conference.
Murder suspect Gene Everett Washington, 30, and victim Mani Aldridge, 17, knew each other prior to Friday’s crime. Chief Longo would not go into detail about the relationship between Washington and the Charlottesville High School junior. (more…)

Note, Jorge Ramos does not understand the framework of a constitutional republic. His only mental reference points are his experience living under a parliamentary dictatorship. He’s clueless about what co-equal powers of three branches of government means. He views the U.S. Presidency as omnipotent – and does not understand the President is merely one office, one branch, one third of power.
First Video:  “Immigration changes by dictatorial fiat”.

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For the average news consumer this entire scandal is too large and too complex to track.  Suffice to say, as we have outlined since mid-year, the investigative focus needs to expand from the IRS to the Dept of Justice.  – Backstory Here –
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released internal Department of Justice (DOJ) documents revealing that former IRS official Lois Lerner had been in contact with DOJ officials about the possible criminal prosecution of tax-exempt entities two full years before what the IRS conceded was its “absolutely inappropriate” 2012 targeting of the organizations. According to the newly obtained documents, Lerner met with top Obama DOJ Election Crimes Branch officials as early as October 2010.

The new documents were obtained through a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the DOJ on July 21, 2014 (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 14-cv-01239)), after the agency failed to respond to an April 21, 2014, FOIA request seeking: (more…)