“Oh, god, it’s mom.”

Political operative brothers Brad and Dallas Woodhouse got a surprising call from their mother on C-SPAN's Washington Journal Tuesday morning.

Their mother, identified as Joy, called into to C-SPAN to tell them she was very glad they did not come to Thanksgiving and spent it with their in-laws. She did, however says that she loved them.

The Woodhouse brothers are on total opposites of the political sphere and were on the program to discuss a coming documentary about them, Woodhouse Divided.

Brad, a Democratic operative, works at superPAC America Bridge where he is president. Dallas, a North Carolina-based operative, is president of the conservative Carolina Rising.

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LINK: h/t to Talking Points Memo

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union filed the federal class action suit Tuesday, accusing the Obama administration of multiple violations of immigration and asylum laws, as well as the fifth amendment of the constitution.

Pool / Reuters

Civil rights attorneys have filed a class action lawsuit against the Obama administration aimed at ending the detention of thousands of undocumented mothers and children on the southern border who have applied for asylum in the United States.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union filed the federal class action suit Tuesday, accusing the Obama administration of multiple violations of immigration and asylum laws, as well as the fifth amendment of the constitution.

"Locking up families and depriving them of their liberty in order to scare others from seeking refuge in the U.S. is inhumane and illegal," the ACLU's Judy Rabinovitz said in a statement.

As part of the White House's response to the unprecedented flood of undocumented children that hit the southern border this year, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a policy of keeping mothers and their children in detention centers during the asylum process. The new policy was designed, in part, to act as a deterrent to future immigrants.

Human rights activists have harshly criticized the program, claiming the conditions at the detention centers, many of which were hastily put together this summer to respond to the immigration flood, and arguing the administration has violated asylum seeker's right to due process.

Activists have also complained that the centers, which are typically located in remote areas, have made the asylum process more difficult for applicants, since there are few qualified attorneys and DHS has increasingly used unreliable remote hearing technology to process cases.

"The government should not be using these mothers and their children as pawns. They have already been through devastating experiences, and imprisoning them for weeks or months while they await their asylum hearings is unnecessary and traumatizing," Rabinovitz added.

Reversing a trial court’s order, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals denied Massachusetts inmate Michelle Kosilek’s request for gender reassignment surgery.

Michelle Kosilek, in a Jan. 15, 1993 file photo.

AP Photo/Lisa Bul, File

NEW YORK CITY — A divided federal appeals court Tuesday denied a Massachusetts Department of Correction inmate's request for gender reassignment surgery, ruling that the department's refusal does not violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Michelle Kosilek is a transgender woman currently serving a life sentence for murder.

Judge Juan Torruella, writing for the 3-2 majority on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, summed up the case as whether, under the Constitution, the decision to deny the surgery "is sufficiently harmful to Kosilek so as to violate the Eighth Amendment."

The court's answer to that question: "It is not."

The court detailed how Kosilek argued "that doctors at both UMass and Fenway Clinic — doctors hired by the DOC — confirmed at trial that [surgery] was 'medically necessary.'" On the other hand, Torruella wrote that the DOC, "relying on the advice of accredited medical professionals," argued "its alternative course of treatment — which provides Kosilek such alleviative measures as psychotherapy, hormones, electrolysis, and the provision of female garb and accessories — is sufficient to treat Kosilek's [gender dysphoria] and far exceeds a level of care that would be 'so inadequate as to shock the conscience.'"

After reviewing the various expert opinions presented at the trial court, the majority assessed Kosilek's situation: "Given the positive effects of Kosilek's current regimen of care, and the DOC's plan to treat suicidal ideation should it arise, the DOC's decision not to provide [gender reassignment surgery] does not illustrate severe obstinacy or disregard of Kosilek's medical needs."

Two judges dissented from the decision, with Judge Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson writing a blistering dissent that concluded the majority's decision "will not stand the test of time, ultimately being shelved with the likes of Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), deeming constitutional state laws requiring racial segregation, and Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), finding constitutional the internment of Japanese- Americans in camps during World War II."

In the meantime, however, Thompson wrote that the decision "aggrieves an already marginalized community" and "enables correctional systems to further postpone their adjustment to the crumbling gender binary."

Judge William Kayatta Jr., on the other hand, took a more measured response, noting that he "would likely find against Kosilek" had he been the trial judge hearing the case. "But I am not the trial judge in this case. Nor are my colleagues," he wrote. "And that is the rub."

Because of the way that, in his view, the majority second-guessed the factual determinations made by the trial court judge, Kayatta wrote, the court "ends any search for the truth through continued examination of the medical evidence by the trial courts."

“A candidate gets to persuade.”

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

In his first interview since he announced Tuesday that he was actively exploring the possibility of running for president, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he thought he could persuade the Republican base to support his position on immigration.

Bush has advocated for Republicans to soften their tone on immigration, and has repeatedly called on Congress to address the issue with comprehensive legislation.

"A candidate gets to persuade," Bush said to Miami's NBC 6. "I think there's a compelling case that if we want to be young and dynamic again, we have to make legal immigration easier than illegal immigration, that we control our borders, enforce the laws. But that we embrace our immigrant heritage and allow our country to take off. You gotta do both."

"You gotta protect the borders, enforce the law, be respectful of the rule of law, and at the same time be able to encourage young aspirational people to come to our county," Bush said. "It's a win-win. I have no problems advancing that idea."

Asked about it's deep unpopularity again with the party base, Bush added "well we'll see. If I run, we'll see."

Here's the interview:

The pope sent an extraordinary letter to both Obama and Castro over the summer. The letter “gave us greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward,” the administration official said.

Tony Gentile / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis was instrumental in facilitating the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, a senior White House official said Wednesday.

President Obama is expected to announce a deal with the Caribbean nation Wednesday afternoon that will pave the way for the first U.S. embassy on Cuban soil since the Kennedy administration and a relaxing of many of the American economic and travel restrictions on Cuba that have defined the relationship between the two nations for decades.

Francis played a big role in bringing the longtime rivals to the negotiating table, the official said. Francis sent what was characterized as an extraordinary personal letter to Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro over the summer, urging both parties to end their frosty relationship. Following the letter, and the negotiations, Obama and Castro had a phone conversation that helped lead to Wednesday's announcement.

The letter "gave us greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward," the administration official said. The Vatican was the only government that participated in the negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba. Vatican officials were "in those meetings," the official said.

Most of the negotiations took place in Canada starting in the spring, the administration said, but the final deal was hashed out at the Vatican, facilitated by Francis, who an administration official noted was "the first pope to be chosen from Latin America."

Francis helped drive the deal, raising it repeatedly with Obama when the two men met at the Vatican in March.

"Cuba was a topic of discussion that got as much attention as anything else the two of them discussed," the official said. The Vatican "welcomed the news" that the two countries were talking, the administration official said.

Francis found a willing audience in Obama, who administration officials said Wednesday had already ordered conversations with Cuba before the Francis meeting. Obama does not believe the decades-long embargo on Cuba has worked, the officials said, and the administration believes normalized relations with the Communist nation will make it easier for the White House to push the Cuban regime on democratization and human rights.

Bush-Portman 2016?

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced on Facebook Tuesday morning he is "actively" exploring the possibility of running for president.

Via Facebook: jeb-bush

But the Jebbu.Sh isn't the only domain American Bridge owns. They're also squatting on two domains related to the former Florida governor.

The first, BushPortman.com, hopes to take advantage of a ticket that would include Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who is frequently mentioned as a Republican vice presidential pick.

http://Whoisology.com

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“I anticipate we’re going to have a very interesting couple of years discussing how you’re going to get an ambassador nominated and how you’ll get an embassy funded,” Rubio says.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) arrives for a procedural vote on defense spending authorization legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Dec. 11.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Two Republican senators effectively threatened to block congressional funding for a future U.S. Embassy in Cuba and an ambassadorial nomination after the Obama administration announced sweeping changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba on Wednesday.

"I anticipate I'll be the chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee on the Foreign Relations Committee" in the new Congress, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in a press conference hours after the release of American prisoner Alan Gross from a Cuban prison was announced along with the administration's plans to normalize relations with Cuba, including opening an embassy there.

"I anticipate we're going to have a very interesting couple of years discussing how you're going to get an ambassador nominated and how you'll get an embassy funded," Rubio, an ardent opponent of lifting the Cuban embargo, said.

"I intend to use every tool at our disposal in the majority to unravel as many of these changes as possible," Rubio said.

South Carolina Sen.r Lindsey Graham tweeted on Wednesday, "I will do all in my power to block the use of funds to open an embassy in Cuba. Normalizing relations with Cuba is bad idea at a bad time."

Much of the policy changes can be achieved through executive actions, but because Congress has ultimate control over how federal funds will be spent, Obama can't begin the process of constructing a new embassy in Havana without congressional approval.

A Senate Democratic appropriations aide acknowledged the administration also can't simply repurpose funds that have already been appropriated to the State Department, explaining, "Any reprogramming must be approved by the Appropriations Committee," which, starting in January, will be controlled by Republicans.

Rubio said that opponents of the changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba will look to see if all of the changes fall within the "letter of the law," though he acknowledged that many of the changes announced by the Obama administration fall "within the purview of the presidency."

Rubio said he had learned of the planned changes last night, and had received a call from Secretary of State John Kerry briefing him this morning.

"This Congress is not going to lift the embargo," Rubio said.

Rubio criticized the changes, arguing that the shift will perpetuate the Cuban dictatorship as well as the Venezuelan regime, which Cuba supports. He criticized Obama for swapping actual spies for a civilian, which he argued would set a precedent for other innocent Americans to be held hostage abroad.

“Thank you for not forgetting me,” Gross told the secretary of state, Rep. Jim McGovern says.

Alan Gross at Andrews Air Force Base as Rep. Jim McGovern looks on.

Jill Zuckman / Reuters

Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern was there Wednesday when the newly freed Alan Gross arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

"John Kerry's plane flew in around the same time and Alan said to the secretary of state, 'Thank you for not forgetting me,'" McGovern said.

McGovern, who has long been pushing for changes to America's policy toward Cuba, told BuzzFeed News that he and other members Congress who were part of the delegation only found about the Gross' release from a Cuban jail last night.

Vice President Joe Biden called McGovern on Tuesday night to share the news. McGovern called Gross "gracious and grateful" to lawmakers.

The release of Gross came as a part of a broader agreement between the two countries to try and "normalize" relations. Three Cuban spies were also released as part of the deal. The move was blasted by members of Congress deeply critical of Cuba's government such as Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez.

McGovern said he was completely surprised by the announcement.

"The most I ever got from the administration was 'We're sympathetic, we're in agreement with you, we're working on it, we're working on it, trust us we're working on it,'" he said. "That's all I've heard for years, so I don't know when this deal was sealed until the heads-up I was given last night."

McGovern said that the imprisonment of spies in the United States and Gross' imprisonment had been a "roadblock" to improving relations between the countries.

"I think the issue of Alan and the three Cuban prisoners in the United States basically were roadblocks for anything good to happen between the U.S. and Cuba," he said. "Because of this humanitarian gesture by the United States government, paved the way for the president to think big and bold.

"There are human rights problems in Cuba and no one denies and no one should be silent about that and I've met with dissidents in Cuba who have been jailed who say please change your policy because your policy enables this government to be repressive," he added.

“So, as usual, he’s like one big self-inflicted wound.”

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Republican Rep. Peter King of New York really does not like Sen. Ted Cruz.

Speaking with Long Island News Radio, the New York representative called Cruz "one big self-inflicted wound" for forcing the Senate to work on Saturday to vote on the constitutionality of President Obama's executive action on immigration.

"Well, Ted Cruz is the Democrats' best friend," said King. "You know, last year with the government shutdown, that brought the Republican ratings as low as they ever were, there was no end game in sight at all. It was a publicity stunt by him, and too many Republicans fell for it."

King has been critical of Cruz in the past, at one point blaming him for the 2013 government shutdown.

"It didn't work this year — he tried to get the House to go do the same thing this year; they wouldn't. They learned their lesson last year. But he then tried to delay the Senate, and in his delay to force a vote to put people on the spot, he thought, on immigration — which served no purpose — it enabled the Democrats to get through a lot of nominees that Republicans could have blocked. So, as usual, he's like one big self-inflicted wound."

Josh Earnest: “I assume like many Americans he has seen that Cuba is a place where they have a beautiful climate and a lot of fun things to do. So if there’s an opportunity for the president to visit I’m sure he wouldn’t turn it down.”

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Will President Obama travel to Cuba now that he's leading a historic opening of formal relations with the island nation? All signs point to yes.

But the administration isn't ready to say so yet.

"There's nothing on the schedule right now," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday. He pointed to Obama's remarks earlier in the day, when the president said "high-ranking officials will visit Cuba."

"I certainly wouldn't rule out a presidential visit," Earnest said.

"I assume like many Americans he has seen that Cuba is a place where they have a beautiful climate and a lot of fun things to do," Earnest went on, after a reporter at the daily briefing pressed him. "So if there's an opportunity for the president to visit I'm sure he wouldn't turn it down."

“I gotta tell you, as an American, I should be able to travel anywhere I want to in the world.”

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Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the incoming Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he supports the relaxing of restrictions placed on Americans traveling to Cuba.

Speaking on KSL radio's Doug Wright Show Wednesday, the Utah Republican called the travel ban "ridiculous" and said allowing Americans to visit the country would be "a step in the right direction" toward Cuba achieving a democratic state.

"Well I haven't fully digested it, but I could tell ya, I have been not only to Guantanamo Bay to look at our facility there, but I've also actually been to Havana," said Chaffetz "I had to get a religious visa in order to get to go there — I went with Senator Jeff Flake. I gotta tell you, it bothers me, as an American, I should be able to travel anywhere I want to in the world. It is the only place on the planet that the United States government prohibits Americans from going to. And that seems ridiculous."

Chaffetz described visiting Cuba as "a freedom issue," saying Americans deserve the free choice to visit the country.

"So, to me it's a freedom issue, that I think if you, as an American, you want to go there, you should be able to go there. And, now, there are other provisions that I really need to study and look at, but the idea of allowing Americans their free choice to make their own decision about going to Cuba — I applaud that and support it."

He added he had no illusions about the repressive nature of the Castro government, but said allowing Americans to visit would be a step toward ending the dictatorship.

"It's still a very brutal and aggressive dictatorship. I sat at the table in Havana across from some true Communists, which is quite and experience, to have those types of discussions. We've got to do everything we can to help them achieve freedom, and work with the people there in Cuba. Allowing Americans to go to the island and interact with the people I think would be a step in that right direction."

“The last thing they need is a Taco Bell and a Lowe’s—” “Toilet paper, toothbrushes—” “Right. But you know, it’s one big idea and it all sort of comes together. And you wonder, are we about to get up in there and ruin that place?”

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“The problem in the Cuban system is that when foreign companies go in there, they write the check out to the account controlled by Fidel Castro and by his brother Raul.”

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California Rep. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that the relaxing of restrictions placed on Americans traveling to Cuba and the normalization of relations with the Communist nation will only lead to American money funding the Castro regime.

The California Republican rejected President Obama's comparison to previous normalizations with Vietnam and China in that the Cuban people would not be receiving the bulk of American money.

"Well, it was, and of course what we would have liked to see in that negotiation would be something like the negotiations that went on with Vietnam, that ensured that if we were gonna plow — or change policy and allow money to directly go into the country, that the workers would be the beneficiaries," said Royce on KNXAM radio Wednesday.

"The problem in the Cuban system is that when foreign companies go in there, they write the check out to the account controlled by Fidel Castro and by his brother Raul. It's the same with North Korea," Royce said. "And so it's very different — the president said this was like Vietnam and China, but they're completely different. In Vietnam and in China, the workers can actually get a paycheck. In North Korea and Cuba, the check goes to the regime, and the workers get as little as five percent of it. So it's not empowering the Cuban people, and that's why the negotiation really wasn't done properly."

"And that's what's different here," he added. "That's why we're upset with the outcome of the negotiation — the fact that there was very little given from the Cuban side in this negotiation, from Castro's side."

Royce said the average Cuban would not be benefiting from the normalized relation and the Castro regime would in turn use U.S. money to fund anti-Democratic campaigns in South America.

"My concern here is that by leaving this in the hands of Raul and Fidel Castro — they run the state security apparatus — two things are going to happen: the workers are gonna continue to get five percent of this, which means the average Cuban is not gonna benefit. But, if there's more largesse, well, the Cuban state is gonna get more. And that means that they're gonna use it for anti-democratic campaigns from Venezuela to Bolivia — all of their activities in Latin America that Cuba is engaged in — they need foreign exchange to do it. So that's sort of the issue here."

Jill Zuckman lent public relations expertise to the legal team of Alan Gross, freed today after five years of imprisonment in Cuba.

Alan Gross returned to U.S. soil Wednesday after his 2009 imprisonment in Cuba.

Reuters

Jill Zuckman, a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, was part of the team that Alan Gross, the man imprisoned in Cuba for five years and released on Wednesday.

Zuckman, a former spokesperson for the Department of Transportation under Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, worked on the case pro bono for over a year, Anita Dunn confirmed Wednesday to BuzzFeed News.

His release was part of the deal between the U.S. and Cuba that opened diplomatic relations between the two countries which had been severed since 1961.

"It became a little hard to process today, honestly. It's been a total whirlwind and I'm sure it's going to take a while to sink in," Zuckman told BuzzFeed News Wednesday. "But it was really a team effort. He was really fortunate that he had many people on Capitol Hill, inside the Administration and elsewhere doing everything possible to get him home."

SKDK revamped the Bring Alan Home website and the built social media campaign. It also helped coordinate a White House rally.

Earlier this year, Zuckman expressed urgency at the prospect of his release as concerns grew regarding the overall health of Gross.

"He turns 65 on Friday, and I really think that puts [pressure on] the two governments," Zuckman told the National Journal in May. "I think [the U.S. and Cuban] governments have to decide whether they're going to make some hard decisions and get him out of there, or whether they're going to have his blood on their hands."

"It's very difficult because we're not necessarily trying to communicate to regular, everyday people," she said. "We're really trying to communicate to the highest levels of both governments."

The former Florida governor serves as an adviser to Barclays, which was fined nearly $300 million for violating sanctions in 2010, prior to his work there.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush blasted the Obama administration's decision to normalize relations with Cuba in a Facebook post Wednesday, but in an example of why Bush's ties to private equity and Barclays could provide fodder for opponents and critics, Barclays (which reportedly pays Bush more than a million dollars a year) had to settle criminal charges for violating sanctions that included Cuba.

Barclays agreed in 2010 to to forfeit $298 million to the United States and to the New York County District Attorney's Office "in connection with violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA)," according to a Justice Department press release.

"The violations relate to transactions Barclays illegally conducted on behalf of customers from Cuba, Iran, Sudan and other countries sanctioned in programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)," the Justice Department added.

Bush has been at Barclays since 2008, but the actions that led to the fine took place before the Florida governor was with the bank.

"The Obama administration's decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba is the latest foreign policy misstep by this President, and another dramatic overreach of his executive authority," wrote Bush Wednesday. "It undermines America's credibility and undermines the quest for a free and democratic Cuba."

"The beneficiaries of President Obama's ill-advised move will be the heinous Castro brothers who have oppressed the Cuban people for decades."

Bush's ties to Barclays have caused some to raise the alarm about his potential candidacy.

"You saw what they did to me with Bain [Capital]," Mitt Romney said according to an article in Politico. "What do you think they'll do to [Bush] over Barclays?"

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek last week carried the ominous titled, "Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem."

Another New York Times article carried the titled, "Jeb Bush's Rush to Make Money May Be Hurdle."

According to Fox Business News Bush is remaining an adviser to Barclays while he decides if he is going to run for president.

A Bush spokeswoman defended the Florida governor's record on Cuba in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

"Governor Bush has long been a strong advocate for policies that will foster a free and democratic Cuba," Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said. "His record as a supporter of the embargo and on U.S. policy regarding Cuba is clear. That contrasts sharply with the ill-advised decision announced today by President Obama to reestablish diplomatic ties with the Castro regime, which will only serve to benefit these heinous dictators, who for decades have oppressed the Cuban people.

Miami’s Cuban exiles have long been the heart of the anti-Castro movement in America. But are they now ready for a change? BuzzFeed News’ David Noriega reports from Miami.

An anti-Castro Cuban exile holds a Cuban flag during a protest after the announcement of restoring diplomatic ties between Cuba and United States, at an area known as Little Havana in downtown Miami, Florida, Dec. 17.

Carlos Barria / Via Reuters

MIAMI — Anti-Castro demonstrations in Miami used to draw thousands, but only a few hundred showed up to protest the biggest thaw Cuban–American relations in more than half a century. After 50 years of trying to oust the Cuban regime, the epicenter of anti-Castro sentiment in America may be ready for a change.

Versailles restaurant is the historic home of Miami's anti-Castro multitudes. Whenever something important happens back home, this restaurant in Little Havana is where Cuban exiles gather, usually loudly and in large numbers.

But on Wednesday night, after the announcement that President Obama will revive diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time since 1961, the crowd was more loud than it was large.

Lt. Al Borges, a Cuban-American who has been with the Miami Police Department for 25 years, said the crowds were notably thinner than they were even just a few years ago in 2008, when Fidel Castro stepped down as president and rumors swirled about his impending death. That time there were at least 2,000 in the streets. On Wednesday, Borges estimated, the crowd never surpassed 200. By midnight, not a late hour by Cuban standards, it had petered down to less than 20.

"Once most of the TV cameras left, the people left," Borges said.

For decades, Miami's Cuban exile community has been the epicenter of unwavering opposition to Cuba's communist regime. El exilio changed U.S. politics, ensuring that the American stance toward Cuba remained antagonistic and helping to elect and defeat presidents on the strength of their commitment to anti-Castro dogma.

But as the oldest and bitterest of the exile generation has faded, and after a half-century of isolation failed to oust the Castro regime Wednesday's historic move showed more clearly than ever that things in Miami have changed.

This is not to say that the crowd outside Versailles was meek. A provocateur wearing stars and stripes as a kerchief and a Communist-red flag tucked into his waistband held a small sign reading "Viva Obama." About a dozen protesters harangued him incessantly, occasionally breaking out into chants: "Abajo Obama! Viva Jeb Bush! Viva Bush!"

Leandro Seoane, a 50-year-old man with close-cropped gray hair and blue Chuck Taylors, strolled around the crowd wearing a faded Obama T-shirt from the 2008 campaign. Seoane said that he was surprised and delighted by Obama's move: Decades of embargo had done nothing to weaken the Castro regime and instead had profoundly harmed the Cuban people.

"I just don't understand how a Cubano can support the regime," Lexy Montes, 50, told him. "I simply don't understand it."

"I don't support the regime," Seoane replied. "But I do support—"

Before he could finish, Marisela Pompa, 62, told him about how Castro's police had beaten her pregnant 23-year-old daughter, kicking her in the stomach and killing her unborn child. "It's easy to talk when you don't feel the pain in your flesh," she said.

"I understand," Seoane said, but the conversation devolved into impassioned screaming.

In 1980, Seoane, then an openly gay 16-year-old in Cuba, was rounded up with two friends by police on the streets of Havana. Over the course of the night, his prison cell began to fill up with other LGBT youth. It was the beginning of the Mariel boatlift, when the Castro regime shipped wave after wave of "undesirables" to Florida — LGBT people, convicts, mental health patients, Jehovah's Witnesses. Seoane was presented with a choice: Go to Florida or spend four years in prison. He took the boatlift.

For many years, Seoane said, the exile community was monolithic in its opinions, or at least it maintained that appearance. "There were always a lot of people who thought like me, but they stayed quiet," he said. "It was impossible to be in that minority without being called a communist."

Over the last few years Seoane has showed up to various exile protests to express what he calls his dissenting opinions. A decade ago, this would have been unwise at best. Today, he finds there more and more who think like him and are willing to say so.

There are also fewer people to argue with, even if they argue just as vehemently as before. "These things used to go on for days," he said. "This is just tonight's carnival. That's it."

Referring to the woman whose pregnant daughter was beaten, Seoane said, "She feels tremendous pain. It's horrible. And it's true — all of those things happened. And she thinks I don't understand."

"At some point pain stops solving problems," he said.

“The 50-year embargo just hasn’t worked.”

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Republican Sen. Rand Paul and his father, former presidential candidate and former congressman from Texas Ron Paul agree: U.S. policy toward Cuba for the last 50 years didn't work.

"Well, I think the American people have a right to travel," Ron Paul said Thursday on NewsMaxTV's America's Forum. "And they have a right to sent their money where they want and I don't know why by putting sanctions on a country to punish a few individuals, we punish the American people and take away their liberties. So I don't believe in sanctions. And they haven't worked, the Castros have outlived a lot of our presidents and they're still there."

"But I have such confidence in introducing people and ideas to other countries that they can be persuaded. But sanctions just is threatening, intimidating."

As the Associated Press first reported, Rand Paul also commented the Cuba embargo on Thursday.

"The 50-year embargo just hasn't worked," Paul said. "If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn't seem to be working and probably it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship.

"In the end, I think opening up Cuba is probably a good idea," he said.

Also on NewsMaxTV, the elder Paul called said his son was "far superior" to the "current crop" of potential Republican presidential candidate.

“And income inequality — you know, I have to admit, I can only laugh any time President Obama or Hillary Clinton talk about income inequality, because it’s increased dramatically under their administration.”

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Ted Cruz is attacking President Obama and Hillary Clinton on income inequality.

"Over the last six years of the Obama presidency, the rich have gotten richer," Cruz said Thursday on the Laura Ingraham Show. "The top one percent today earn a higher share of our income than any year since 1928. And income inequality — you know, I have to admit, I can only laugh any time President Obama or Hillary Clinton talk about income inequality, because it's increased dramatically under their administration. And the working men and women are getting hammered. There are 92 million Americans right now not working — we have the lowest labor force participation since 1978."

President Obama has often discussed closing the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States, making inequality the theme of a December 2013 speech on economic mobility.

"The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe. And it is not simply a moral claim that I'm making here. There are practical consequences to rising inequality and reduced mobility."

Clinton likewise made income inequality the theme of a speech at the New America Foundation in May of this year.

"Now, these are the kinds of daily struggles of millions and millions of Americans. Those fighting to get into the middle class and those fighting to stay there. And it was something of a wakeup call when it was recently reported that Canadian middle-class incomes are now higher than in the United States. They are working fewer hours for more pay than Americans are, enjoying a stronger safety net, living longer on average, and facing less income inequality."

“I have determined that the best reading of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination is that it encompasses discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status,” Attorney General Eric Holder writes.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department's position going forward in litigation will be that discrimination against transgender people is covered under the sex discrimination prohibition in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The decision is a reversal of the department's prior position on the matter.

"This important shift will ensure that the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are extended to those who suffer discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status," Holder said in a statement. "This will help to foster fair and consistent treatment for all claimants. And it reaffirms the Justice Department's commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans."

In the memorandum, which was sent on Thursday to all component heads and U.S. Attorneys, Holder laid out the department's history on the question of whether transgender claims should be found to be covered under Title VII. Specifically, he details the department's opposition to such claims as recently as 2006.

However, Holder notes, the trial court in which the claim was raised disagreed with the department, instead finding in favor of Diane Schroer's claim that anti-transgender discrimination violates Title VII's sex discrimination ban. Subsequently, in a 2012 claim brought by Mia Macy, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached a similar conclusion.

Now, Holder wrote, "the Department will no longer assert that Title VII's prohibition against discrimination based on sex does not encompass gender identity per se (including transgender discrimination)."

The Justice Department already had stopped opposing such claims at least in certain instances involving federal employees bringing claims — such as Macy herself. Thursday's announcement clarifies that the interpretation applies department-wide, meaning that the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department would, for example, be able to file Title VII claims against state and local public employers on behalf of transgender individuals claiming discrimination.

Holder notes that "[t]he application of Title VII to any given case will necessarily turn on the specific facts at hand." The aim of the memo, he wrote, is so "foster consistent treatment of claimants throughout the government, in furtherance of this Department's commitment to fair and impartial justice for all Americans."

Read the memo:

While many in the conservative base stew over the president’s decision to end half a century of frosty relations with Cuba, the list of Republicans in Washington on board with the plan is growing.

Rand Paul on Capitol Hill.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

There's little doubt many, if not most, prominent Republicans plan to rage against the Obama administration's surprise decision to open formal relations with Cuba when the new Congress is seated in January and out on the nascent 2016 campaign trail. But that effort is being stymied somewhat by a growing list of Republican allies for the Cuba move the White House is closely tracking.

On Thursday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul became the latest Republican to sign on to the rebuilding of ties with Cuba. Paul's libertarian streak puts him in positions that are often at odds with more mainline conservatives on foreign policy issue.

But Paul is not alone: The White House list of Republicans considered supportive of the Cuba effort based on their public statements, according to a senior official, now includes Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, and Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. The administration also notes Republican-leaning organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The Farm Bureau have been supportive.

The White House clearly relishes the Republican support, especially from a group of Republicans generally not known for being centrists or shying away from criticizing Obama or his administration. Administration officials tweeted out supportive Republican comments as they emerged following the Cuba announcement.

Still, the list of Republicans backing Obama's new Cuba strategy is small, especially considering the vocal and consistent opposition among Cuba embargo supporters in both the GOP and Democratic Party since the White House announcement. Paul is the only potential Republican presidential candidate to publicly embrace lifting the Cuba embargo (a position his father found himself in at a Republican presidential debate in January 2012.) Floridians Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio strongly condemned the Cuba shift as did Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The administration is prepared to defend its Cuban actions against the onslaught. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest called out Rubio for his past support of using open diplomatic ties with China to help perpetuate democracy and human rights there, a position Earnest suggested made Rubio's opposition to the new Cuba policy — which the administration says will help speed changes to Cuba's widely criticized record on human rights and democracy — hypocritical.

"It occurs to me that it seems odd that Sen. Rubio would be reluctant and in fact actively seeking to block the appointment of an ambassador to Cuba when earlier this year he voted to confirm the ambassador to China that the president nominated," Earnest said.