memeorandum: Obama and Air Force One: It's good to have a 747 (Andrew Malcolm/Top of the Ticket)

10:20 AM ET, January 4, 2011

Top Items:

Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Balkinization, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Scholars and Rogues, Hullabaloo and Advocate

callawyer.com:

THE ORIGINALIST — Last October marked the 24th anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well known for his sharp wit as well as his originalist approach to the Constitution, Justice Scalia consistently asks more questions during oral arguments and makes …

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay, Washington Post, Raw Story and Pam's House Blend

Liz Goodwin / Yahoo! News:
14 states may target birthright citizenship

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Outside the Beltway and Weasel Zippers

The Caucus:

Obama Talks With William Daley About a Job — President Obama has approached William Daley, the brother of Chicago's mayor and a former commerce secretary, about the possibility of becoming White House chief of staff as one part of a reorganization plan in the West Wing …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Ben Smith's Blog, DealBook and Balloon Juice

Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Consider William Daley for Top White House Post — President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level White House post, possibly as his chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Online NewsHour, Top of the Ticket, DownWithTyranny!, New York Magazine, Raw Story, The Sundries Shack, Political Punch, Ben Smith's Blog, Suburban Guerrilla, Publius Forum, Right Pundits, Weasel Zippers, Hotline On Call, The Political Carnival, The Page and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Great news: New Obama chief of staff might be ... William Daley

Discussion: Bloomberg, Oliver Willis and Moe Lane

The Politico:
William Daley in running for top White House job

Discussion: The New Republic, POWIP, Outside the Beltway, CNN and The Hill

Lynn Sweet / Politics Daily:
William Daley at Top of Obama List for White House Chief of Staff

Discussion: The Confluence

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

House Republicans set Jan. 12 vote on repeal of health-care law — House Republicans have set Jan. 12 as their day to vote on a repeal of President Obama's health-care law, after a midterm election in which they campaigned against the landmark legislation as a government takeover of the health industry.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Foundry, The Politico, Hotline On Call, Big Think and Roll Call

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate Dems warn Boehner: Don't bother with healthcare repeal

Discussion: The Politico, Don Surber, Hot Air, New York Times, Toledo Blade, Nice Deb, PERRspectives, USA Today, Sister Toldjah, Liberty Central, Doug Ross, The Political Carnival and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Wall Street Journal:
Rules for Smaller Government

Discussion: New York Times and Betsy's Page

Terry / CNSNews:
Republican Congressman: Ban Funding of Obamacare in Every …

Discussion: The Politico and Weasel Zippers

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dems playing rough on health reform?

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Wonk Room, No More Mister Nice Blog and Daily Kos

Aharding / CNN:
House GOP to move this week on health care repeal

Discussion: The Politico, Michelle Malkin, Mother Jones, The Political Carnival, Weasel Zippers, Babalú Blog, The Huffington Post, Wonk Room, Daily Kos, The Note and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Joshua Green / The Atlantic Online:

Strict Obstructionist — Mitch McConnell is a master manipulator and strategist— the unheralded architect of the Republican resurgence. Now that his relentless tactics have made his party victorious, he is poised to take down the president and win the Senate majority he covets …

Discussion: msnbc.com

Gil Ronen / Arutz Sheva:

Vulture in Saudi Custody Suspected as Mossad Agent — Follow Israel news on and . — Saudi Arabian security forces have captured a vulture that was carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words “Tel Aviv University.”

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Sense of Events and Israel Matzav

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Obama May Bypass Guantánamo Rules, Aides Say — WASHINGTON — President Obama's legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Outside the Beltway, Prairie Weather and TigerHawk

Dafna Linzer / ProPublica:
Administration Prepares to Defy Efforts to Limit Obama's Options for Guantanamo

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, TalkLeft, Oliver Willis and Emptywheel

Gideon Rachman / Foreign Policy:

Think Again: American Decline — This time it's for real. — “We've Heard All This About American Decline Before.” — This time it's different. — It's certainly true that America has been through cycles of declinism in the past. Campaigning for the presidency in 1960 …

John Rossomando / The Daily Caller: The ACLU's untold Stalinist heritage

Darren Goode / The Politico:

Issa to business: Tell me what to fix — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants the oil industry, drug manufacturers and other trade groups and companies to tell him which Obama administration regulations to target this year. — The incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee …

Discussion: Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Bankrupting America and Comments from Left Field

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
Incoming House GOP chairmen have a long list of issues to investigate

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The BLT, THEROOT.COM and The Page

Rachel Slajda / TPM LiveWire:

There's One Huge State Budget Crisis That Everyone Is Refusing To Talk About — You know the story and you know the names: states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California are supposed to be in huge financial trouble thanks to bloated governments, business-unfriendly regulations, and strong public sector unions.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Arkansas Blog

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions — Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics.

Steve Everley / American Solutions:

Top Five Things Obama Has Done to Raise Gasoline Prices — With gasoline currently above $3 per gallon nationwide and economists expecting that price to rise even further in 2011, America should be getting serious about producing more of its own resources. But instead of focusing on how to bring …

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Wizbang, The Foundry, Michelle Malkin and The Volokh Conspiracy

Philip Caulfield / NY Daily News:

Chilling photo captures Philippines politician's killer moments before he is shot dead — A politician in the Philippines who was shot dead while taking a photograph of his family on New Year's Day captured his killer on camera just seconds before the assassin fired the fatal shots.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

Oregonian:

Are recent snows from global warming? — By David Appell — Can we talk about global warming? — Scientists already know that man is behind it. They have known it for decades. 'Nough said. — But that hardly means that every little bit of weather can be blamed on it.Sometimes, it is just cold.

Discussion: Stop The ACLU

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Obama and Air Force One: It's good to have a 747 — President Obama will spend Monday night flying across the Pacific and United States after his latest vacation, 11 days in Hawaii. It will be his first trip of 2011 aboard Air Force One. — Last year Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day.

Discussion: Hot Air and Ric's Rulez

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Bill Daley talks West Wing with Rahm - Sperling expected to get Summers' job this week or next - House GOP to vote cuts on Day 2 - Michael Allen to House intel - Embler promoted - Emily Bittner to Man — Good Tuesday morning. CHARLES PETERS, in the new Washington Monthly …

David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:

Nine incoming House Democrats assume place in pecking order: the end — They call themselves “the Mighty Nine.” — Which is half true - there are, in fact, nine of them. — But “mighty” is definitely the wrong word for the nine lonely Democrats who will be sworn in as House members on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Note and USA Today

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

TRENDING: Palin re-tweet raises questions — (CNN) - Normally, it's what Sarah Palin tweets that makes news. This time it's what she has re-tweeted. — The former Alaska governor Monday relayed a comment from gay conservative pundit Tammy Bruce, who was expressing her criticism …

Discussion: The Note, Gawker and NewsBusters.org blogs

Ronald Bailey / Hit & Run:

Women or Wine? Monogamy and Alcohol — The headline is the title of an intriguing new working paper [PDF] by two University of Leuven economists Mara Squicciarini and Jo Swinnen. The two note an interesting correlation between societies that practice monogamy and those that drink alcohol.

Discussion: Hot Air and Mediaite

Stanley Fish / Opinionator:

Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet — In McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995) the Supreme Court overturned a statute requiring any person who prints a notice or flyer promoting a candidate or an issue to identify the communication's author by name.

Discussion: TalkLeft, citmedialaw.org and Eschaton