Top Items:
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Biden: Obama Considering ‘Executive Order’ to Deal With Guns — Vice President Joe Biden revealed that President Barack Obama might use an executive order to deal with guns. — “The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence.
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Amie Parnes / The Hill:
Biden: Obama prepared to take executive action on gun control — President Obama will likely take executive action in an effort to tamp down the recent rash of gun violence, Vice President Biden said Wednesday. — “The president is going go act,” said Biden, who is conducting meetings all week on the issue of gun control.
Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:
California Town Hall Provides Glimpse At The Future Of The Gun Control Debate — Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate are prepared to make a lot of noise about the future of gun regulations in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting. That's the message from the first of House …
Discussion:
KGO-TV, The Plum Line and Washington Monthly
Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:
GOP Rep: An Executive Order On Guns Smacks Of ‘Dictatorship’ — The gloves are officially off in the gun control fight in Washington. After Vice President Biden reiterated the White House intention to use executive power to reduce gun violence following the Newtown shooting …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Truthdig
Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
The Biggest Myth About The Platinum Coin Option — The biggest and weirdest myth out there about the $1 trillion platinum coin is the idea that it would require a large quantity of platinum to make one. The National Republican Campaign Committee, for example, is out there warning that …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Wonkblog and Eschaton
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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
He's Ready For The Clown Suit — Paul Krugman explained that as long as we can get comfortable with the idea of our Treasury Secretary briefly donning a clown suit to save the country, we should be ducky with the idea of the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin. — Well, the reported …
Justin Sink / The Hill:
White House declines to rule out the minting of a ‘platinum coin’ — The White House on Wednesday declined to rule out minting a “platinum coin” to avoid default if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. — Press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said there is “no substitute” …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, ABCNEWS and The Verge
Ryan Cooper / Washington Monthly:
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe on the Legality of #mintthecoin
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe on the Legality of #mintthecoin
Megan McArdle / Asymmetrical Information:
Washington Goes Platinum
Washington Goes Platinum
Discussion:
Mother Jones, The Reality-Based Community, American Prospect, A plain blog about politics and Hot Air
Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
Inaugural Benediction To Be Delivered By Pastor Who Gave Vehemently Anti-Gay Sermon — The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Firedoglake, Politico, Good As You, The Caucus, Towleroad News #gay, AMERICAblog, Religion Dispatches, Advocate and Pharyngula
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Kevin Roose / Bloomberg:
Jack Lew's Terrible Signature May Grace Dollar Bills Now — Obama's America. — Jack Lew, President Obama's reported pick to replace outgoing Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, is known as a no-nonsense backroom negotiator with wonkish tendencies, who is admired on the left and grumbled about on the right.
Discussion:
msnbc.com, The Fix, The Atlantic Online, ABCNEWS, Economix, The Daily Caller, Post Politics, Wonkblog, Washington Wire and Mediaite
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Manu Raju / Politico:
Senate vs. President Obama over Cabinet
Senate vs. President Obama over Cabinet
Discussion:
New York Magazine, The New Republic, The Week, The National Memo, Business Insider, Mother Jones, msnbc.com and Talking Points Memo
McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:
Labor Secretary Will Resign — Hilda Solis leaves after serving since 2009. Sebelius, Shinseki, and Holder to remain. — U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. — Image by Richard Vogel / AP — Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis resigned Wednesday afternoon, three sources told BuzzFeed.
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David Weigel / Slate:
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Will Resign
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Will Resign
Discussion:
Washington Wire, msnbc.com and Daily Kos
Andy Kroll / Mother Jones:
Revealed: The Massive New Liberal Plan to Remake American Politics — A month after President Obama won reelection, America's most powerful liberal groups met to plan their next moves. Here's what they talked about. — It was the kind of meeting that conspiratorial conservative bloggers dream about.
Discussion:
Maggie's Notebook, Washington Monthly and The Agonist
Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
White House won't deport Piers Morgan — The White House defended Morgan's First Amendment right to free speech regarding the Second Amendment right to bear arms. — The White House officially responded to a petition to deport Piers Morgan on Wednesday by defending the CNN anchor's right …
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Aaron Dykes / Infowars:
Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones
Piers Morgan and Guests Discuss Shooting Alex Jones
Discussion:
LewRockwell.com Blog and Shot in the Dark
Eric Owens / The Daily Caller:
South Carolina teacher on leave for stomping on American flag in front of class — A high school teacher in South Carolina is under investigation and has been placed on long-term administrative leave after he allegedly threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students.
Discussion:
Joanne Jacobs
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Jennifer Emert / WIS-TV:
Midlands teacher accused of stomping on American flag in class
Midlands teacher accused of stomping on American flag in class
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:
Yahoo News exclusive: Trump releases birth certificate to Bill Maher, demands $5M — Donald Trump has placed himself in the middle of another controversy involving a birth certificate—this time his own. — In a letter obtained by Yahoo News, the real estate mogul and de facto leader of last year's …
Discussion:
Reuters, The Political Carnival and Mediaite
Rush Limbaugh:
There Goes My New Year's Resolution — RUSH: Okay. So I had this unstated New Year's resolution. I didn't tell anybody about it. I didn't even tell Kathryn about it. Just very private, unstated New Year's resolution, and it very simply was to become more low profile, to not get noticed.
Discussion:
Politico, Towleroad News #gay and Mediaite
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Why Republicans Won't Bargain With Obama Again — James Capretta, writing at National Review, lays out what looks like the emerging Republican strategy on the debt ceiling. Rather than take up President Obama's offer to cut Social Security and Medicare in return for higher revenue through tax reform …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Washington Monthly, Prairie Weather and p m carpenter's commentary
Michael Hastings / BuzzFeed:
How Obama Won The Internet — Would you rather fight one hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? In the second exclusive excerpt from Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Obama's Final Campaign , a behind-the-scenes look at the president's historic Reddit IAmA.
Cindy Adams / New York Post:
Michael Moore raises holy hell — Michael Moore got a bad review from at least one upset critic at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards at Crimson on Monday. Moore was there to present Best First Film to David France for his doc “How To Survive a Plague,” a salute to a protest group …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters.org blogs and Jammie Wearing Fools
Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:
Robert Bork's Tragedy — Even before Robert Bork died last month, he had achieved something close to martyrdom. In the quarter-century since the Senate rejected his Supreme Court nomination, successive generations of conservative lawyers and activists have carried the torch …
Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan Cosponsors New Fetal Personhood Bill … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Paul Ryan, Video, Fetal Personhood, Paul Broun, Paul Broun Personhood, Paul Ryan Fetal Personhood, Paul Ryan Personhood, Paul Ryan Personhood Bill, Personhood, Personhood Amendments, Personhood Bill, Sanctity-Of-Human-Life-Act, Politics News
Discussion:
The Political Carnival and The Raw Story
Michael Catalini / NationalJournal.com:
Are Republicans Scared of Al Franken? — SNL star-turned-senator isn't drawing much early GOP opposition. — After winning election by the narrowest of margins in 2008, Sen. Al Franken looked like one of the GOP's most inviting Senate targets in 2014. But instead, the party is facing …
Discussion:
The Fix