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Obama Will Keep His “Heat Shield” — Eric Holder is the Obama Administration's indispensable man. — Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images — Eric Holder may be the least popular member of the Obama cabinet. He is at the center of many of the Administration's ugliest fights with left and right …
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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis resigns — Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Wednesday she is resigning from the administration, a decision that comes as President Barack Obama is filling out his second-term Cabinet. — Solis was the first Hispanic woman to lead a major federal agency …
Discussion:
CNN, Power Line and This Just In

Obama Cabinet: Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebelius, Eric Shinseki Staying On For Second Term
Discussion:
The Daily Caller

Biden: Obama Considering ‘Executive Orders’ 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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What Crazy Fascist Executive Orders Might Obama Use to Take Away Your Freedoms? — The Drudge Report is America's leading source of hyperlinks to Alex Jones articles, so I'm not sure why this splash page so shocked Washington. (Apparently there are reporters who still use Drudge as a sort of homepage?
Discussion:
Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, Talking Points Memo and The Gateway Pundit

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.


Biden says Obama could use executive orders to restrict guns
Discussion:
Politicker and TalkLeft

GOP Rep: An Executive Order On Guns Smacks Of ‘Dictatorship’
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Truthdig

Joe Biden: Obama prepared to use executive action on gun control
Discussion:
Shakesville

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 …
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Court Wary on Warrantless DUI Tests — WASHINGTON—Supreme Court justices showed unease Wednesday about letting police without a search warrant draw a blood sample from an unwilling drunken-driving suspect, but they also expressed sympathy for the urgency faced by officers in such traffic stops.
Discussion:
New York Times

Argument recap: Compromise on DUI blood tests?
Discussion:
ABCNEWS and The Volokh Conspiracy

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:
JustOneMinute, Mother Jones, Wonkblog and Eschaton
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He's Ready For The Clown Suit — [Kevin Drum suggests and I strongly concur that the language seemingly enabling the Trillion Dollar Coin does no such thing - briefly, “bullion coin” has a meaning upon which Congress relied in drafting the law. See “BEFORE THEY STRIKE THAT COIN THEY BETTER …
Discussion:
Wonkblog, Mashable! and Whiskey Fire

White House declines to rule out the minting of a ‘platinum coin’
Discussion:
The Reaction, Booman Tribune and ABCNEWS


Obama's Pick for Treasury Is Said to Be His Chief of Staff — WASHINGTON - President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate his chief of staff and former budget director, Jacob J. Lew, to be his next secretary of Treasury, according to officials familiar with the decision.
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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.


Hank Greenberg Should Be Shot into Space For Suing the Government over the AIG Bailout — A lot of people are wondering what to think about the news that the board of AIG is considering joining the lawsuit filed by former AIG head Maurice “Hank” Greenberg against the Fed and the U.S. government …
Discussion:
Daily Kos


Midlands teacher accused of stomping on American flag in class — At least one parent calls the actions of a Chapin High School English teacher disrespectful and unpatriotic. — The Lexington-Richland District 5 teacher is accused of throwing down the American flag and stomping on it in front of his honors English classes.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
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South Carolina teacher on leave for stomping on American flag in front of class
Discussion:
Joanne Jacobs


Virginia Democrat Wants To Roll Back Key Environmental Rules: 'I'm Not Going To Be Here' To Suffer Consequences … As Virginia's state legislature considers whether to lift a decades-old ban on uranium mining in the Commonwealth, Senate Democratic Leader Richard “Dick” Saslaw has been among the most vocal proponents of such a move.
Discussion:
Firedoglake


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.
Discussion:
The Immoral Minority


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 …