memeorandum: Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar/Associated Press)

2:50 PM ET, January 25, 2013

Top Items:

COURT: OBAMA APPOINTMENTS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday. — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals …

Discussion: Hot Air, Right Turn, Daily Kos, Washington Examiner, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Wake up America

Melanie Trottman / Wall Street Journal:

Court Rules Obama Recess Appointments Unconstitutional — A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. — The three-judge panel said that as a result …

Discussion: Mediaite

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
DEVELOPING: Obama recess appointments unconstitutional, court

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Gateway Pundit and Americans for Limited …

John Elwood / The Volokh Conspiracy:
DC Circuit Strikes Down President Obama's Recess Appointments

Discussion: emptywheel, Mother Jones and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Bill Mears / CNN:
Appeals court rules Obama recess appointments unconstitutional

Discussion: Politico

Jgalloway / Political Insider:

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss: Frustration with Washington drove him out — U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the leader of a bipartisan effort to address the federal deficit, this morning pointed to gridlock in Washington for his decision not to seek a third term in 2014. — A statement just released by his office includes this:

Discussion: Roll Call, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, CNN, Taegan Goddard's …, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, The Political Carnival, The Raw Story, Weekly Standard, The Maddow Blog, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, Pat Dollard, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Business Insider and National Review

Manu Raju / Politico:
Saxby Chambliss to retire

Discussion: Hot Air and American Spectator

Tina Moore / NY Daily News:

Is Hillary seeing double? Daily News analysis points out the Secretary of State may suffer from vision impairments following a concussion and blood clot near her brain — A close inspection of Hillary Clinton's glasses worn during her Wednesday testimony on Benghazi shows an adhesive Fresnel prism …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Pat Dollard and The Daily Caller

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Jiltin' Joe? Obama does ‘60 minutes’ with Hillary — At the end of a week filled with talk about Joe Biden's presidential prospects, Barack Obama will sit down for a television interview with ... Hillary Clinton. — The joint interview Friday afternoon is set to air Sunday on CBS's “60 Minutes.”

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com and Reuters

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Obama, Clinton to appear in joint ‘60 Minutes’ interview

Discussion: Shakesville

Wall Street Journal:

Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick: Solving the Immigration Puzzle — Some want illegals to return to their native countries and ‘wait in line’ like everyone else. There is no line. — The nation's capital is awash with ideas about how to fix America's immigration policy.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, 24Ahead, The Hill, National Review, Hit & Run, The Plum Line, Washington Wire, Politico, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Post Politics, Right Turn, First Read and msnbc.com

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama to unveil immigration plan — President Obama will debut his plans for comprehensive immigration reform at an event Tuesday in Las Vegas, the White House said Friday. — In a statement, the White House said the president's proposal would call for legislation to create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Michael Sluss / Blue Ridge Caucus:

GOP Sen. Smith opposes bill to allocate presidential electoral votes by congressional district — If a bill to reapportion Virginia's presidential electoral votes by congressional district is a Republican plot, someone forgot to tell state Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Bedford County.

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog, Blue Virginia and The Week

William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
“Rigging” the electoral system only is bad when it hurts Democrats

Discussion: American Prospect, National Review, Business Insider and Mother Jones

David Jackson / Associated Press:

Obama names McDonough chief of staff … Shaking up his executive team for the second term, President Obama on Friday named long-time aide and deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough to be his White House chief of staff. — The chief of staff's main task is “making sure we're …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Pat Dollard

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed: Obama Brings Pollster Into White House

Caren Bohan / The Atlantic Online:
Who Is Denis McDonough, Obama's New Chief of Staff?

Discussion: Business Insider

Charlie Spiering / Washington Examiner:

Full text: Bobby Jindal's dynamite speech to the Republican National Committee in Charlotte … Below is the text of Gov. Bobby Jindal's full speech to the Republican National Committee in Charlotte, N.C. delivered Thursday night. — Thank you all for having me here tonight.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Slate, Associated Press, The Plum Line, Mother Jones, American Power, The PJ Tatler, Politico, Hot Air, Right Wing Watch and Prairie Weather

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

My God, Could This Be True? — Much like with Mitt Romney, it seems that Benjamin Netanyahu had no idea of the electoral drubbing headed his way, despite the fact that independent pollsters very much did see it coming. Yes, you guessed it: Netanyahu's pollsters were apparently skewing his poll data.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Reaffirmed: 4 Pinocchios for a misleading Mitt Romney ad on Chrysler and China — “Who will do more for the auto industry? Not Barack Obama. Fact checkers confirm that his attacks on Mitt Romney are false. The truth? Mitt Romney has a plan to help the auto industry.

Discussion: Politico, Poynter and Daily Kos

Pete Winn / CNSNews:

Gen. Dempsey: If Women Can't Meet Military Standard, Pentagon Will Ask ‘Does It Really Have to Be That High?’ — (CNSNews.com) - Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that with women now eligible to fill combat roles in the military …

Discussion: protein wisdom, defense.gov, Weasel Zippers and The Moderate Voice

New York Times:
Women in the Battlefield — The Pentagon's decision to end …

Discussion: USA Today, Taylor Marsh, CNN, Power Line, msnbc.com, JunkScience.com, Truthdig, Daily Kos and TheBlaze.com

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Filibuster Reform Ends With A Whimper: How It Fell Apart — For true believers, filibuster reform was about making it painful, if not impossible, for a Senate minority to obstruct governance by the majority. But it didn't come anywhere near that, leaving reformers deeply disappointed.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Reaction, Wake up America, Daily Kos, Politico, msnbc.com, Truthdig and The Huffington Post

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
Three Winners And Three Losers In Today's Filibuster Deal

Discussion: Heritage Action for America and Prairie Weather

Steve Connor / The Independent:

Exclusive: Billionaires secretly fund attacks on climate science — Audit trail reveals that donors linked to fossil fuel industry are backing global warming sceptics — NOTE: WE DO NOT STORE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS(ES) BUT YOUR IP ADDRESS WILL BE LOGGED TO PREVENT ABUSE OF THIS FEATURE.

Discussion: Truthdig and Suburban Guerrilla

Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:

Ex-Officer for C.I.A. Sentenced to 30 Months in Leak Case — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The first Central Intelligence Agency officer to face prison for disclosing classified information, was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison by a judge at the federal courthouse here.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Boing Boing, BBC, emptywheel and Secrecy News, more at Mediagazer »

Tom Wilkinson / The Independent:

Comic book hero Judge Dredd ‘might be gay’ — First picture of the latest edition of comic 2000 AD, titled Closet, shows Dredd kissing another man — NOTE: WE DO NOT STORE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS(ES) BUT YOUR IP ADDRESS WILL BE LOGGED TO PREVENT ABUSE OF THIS FEATURE. PLEASE READ OUR LEGAL TERMS & POLICIES

Discussion: The Agonist, Back2Stonewall, PinkNews.co.uk, The Daily Caller and Towleroad News #gay

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Deficit Hawks Down — President Obama's second Inaugural Address offered a lot for progressives to like. There was the spirited defense of gay rights; there was the equally spirited defense of the role of government, and, in particular, of the safety net provided by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Prairie Weather

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar / Associated Press:

Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul — Associated Press/Paul Sakuma, File - FILE - In a June 11, 2007 file photo, Helen Heinlo smokes outside of a coffee shop in Belmont, Calif. Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because ...more

Discussion: Althouse and JustOneMinute

Mike Allen / Politico:

Mitt Romney in D.C. for weekend — Mitt Romney is in Washington for the weekend to attend a private luncheon with campaign supporters and the Alfalfa Club's annual dinner. — A senior aide from the campaign said: “Gov. Romney will attend a private lunch Friday at the J.W. Marriott co-hosted …

Discussion: CNN

The United States Department of Justice:

Morrison Man Arrested For Possession Of Improvised Explosive Devices — DENVER - Richard Lawrence Sandberg, age 35, of Morrison, Colorado, was arrested this morning by Special Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), United States Attorney John Walsh …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Booman Tribune and CNN