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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 …
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Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Moderate Voice, Right Turn, Wonkblog, Above the Law, Hot Air, Washington Examiner and Wake up America
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DEVELOPING: Obama recess appointments unconstitutional, court
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protein wisdom, The Gateway Pundit and Americans for Limited …

Court Rules Obama Recess Appointments Unconstitutional
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Mediaite

DC Circuit Strikes Down President Obama's Recess Appointments
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SCOTUSblog, emptywheel, Mother Jones and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Appeals court rules Obama recess appointments unconstitutional
Discussion:
Politico and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

GOP senators will oppose VA electoral change — RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The prospects appear doomed in Virginia this year for Republican-backed legislation that would replace the state's winner-take-all method of apportioning presidential electoral votes with one that awards one vote to the winner of each congressional district.
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Politico and The Raw Story
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“Rigging” the electoral system only is bad when it hurts Democrats — As things stand now, the Electoral College favors Democrats because they are all but guaranteed to win a small number of large winner take all states, such as California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania …
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Power Line, Mother Jones, National Review, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway and The Moderate Voice


Updated: GOP Sen. Smith opposes bill to allocate presidential electoral votes by congressional district
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msnbc.com, The Maddow Blog, Blue Virginia and The Week

Republicans in Virginia, other states seeking electoral college changes
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The Political Carnival, The Plum Line, Post Politics, First Read, The Maddow Blog and Washington Examiner

Priebus elected to a second term as RNC chair
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Politico, Outside the Beltway and Associated Press

The GOP Plan to Take the Electoral-Vote-Rigging Scheme National
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The New Republic and Talking Points Memo

This is a Big, Big Deal — A week ago I noted a new Republican push …
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The Mahablog and theGrio

What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans' Vote-Rigging Plan
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All, American Prospect, Gawker, The New Republic, msnbc.com and ThinkProgress

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

Obama names McDonough chief of staff
Discussion:
Pat Dollard and Alan Colmes' Liberaland


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.
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Five Reasons Bobby Jindal Is Responsible For Transforming The GOP Into ‘The Stupid Party’
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Washington Monthly, The Political Carnival and Right Wing Watch


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 …
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Politico, New York Magazine, Pat Dollard and The Daily Caller
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Jiltin' Joe? Obama does ‘60 Minutes’ with Hillary Clinton
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The Hill, Taylor Marsh and msnbc.com

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

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.

Lynch set to run for US Senate in special election — US Representative Stephen F. Lynch plans to announce next week that he will challenge his congressional colleague Edward J. Markey for the Democratic nomination in the special US Senate election to fill John F. Kerry's seat, according to people with direct knowledge of his decision.
Discussion:
Politico, The Fix, Ballot Box and Post Politics

Exclusive: NRA senior lobbyist says attack ad was “ill-advised” — (Reuters) - One of the National Rifle Association's senior lobbyists said an ad by the nation's leading gun-rights group after a school shooting in Connecticut that refers to President Barack Obama's children was “ill-advised.”
Discussion:
Politico, The Hill, Mediaite and Post Politics

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.
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TalkLeft, The Raw Story, BBC, Boing Boing, emptywheel and Secrecy News, more at Mediagazer »


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

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, The Maddow Blog and Prairie Weather


VAWA Must Be Renamed, Rewritten to be Gender Neutral — Protect our vulnerable boys! Rename and rewrite VAWA so it is gender-neutral. … January 24, 2013 — Office of the Democratic Leader — H-204, US Capitol — Washington, DC 20515 — Dear Honorable Leader Nancy Pelosi,
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice


Rahm Emanuel presses banks on guns — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, moving to take a lead role in the gun control debate, is turning up the pressure on banks that do business with firearms manufacturers. — Emanuel is sending letters to two major financial institutions, TD Bank and Bank of America …
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protein wisdom, CNN, ABCNEWS, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

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.
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Truthdig and Suburban Guerrilla