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1.) On guns, Biden’s decidin’ — Someone’s put Joe Biden in charge of something. This can’t turn out well. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“Vice President Joe Biden’s gun policy recommendations to President Barack Obama will likely include universal background checks, new regulations on high-capacity magazines, and using a federal agency to compile data about gun-related deaths, he said Thursday. Speaking after a meeting with sportsmen’s groups, the first of three on Thursday, Biden said that he had ‘committed’ to Obama to pass along his recommendations by next Tuesday.”
2.) Obama’s war on Cabinet women — Perhaps that’s an unfair headline: Considering the way President Obama’s second term Cabinet is shaping up, there may not be any women soon for the president to declare war on. TheDC’s Caroline May:
“The nation’s leading liberal women’s group, the National Organization for Women, is demanding to know why President Barack Obama has failed to make more high-profile appointments of women to his administration. ‘President Obama has made a number of high-profile appointments recently — four at last count — and they are all white men,’ NOW said in a blast email to supporters Thursday evening, with the subject line, ‘President Obama, Where are the Women?'”
In Obama’s defense, the White House chef is still a woman. So if he and the boys get hungry during one of their Cabinet meetings, he has a woman in the kitchen to cook them all some food.
3.) Tax reform, Jindal-style — Somewhere down in Louisiana, Bobby Jindal is governing. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is proposing the complete elimination of income and corporate taxes in the state, and says he wants to replace the revenue by increasing sales taxes. The Times-Picayune reported that Jindal is in the process of fleshing out the tax reform proposal, the goal of which, according to a statement from the Governor’s office and given to the paper, ‘is to eliminate all personal income tax and all corporate income tax in a revenue neutral manner. We want to keep the sales tax as low and flat as possible.'”
4.) Someone get President Obama a phone book — pronto! — On Thursday President Obama nominated his chief of staff, Jack Lew, to be his next Treasury Secretary. Not everyone is thrilled with the nomination. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
“On Laura Ingraham’s radio on Thursday, CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow explained why President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jack Lew as the Timothy Geithner’s replacement to head the Treasury Department was a ‘nutty appointment.’ … ‘He has no financial experience,’ “The Kudlow Report” host [said]. ‘He has no international experience. He has no currency experience. He ripped off Citibank for a couple of million dollars. He was there for one year. I mean, there’s about a million people — give me a phone book, and I’ll find somebody more qualified for Treasury Secretary than former OMB director Jack Lew. This is all of a piece. It is completely irresponsible.'”
Can someone please get President Obama a phone book? Had the president just known about the flip through the phone book strategy theory of picking Cabinet positions, he surely could have avoided several embarrassing nomination errors. After he finds a replacement for Jack Lew in the phone book, maybe he can work on finding one for Chuck Hagel.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Blake Hounshell: They must be terrified. MT @innercitypress: At UN, Araud says if Mali’s terrorists don’t stop, #UNSC could meet this weekend
6.) Today in North Korean News –BREAKING: “DPRK People Intent on Study of Kim Jong Un’s New Year Address”
VIDEO: Scarborough slams co-host Brzezinski for defending all-male cabinet