Tuesday, January 28, 2014 Published Weekday Mornings   To see the full version of today's cartoon, click on the preview graphic of the cartoon (below the Commentary) to be taken to the full version in your favorite web browser. Prepping For The SOTU President Obama to Assert Intention To Use Unilateral Authority in SOTU Jon Favreau: How President Obama Really Prepares for the State of the Union Greg Sargent: Inside Obama's game plan for 2014 Pew Poll: Current Policy Priorities For Most Americans Brad Plumer: What voters actually care about, in one chart CNNMoney: The economy under President Obama, in 17 charts George Zornick: Four Things Obama Should Say About Economic Inequality in the State of the Union Mike Konczal: Obama's 2014 State of the Union Should Resurrect "Full Employment" Sahil Kapur: President Obama's Other State Of The Union Theme? Time To Move Past Reagan. Arthur Lupia: Three ways to improve the response to the State of the Union address Guns & America All the School Shootings That Have Happened So Far in 2014 Hard Numbers: There Has Been An Average Of One School Shooting Every Other School Day So Far This Year In Age of School Shootings, Lockdown Is the New Fire Drill Expert: Mass shootings on the rise in U.S.; Tripled in last four years Guns & Numbers - 1,813 People Tried to Bring Firearms Through TSA Checkpoints in 2013 Study: 20 young people a day hospitalized for gun injuries War On The Poor Josh Eidelson: "We're gonna lose everything": One family's urgent unemployment insurance story Paul Krugman: The Realities of Classism Begin To Sink In Pity The Rich Josh Marshall: 'Kristallnacht' Investor Perkins Says He's Sorry About Classist Screed - Or Not 5 Things To Know About Tom Perkins, The 'Kristallnacht' Venture Capitalist The Spying Game Government Reaches Deal with Tech Firms on Data Requests Snowden docs reveal British spies snooped on YouTube and Facebook without their knowledge Bob Cesca: NSA Agent's Identity Exposed in Poorly-Redacted Snowden Document Eli Lake: Bush-Era Republicans Blast Their Own Over Anti-NSA Resolution Indicting The Right Bridge scandal: NJ lawmakers combine two Chris Christie investigations into one Another Link Emerges Between Christie Bridge Scandal And Redevelopment Project Energy, Climate & Environment Worst of Latest Arctic Blast Hits Midwest; Schools Canceled Again For Dangerous Wind Chills Drastic Calif. drought has ranchers selling off cattle at rapid pace Chemical Spill In West Virginia Far Worse Than Initially Reported Nations In Turmoil Syrian peace talks struggle in Switzerland Ukraine's PM & cabinet resign en masse amid continuing anti-government protests Ukraine scraps anti-protest laws as PM steps down The War Over There Afghan officials say Karzai suspects U.S. is behind insurgent-style attacks International News Thailand to proceed with troubled election Egypt's ex-President Morsi defiant at jailbreak trial Olympics 2014 Sochi 2014: IOC jeopardized safety of athletes and fans in awarding Games to Putinā€™s Russia Sochi Olympics: How safe are the Games, really? Ghosts of Munich Haunt Sochi Olympics in Wake of Russia Bombings Sochi mayor claims there are no gay people in Sochi Dave Zirin: The LGBT Movement Takes Aim at Sochi Mark Adomanis: The last time America boycotted the Russian Olympics, it accomplished nothing Money in Politics Johnston: New Political Scheme - Give to Charity, Turn a Profit. Midwest Roundup Neb. lawmakers weigh 4 proposals that target school, student safety Bald eagle shot and killed in northeast Nebraska Iowa Senate Democrats propose six percent funding boost for schools Iowa Senate votes 46-0 to quit collecting state income taxes on military pensions Adding Up The Concerns Of Americans While millions of Americans are gearing up this week for a major television event, we highly doubt most of them are talking about the State of the Union address, like the political junkies and wonks we know. As evidenced by the latest Pew Poll, we know that the State of the Union address - the SOTU -  isn't exactly the most important thing on the minds of most Americans right now. In fact, thanks to the push for more data-driven analysis in the media from people like Nate Silver and Ezra Klein, media organizations are doing far more polling today than they once did, though some are less ethical than others. We only wished that media organizations paid more attention to what that polling data says. If you looked at the news media for this first month of 2014, you'd see a great deal of stories about the scandals of major Republican politicians - and those are somewhat important stories. You'd also see an enormous and growing number of stories about another not-unimportant subject, the safety concerns surrounding athletes and fans at the Sochi Olympics in Russia. You'd also likely see more than a few stories about jobs & income inequality, a topic that - according to that same Pew Poll - is on the top of most American's minds today. What you likely haven't seen too much of - or if you did, you just ignored it - is a topic President Obama addressed in his SOTU speech last year. Sadly, like so many other topics, Congress simply let the subject bleed to death last year. The subject, of course, is the continuing flood of senseless gun violence and deaths in America... To continue reading... click here. And now, for your Daily Felltoon preview for January 28, 2014 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) Jobs & The Economy President Obama to raise minimum wage to $10.10 for government contract workers Jonathan Chait: Pres. Obama To Employers - Hire the Long-term Unemployed Wall Street Watch Ylan Q. Mui: Global markets are freaking out. Here's what the Fed should say. Timothy Noah: What Obama should say to Wall Street in his State of the Union  Inequality In America GAO: U.S. corporations now pay an average effective tax rate of 12.6% Jared Bernstein: Profits Up, Wages Down - What Economic Science Has to Say About Inequality Paul Krugman: Money, Class, and Reality | Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sen. Bernie Sanders clash over income inequality on CNN Charts: What The Top 1 percent believes Charts: Unemployment Benefits' True Big Bang for the Buck Health Care Checkup A Conservative Explains The Republicans' New Obamacare Replacement Idea Sarah Kliff: Repubs finally have an Obamacare replacement. Economists will love it, real people won't. Dylan Scott: New GOP Obamacare Proposal Makes Everything They Hate About Obamacare Even Worse Poll shows negative ObamaCare views continue to weaken War on Women Meet 330 Lawmakers Who Made 2013 "A Terrible Year for Women's Health" Carolyn Edgar: The right's single-mom mistake - Why their latest attacks are clueless & doomed Adam Serwer: What Rand Paul - and the GOP - doesn't understand about the 'war on women' Sally Kohn: Dear GOP, Stop Talking About Women's Bodies Immigration: Reform Coming? Backing increases in House G.O.P. for Legal Status for Immigrants | Sargent: How to know whether the GOP is serious about immig. reform Media Matters MSNBC Shakes Up Daytime Schedule with New Shows from Ronan Farrow, Joy Reid Al Jazeera America to get prime new channel space in New York City | HBO Documentary on Herblock Deifies the Liberal Cartoonist - And It Shouldn't Ezra Klein Promises "A Completely Different Product" In New Venture And now, for your Weekly OK Gazette Toon preview for January 28, 2014   (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) White House Update Greg Sargent: In using executive authority to raise minimum wage, Obama is on solid political ground Pres. Obama to embark on four-city tour after State of the Union Obama's Puzzle: Economy Rarely Better, But His Approval Rarely Worse News From Capitol Hill Congressional negotiators unveil new farm bill; vote expected this week New 5-year farm bill would cut subsidies while slashing food stamps benefits Senate acts on bill to delay flood insurance hikes On The Left Democrats hope Obama's State of Union speech will be start of a year-long populist push Liberal Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94 SCOTUS Brief At The Supreme Court: Bosses Weigh In On Your Contraception Growing group of Democratic senators to file amicus brief against Hobby Lobby in birth control case States Of Confusion Democrat wins Virginia state Senate recount, giving Gov. Terry McAuliffe's agenda a crucial boost Florida to vote on medical marijuana in November election Hawaii Lawmakers Call For Changes To Regulations After Massive Molasses Spill Indiana House changes proposed anti-gay amendment, possibly delaying referendum permanently On The Right Brian Beutler: How the right destroyed itself: History, ideology and strategic blunders Greg Sargent: Far more Americans see GOP as extreme/uncompromising WaPo/ABC Poll: 80 Percent of Americans Have No Confidence in Republicans in Congress Ed Kilgore: The American Public Is Aware of Our Asymmetric National Polarization We hope you enjoy "The Daily Felltoon" every business day. Thanks for continuing to be a member! Paul Fell Shawn "Smith" Peirce Paul Fell Cartoons, Inc.