In a public relations effort to counter new restrictions on gun and ammunition sales expected to be proposed today by President Barack Obama, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has produced an advertisement that criticizes the president for alleged hypocrisy.

In the ad, the NRA contrasts the president’s skepticism over putting armed guards in U.S. schools with the fact that the First Daughters, Sasha and Malia, are protected by Secret Service agents who carry firearms. Former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs called the ad “disgusting on many levels,” CBS News notes.

A rising chorus of politicians and activists have demanded stricter gun control laws in the wake of last month’s massacre at a Newtown, Conn., school that left 20 young children dead. Read 

After years of protest and complaints from Washington D.C. political figures, President Barack Obama has agreed to outfit his official presidential vehicles with Washington D.C.’s “Taxation Without Representation” license plates, starting inauguration weekend.

The popular plates, first issued in 2000 in D.C., refer to the fact that Washington residents have to pay federal taxes but have no voting representative in Congress. They do have a delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, but she cannot vote on the House floor.

Obama previously declined to put the “Taxation Without Representation” plates on the White House’s limo fleet. The Washington, D.C. City Council had asked him to do so with no luck in 2008, but it looks like a more recent plea by the council found success. Read 

One of the craziest ideas to come out of the debt ceiling crisis is now dead in the water. The Treasury Department announced yesterday that it has no plans to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to circumvent the debt ceiling.

Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Anthony Coley released a statement yesterday explaining why the Treasury Department would not be taking action.

“Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit.” Read 

Although tickets to President Barack Obama’s inauguration are supposed to be free, online sellers are offering them for pretty hefty sums.

Inaugural tickets are handed out by Congressional offices and the Presidential Inaugural Committee to inaugural events. The committee has issued 250,000 tickets to be distributed.

Of course, basic supply and demand has taken hold here, and those fortunate enough to receive tickets have been hoping to profit off their good luck — or personal connections. Read 

With just 11 days remaining until President Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term, the list of performers for the event is coming into focus.

Beyonce will be the star of the show, singing the national anthem at the inauguration. She performed at Obama’s prior inauguration and at the inaugural ball, singing Etta James’ “At Last.”

Kelly Clarkson will sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”, following in Aretha Franklin’s footsteps from 2009. James Taylor will be singing “America the Beautiful.” Interestingly enough, Beyonce sang “America the Beautiful” at the 2009 inauguration, which Taylor also performed at. Read 

A new set of polls from research firm Public Policy Polling shows — surprise, surprise! — that Congress isn’t really all that popular.

The polls, which PPP detailed in a release this week, illustrate just how unpopular Congress has become with the American people. Congress has just a 9% favorability rating with those polled, and an 85% unfavorability rating.

That sounds bad, but it’s even worse in context. Read