memeorandum: Accused Oregon Shooter Discharged From Army After Suicide Attempt (Wall Street Journal)

9:45 AM ET, October 8, 2015

Top Items:

Hillary Clinton says she does not support Trans-Pacific Partnership — Just days after the U.S. and 11 nations released a monumental trade deal that still faces a fight in Congress, Hillary Clinton says she does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Speaking with Judy Woodruff Wednesday …

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Inside Bernie Sanders' unorthodox debate prep … Hillary Clinton has had aides lined up to run her debate prep for months. A Washington super lawyer is mimicking Sanders and her top policy staffer is acting as Martin O'Malley. — Bernie Sanders started studying for next Tuesday's event not even a full week ago.

John Dickerson / Slate:

Joe Biden's Big Question — Why are you running? — Joe Biden is expected to announce whether he is running for president any day now. If he does decide to jump in the race, there will be one critical question for which he doesn't quite have an answer: Why are you running?

Discussion: Althouse, Talking Points Memo and NPR

George Zornick / The Nation:
Hillary Clinton Just Made Passage of the TPP Much More Difficult

Discussion: The Atlantic, BillMoyers.com, New York Times and BuzzFeed

Jennifer Epstein / Bloomberg Business:
Hillary Clinton Comes Out Against TPP

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, Los Angeles Times, Liberal Values and The Week

Graydon Carter / Vanity Fair:
Why Donald Trump Will Always Be a “Short-Fingered Vulgarian”

Discussion: Business Insider and The Week

David Siders / Sacramento Bee:
Bernie Sanders gaining on Hillary Clinton in California

Discussion: Hot Air, Reuters, The PJ Tatler and New York Magazine

Karen Deyoung / Washington Post:

Russia's Syria intervention may force choice on Obama: Act or yield — Russia's military moves in Syria are fundamentally changing the face of the country's civil war, putting President Bashar al-Assad back on his feet, and may complicate the Obama administration's plans to expand its air operations against the Islamic State.

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Hot Air, Just Security, Pirate's Cove, Reuters and Press Association

Ivan Krastev / New York Times:

Is Vladimir Putin Trying to Teach the West a Lesson in Syria? — SOFIA, Bulgaria — Last week, after Russian planes bombed antigovernment forces near the Syrian town of Homs, a senior American official complained to me: “What Russia is doing in Syria is not an effort to fight the Islamic State; it is not old-fashioned realpolitik.

Discussion: Radio Free Europe/Radio …

Reuters:
Exclusive: Congress probing U.S. spy agencies' possible lapses on Russia

Discussion: Belmont Club, New York Times, Fox News and Foreign Policy

Nick Gass / Politico:

Ben Carson stumbles on debt limit question — Ben Carson appeared to have some difficulty in explaining exactly whether he would support raising the debt limit in a recent interview. — “Let me put it this way: if I were the president, I would not sign an increased budget. Absolutely would not do it.

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

GOP faces debt-limit divide — With less than a month to go until the Nov. 5 deadline, congressional Republicans are divided on what strategy to adopt in the fight over the debt ceiling. — Conservatives see the looming debt hike as leverage that could be used to extract concessions from the Obama administration.

Discussion: Washington Post

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:

House conservatives spurn McCarthy, flex muscle ahead of speaker vote — A group of hard-line conservatives threatened to upend the Republican race to succeed outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, announcing on Wednesday it will throw its support behind a little-known Florida lawmaker to become the next speaker.

Discussion: Orlando Sentinel, BizPac Review, msnbc.com, Reuters, Political Wire, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press and Independent Journal

Pete Souza / New York Magazine:

Did Barack Obama do enough for his own community? — There is a photo by Pete Souza, the White House's canny and peripatetic photographer, that surfaces from time to time online. The setting is Marine One, and it features a modest cast of five. Valerie Jarrett, dressed in a suit of blazing pink, is staring at her cell phone.

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, BizPac Review, Daily Mail, addictinginfo.org, Guardian and Mediaite

Elliot Smilowitz / The Hill:

Rupert Murdoch: Carson could be ‘a real black president’ — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday said Republican Ben Carson would be “a real black president,” implying doubts about President Obama's connection to minorities. — The chairman and CEO of News Corporation tweeted Wednesday night: “Ben and Candy Carson terrific.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Mashable and No More Mister Nice Blog

Ian Mohr / New York Post:

Matt Barnes drove 95 miles to ‘beat the s-t’ out of Derek Fisher — Matt Barnes with then-wife Gloria Govan, and Knicks coach Derek Fisher. — Knicks coach Derek Fisher is involved in a romantic relationship with the estranged wife of his former teammate Matt Barnes …

Discussion: Fusion, Hollywood Life, SBNation.com, NESN.com, UPROXX and Daily Mail

Bradford Richardson / The Hill:

Biden: Republicans ‘beating’ on Hispanics — Vice President Biden accused Republican presidential candidates of “beating” on Hispanics during an address to a Hispanic group on Wednesday. — In a surprise appearance at a fundraiser hosted by the Latino Victory Project PAC …

Discussion: CNN, Weasel Zippers and addictinginfo.org

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:
Axelrod: Pro-Biden group's ad ‘tasteless’

Discussion: Hit & Run, Hullabaloo, Mediaite and Slate

Wall Street Journal:

Accused Oregon Shooter Discharged From Army After Suicide Attempt — Christopher Harper-Mercer left basic training after just one month in 2008 — The gunman who allegedly killed nine people and wounded nine others at a rural community college in Oregon last Thursday had been discharged …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, Daily Mail, Telegraph and The Daily Signal

Mira Kamdar / New York Times:

America's Gun Madness, as Seen From Europe — PANTIN, France — My mother lives near Roseburg, Ore. Her part of the world isn't often in the news in France. But when I woke up last Friday morning, the mass shooting on the Umpqua Community College campus in Roseburg had made the French morning television news.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove

Chelsea Manning / Medium:

Military Haircuts — My first post about what it's like to live, and grow as a human being: transitioning in a military prison. — The last few weeks have been particularly challenging for me. For the first time in years, I felt like giving up... then, I found my “second wind” to be human.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Advocate, Fusion and Daily Mail

Joe Lynch / Billboard:

Billboard Cover Sneak Peek: 5 Ways Selena Gomez Is Taking Charge — Selena Gomez is done sitting back while paparazzi vultures and Internet trolls tear into her. On her upcoming album Revival, the pop star is taking charge of her life, career and image in a way she hasn't before — so watch out, world.

Discussion: Slantpoint, New York Magazine and Hollywood Life

New York Times:

Shut Down the Benghazi Committee — House Republicans may be disinclined to disband the Select Committee on Benghazi with the presidential race heating up. But at the very least they should rename their laughable crusade, which has cost taxpayers $4.6 million, “the Inquisition of Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Real Clear Politics, Associated Press and Talking Points Memo

Jacob Gershman / Wall Street Journal:

Clinton ‘SNL’ Cameo Could Entitle Challengers to Free Air Time — Hillary Clinton's appearance on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend could trigger the so-called equal-time rule, the federal law that allows qualified opposing candidates to demand comparable air time.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Carri Geer Thevenot / Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Sen. Reid, wife sue makers of exercise band — U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and his wife are suing the makers of a resistance exercise band that the lawmaker has blamed for a January accident that left him blind in his right eye. — Reid, D-Nev., and his wife, Landra Gould, filed …

Discussion: Politico and The Week

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Impeach the IRS director — “Look,” wrote Lois Lerner, echoing Horace Greeley, “my view is that Lincoln was our worst president not our best. He should [have] let the [S]outh go. We really do seem to have 2 totally different mindsets.” Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune …

New York Daily News:

Koch brothers eyeing Marco Rubio for nearly $1B campaign contribution — The big money is on Marco Rubio. — Slowly but surely, the GOP is narrowing down its list of presidential candidates. The big prize — aside from the presidency itself — is still the nearly $1 billion contribution …

Discussion: SaintPetersBlog and New York Times

Peter Holley / Washington Post:

Why you shouldn't be surprised that prisoners crushed Harvard's debate team — Last month, a debate team of three inmates with violent criminal records defeated a team of three Harvard University undergraduates. — It sounds like an underdog story plucked from the pages …

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, CNN, Big Think, Hollywood Life, The Daily Caller and Shadowproof

Kendall Breitman / Bloomberg Business:

Bloomberg Politics Focus Groups: What's Powering the Ben Carson Boom — Despite never holding elected office, or perhaps because of that fact, the retired neurosurgeon has managed to impress many Republican voters. — What explains the appeal Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who …

Discussion: Business Insider