memeorandum: Dem: CNBC's ‘circus’ debate was like ‘The Gong Show’ (Bradford Richardson/The Hill)

5:15 PM ET, October 31, 2015

Top Items:

Don Melvin / CNN:

Russian passenger plane crashes in Sinai with 224 people on board — Cairo (CNN)[Breaking news update at 7:34 a.m.] — An Egyptian aviation investigation team has reached the site of the crashed Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, state-run Nile TV reported Saturday, citing the minister of civil aviation.

Discussion: USA Today, The Liberty Zone and The Week

Daily Mail:

Russian plane crashes in Egypt's Sinai desert with 224 people on board — The aircraft was reported missing 23 minutes after leaving the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with 224 on board — The doomed jet was owned by an Irish company and leased to a Russian airline carrying tourists to St Petersburg

Discussion: Daily Express, The Gateway Pundit and The Jawa Report

Erin Cunningham / Washington Post:

Russian jet carrying 224 people crashes in Sinai. No survivors found. — CAIRO — A Russian airliner carrying more than 200 passengers crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday morning, Egypt's government and Russia's Federal Aviation Agency said. No one survived the crash, the Russian Embassy in Egypt said.

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Hollywood Life, Al Jazeera English, Hot Air and The Week

Bradford Richardson / The Hill:

Dem: CNBC's ‘circus’ debate was like ‘The Gong Show’ — The Democratic governor of Virginia is lambasting the moderators of CNBC's Republican presidential debate for asking ridiculous questions. — Gov. Terry McAullife said the Wednesday debate was like a “circus” and compared the spectacle to the 1970s game show “The Gong Show.”

Discussion: Hot Air, ABC News and Balloon Juice

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:
Yes, liberal media bias is real, and here's how it affected the CNBC debate

Discussion: Independent Journal

New York Times:

Paul Singer, Influential Billionaire, Throws Support to Marco Rubio for President — One of the wealthiest and most influential Republican donors in the country is throwing his support to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a decision that could swing millions of dollars in contributions behind …

Discussion: CNN, Talking Points Memo, Guardian, PoliticusUSA, Politico, Washington Post, neo-neocon, DownWithTyranny!, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, NBC News and National Review

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Springtime for Grifters — At one point during Wednesday's Republican debate, Ben Carson was asked about his involvement with Mannatech, a nutritional supplements company that makes outlandish claims about its products and has been forced to pay $7 million to settle a deceptive-practices lawsuit.

Discussion: Salon, DownWithTyranny! and bradford-delong.com

Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
The Not Ready for Prime Time Bush

Discussion: Slate, National Review, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air and RedState

Eli Stokols / Politico:
Bush team bracing for cash crunch

Discussion: RedState, The First Street Journal, Reuters and Political Wire

Tom Tancredo / Breitbart:

Former Congressman: I'm Quitting GOP — In a panel discussion at the University of Colorado after the recent Republican debate, I was asked by a student why she should be a Republican. The question forced me to ask myself the same thing. — I gave the young woman the standard talking points …

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, The Other McCain and The Spot

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

John Oliver Doesn't Want Trump On His Show: He Has Nothing Else To Say — John Oliver, comedian and host of HBO's “Last Week Tonight” on Friday said that he's not at all interested in having Donald Trump on his show. — “I don't really care about him in any capacity,” he said on CBS' “This Morning.”

Discussion: Mediaite

Mike Rowe / Facebook:

What's on YOUR Wall? — 'Hello Mr. Rowe! What's your take on MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry being offended by the phrase “hard worker”? How can such a label possibly be offensive to anyone? Lenny Kostecki ... My take Lenny, for what it's worth, is that there is no longer a limit to what people can be offended by.

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Independent Journal and Patterico's Pontifications

Arthur C. Brooks / New York Times:

Academia's Rejection of Diversity — ONE of the great intellectual and moral epiphanies of our time is the realization that human diversity is a blessing. It has become conventional wisdom that being around those unlike ourselves makes us better people — and more productive to boot.

Discussion: Washington Post

BBC:

Bangladeshi secular publisher hacked to death — A Bangladeshi publisher of secular books has been hacked to death in the capital Dhaka in the second attack of its kind on Saturday, police say. — Faisal Arefin Dipon, 43, was killed at his office in the city centre, hours after another publisher …

Discussion: Jihad Watch and Friendly Atheist

John Crudele / New York Post:

The Commerce Department's GDP numbers don't make any sense — Marijuana must be legal in Washington because the folks at the Commerce Department have to be smoking a lot of it. — Commerce announced on Thursday that the nation's third-quarter gross domestic product expanded by just a 1.5 percent annual rate.

Discussion: The Other McCain