memeorandum: Russian jet carrying 224 people crashes in Sinai. No survivors found. (Erin Cunningham/Washington Post)

4:15 PM ET, October 31, 2015

Top Items:

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: Talking Points Memo, Politico, neo-neocon, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, 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

Eli Stokols / Politico:
Bush team bracing for cash crunch

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

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

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

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, Washington Monthly and ABC News

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Yes, liberal media bias is real, and here's how it affected the CNBC debate — Share Tweet Reddit Digg Mail Print SMS More — Since the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night, there's been plenty of sturm und drang about media bias. Republican candidates and conservative commentators …

Discussion: Independent Journal

Ashley Parker / New York Times:
Rules of Next Republican Debate Are Unveiled

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Politico

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

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

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

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

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

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: Friendly Atheist and Jihad Watch

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

WUSA9:

WUSA9: Lottery clerks selling themselves winning tickets … WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - A man who sold himself a $1,000,000 winning D.C. Lottery ticket is just one of many retailers a WUSA9 investigation found winning the lottery at rates statisticians say border on impossible.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Bradford Richardson / The Hill:

Black Lives Matter protesters interrupt Hillary rally — Protesters with the Black Lives Matters movement interrupted a Hillary Clinton rally in Atlanta on Friday, where she planned to unveil her criminal justice reform plan. — Members of the civil rights group in the crowd chanted …