Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
A Bill So Bad It's Awesome — It has long been obvious to anyone following health policy that Republicans would never devise a workable replacement for Obamacare. But the bill unveiled this week is worse than even the cynics expected; its awfulness is almost surreal.
Discussion:
Daily Kos and Washington Post
RELATED:
Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:
The Note: Health care disconnect — TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS with ABC's RICK KLEIN and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI — The big story: Here at the halfway point of President Trump's first 100 days, a question looms: Which version of reality to believe? The one where the House is marching toward passing …
Discussion:
Washington Post
Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Conservatives want to blow up Senate rules to kill Obamacare — House Republican leaders narrowly tailored their Obamacare repeal bill to avoid violating Senate rules, but conservatives are pushing back with advice of their own: tear up the rulebook. — A growing number of conservative lawmakers …
Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Chris Hayes to GOP Rep.: ‘Why Are You Rushing So Fast’ on Obamacare Replacement? — MSNBC's Chris Hayes faced off with a Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee tonight over why they're “rushing so fast” on the Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan.
Tim Hains / RealClearPolitics:
Paul Ryan PowerPoint Presentation: “This Is The Closest We Will Ever Get” To Obamacare Repeal
Paul Ryan PowerPoint Presentation: “This Is The Closest We Will Ever Get” To Obamacare Repeal
Jason Squitieri / CNN:
Rep. Jordan criticizes GOP Obamacare plan after meeting with Trump
Rep. Jordan criticizes GOP Obamacare plan after meeting with Trump
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and The Daily Signal
Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
White House Casts Pre-emptive Doubt on Congressional Budget Office
White House Casts Pre-emptive Doubt on Congressional Budget Office
Discussion:
Politico, The Week and Political Wire
Patricia Laya / Bloomberg:
U.S. Jobs, Wages Show Solid Gains in Trump's First Full Month — U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month on outsized gains in construction and manufacturing, showing the labor market continued its steady growth in the new year.
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight, ThinkProgress, CNBC, The Guardian, Daily Kos and Scared Monkeys
RELATED:
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Steady U.S. Job Growth Sets Stage for Fed to Raise Interest Rates — Employers added 235,000 workers to their payrolls in February, the government reported on Friday, a hefty gain that clears the path for the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate when it meets next week.
Discussion:
USA Today, Political Wire, Forbes and NPR
Patrick Gillespie / CNNMoney:
U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in Trump's first full month
U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in Trump's first full month
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys
Sharon Begley / STAT:
House Republicans would let employers demand workers' genetic test results — little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion — Such a move, however, could blow up the already fragile efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act — Washington (CNN)The White House is privately lining up behind conservative calls to roll …
Discussion:
RedState and Washington Post
Tyler Durden / zerohedge.com/fullrss2.xml/PhoneBook:
South Korea's Ex-President Refuses To Vacate Residence After Impeachment, Two Dead During Protests — As discussed last night, in a historic ruling, the South Korean Constitutional Court upheld an impeachment decision against President Park Geun-hye, removing her from office on Friday …
RELATED:
Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
South Korea Removes President Park Geun-hye
South Korea Removes President Park Geun-hye
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Washington Post, The Diplomat, The Week and Political Wire
CNN:
Sources: FBI investigation continues into ‘odd’ computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization — (CNN)Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.
Tracy Wilkinson / Los Angeles Times:
Mexican foreign secretary goes straight to the White House, skips usual channels — Mexico's top diplomat came to Washington Thursday for meetings with the U.S. government, sidestepping the normal channels and heading straight for the White House. — Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray met …
Discussion:
Political Wire, Axios and Washington Post
RELATED:
Carol Giacomo / New York Times:
Why Is Mr. Tillerson in a Perpetual State of Duck and Cover?
Why Is Mr. Tillerson in a Perpetual State of Duck and Cover?
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Just Security, New York Magazine and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Kimberly Dozier / The Daily Beast:
U.S. Spies Live in Fear of Trump's Next Tweet — As Friday evening draws to a close around Washington, D.C., the city's tight-knit and secretive national security clan goes to sleep with a new unease. It's not Syria or Iran or even North Korea they're most worried about.
Discussion:
The Guardian
Delia Gallagher / CNN:
Pope signals he's open to married Catholic men becoming priests — Rome (CNN)Pope Francis has said he is open to married men becoming priests to combat the Roman Catholic Church's shortage of clergy. — In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, Pope Francis said the lack of Catholic priests was an …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Julia Edwards Ainsley / Reuters:
Trump administration sends judges to immigration detention centers: sources — The Department of Justice is deploying 50 judges to immigration detention facilities across the United States, according to two sources and a letter seen by Reuters and sent to judges on Thursday.
Discussion:
John Hawkins' Right Wing News and ImmigrationProf Blog
RELATED:
Eric Tucker / Associated Press:
AG SUGGESTS OPENNESS TO REVIEW OF PREDECESSORS' ACTIONS
AG SUGGESTS OPENNESS TO REVIEW OF PREDECESSORS' ACTIONS
Discussion:
Power Line
Kyle Olson / The American Mirror:
Malik Obama shares photo of brother Barack's Kenya ‘certificate of birth’ — An Obama has joined the birther movement. — Malik Obama, Barack Obama's half-brother, tweeted image of what appears to be Barack's birth certificate. — Except it's not from Hawaii, but rather Kenya.
Discussion:
The Last Tradition
RELATED:
MSNBC:
Sen. Murphy: Wikileaks release is ‘suspiciously timed’ — Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, says the WikiLeaks release seems to be timed purposefully for a moment of weakness for President Trump. ... more Duration: {{video.duration.momentjs}}
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Josh Harkinson / Mother Jones:
Meet Silicon Valley's Secretive Alt-Right Followers — Readers of The Right Stuff long knew that founder “Mike Enoch” had two main interests: technology and white supremacy. Posts on the neo-Nazi site have included discussion of “a new blogging platform built on node.js,” …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Russell Berman / The Atlantic:
Sam Brownback Might Not Be Governing Kansas Much Longer — Donald Trump won Kansas last November by just over 20 points, and in the coming days he's expected to give the Jayhawk State's voters their reward: a new governor. — The president reportedly will name Governor Sam Brownback …
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble — This is the ninth article in a series that reviews news coverage of the 2016 general election, explores how Donald Trump won and why his chances were underrated by most of the American media. — Last summer, the United Kingdom voted to leave …
Discussion:
Mediaite
Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:
The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache — On Tuesday morning, WikiLeaks released an enormous cache of documents that it claimed detailed “C.I.A. hacking tools.” Immediately afterward, it posted two startling tweets asserting that “C.I.A. hacker malware” posed a threat to journalists …
Discussion:
claytoonz, more at Mediagazer »
Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Bill Clinton: Resurgent nationalism ‘taking us to the edge of our destruction’ — Don't buy what purports to be nationalism that's engulfed politics in America and all over the world, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday; what's actually at play, he argued, is more insidious and interconnected than that.
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, The Root and AOL
Letitia Stein / Reuters:
Americans oppose bathroom laws limiting transgender rights: poll — The majority of respondents to a new U.S. poll opposed laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identities and indicated growing acceptance for gay rights, a nonpartisan research group said on Friday.
Discussion:
Political Wire and Axios
Lisa Baertlein / Yahoo:
Starbucks CEO's refugee comments sour customer views of chain - survey — Starbucks Corp's vow to hire thousands of refugees after President Donald Trump's first executive order that temporarily banned travel from seven mostly-Muslim nations appears to be hurting customer sentiment of the coffee chain.
Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:
Samantha Bee Show Apologizes to Writer for ‘Nazi Hair’ Mockery — The TBS comedy program “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” apologized on Thursday for broadcasting a segment in which a writer who has talked about his cancer diagnosis was mocked for having what the program called “Nazi hair.”
Josh Dawsey / Politico:
Trump's in the White House bubble, and he loves it — President Donald Trump is sticking to his comfort zone. — Trump has spent each of the 48 nights of his presidency either at the White House or at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. He has dined out in the nation's capital just once …
Discussion:
The Week