memeorandum: Sen. Murphy: Wikileaks release is ‘suspiciously timed’ (MSNBC)

10:15 AM ET, March 10, 2017

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

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 …

Discussion: The Hill and The Week

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.

Discussion: CNN and Raw Story

Tim Hains / RealClearPolitics:
Paul Ryan PowerPoint Presentation: “This Is The Closest We Will Ever Get” To Obamacare Repeal

Discussion: Breitbart and MARK-CM

Nate Cohn / New York Times: Why Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose With the G.O.P. Repeal Bill

Ali Rogin / ABC News:
Inside the Senate GOP resistance to Trumpcare

Discussion: TheBlaze, Politico and Breitbart

Jason Squitieri / CNN:
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

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: ThinkProgress, CNBC, The Guardian, Daily Kos and Scared Monkeys

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

Discussion: Scared Monkeys

Jeff Cox / CNBC:
US created 235,000 jobs in Feb, vs 190,000 expected

Discussion: Politico

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 …

Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times:
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.

Discussion: Politico, Raw Story, The Hill, Political Wire, Axios and Hot Air

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

Carol Giacomo / New York Times:
Why Is Mr. Tillerson in a Perpetual State of Duck and Cover?

Discussion: Bloomberg, Just Security, New York Magazine and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

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

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.

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

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

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
Breaking: Malik Obama Tweets Alleged Barack Obama Birth Certificate in Kenya

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Little Green Footballs

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

Eric Tucker / Associated Press:

AG SUGGESTS OPENNESS TO REVIEW OF PREDECESSORS' ACTIONS — WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Thursday that he would be open to the appointment of an outside counsel to review actions taken by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.

Discussion: Power Line

Julia Edwards Ainsley / Reuters:
Trump administration sends judges to immigration detention centers: sources

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News

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

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 …

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

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

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.”

Discussion: Breitbart, OUTSET, Fox News Insider, BizPac Review, Washington Post, The Week, Refinery29, Business Insider, The Gateway Pundit, RedState, Mediaite and Washington Free Beacon

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.

Susan Jones / CNSNews:

152,528,000: Record Number of Employed in February; Participation Rate Rises — (CNSNews.com) - A record 152,528,000 Americans were employed in February, 447,000 more than in January, and the labor force participation rate went up, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.