memeorandum: Max support for minimum wage (Mark S. Mellman/The Hill)

10:45 AM ET, March 5, 2014

Top Items:

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:

Hillary Clinton Compares Russia Moves To Nazi Aggression — Clinton draws a parallel between the Russian government's issuing passports in Ukraine and pre-World War II actions taken by Germany. The comments are Clinton's first since Putin's troops entered Ukraine on Saturday. — Olivier Douliery / MCT

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Taylor Marsh, Politico, Betsy's Page, The Week, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon and RedState

Fred Kaplan / Slate:

How to Punish Putin — Ignore him. He's running a regional power and isn't half as smart as Cold Warriors think. — Here are the real lessons of the crisis in Ukraine: Russia is not a great power, and Vladimir Putin is hardly the master grand strategist that many American Cold Warriors have been weirdly eager to believe.

Discussion: The Federalist, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

Long Beach Press-Telegram:

Hillary Clinton compares Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine to Adolf Hitler's in Nazi Germany — (Photo by Brittany Murray/Long Beach Press Telegram) — LONG BEACH >> Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared recent actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin …

Discussion: Firedoglake, CNN, Taylor Marsh, Post Politics, OnPolitics, BuzzFeed, Real Clear Politics, Washington Post, Hot Air, Politico and Business Insider

Peter Baker / New York Times:
No Easy Way Out of Ukraine Crisis

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:

C.I.A. Employees Face New Inquiry Amid Clashes on Detention Program — WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency's attempt to keep secret the details of a defunct detention and interrogation program has escalated a battle between the agency and members of Congress and led to an investigation …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run, The Raw Story, The Week, Discourse.net and Techdirt

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Probe sought of CIA conduct in Senate study of secret detention program — WASHINGTON — The CIA Inspector General's Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of malfeasance at the spy agency in connection with a yet-to-be released Senate Intelligence Committee report …

Discussion: emptywheel, The World's Greatest …, Hot Air and Mediaite

Politico:

Why didn't the U.S. know sooner? — Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's history as a tough-as-nails leader bent on restoring Russia's sphere of influence, the U.S. intelligence community failed to read the signs when it came to Ukraine. — That has members of Congress asking …

Discussion: Power Line, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, The Reaction and Yahoo! News

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:
Exclusive: Congress Probes Why Spies Got Putin's Invasion Wrong

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Prairie Weather

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:

Texas G.O.P. Beats Back Challengers From Right — McALLEN, Tex. — Establishment Republican leaders on Tuesday defeated challenges from the right in a statewide primary election as conservatives inspired by Senator Ted Cruz largely failed to topple mainstream incumbents, and a race for lieutenant governor headed for a runoff.

Discussion: NBC News, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, The Hill and Brains and Eggs

Ben Jacobs / The Daily Beast:

Good Riddance to Steve Stockman, the Grifter Congressman Who Ran for Senate — The Texas Republican practically bilked his donors by running the most unserious campaign in recent American history. — Tuesday night will mark the end of one of the most stunningly dishonest political campaigns …

Discussion: Liberaland, TIME, Business Insider, PoliticusUSA, BREITBART.COM and BOR

Politico:
John Cornyn crushes Steve Stockman; Ralph Hall forced into runoff

Discussion: CNN and Hot Air

Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:

Ranking Dem Flips Out At IRS Hearing After Issa Cuts His Mic — Wednesday was the day that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, hauled former IRS official Lois Lerner back before the committee. He did so as part of his continuing investigation of the agency's screening …

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Jay Sekulow / Fox News:
Four questions Lois Lerner must answer about IRS scandal

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and The Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:

Support for same-sex marriage hits new high; half say Constitution guarantees right — Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll in which a large majority also said businesses should not be able …

Discussion: Politico, The Plum Line, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Shakesville, Towleroad News #gay and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Why Putin Doesn't Respect Us — Just as we've turned the coverage of politics into sports, we're doing the same with geopolitics. There is much nonsense being written about how Vladimir Putin showed how he is “tougher” than Barack Obama and how Obama now needs to demonstrate his manhood.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Jeff Weiner / Orlando Sentinel:

Wife says Alan Grayson shoved her during domestic incident — Judge issues temporary injunction after wife's allegations against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando. — A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, after his wife filed paperwork accusing …

Discussion: susiemadrak.com, Gawker, Twitchy, Real Clear Politics, Hinterland Gazette, The Raw Story, OnPolitics, BizPac Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fox News, Politico, The Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fools, Mediaite, NewsBusters and Talking Points Memo

Mayra Cuevas / CNN:

Boy suspended for gun gesture — (CNN) — Ten-year-old Nathan Entingh doesn't understand why he got suspended from school for three days. — According to his father, Paul Entingh, one moment the boy was “goofing off” with his friends in fifth-grade science class, and the next the teacher …

Discussion: JONATHAN TURLEY and Hit & Run

Bill Bush / The Columbus Dispatch:
Boy points finger like gun, gets suspended

Discussion: Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, The Raw Story and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo:

Media Matters Launches ‘Mythopedia’ Fact Check Tool Ahead Of CPAC — Media Matters for America is releasing a sort of Wikipedia for conservative misinformation. — The site, Mythopedia, which was shared with TPM ahead of its release, is meant to be an online compendium of truths and lies pedaled by conservatives.

Discussion: ABC News

Mark S. Mellman / The Hill:

Max support for minimum wage — One need look no further than the minimum wage to find evidence that Republicans are wildly out of touch. — A year ago, every single Republican member of the House voted against increasing the minimum wage. More recently, Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Real Poverty Trap — Earlier I noted that the new Ryan poverty report makes some big claims about the poverty trap, and cites a lot of research — but the research doesn't actually support the claims. It occurs to me, however, that the whole Ryan approach is false in a deeper sense as well.

Discussion: The Federalist, cbpp.org, Marginal REVOLUTION and The Fiscal Times

Bloomberg:

U.S. Stock Futures Little Changed After ADP Jobs Report — U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed to a record, as investors weighed a private report showing hiring grew less than estimated last month. — Smith & Wesson Holding Corp …

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Elisabetta Povoledo / New York Times:

A New Magazine for Fans of the Vatican's Biggest Star — ROME — Just a few days short of the first anniversary of Pope Francis' election, there is fresh evidence that his honeymoon with the public persists: He is getting his own magazine. — The 68-page Il Mio Papa (My Pope) …

Discussion: TheBlaze.com and The Week

James Hohmann / Politico:

Scott Brown denies tweet he's running — Scott Brown on Tuesday night denied a Fox News anchor's tweet that he has decided to run for Senate in New Hampshire. — Greta Van Susteren posted just after 7:30 p.m. ET that “I am told this is certain” the former Massachusetts senator is launching …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze.com and The Huffington Post

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Kinky Friedman makes Texas runoff — Richard “Kinky” Friedman, a humorist and county music singer, got one step closer Tuesday to adding another line to his resume: agriculture commissioner of Texas. — It's highly unlikely that the colorful candidate will go on to win a statewide position …

Discussion: The Reaction

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Reid escalates feud with Koch brothers — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday accused the Koch brothers of unlawful business practices in an effort to portray the conservative billionaires as election-year bogeymen. — Reid charged that Charles and David Koch …

Discussion: Jammie Wearing Fools