memeorandum: 36 a.m.: Fifth District U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister won't seek re-election this fall but will complete his term. (The News Star)

7:40 PM ET, April 28, 2014

Top Items:

Donald Sterling Is a Registered Republican — Does it really matter whether racist LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling is a registered Democrat? Or a Republican? Or a member of the Pirate Party of Russia? — Well, according to multiple conservative media outlets, yes, it does matter.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, PoliticusUSA, NewsBusters, Hit & Run, Mediaite, Little Green Footballs, BobCesca.com, Hinterland Gazette, Liberaland, The Week, The Daily Caller, Balloon Juice and Politico

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / TIME:

Welcome to the Finger-Wagging Olympics — It's time to look at ourselves — and our collective moral outrage — in the mirror, says former NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. — Moral outrage is exhausting. And dangerous. The whole country has gotten a severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh, Hit & Run, Althouse and Sporting News Feed RSS

Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:

Conservatives Called Him A Democrat, But Sterling Is Registered Republican — Over the weekend, while nation-wide attention was focused on the racist comments reportedly made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, some conservative commentators were focused on something else: Sterling's party affiliation.

Discussion: Reuters, BobCesca.com, The PJ Tatler, Joe For America, The Mahablog and The Raw Story

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:

Donald Sterling and the Neverending Fantasy of ‘Democrat’ Racism — Oh, how eager the conservative press is to call Donald Sterling a Democrat! It's all part of their larger fantasy narrative about conservatism and race. — My Twitter feed yesterday was full of clucking conservatives challenging …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, PoliticusUSA, NewsBusters, Althouse, Politico and Balloon Juice

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Donald Trump on Donald Sterling comments: ‘The girlfriend from hell’

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, CBSSports.com and Scared Monkeys

Dave Zirin / thenation.com/blogs/163256:
Donald Sterling: Slumlord Billionaire

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Guardian, TMZ.com, CBS DC, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Banter, CNN, The Week, Deadspin, Washington Post, CBS Chicago, The Raw Story, Here & Now and The Huffington Post

Rod Dreher / The American Conservative:

The Sacrilegious Sarah Palin — Man, the 12 minute speech Sarah Palin gave to the NRA convention is awful. It's just witless, red-meat blathering, delivered in that nasal whine of hers that makes it sound like she's chewing wads of tinfoil. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.

Discussion: The Gospel Coalition Blog, Hit & Run, The Dish, National Review, Washington Post, Roger Ailes, The Huffington Post and The Reality-Based Community

Patrick Brennan / National Review:

Sarah Palin's Barbarism — It's been no secret for a while that Sarah Palin, erstwhile vice-president candidate, is no longer a serious political contender — for evidence of that transition, note that even among her faithful, at CPAC this year, she got just 2 percent of the vote in the straw poll, tied with Condoleezza Rice.

Discussion: The Dish

Robert Costa / Washington Post:

Sarah Palin soldiers on as a diminished figure in the Republican Party — Republican Sarah Palin isn't running for office, but the former Alaska governor is running around the country campaigning for the midterms. How powerful are her political endorsements? PostTV takes a look.

Discussion: The Week, PoliticusUSA and Taylor Marsh

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Palin: ‘Waterboarding Is How We Baptize Terrorists’ (VIDEO)

Discussion: Daily Kos, Daily Mail, The Daily Banter, Balloon Juice, The Reaction, No More Mister Nice Blog and CBS News

Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
No, Sarah Palin, Baptism Isn't A Good Punchline For A Terrorist Joke

Discussion: Mediaite, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, The Dish, The Raw Story, CNN, The Moderate Voice, Joe For America, Joe. My. God. and The Hill

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:

Exclusive: Kerry Warns Israel Could Become ‘An Apartheid State’ — The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn't make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison. — If there's no two-state solution …

Michael Wilner / Jerusalem Post:
US State Department does not deny Kerry's Israel ‘apartheid’ warning

Discussion: Politico and Israel Matzav

Manu Raju / Politico:

Police investigating Cliven Bundy-related threats to Harry Reid — Federal law enforcement officials are investigating threats made against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the aftermath of his sharp-edged attacks against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, sources said Monday.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN and Mediaite

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Howie Kurtz Turns On His Network Fox News For Its Silence On Bundy's Racist Comments (VIDEO)

Discussion: Mediaite and New York Times

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Obamacare's Poll Numbers Improve In Republican Districts — WASHINGTON — Attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act continue to shift in the law's favor, even in Republican-held congressional districts, a new poll set to be released Monday by a Democratic firm will show.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Washington Post, Mediaite and Capitol Report

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Fox News Tries And Fails To Get Any Details About The GOP's Obamacare Replacement

Discussion: Daily Kos and New York Times

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
Sorry Democrats, Obamacare is still electoral kryptonite

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Heritage Foundation, AEIdeas, The Huffington Post and Real Clear Politics

U.S. Department of the Treasury:

Announcement Of Additional Treasury Sanctions On Russian Government Officials And Entities — Sanctions Target Seven Russian Government Officials, Including Members of the Russian Leadership's Inner Circle, and 17 Entities — WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, Hinterland Gazette and Mashable

The White House:
Statement by the Press Secretary on Ukraine

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Bloomberg View and The Week

Reuters:
U.S. sanctions more Russians over Ukraine

Discussion: Forbes, VodkaPundit and The Dish

New York Times:
U.S. Announces More Sanctions Against Russia

Discussion: OilPrice.com Daily News Update, CNN, Guardian, News Desk, Lawfare, Daily Kos, The Week, National Review and Washington Free Beacon

Washington Post:

Rep. Michael Grimm, facing federal charges, surrenders to FBI — NEW YORK — Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.) surrendered Monday morning to federal authorities in New York as he faces multiple charges connected to a restaurant business he operated before entering Congress in 2011 …

Discussion: Staten Island Advance, New York Times, Reuters, Guardian, Hot Air, Gretawire, Gothamist, Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and NPR

Aaron Katersky / ABC News:
FBI Arrests and Rips Rep. Michael Grimm, an Ex-FBI Agent

Discussion: Politico

Politico:
Michael Grimm: 'I'm a moral man'

Discussion: Business Insider, Gothamist and The Week

Politico:

Wall Street Republicans' dark secret: Hillary Clinton 2016 — NEW YORK — The biggest parlor game on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms these days is guessing whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will run for president and save the GOP's old establishment base from its rising populist wing.

Discussion: protein wisdom, neo-neocon, TruthRevolt.org, Booman Tribune, PoliticusUSA, Washington Examiner, Taylor Marsh, Liberaland, The Week, Capitol Report and Washington Post

The News Star:

36 a.m.: Fifth District U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister won't seek re-election this fall but will complete his term. — As first reported at thenewsstar.com, McAllister, R-Swartz, said he and his wife Kelly made the final decision Monday morning. The couple is flying to Washington, D.C. together as Congress goes back into session.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Outside the Beltway and New York Times

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:

Politics don't belong in science fiction: Column — A writer shouldn't be punished for his political beliefs. — There was a time when science fiction was a place to explore new ideas, free of the conventional wisdom of staid, “mundane” society, a place where speculation replaced group think …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Vox Popoli and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Sasha Issenberg / The New Republic:

How the Democrats Can Avoid Going Down This November — The new science of Democratic survival — Voter data by TargetSmart Communications. — In late February, Barack Obama stood before a room of his party's governors at a Washington fund-raiser and offered a new explanation …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly and Washington Post

Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:

Google removes “deceptive” pregnancy center ads — Google is removing Web search ads for some “crisis pregnancy centers,” after an investigation by NARAL Pro-Choice America found evidence that the ads violate Google's policy against deceptive advertising. — “We have no problem …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, LifeNews.com and Feministing

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Paul Ryan's Inner City Education — The men begin filing into the Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis around 5:30 a.m. They are ex-convicts and reformed drug dealers, recovering addicts and at-risk youth: a proud brotherhood of the city's undesirables.

Discussion: American Prospect and The Hugh Hewitt Show

US-CERT:

Microsoft Internet Explorer Use-After-Free Vulnerability Being Actively Exploited — US-CERT is aware of active exploitation of a use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer. This vulnerability affects IE versions 6 through 11 and could lead to the complete compromise of an affected system.