memeorandum: Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist? (Nicholas Kristof/New York Times)

12:35 PM ET, August 28, 2014

Top Items:

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

Why Hagan wins North Carolina — Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is the target of what could be the most aggressive, dishonest, vindictive and lavishly financed negative campaign against any statewide candidate I've ever seen, yet according to the summary of polling from Real Clear Politics …

Detroit Free Press:
Schauer edges ahead of Snyder, 45% to 43%, in new governor race poll

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Republicans' “Thought” to 2014 Election Exceeds Democrats'

Discussion: Washington Post

Politico:
Poll: Romney breaks away in Iowa

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Slate, The PJ Tatler, Prairie Weather and Hullabaloo

Salon:
The left's secret midterm weapon: How marijuana ballot initiatives can change turnout

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Democratic Strategist

Politico:

Exclusive: GOP poll of women: Party ‘stuck in past’ — A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, American Prospect, NewsBusters, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Pharyngula, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shakesville and Taylor Marsh

Washington Post:

Obama's immigration decision could roil 2014 election — Both political parties are in a state of high anxiety over the possibility that President Obama will allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country, fearing that White House action on the issue could change the course of November's midterm elections.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ABC News, The Hill, National Review, RedState, Hit & Run, Politico and New York Times

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
Will Republicans Shut Down the Government Again?

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, Daily Kos, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Hill and The Huffington Post

Isabel Gorst / Los Angeles Times:

Russians invading, says Ukraine leader; tanks reported crossing border — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called a snap meeting of his security council Thursday, declaring that Russian forces had invaded the country. — Poroshenko dropped plans to attend the inauguration …

Discussion: BBC, AMERICAN DIGEST and National Review

CNN:
Official: Russian forces back rebels with tanks in eastern Ukraine

Discussion: Firedoglake, Business Insider, Weekly Standard, The PJ Tatler and New York Times

Bloomberg:
FBI Examining Whether Russia Is Tied to JPMorgan Hacking

Discussion: Guardian, Computerworld, New York Times, Hot Air, Telegraph, The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon

The Huffington Post:

NRA: ‘Children Can Have Fun At The Shooting Range’ — WASHINGTON — Less than two days after a 9-year-old girl in Arizona accidentally shot and killed a gun range instructor who was showing her how to fire an Uzi, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday touted new ways for children to “have fun” at shooting ranges.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story, ABC News, PoliticusUSA, Hullabaloo, Hot Air and CNN

New York Times:
A 9-Year-Old at a Shooting Range, a Spraying Uzi and Outrage

Discussion: The Mahablog and Outside the Beltway

Mark Follman / Mother Jones:
In Wake of Arizona Uzi Killing, NRA Tweets About Kids Having Fun With Guns

Discussion: Mashable, Liberaland and CBS New York

Rand Paul / Wall Street Journal:

How U.S. Interventionists Abetted the Rise of ISIS — Our Middle Eastern policy is unhinged, flailing about to see who to act against next, with little regard to consequences.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Hit & Run, Fox News, Politico, Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Investor's Business Daily:

Holder Cut Left-Wing Groups In On $17 Bil BofA Deal — Extortion: Radical Democrat activist groups stand to collect millions from Attorney General Eric Holder's record $17 billion deal to settle alleged mortgage abuse charges against Bank of America. — Buried in the fine print of the deal …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Power Line and National Review

TMZ.com:

Joan Rivers — Stops Breathing During Surgery ... (Update: Critical Condition) — STOPS BREATHING DURING SURGERY — (Update: Critical Condition) — EXCLUSIVE — 8:49 AM PT — The NYPD tells us ... Joan is currently in critical condition. — We're told ... at one point, Joan's heart stopped beating.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Mashable

Martha P. Nochimson / Vox:

Did Tony die at the end of The Sopranos? — David Chase finally answers the question he wants fans to stop asking — The main topic of conversation about The Sopranos, seven years after the series finale, is still whether Tony Soprano, mob boss of North Jersey, is dead or not.

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Times, Althouse, CNN, Gawker, The Verge, The Daily Caller, SBNation.com and Inside TV

Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

False Hope: Why Libertarians Won't Help Republicans Win the Youth Vote — The Republican Party has a major problem with young voters. According to national exit polls, the GOP has lost the under-30 vote by a wide margin in every election since 2004. In 2012, Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Hullabaloo

Garrett Epps / The Atlantic Online:

The Extreme Partisanship of John Roberts's Supreme Court — Like Barack Obama, the chief justice came into office promising an age of apolitical comity. And like the president, he has seen his dream die. — “Politics are closely divided,” John Roberts told scholar Jeffrey Rosen after his first term as chief justice.

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist? — Let's start with what we don't know: the precise circumstances under which a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot dead an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. — But here's what evidence does strongly suggest: Young black men in America suffer …

Discussion: Mediaite

Milo Yiannopoulos / BREITBART.COM:

MUSLIM GANG RAPISTS ARE SPRINGING UP EVERYWHERE. WHY CAN'T WE BE HONEST ABOUT IT? — The notorious Sydney gang rapes in 2000 were committed by Lebanese Australians. Muslim men raped women and girls as young as 14. Australia, being a sensible sort of place, identified that the rapists …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Sam Wang / Princeton Election Consortium:

Senate Democrats are outperforming expectations — [Note: this is a work in progress. I'm basically seeking comment as I develop a November predictive model. Please give your feedback... -Sam] — I've been asked why the PEC Senate poll snapshot is more favorable to Democrats …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos and Washington Post

THE / Los Angeles Times:

Editorial Don't let Arizona and Kansas get away with potentially discriminatory voter registration rules — Arizona, which has become infamous for its hostility toward immigrants who are in the country illegally, lost an important case in the U.S. Supreme Court last year when the justices ruled …

Karen Shuey / LancasterOnline:

F&M College Poll: Corbett failing to gain ground in race with Wolf — Doris Berko and Cindy Butzer might live in the same town, but they find themselves on opposite sides of the political landscape. — Both women, who reside in Leola, were participants in the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll released Thursday morning.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Noah Rothman / Hot Air:

Two legal guests tell CNN their Brown shooting audio might be a hoax — For more than 24-hours, CNN has been regularly playing a clip of audio which purports to reveal the exact moment when 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson. Each time it was played …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, NewsBusters and The PJ Tatler