memeorandum: Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash (Ryan Singel/Threat Level)

1:25 PM ET, October 19, 2007

Top Items:

An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for Clinton — The candidate's unparalleled fundraising success relies largely on the least-affluent residents of New York's Chinatown — some of whom can't be tracked down. — NEW YORK — Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Horses Mouth, MSNBC, The Hill, Blogs for Bush, Gawker, Booman Tribune, Boston Globe, QandO, TIME, Interesting Times, Blue Crab Boulevard, Macsmind, Spin Cycle and A Blog For All

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Hsu II? Hillary raking in cash from poor Chinese immigrants, many of whom can't be located — Sinfully delicious. Remember, Hsugate began not with Hsu himself but with the Paw family, who somehow churned out a cool $50K in contributions to the Cause — most of which coincided with Hsu's own donations …

Discussion: Wizbang, Suitably Flip and JammieWearingFool

Michelle Malkin:
Won't you take me to Chinatown? — The Los Angeles Times digs …

Discussion: Right Voices and Riehl World View

Brian Maloney / The Radio Equalizer:

Randi Rhodes Speaks About Non-Mugging, Raises New Questions — A DEEPER HOLE … Now that Air America Radio host Randi Rhodes has returned to the airwaves, at least one mystery has been solved: we know why her lawyer was in charge of making press statements.

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Neocon News and Chuck Adkins

BoreAmerica:

Randi Rhodes statement on "mugging"/falling down incident — Speaking on her radio show today, Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes spoke about her supposed mugging. She said she was watching football in an Irish pub and went outside for a smoke. The next thing she knew she was on the ground …

Discussion: Wake up America, Macsmind, Little Green Footballs, JammieWearingFool and LTR

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Pelosi's Armenian Gambit — There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide. — (a) Did it happen? — (b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now? — (c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Central Sanity, Betsy's Page, Macsmind, Whiskey Fire, Jules Crittenden and Soccer Dad

The Big Trunk / Power Line: Krauthammer's Razor — I wrote about the House resolution condemning …

Ryan Singel / Threat Level:

Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash — Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) is reportedly steering the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee to give retroactive immunity to telecoms that helped the government secretly spy on Americans.

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation blogs, Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, Death, Salon, The Agonist and Booman Tribune

Manu Raju / The Hill:
Dems cool to Senate FISA deal

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Wake up America, Washington Post, New York Times and The Swamp

Michael Kinsley / Time:

Libertarians Rising — To oversimplify: Democrats are for Big Government; Republicans are against it. — To oversimplify somewhat less, Democrats aren't always for Big Government, and Republicans aren't always against it. Democrats treasure civil liberties, whereas Republicans …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway and Reason Magazine

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

No To Mukasey … Matt calls him "completely unacceptable." Having read the testimony, I'm afraid I have to abandon my early hopes and agree. An attorney general who believes a president has a permanent right to ignore the rule of law because peacetime is now wartime for ever …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Philip Shenon / New York Times:
Senators Clash With Nominee About Torture

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Empire Burlesque, Reason Magazine, Think Progress, Los Angeles Times, DownWithTyranny!, ACSBlog, The Atlantic Online, Air America Radio, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, TPMmuckraker, The Hill and Crooks and Liars

Mark Kleiman / The RBC:
Drawing the line — I understand Mukasey is supposed …

Discussion: Brian Beutler, The Opinionator, Lawyers, Guns and Money, The American Street and Slate

The Raw Story:

Cheney hand seen behind leaks of 'misleading' stories — Allegations that a Syrian envoy admitted during a United Nations meeting Oct. 17 that an Israeli air strike hit a nuclear facility in September are inaccurate and have raised the ire of some in the US intelligence community …

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:

Grand Jury Investigation Seeking Phoenix Newspaper's Reader Data — In the department of news ranging from unprecedented to shocking, from the Phoenix New Times, this stands out. … At the heart of the matter is controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio (think, inmates wearing pink underwear …

Discussion: Feathered Bastard and Washington Monthly

Michael Lacey / Phoenix New Times:
Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution

Discussion: New York Times, Gawker, On Deadline, Reason Magazine and LA Observed

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Dodd Goes to the Mat: Says He Will Filibuster FISA — He said he "might have to." And he will. — From the Dodd campaign: … Finally someone willing to filibuster and cut through the ocean of glue the Senate seems to be swimming in. — This is awesome. Go Dodd. — Update: Just added — YouTube above.

Discussion: Mercury Rising

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Reid Tries To Shut Down Dodd's Hold

The Corner:

I'm Told — Senator Reid just went to the Senate floor and asked people to bid on the Rush letter. — 40-some minutes to go.... UPDATE: Here's a raw transcript from the Senate:

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Neocon News, Hot Air, Wizbang and A Blog For All

Washington Post:

Evangelicals Lukewarm Toward GOP Field — For months, Republican presidential candidates such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and John McCain have courted evangelical Christians, meeting with religious leaders throughout the Midwest and the South. — Today, thousands of Christian conservatives …

Discussion: New York Times, The Newshoggers, The Caucus, The Politico, Dallas Morning News, MSNBC, The Carpetbagger Report, Dick Polman's American Debate, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Right's Field, CNN Political Ticker, AMERICAblog, DownWithTyranny!, PoliBlog (TM), Spin Cycle and The Gun Toting Liberal™

Atrios / Eschaton:

Bad Democrats — Al Wynn: … translation: "Jew money." — It's only 4 months until the primary. While the fundraising ability of the netroots is in some sense impressive, I don't think it's quite been tapped and directed as well as it could. No hard sell here, but having

Discussion: Open Left

Rosalind Helderman / Maryland Moment: Finance Fun in MD 4

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:

Anti-War Veteran Quits Anti-War Organization — Frustrated by the lack of progress toward surrender in Iraq, veteran John Bruhns has quit the anti-war group AAEI: … I have a 'personal connection' to Bruhns: I've received at least one robocall from him (and if memory serves, several).

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Prominent Iraq veteran Bruhns quits major anti-war organization

Discussion: Don Surber

CNN:

Nobel winner: I didn't mean blacks are inferior — LONDON, England (CNN) — Nobel laureate biologist Jim Watson apologized "unreservedly" Thursday for stating that black people were not as intelligent as whites, saying he was "mortified" by the comments attributed to him.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, On Deadline, Death and The Impolitic

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Death of the Machine — "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is." So declared Mark Hanna, the great Gilded Age political boss. — Karl Rove has often described Hanna as his role model.