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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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).

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:

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.

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.

From the Back of the Pack  —  Rindge, N.H.  —  The first thing you notice about Mike Huckabee is that he has a Mayberry name and a Jim Nabors face.  But it's quickly clear that Huckabee is as good a campaigner as anybody running for president this year.  And before too long it becomes easy …