memeorandum: Head of Reconstruction Teams in Iraq Reports Little Progress Throughout Country (James Glanz/New York Times)

11:15 AM 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: Horses Mouth, MSNBC, NY Daily News, Blue Crab Boulevard, Macsmind, A Blog For All and Spin Cycle

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: Suitably Flip and JammieWearingFool

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

Discussion: Riehl World View

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: Macsmind, The Dread Pundit Bluto, Betsy's Page, Jules Crittenden, Soccer Dad and Whiskey Fire

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

Krauthammer's Razor — I wrote about the House resolution condemning the Armenian genocide in "What about the Dardanelles?" Charles Krauthammer devotes his weekly column to the subject in "Pelosi's Armenian gambit." I called the House resolution an act of unbelievable irresponsibility …

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: The Newshoggers, The Politico, Dick Polman's American Debate, Associated Press, The Right's Field, The Carpetbagger Report, AMERICAblog, CNN Political Ticker, PoliBlog (TM) and The Gun Toting Liberal™

Gromer Jeffers Jr / Dallas Morning News:
Dallas minister urges vote for a Christian, not Romney

Discussion: Pandagon

New York Times:
Social Conservatives Meet, Their Options Cut by One

Discussion: MSNBC, Political Punch and Spin Cycle

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: Death, Salon and The Agonist

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

Discussion: The Swamp

Washington Post:
Senate Panel Approves New Surveillance Bill

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and The Heretik

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: Little Green Footballs and JammieWearingFool

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.

Discussion: The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, Ezra Klein, Norwegianity, Middle Earth Journal and Political Punch

Bill Roggio / The Long War Journal:

Sophisticated attack targeted Bhutto in Pakistan — The aftermath of the attack on Bhutto's convoy. Click to view. — As the toll from yesterday's ambush on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto convoy rises to 132 killed and upwards of 500 wounded, the details of the strike emerge.

Discussion: Early Warning, A Blog For All, On Deadline, Reuters, Noblesse Oblige, Associated Press and Blue Crab Boulevard

Fox News:

Attack on President Bush Continues Past SCHIP Veto Override Vote — WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Pete Stark launched a shocking one-man assault on the Bush administration Thursday, interrupting floor debate before a failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of the so-called SCHIP bill …

Discussion: Cliff Schecter, Wizbang, Shakespeare's Sister and Ankle Biting Pundits

New York Times:
House Sustains President's Veto on Child Health

Discussion: Publius Pundit, Air America Radio and Brendan Nyhan

Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:

Do right-wing ideas keep on failing? — Since Bush is so unpopular, you're hearing many claims that conservative or market-oriented ideas have failed more generally. For instance here is Paul Krugman's version of the argument. — Greg Anrig's The Conservatives Have No Clothes …

Discussion: Ezra Klein and EconLog

Roland S. Martin / CNN:

Commentary: Obama's black wakeup call — (CNN) — If the advisers around Sen. Barack Obama want to continue to delude themselves into thinking they have lots of time for black voters to get around to figuring out their candidate's record on issues they care about, then the latest CNN poll surely must …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Heading Right

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 Impolitic and Death

Mark Kleiman / The RBC:

Drawing the line — I understand Mukasey is supposed to be a reasonably good guy, by comparison with the run of Bush appointees. But if Mukasey won't say that waterboarding is torture and claims that the President has some undefined power to violate statute law — even criminal laws …

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

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

Discussion: Think Progress, Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, Los Angeles Times, ACSBlog, Air America Radio, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Crooks and Liars, TPMmuckraker, The Hill and Prairie Weather

David Brooks / New York Times:

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 …

Discussion: MSNBC, DesMoinesRegister.com Blogs, The Corner and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:

Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14 — We're not used to thinking of them this way. But many advanced military weapons are essentially robotic — picking targets out automatically, slewing into position, and waiting only for a human to pull the trigger. Most of the time.

Discussion: The Belmont Club

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 …