An expose of News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch shows how his “vast media holdings give him a gamut of tools” to further his financial and political interests — “not just campaign contributions, but also jobs for former government officials and media exposure that promotes allies while attacking adversaries, sometimes viciously.”
The Bush administration has begun “exploring ways of offering Congress a compromise deal on Iraq policy to avert bruising battles in coming months.” Senior administration officials have discussed advocating a “sharply decentralized Iraq, a notion that has seen a resurgence on Capitol Hill.”
“Michael Moore’s latest film, ‘Sicko,’ was a smash hit over the weekend. The documentary about the health care industry was sold out at all its ‘sneak’ screenings in 43 locations around the country including Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, and Detroit.”
Elizabeth Edwards “kicked off San Francisco’s annual gay pride parade Sunday by splitting with her husband,” former senator John Edwards, over marriage equality. “I don’t know why someone else’s marriage has anything to do with me,” Mrs. Edwards said. “I’m completely comfortable with gay marriage.”
The U.S. commander of a new offensive north of Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, said yesterday that Iraqi forces “may be too weak to hold onto the gains.” The Iraqi military does not even have enough ammunition, Bednarek said. “They’re not quite up to the job yet.”
The New York Times endorses new House and Senate legislation that would end a tax law provision allowing private equity and hedge fund operators to “pay a lower capital-gains tax rate of 15 percent, instead of the ordinary top income-tax rate of 35 percent.” It is “untenable for the most highly paid Americans to enjoy tax rates that are lower than those of all but the lowest-income workers,” the Times writes.
According to a federal audit, a former Halliburton subsidiary — KBR — “did not keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, put its employees in living spaces that may be larger than warranted, and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than necessary under a contract to perform work in Iraq.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized NATO and US-led troops yesterday for carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint. “Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such,” he said.
And finally: George and Laura Bush celebrate very early Christmas. “It might have been 80 degrees outside but it was snowing inside Ford’s Theatre on Sunday,” where the Bushes attended a taping of an ABC holiday program. “The Ford’s Theatre gala usually airs July Fourth, but ABC will televise this event in December in an effort to attract broader viewership.” Country singer Wynonna “asked Bush if he had done his Christmas shopping yet.”
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