Murdoch, his son, and his indicted “fifth” daughter get ready to testify before Parliament later this morning.

The New York Times has one of the most stunning headlines of the day: Losses at Afghan Bank Could Be $900 Million. The story tells a story of Afghanistan’s own “Too Big to Fail” problem that offers opaque descriptions of precisely what caused the problem, but waits until the 17th and 18th paragraph to explain the real problem with the bank. The fact that our government is discovering, but not revealing, the degree to which we have been backing “a vertically integrated criminal enterprise” is the real story.

The Guardian version of the cable hides the ties between British Gas Country Director for Kazakhstan, Mark Rawlings, and a U.S. citizen recently acquitted of bribery because he had offered the bribes at the behest of the CIA.

It’s a sad state of affairs that you have to bribe state governments to get them to give health insurance coverage to children, but that’s where we are in this new cruel version of America.

In the race to see which would be discounted more quickly, Cheney’s freedom won out over cheap Chinese toys at Christmas season: the final price for Cheney’s freedom is $35 million.

It seems like the value of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s freedom, like all other goods, declines the closer you get to Christmas. Cheney better hope that Nigeria ratifies this deal soon though, because you never know what happens to goods left on the shelf after the holidays.

It’s $500 million or three years in Nigerian prison if former veep Dick Cheney is convicted on bribery charges in Nigeria. I wonder how much Cheney or his former employers woul’d pay to avoid imprisonment on torture charges?

It’s criminal investigation week! Not only is the DOJ investigating Goldman Sachs, but the FBI has launched a bribery investigation into Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine and a company that regularly condones what amounts to serial murder by negligence.

Bribery is bribery, and there’s no excusing it in our public officials. But in the “punishment fits the crime” department, there’s something wrong with the proposed sentence of Dollar Bill Jefferson when you compare it that handed down to Randy “Duke” Cunningham.