In the second part of its investigative series into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the New York Times examines Murdoch’s “ardent and unrelenting” effort to break into the Chinese market.

Mr. Murdoch has flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children. His Fox News network helped China’s leading state broadcaster develop a news Web site. He joined hands with the Communist Youth League, a power base in the ruling party, in a risky television venture, his China managers and advisers say. [...]

Mr. Murdoch cooperates closely with China’s censors and state broadcasters, several people who worked for him in China say. He cultivates political ties that he hopes will insulate his business ventures from regulatory interference, these people say.

In speeches and interviews, Mr. Murdoch often supports the policies of Chinese leaders and attacks their critics. A group of China-based reporters for The Journal accused him in a letter to Dow Jones shareholders of “sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal and political aims,” a charge the News Corporation denies.

David Lopez, former chief of staff for Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), has provided “several hundred pages” of documents to federal prosecutors “investigating Doolittle and his wife in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal.”

Lopez’s name has previously surfaced in connection with Abramoff. He took a trip to Puerto Rico in 2001 paid for by Abramoff’s firm, although House rules prohibited trips paid for by registered lobbyists; Lopez said he’d consulted with the Ethics Committee and intended to abide by the rules.

Lopez was also referenced in an e-mail Ring wrote to Abramoff in 2000 about finding work for Doolittle’s wife, Julie, who went on to work for Abramoff on retainer. Julie Doolittle’s fundraising and event-planning company, which she ran out of the couple’s Virginia home, was the focus of the FBI’s subpoena in April.

– former governor Mitt Romney, who added that the Guantanamo “plays an important role in protecting our nation from violent, heinous terrorists.” (Via Steve Benen)

Reacting to the Office of the Vice President’s assertion that it is not an “entity within the executive branch,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) announced that he will introduce an amendment to cut off funding to Cheney’s office. Emanuel discussed the legislation on MSNBC tonight:

[Cheney] is acting like he’s unaccountable to anybody…and he’s taking an unbelievable step saying he’s not a member of the executive branch, he’s a member of the legislative branch, therefore he doesn’t have to provide information. … So I said, If that’s your logic, then we shouldn’t be funding you through the executive branch. Either Wednesday or Thursday my amendment will be on the floor, because the funding for the executive branch is on the floor. And I’ll strike the money for the Vice President’s Office. He can live off the Senate presidency budget that funds him up here. And that’s fine. But if he’s going to be funded in the executive branch, he complies with the rules that apply to everybody. He is not above the rules of the executive branch.

Watch the segment:

Estimated number of Iraqi refugees, “many alarmingly young,” now employed as sex workers and prostitutes in Syria.

MSNBC is heavily promoting an appearance by Ann Coulter on tomorrow’s Hardball. Coulter hasn’t appeared on Hardball since July 27, 2006 when she called Vice President Al Gore a “total fag.” Tonight, host Chris Matthews made an odd justification for booking the conservative bombthrower: “Say what you will, she sells books.” Watch it:

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton is urging a federal judge to show leniency in sentencing her former top deputy, J. Steven Griles, who pleaded guilty to “lying to the Senate about his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” Norton also received $50,000 from Jack Abramoff, and the former lobbyist funneled more than $500,000 to one of Norton’s former political aides, Italia Federici, to gain access to her department.