Last week executives took a big hit to their wallets when pay czar Kenneth Feinberg announced sharp cuts in compensation for companies that received government bailout money—but populists can cut their celebrations short, because it turns out Feinberg gave them a leg up in one key area: regular salaries. A Wall Street Journal analysis reveals that while total compensation was cut in half, base salaries increased. When banks complained about their lowered salaries, Feinberg boosted them in some cases by hundreds of thousands of dollars. On average, base salaries rose to $437,896 a year, a 14 percent increase from previous years. Feinberg, who was tasked with ensuring that companies didn't experience a brain drain as a result of the cuts, did reject some requests for increases, including one from Bank of America that sought a $950,000 base salary for some employees. In the end, more than half of the employees under Feinberg's purview had their base salaries increased.

Looks like the feds are keeping it in the family in Afghanistan: The New York Times reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has been on the CIA payroll for the past eight years, according to current and former U.S. officials. Ahmed, who some say may have had a hand in the Afghan election fraud, helps recruit for the Kandahar Strike Force, an Afghan paramilitary force that operates under CIA direction. The strike force is said to counter suspected insurgents and terrorists. Officials also say that Ahmed acts as a go-between for the U.S. and the Taliban. Such a dubious relationship undermines America's push to develop a stable and independent central Afghan governing body. Critics also say that America's ties with Ahmed bolster the Taliban's arguments that President Hamid Karzai is simply a puppet of the U.S. government. Ahmed, who is also suspected of playing a major role in the country's opium trade, has denied receiving any such payments from the CIA, and a CIA spokesperson also declined to comment on the story.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, once a Democrat and now an independent, said Tuesday that he would support a Republican-led filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health-care bill. It’s the public option that Lieberman said he has trouble stomaching. "We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now." Lieberman’s break demonstrates that Reid doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to move the bill out of the Senate.

Not everyone can be a Sully. The Federal Aviation Administration has reovoked the flying licenses of Northwest Airlines Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole, the now-infamous pilots who overshot their destination by more than 100 miles—then pleaded "distraction" due to laptop computers, chit-chat, and bathroom breaks. The New York Times reports that this is "unusually swift action" for the FAA, which cited "failing to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly." The pilots reportedly lost track of their jet's position for an hour and did not realize they had flown too far until a flight attendant inquired about the landing time. They said they heard voices on their radio but ignored them. Most peculiarly, both pilots were seasoned fliers: Cheney has been flying for Northwest since 1985 and has 20,000 hours of experience, while Cole joined Northwest in 1997 and has 11,000 hours under his belt. More investigations are still under way in the unusual case, from both federal and industry agencies.

Though Tony Blair has not yet announced his candidacy for European Union president, backdoor deals are already being negotiated between the E.U.'s three most powerful countries. Gordon Brown is pushing heavily for Blair's appointment, and officials at 10 Downing Street said that top post choices are being offered to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in exchange for their support. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that Blair's appointment would "stop the traffic" in Washington and Beijing, while detractors, such as Conservative Party leader David Cameron, are pressing for a more neutral figure to head the E.U. Such backdoor deals, though, could anger smaller E.U. nations, who fear being left out in the cold. "The Conservatives have warned European leaders that they will view it as 'a hostile act' if the former Labour prime minister is handed the job," The Daily Telegraph reports.

This Is It may be Michael Jackson’s final performance, but if a vocal set of his fans get their way, it won’t be the final word on his legacy. Culled from 100 hours of rehearsal footage for Jackson's comeback tour, the posthumous movie premiered Tuesday night in 18 cities. But concerned fans took the opportunity to protest what they see as Jackson's exploitation by concert promoter AEG Live. The This Is Not It campaign accuses the company of putting too much pressure on Jackson to perform. The "king of pop" died June 25, just two weeks before his scheduled opening performance. Jackson's siblings were in attendance at the Los Angeles premiere, after which the movie will be released for a limited two-week run in 110 countries. Close friend Elizabeth Taylor, who was granted a special preview of the movie, sent her review out via Twitter: "The single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen."

An internal whip count document obtained by Greg Sargent at The Plumline shows that the House is coming up short on support for its health-care bill, which features a "robust" public option. House leader James Clyburn said, "We currently do not have the votes for a robust public option." Liberals shot back that Democratic leaders in the House need to be more aggressive in pushing the government-run option, which would give them leverage with Senate leaders when debating the final bill. Of the 256 House Democrats, 55 are either voting "no" or leaning in that direction. That leaves fewer than the 218 votes needed to pass the bill. At least a dozen representatives remain undecided.

In his autobiography, out November 9, Andre Agassi admits to using crystal meth in 1997, just one year after winning his Olympic title. The information was first leaked Tuesday when Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch posted it to his Twitter feed. Deitsch removed it shortly thereafter, but not before others caught wind. A representative from Knopf, which is publishing Open: An Autobiography, subsequently confirmed the news. Having dropped to No. 141 in the rankings, 1997 was a low point for Agassi professionally. In his career, the tennis legend won eight Grand Slam championships and 60 single titles before retiring in 2006. Excerpts from his drug-use admission will be published this week in People and Sports Illustrated magazines.

When you thought Richard Heene couldn’t be any worse of a father, a video surfaced Tuesday showing him trying his best to do just that. Ten years ago, Richard Heene posed his oldest son Bradford—who was then a baby—with an empty beer bottle and cigar to create what he seems to consider a hilarious video shoot. Just as he allegedly orchestrated the Balloon Boy hoax to garner media attention, Heene sets up the shoot to resonate for the camera. He tries to force a cigar into Bradford’s mouth, then places it into the baby’s hand and curls his tiny fingers around it, while another male (the camera operator, presumably) exclaims, “Oh, that’s good, but your hand’s in the way. Oh God Richard. Your hand’s in the way. He’s like fondling the bottle.” Heene’s wife says “no” at one point in the video, seemingly asking him to stop, but Richard pays her no attention. What a guy.

Botmasters—rogue computer programmers who create virtual armies of hacked computers, or "bots," to do their bidding—are a rising international problem, and computer-security analysts have begun to agree on a criminal profile. Tech Radar reports that Cisco and other computing companies find that intelligent, independent upstarts often train themselves: "People with the skills but without the opportunities," as one online security analyst put it. "Many of these online criminals are coming from developing countries. If you know how to code and are living in London—great!" But "if you know how to code and are living in Siberia—not so great." Unlike Web 1.0 hackers, who brought down servers and Web sites "for fun" or to prove a point, the new, globalized generation of hackers are in it for the bottom line. The way to catch them, analysts say, is the same as catching almost any white-collar crook: Follow the money.

After 8 more U.S. troops were killed by bombs Tuesday, October has become the deadliest month yet for American troops in Afghanistan—and it’s not over yet. So far, 55 troops have been killed in Afghanistan, including three helicopter crashes on Monday and multiple bombings on Tuesday. This month has also seen an increase in political tension over strategy in Afghanistan, as President Obama weighs a request from General Stanley McChrystal for thousands more troops--and for the first time, a U.S. official stepped down in protest of the war. “My resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end," said Matthew Hoh, a former marine captain who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Did a 20-foot long predator take a bite out of a great white shark—half its size—off the coast of Australia? Experts reviewing a gruesome photo of the great white believe that its assailant must have been 20 feet long based upon its bite marks. The wounded shark is still alive; its attacker is still at large. "I've heard about the big one lurking. Every surfer is always cautious over here,” a surfer said.

Apparently going rogue can be lucrative: Sarah Palin reportedly received a $1.25 million retainer from her publisher for her upcoming book Going Rogue: An American Life. The figures were released with financial disclosures of Palin’s last seven months in office as governor of Alaska, alongside items such as her $73,000 reported salary. Also on the list? Her husband Todd reported a $3,500 prize from the Iron Dog snowmachine race.

David Letterman never hit on Nell Scovell, but during her brief stint as a writer on Late Night, she was aware that he was having sexual relationships with other women in the workplace and that those women were consequently benefitting professionally. “Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely,” she writes for Vanity Fair. But instead of saying something at the time, Scovell quit her job and moved to L.A., where she went on to create the television series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and write for other shows. She is speaking up now in the hopes that late-night comedy shows will add more women to their writing staffs, which are currently extremely male-dominated: “At this moment, there are more females serving on the United States Supreme Court than there are writing for Late Show with David Letterman, The Jay Leno Show, and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien combined.”

A British couple sailing off the coast of East Africa and unheard from since sending a distress call Friday seem to have been taken by pirates. A statement from the coast guard of Seychelles, the island nation from which Paul and Rachel Chandler set sail, says that "the probability of [hijacking] is high," and a Somalian man claiming to be a member of a pirate gang told a reporter that the boat had been captured by his group. EU and Seychelles aircraft and EU and U.S. naval forces have been searching for the couple since the distress call, but an EU representative could not confirm that the yacht had been hijacked. This wouldn't be the first pirate hijacking of a yacht: at least two French yachts and two Indian yachts were seized by pirates in 2008 and 2009.

Barack Obama may be the perennial cool kid in politics, but Joe Biden can’t seem to catch a break. According to a new Gallup poll, the gaffe-prone vice president’s favorability rating continues to decline, and has now hit 42 percent. His popularity peaked at 59 percent during election season last November, and has consistently dropped with each new poll. Obama’s favorability ratings have dropped as well, though less dramatically and his numbers remain higher than Biden’s, at 55 percent. Results show that Republicans and Democrats haven’t changed their thoughts on Biden substantially, but his numbers have been on a steady decline among independents since the election. Remember: Cheney’s favorability averaged 65 percent his first year in office.

The ever-present Gosselin family will stay in the spotlight if Kate has anything to say about it—and the reality star now wants to transition from the small screen to the big screen. "I've done enough years on TV that I feel like it's a normal, comfortable, natural place to be," she said on the new episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8, which is in its final season. "I'd love to be in a movie at some point,” she said. “I'd love to be the voice of a cartoon character in a movie for my kids. I think that would be fun." Kate also spoke of life after her split with Jon: "I really don't want to be married again, but I don't want to be alone. The alone-ness is really alone.”

Former President George W. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday, talking to an audience of 15,000 about his faith and optimism. Appearing at the "GET MOTIVATED!" seminar with the likes of Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Terry Bradshaw, Bush appeared relaxed and comfortable on stage, speaking about his experiences in the White House and his life since he left office. A piece of his advice? "Popularity is fleeting... It's not real.” Estimates of Bush’s fee for the event have been placed around $100,000 (ticket prices ranged from $4.95 to $89). Bush received a warm response from the crowd and generally positive reviews from the seminar's participants. "He wasn't the best speaker," said one audience member, "but I was happy to see him!" He’s scheduled to deliver another motivational speech in San Antonio in November.

Tom Cruise may have to think twice before his next trip to France. French courts have convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud after a woman claimed she was manipulated into donating over 20,000 euros (nearly $30,000). The conviction came with a fine of 600,000 euros (about $892,000), but did not actually ban the group from the country thanks in large part to a legal loophole. A Scientology spokesman denounced the ruling as a “political gesture,” saying they will appeal: "If it has to go to the court of human rights we're confident we will win there." France has given a notoriously cold shoulder to Scientology, which it refuses to recognize as an actual religion, and has fined individuals a number of times before, though this ruling marks the first fine for the organization itself. “Religious freedom is in danger in this country,” said a spokesman for the church’s Celebrity Centre.

Who is the heir apparent to Bruce Wasserstein, the late chairman and CEO of Lazard Ltd., who died unexpectedly earlier this month? According to The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman, no one. Berman writes that Wasserstein, a Wall Street figure so respected and feared he was usually referred to as simply "Bruce," was a one-of-a-kind character whose extravagant style and personal fame are the hallmarks of an past era. "The sports-car flash of Mr. Wasserstein's 'great man' style of banking had long dulled" even by 2006, says Berman. "Investment banking today is more about building a better minivan—reliable, practical, and adaptable." For Berman, "faceless brands" like Goldman Sachs are now the norm. Wasserstein may have "helped create an entire profession" but now "there are no more thrones, only factory floors."

Karen Jane McNeil, the woman accused of stalking Justin Timberlake, seems to have wide-ranging taste: TMZ.com reveals that the woman already has a restraining order against her filed by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, requiring that she stay 150 yards away from the band, members of the band's families, and officials in the Metallica fan club. And they're not alone: McNeil was once sentenced to a year in prison for violating a court order to stop harassing Axl Rose. Timberlake's request for a restraining order was granted last week after the singer complained that McNeil had been coming to his home and refusing to leave.

Scientists in England have discovered the skull of a sea creature big enough to have eaten a Tyrannosaurus Rex. An 8-foot skull has been discovered in Dorset, England of an estimated 54-foot pilosaur, a type of aquatic reptile that resided in seas near modern-day Britain 150 million years ago. The skull was found protruding from the side of a cliff on what is known as the Jurassic Coast. The pilosaur is one of the largest fossils ever discovered.

Damning evidence of Radovan Karadzic talking about the slaughter of 300,000 Muslims was revealed on Tuesday, the opening day of the genocide trial of the former Bosnian Serb leader. "It will be a black cauldron where 300,000 Muslims will die," the tapes recorded Karadzic saying. "They will disappear. That people will disappear from the face of the earth." Prosecutor Alan Tieger, presenting his case in the absence of Karadzic, who continues in his refusal to attend his own trial, described the case as "about... a man who harnessed the forces of nationalism, hatred and fear to implement his vision of an ethnic Bosnia." Chief Judge O-Gon Kwon warned Karadzic a second time that he would have a legal representative imposed upon him if he persisted in spurning the proceedings.

A few weeks ago the FDA banned clove cigarettes, saying that the sweet smelling smoke was attractive to children. As soon as that ruling became the law of the land, a California tobacco importer began selling kretek, the smoke of choice for Indonesia, arguing that the orange-scented cigarette was actually a cigar. The FDA cried foul and Kretek International Inc. countered with a suit, saying "If a product is a cigar, it is not a cigarette and vice versa. Kretek contends that Djarum cigars are cigars." The case is pending as is the American consumer's decision whether the Djarum cigar is really a cigar.

With the world planning to gather in Copenhagen at the beginning of December hoping to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent, the U.S. Congress is shaping how countries will prepare. Many say that the Congress's unwillingness to sign on to an emissions reduction treaty of that size will forestall any major progress. “Are we going to be forever hostage to the U.S. Congress?” a negotiator from the Philippines said to Bloomberg News. The answer seems to be yes. One environmental analyst said that American hesitancy is holding everyone else in place: "It’s having a big ripple-on effect for the rest of the negotiations.”

Microsoft could be taking its “I’m a PC” ad campaign a bit too seriously. The software giant has cancelled its sponsorship of the upcoming Fox comedy special from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane due to content concerns. Family Guy Presents: Seth and Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show, a variety special hosted by MacFarlane and fellow voice actor Alex Borstein, was intended to run without commercial breaks, sponsored entirely by Microsoft in exchange for built-in messaging, but after some Microsoft executives attended a taping—and saw some of MacFarlane's typically ribald humor, including jokes about the deaf, the Holocaust, and incest—the company decided that "the content was not a fit with the Windows brand." It remains to be seen how the show, airing as part of an all-MacFarlane night on Nov. 8, will deal with the loss of its sponsorship.

In a sweeping three-day sting operation, federal officials have arrested nearly 700 people known to be involved with child prostitution. The arrested included pimps, madams, and former suspected customers of child prostitutes. The youngest victim to be rescued was 10 years old, according to authorities. The operation, which is part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, involved almost 1,600 agents and officials and spanned 36 cities. Running since 2003, the initiative has rescued nearly 900 children and led to 510 convictions. The president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was involved with the undertaking, estimates that 100,000 children are still involved in sex trafficking in the United States, and that number is growing in part because of the recession.

Same-sex couples have another decade to wait before they can be recognized by the U.S. Census. Though officials had said in June that they would try to include gay married couples in the 2010 count, they determined that next year would be too soon to include same-sex couples in the portrait of America's landscape. Like the last count in 2000, gay married couples will be counted as unmarried partners. However, this time around the Census will include a new set of data for same-sex couples "who described themselves as married." Officials cited concerns about accuracy rather than politics in their decision-making process.

ESPN needs some damage control. Just one day after the sports network fired baseball expert Steve Phillips for having an affair with a young production assistant, announcer Bob Griese has now been suspended after making an inappropriate remark on air about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya. While announcing for Saturday's Minnesota-Ohio State football game, Griese made a joke that Montoya, who is Colombian, was "out having a taco." ESPN is punishing Griese by pulling him off the air for one week, noting that the announcer acknowledged the inappropriateness of his sense of humor.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is speaking up about Afghanistan again, one week after his crucial role in persuading Afghan President Hamid Karzai to agree to an election runoff. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry warned that maintaining too aggressive of an approach in Afghanistan was unwise. He openly criticized General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. military commander in the region, of "trying to do too much in a relatively short time," The New York Times reports. General McChrystal is reportedly seeking an increase of up to 40,000 additional American troops. The senator urged patience and said he supported a long-term, sustained approach, emphasizing that the end goal is a self-governable Afghanistan.

Ever wondered what Bristol Palin saw in Levi Johnston? In a forthcoming edition of Playgirl, the whole enchilada will likely be on display, reports Gawker. Johnston's manager is "90 percent sure" that Levi's photo spread will include full-frontal nudity. In an interview with Us Magazine, Levi explained the gig: "I just get naked. That's what I do." His manager added, "He's ready to shock the world," noting that Johnston flashed him the goods earlier that day. (Practice?) The erstwhile father of Sarah Palin's grandson is going ahead with the much-touted shoot in November in order to "get the pictures out for the holidays," according to a magazine rep. Merry Christmas—you can thank Playgirl later.

A normally staid media exhibition in Tehran turned into a site of frustration for the supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranians who object to the election of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad this summer. An opposition candidate and Mousavi aide were rough up by pro-government thugs over the weekend. A woman loudly protested a government exhibit on the election. Authorities closed the expo without warning on Monday, leaving large crowds waiting outside. In a guest book for the government-sponsored publication "Iran," one visitor left this message: "You are the symbol of censorship."

Maurice Greenberg, the founder of the insurance giant A.I.G., is making a comback, quietly building up a family of insurance companies that can compete with his old outfit at his venture C.V. Starr & Company. By limiting pay at A.I.G., the United States Treasury is lending Greenberg a hand, assisting with the exodus of talent from the old firm to the new one. "Basically, he’s just starting 'A.I.G. Two' and raiding people out of 'A.I.G. One,'" said an insurance executive. Greenberg was pushed out of A.I.G. after an accounting scandal in 2005. He is 84.

Richard Engel, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, was intended to be on one of the three helicopters that crashed in Afghanistan on Monday, he revealed on Today. Seven U.S. servicemen and three DEA agents involved in anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan were killed in that crash; the cause of which has yet to be determined, though the military says it was not due to hostile fire, despite Taliban claims. In a separate incident, two Marine helicopters collided mid-flight in the south of the country, killing four troops and wounding two; the death count of fourteen was the highest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in more than four years.

In a statement posted on a militant website, an Iraqi al Qaeda umbrella group claimed responsibility for the double suicide bombing in Baghdad on Sunday that killed 155, including two dozen children leaving a daycare center. The group, which has vowed to undermine Iraq's already-fragile government before the planned January elections, also claimed to be responsible for a similar attack two months earlier that leveled the finance and foreign ministries and killed 132 people, injuring almost 500. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has accused al Qaeda of receiving backing from Ba'athists, and blamed Syria for facilitating the attacks by harboring former Saddam Hussein associates. After criticizing the Syrian government in August, the two countries recalled their ambassadors. Al-Maliki inspected the attacks on Sunday, vowing to find those responsible.

Matthew Hoh, a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war and the senior U.S. civilian in the Afghan province of Zabul, resigned from his post last month in protest over the war—the first official to do so. In a four-page letter, the well-respected Foreign Service officer wrote that despite "reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy," the resignation was based "not on how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." Before joining the Foreign Service in late 2008, Hoh had served a tour in Iraq as a Marine, and returned to the country as a civilian contractor, coming home in 2007 with PTSD. In Afghanistan, he was assigned early on to research the Korengal Valley, where several Americans had been killed; Hoh came to the conclusion that the U.S. military presence in the area had actually strengthened the insurgency, and that the natives did not want the American soldiers. Hoh's September resignation has had repercussions throughout the U.S. government: both the U.S. ambassador and Richard Holbrooke offered the veteran a job (he turned down both), and Biden's foreign policy advisor is scheduled to meet with him this week. Hoh says "you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve."

Fifteen years after Newt Gingrich's role in the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress made him a hero to conservatives, a potential 2012 bid for president has the GOP's right wing on the attack already. Gingrich, whose possible run has been the subject of speculation by many, seems to have lost the support of the grassroots right after endorsing moderate NY Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava over third-party conservative Doug Hoffman. Blogger Michelle Malkin says that Gingrich has been "wavering on core issues" and imagines a cabinet made up of Al Sharpton, Al Gore, and Scozzafava, while Quin Hillyer faults Gingrich for having "sided with the establishment" despite nationwide anti-beltway sentiment. Dan Riehl, meanwhile, says Gingrich is too much of an insider to even garner the nomination, while Salon's Alex Koppelman thinks he's got too much at stake to even bother running: "He's comfortably ensconced as a party elder right now... a big loss in a presidential run would put an end to that."