Iraq's Sadr Overhauls His Tactics  —  NAJAF, Iraq — The movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has embarked on one of its most dramatic tactical shifts since the beginning of the war.  —  The 33-year-old populist is reaching out to a broad array of Sunni leaders, from politicians to insurgents …

Not everybody's a critic  —  Sure, anyone with a blog can express an opinion about a book, but true criticism is more than just an opinion.  —  THE MOST grating words I've read in a newspaper recently were in a New York Times report on the shrinkage of book reviewing in many of the nation's leading newspapers.

Or No Conspiracy?  —  I have no idea what book wears the crown of longest nonfiction title ever published.  Whoever holds the record, it is about to be challenged by Vincent Bugliosi, whose new work, "Reclaiming History," a cellular-level re-examination of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, clocks in at 1,612 pages.

Specter: Gonzales Will Likely Resign Before No Confidence Vote … Digg It!

Fred's watershed?  —  TRIBUNE-REVIEW  —  On the day of the first Southern-state Republican debate on the Fox News Channel, one undeclared GOP candidate performed a media leapfrog.  —  With the help of one 38-second video clip and a great sense of humor, Fred Thompson …

Selling Out  —  Well, as I watch Elvis Costello hawk Lexuses (Lexi?) on TV, I wave goodbye to one of the last holdouts from the pre-80's era.  Its now assumed that if you were a rock star with any integrity from this era, you now have no problem using your song about "social revolution" to sell jeans, trucks and Carnival cruises.

Western Allies In the Twilight  —  The two wounded warriors stood side by side in the sunshine of the White House Rose Garden.  Tony Blair and George Bush, partners in a transatlantic alliance that has come a cropper in Iraq, tried to shield each other from the slings and arrows of two nations' reporters.

Re: Why doesn't this surprise me?  —  Mark, I always thought the requirement in last year's bill was pretty sweet: You had to pay two out of three years' back taxes.  Most legal Americans would love that deal: Pay any two years of tax and we'll give you the third for free!

The Once and Future Pee-wee  —  IN the 1985 movie "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," the title character turns to a friend and murmurs darkly, "There are a lot of things about me, things you wouldn't understand, things you couldn't understand, things you shouldn't understand."

Influx of Al Qaeda, money into Pakistan is seen  —  U.S. officials say the terrorist network's command base is increasingly being funded by cash coming out of Iraq.  —  WASHINGTON — A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts …

Tainted Chinese Imports Common  —  Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Gingrich Assails 'Radical Secularism'  —  In Speech, Ex-Speaker Praises Falwell, Offers No Hints About His Political Plans  —  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried a "growing culture of radical secularism" Saturday morning as he hailed the life of Liberty University's late founder …

Afghan soldiers mass on border, ready and willing to take on old foe  —  Anthony Loyd in Ghumruk, eastern Afghanistan  —  In the late-morning lull that followed the thump of shellfire and chatter of machineguns, the preparations for a small war seemed to be unfolding in the orchards …

Mitt Romney leads Republicans  —  Mitt Romney has sprinted ahead of presidential competitors John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in a new Iowa Poll of likely Republican caucus participants.  —  The Des Moines Register poll shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is the top choice of 30 percent …

Carter: Bush 'worst' in world relations  —  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

Border agents hit illegals bill  —  The leadership of all 11,000 nonsupervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents yesterday criticized an immigration compromise by senators and the Bush administration as "piecemeal" legislation that invites future terrorist attacks and fails to secure the nation's borders.

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Laura Flanders  —  (Please welcome author and Air America radio host Laura Flanders who is here to discuss her new book, Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics From the Politicans — JH)  —  Laura Flanders gets it.  And by that I don't mean in a "yeah …

New Leadership Trio Could Put Europe Back on Political Map  —  Merkel, Sarkozy and Brown Seen Reenergizing Region  —  PARIS — Europe is undergoing its most dramatic changing of the guard in more than a decade.  New leaders in the European Union's three preeminent countries — Britain …