Bastards! Friedman: What seems to have happened in Iraq in the last few months is that the Iraqi mainstream has finally done some liberating of itself. With the help of the troop surge ordered by President Bush, the mainstream Sunni tribes have liberated themselves from the grip of Al Qaeda in their provinces. And the Shiite mainstream — represented by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Iraqi Army — liberated

Advertising Age reports: After declining political advertising since its inception in 1981, MTV is reversing course. The Viacom MTV Networks channel — once known for round-the-clock music videos and now home to a host of reality shows — says it will now take political ads, though only from political candidates and party political committees, not from third parties. Any connection to Barack Obama’s announced desire to advertise on MTV is

Flipper flopper. (a Serr8d joint) Speaking of heavenly bodies and facial scars (consult Karl’s comments below): Why is Mars two-faced? Scientists say fresh evidence supports the theory that a monster impact punched the red planet, leaving behind perhaps the largest gash on any heavenly body in the solar system. Heh. And I would have thought it would be, y’know, Venus. Or Uranus, if you’re Brazilian.

One-time “consumer activist,” one-time election spoiler and fulltime nimrod Ralph Nader reportedly attacked Barack Obama in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News: “There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos,

He might be smoking, but it would be at a cafe, hunched over a New York Times, an Atlantic magazine, his MacBook and some organic fruit-flavored tea, listening to Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” on his iPod. Wait . . . they allow you to smoke at a cafe? What are you smoking? Can’t wait till Senator Leahy starts organizing trips across the Mexican border to stock up on

(a Serr8d joint)

Leading Democratic fundraisers were predicting to The Hill at the beginning of the month that Barack Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign, once he opted-out of public financing: “One hundred million dollars this June — it’s definitely within reach,” said Wade Randlett, who has raised more than $200,000 for Obama. ***  Randlett said there are three reservoirs

Jake Tapper of ABC News has the PowerPoint presentation Obama campaign manager David Plouffe rolled out to fundraisers last week. It is a sort of mirror image to John McCain’s strategery briefing, which was was fairly long on spin to convince people Maverick was going to be competitive with the Obama machine.  Plouffe spun the RNC’s decent recent fundraising to motivate Obama’s moneyfolk, but otherwise tended to confirm that some of the

Democratic nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama is sharing one his most valuable assets – his top fundraisers – with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to help her pay off her debt, the latest effort to heal the wounds of a bruising primary campaign. Obama on Tuesday asked his finance team to help Clinton pay back at least $10 million from her failed presidential campaign, setting the stage for joint appearances by the