When the New York Times was under the baleful influence of Howell Raines, Paul Krugman found himself under an explicit edict not to refer to Dubya's campaign rhetoric as "lies". With Raines gone, it would seem that the gloves are off. To all the conservatives in the blogsphere who demanded his removal -- thanks.

On the same page, reporting from Basra, Nick Kristof finds the real winner in Iraq:

Still no luck in my quest to help the administration find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. But meanwhile, I'm getting the impression that America fought Saddam, and the Islamic fundamentalists won.

Christian liquor merchants who had been unmolested under Saddam are being shot dead in broad daylight, the schools are feeling pressure to separate male and femaled students, and even movie theaters are under threat.

Boy, I'll bet Osama bin Laden is really crying over this...

More: Tom Tomorrow wonders how much he'll be reading about this from the folks who were bragging about that one Iraqi's hopes for "Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy".