Cool I’m a 1%er! Still we need numbers to scare beat the crap out Rahm.

Fixed?

Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.

Why do they put occupying forces in quotes ? That is what they are.

Take a hint from Time magazine, which yesterday canned Krauthammer and Kristol.

But they still have Joke Line. Time is a rag. Looks like the WaPoo is too.

What an odd thing to say. What a sad, strange and disturbing thing to say.

I cannot help but retain some affection for the Washington Post, my hometown paper of my youth. It stood for something then. It was the very symbol of the press’s obligation to pursue truth in the face of government lies. I cannot put into words how much the Post meant to so many people, how it felt to go to bed utterly depressed at how Nixon could seemingly get away with it all – the wiretapping, the enemies lists, the political dirty tricks, the secret and unconstitutional expansion of an already failed war in Vietnam into the neighboring country of Cambodia – and then get up the next morning to the Washington Post almost single-handedly renewing our faith in the founder’s vision of a press that confronts and exposes the corrupt exercise of power.

And so it is similarly difficult to convey my disillusionment at the Post’s willingness to embrace bush’s lies rather than expose them, and its willingness to become a cheerleader for this war borne of lies and perpetuated by lies.

In the past I have qualified my criticism of the Post, noting the excellent reporting of so many in its news pages, people like Walter Pincus and Robin Wright. But their excellent work in no way mitigates the Post’s institutional culpabililty for continuing to publish these obscenities from Hiatt and the rest of the neocon toadies on the Post’s editorial board.

The single statement from the Post’s editorial quoted at the beginning of my message will haunt the Post for many, many years. Most disturbing to me was its sheer petulance. There was a “f*ck you” quality to it in the way it implicitly acknowledged the profound disappointment felt by so many of the Post’s readers and then so abruptly rejected that sentiment without so much as a nod to any of the many reasons why so many millions who initially backed the war have turned against it.

Fred Hiatt and his coterie of neocon courtiers must be terminated before they can do more damage to the once venerable Post. Take a hint from Time magazine, which yesterday canned Krauthammer and Kristol. These neocons are thoroughly discredited. It is time to relegate them to the judgment of history and confront the painful and catastrophic consequences of their counsel. Rest assured, Washington Post, Hiatt will not be missed.

MATLOCK BRODER above.