That kickin’ one-liner from commenter Ex-tex over at Hot Air on this story:

PRINCETON, NJ — Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.

The basic data — based on an aggregated sample of more than 4,000 interviews conducted since 2004 — are straightforward.

The differences are quite significant, as can be seen. While Democrats are slightly less likely to report excellent mental health than are independents, the big distinctions in these data are the differences between Republicans and everyone else.

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071128/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

HAWIJA, Iraq - Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds.

…somewhere between the microphone and the mens’ room…
…just terrible…
…as Dan Rather can attest…

Dan is SUING CBS and the bizarre disconnect demonstrated there is only matched by the palpable irony of Dan’s stonewalling denial attitude:

“THR: But were the National Guard documents authentic?
Rather: I believe they are authentic. I believed it at the time, I believe it now.

THR: So all the people who have pointed out, for example, that the particular font on the documents didn’t even exist back then, they are wrong?
Rather: I’m glad you asked about that because, unfortunately, there has been a lot written and said about it, saying they were bogus, they were forgeries, none of which has stood up. But I do want to come back to the documents being just part of the story. The core of the story — what a journalist tries to do — is get the truth, or as close to the truth as possible. We did that. Our story was true.”

Read it, the interview goes from bald-faced lies to ludicrous rationalizations, prompting Winslow Leach, noted songwright, to pen the following:

Oh Danny boy, the loony bin is calling;
You’ve dug your grave, yet still you dig some more.
Your mind is gone, and all the folks are laughing;
To Bedlam you must go forevermore.
But still you claim the memos are legitimate,
And now your fame, to infamy has changed.
Or did you say that they are fake but accurate?
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, you are deranged.

And when you claim, though all the folks are laughing,
That you were wrongly scuttled from your throne,
You just compound the level of your gaffing,
And strike us harder in the funny bone.
And when in court, you testify so righteously
That CBS did treat you so unfair,
The throbbing proof will ruin you, litigiously,
And so, of flying countersuits you’d best beware.

Oh Danny boy, Ms. Mapes, Ms. Mapes is calling;
The two of you, a lovely couple make,
For Mary girl is equally delusional,
And such dementia’s very hard to fake.
And so your waltz of lunacy goes whirling on,
Your dissolution, plain for all to see.
Or could it be you really know what’s going on,
And simply lack all vestige of integrity?

Oh Danny boy, your courage is incredible;
You have the nerve to play the victim card.
And even though fake memos are indelible,
You still maintain this comical canard.
And though you failed to inculpate the President,
And you engaged in journalistic fraud,
You seek a multi-million-dollar settlement;
Oh Danny boy, such courage leaves us overawed.
Oh Danny boy, your “courage” leaves us overawed.

Winslow Leach

***
Drather? I Call BS!

The ever vigilant Zombie has discovered and documented some seriously underhanded tactics being practiced by the San Francisco Chronicle in its efforts to quash rational discourse and skew public dialogue.

Click the linkie.

Grumpy

Only hindsight will tell us where the turning point was in Iraq, whether for victory or defeat, but this could well be the turning point for victory:

The once-dreaded Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold of Amariyah has a new boss, and he’s not shy about telling the story of the shootout that turned him into a local legend and helped change the tenor of the Iraq war.Earlier this year, Abul Abed, a disgruntled Sunni insurgent leader, began secret talks with the Americans about ending Al Qaeda’s reign of terror in this run-down, formerly middle-class Baghdad neighborhood, renowned as one of the city’s most dangerous. He had been gathering intelligence on the group for months.

One day in late May, he said, he decided it was time to act.

It started with the death of the leader of Al Queda in the neighborhood, at Abul Abed’s hand.  But that was just the start…

It was the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda in Amariyah. The next day, a firefight erupted. Al Qaeda fighters closed in on Abul Abed. Most of the 150 men who had joined him fled. Holed up in a mosque with fewer than a dozen supporters, Abul Abed thought the end was near.“The blue carpet was soaked red with blood,” he recalled. Then the imam of the mosque called in American help.

A friendship was born.

…

Since the Knights drove Al Qaeda out of Amariyah after a two-month battle, the neighborhood has become largely safe.“You can move freely in Amariyah at any time of the day or night,” Abul Abed said. “You can even see women without head scarves, wearing tight jeans!”

…

Since Abul Abed’s fight in Amariyah, some of the most feared Baghdad neighborhoods, including Abu Ghraib, Fadhil, Ghazaliyah, Dora and Adhamiyah, have followed suit, forming their own brigades of Knights, welcoming the U.S. military and receiving U.S. money.Abul Abed is coy about his insurgent connections. He gave his real name as Saad Erebi Ghaffouri al-Obaidi, though he is known across Baghdad as Abul Abed. U.S. officials, Amariyah residents and Sunni leaders say he was a prominent commander in the Islamic Army. He described himself as a former Iraqi army major who “went into business” after the regime fell. He won’t say what business.

But he acknowledged that many of his men once fought Americans and now work closely with them.

“They recognize that they made a big mistake,” he said. “They realize that they were on the wrong path and that they wasted many chances with what they did.”

There are still many paths down which this situation could lead, some not at all good news for America or even the Iraqis, but the real insurgents - that is, the Iraqis who have been fighting against America and against the new Iraqi government, not the foreign fighters - are starting to see that America really isn’t trying to take over their country, not in the classical sense of being a permanent occupying force.  That we would insist upon a new government that is friendly to us is only common sense, but it seems they are finally realizing that we don’t want to stay and that once we leave their future will be in their own hands.  And therein lies the rub: that sort of opportunity will draw both the noble and the power hungry.

The U.S. wants to absorb the Sunnis who have joined the Awakening movement into the Iraqi security forces, but so far the Shiite-led government has hesitated, concerned that they will one day turn against the government. If the government continues to frustrate the Sunnis, U.S. officials are concerned their new allies could go back to the insurgency.

“That’s the big intangible that makes me nervous,” said Col. Martin Stanton, who oversees the reconciliation and engagement effort. If there is no progress on getting the paramilitaries regular jobs with the security forces and delivering services to Sunni areas, Sunni frustrations will continue to mount, he said.

…

Abul Abed said the Sunni revolution has gone too far for that.

“Americans are our protectors and saviors,” he said.

The real enemy of Iraq, he says, now is Iran. He pulled out his mobile phone to show pictures he has saved of the bodies of his four brothers, who were kidnapped and murdered in 2005 by what he suspects was a Shiite death squad with ties to Iran. One of them had a nail driven into his head. Another was missing a hand.

“Even animals wouldn’t do that,” he said, his face darkening. “Iran is so deeply infiltrated in Iraq, the problem here still cannot be solved. Iran wants to demolish us. If the Americans leave, then you can count Iraq as a second Tehran.”

While I think it’s important here to emphasize that he only suspects it was a death squad with ties to Iran, someone that deep in the thick of the war is far more likely to have an educated guess than any of us sitting across the globe at our computers.  To deny even the possibility that Iran is up to its neck in the Iraqi war is pure folly. 

I’ve edited the story quite a bit; there’s a LOT more.  I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

San Francisco OKs ID cards for illegal immigrants

San Francisco will begin issuing municipal identification cards to illegal immigrants next year, becoming the second city in the country to create such a program in the wake of stalled immigration reform efforts in Washington.

The board of supervisors Tuesday gave the final OK needed to create the ID card program, effectively legitimizing the city’s estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants.

The cards will be available to anyone living in the city next August and used as proof of identity when it comes to most facets of city business, from library service to police stops.

Any bets on how many illegals move to SF before next August?

“For two years I have publicly fought for the redeployment of our troops from Iraq,” he said. “Congressional Democrats will not stop championing the will of the American people until our troops come home.”

This was Murtha’s comment regarding the $50 billion war spending bill the Democrats put forward last week which required a firm timetable for troop reployment to release the funds.

40% of Americans approve of this tactic.  Problem is, 50% of Americans oppose this tactic by Congress.

So is Murtha delusional?  Or is he concerned only with the opinions of those Americans likely to vote Democrat?  The rest of the linked article would suggest that it’s all about the votes.  Murtha, along with many other Democrat members of Congress, are perfectly willing to waste their time and taxpayer money introducing bill after bill that they KNOW will fail just to pander to the extremists for their votes.  They have reached the point where “taking a stand,” “sending a message,” and “speaking truth to power” are preferred over actually DOING anything.  Or in other words, they seem to believe that words speak louder than actions.

Democratic lawmakers and strategists on Capitol Hill said their hope was that even if Republican support for Mr. Bush’s strategy held firm, voters would reward Democrats for their efforts at the polls next November, and that there was no risk to failing again and again.

I don’t think Americans are that stupid.