Here’s a ridiculous headline:

Half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD

Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.

Or perhaps it’s because they did. How’s that for a radical theory.

Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) IDF Starts Incursion; UN Human Rights Council Session Concludes — “The IDF has moved into Gaza in an effort to locate the Israeli soldier who was taken hostage by Hamas over one week ago. Naturally many nations have condemned Israel without condemning the government of Palestine, that is run by Hamas, for attacking an Israeli outpost and taking a soldier hostage. To those nations, it is Israel who is being the aggressive one for responding to an attack and those same nations never utter a word over the daily rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel either.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Iraqi Documents: UNMOVIC Knew Of Renewed WMD Efforts (Updated And Bumped) — “Continuing my review of the many documents released from the DocEx files over the last two days, I found yet another interesting piece of information regarding Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of WMD. In a summary of a larger document, the translators found that Iraq had restarted its processing of castor-bean extraction, from which ricin can be developed — and that UNMOVIC discovered it in December 2002.”

Big Lizards (Dafydd) Here’s a Switch – — “In a bizarre twist of politics, the Democrats are fighting like the dickens over Rep. Tom DeLay… to keep him on the ballot in Texas, rather than to boot him off. The theory — and I think it’s so transparent, it’s going to create blowback — is that with DeLay’s “ethical” problems (i.e., he incurred the wrath of notoriously vindictive and partisan D.A. Ronnie Earle), having DeLay’s name on the ballot will so turn off Texas voters, that they’ll vote for the Democrat in a strongly Republican district.

I suppose it could work… if, as Democrats believe, Texas voters are all as dumb as a box of bratwurst. Otherwise, they will easily be able to figure out just what the Democrats are up to.”

The first cup is for the guest, the second for enjoyment, the third for the sword. ~ An old Arabic saying

The Jawa Report (Howie) Remembering the 7/7 London Bombing — “Though the birth of the United States caused great pains on both sides, we and the British are one. The bond between our peoples is unbreakable and enternal. One will always stand for the other. This event brought home with deadly gravity what it means to have a true ally. Stand together we shall and we shall never forget!”

Outside The Beltway (Chris Lawrence) Calderón Wins Mexico Vote — “Even if AMLO were to somehow overturn the results, the impact on US-Mexican relations would probably be minimal–both candidates staked out similar positions (which mirrored those of the Fox administration) on the issues of immigration and border security, and while AMLO is something of a populist, there is little concern that he would turn out to be another Hugo Chávez in office.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) — Captain Ed has done some great work bringing captured, translated Iraqi documents. Read Saddam And Anthrax Operations, Project Harmony Documents Show Chemical ‘Projects’ In 2003, and Iraqi Rosters In 2002 Show Interesting Department Names.

Wizbang (Kim Priestap) Army Officer Formally Charged — “Today, these anti-American, anti-war leftists hold up Ehren Watada as courageous and a hero. However, after Watada is found guilty of the charges against him and sentenced to hard labor in Leavenworth, the leftists who praise him now will still have their freedom as they abandon him and move on to their next pawn for the cause.”

Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body what the Word of the Lord is to the soul. ~ Isak Dinesen

The blogs on my blogroll are discussing the story that TOM™ is not.

Iowa Voice (Brian) More On The Iraqi WMDs — “As more and more of captured Iraqi documents get translated, I believe we’re going to learn more and more about Saddam’s WMD programs, where they’re hidden, and how correct we were to go into Iraq. Of course, to the anti-war left, nothing that is found, short of a nuke, is going to change their minds on the subject.”

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) Five Hundred Chemical Munitions Found in Iraq — “Regardless of whether or not this information will be viewed as a breakthrough, and to me the only breakthrough this information presents is that the pre-war intelligence wasn’t as bad as previously believed and that there may be more such stockpiles that need to be found and secured before our enemies find them, there is one thing that is for certain. The arguments that there are no WMDs in Iraq and that President Bush lied should finally be laid to rest and exposed as nothing more than political deception . . . yet again.”

Confederate Yankee WMD Media Blackout — “While Fox News runs a story about the Santorum/Hoestra release, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe have taken the code of omertà as of midnight, though the Washington Post, to its slim credit, squeaked out a page A10 mention essentially claiming that these WMDs didn’t count, even though they provide exactly zero support for their claims.”

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (Beth) Saddam’s Chemical Weapons — “I don’t expect anything will EVER convince the “antiwar” (haha) left of the righteousness of this war. Nothing. We went to Iraq while Bush was President, and that is truly all that matters to them, and as much as they wish they could change history, it won’t change (but not for a lack of their trying!).”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Santorum: 500 Chemical-Weapons Shells Found In Iraq (Updated And Bumped) — “One argument that may come up is that these munitions predated the first Gulf War. Well, that’s exactly what the sanctions regime, UNSCOM, and the majority of the 16 UN Security Council resolutions addressed — and what Saddam defied. He was supposed to account for and destroy all of his existing WMD stock. Obviously he did not do that, and in reading the Negroponte letter and the transcript of the Santorum/Hoekstra presser, the Pentagon feels that more of it still exists in Iraq — perhaps a lot more.” [This CQ post has a large number of links and other discussion. Read it all. Jim]