[Allegra]

Violence on the whole is as bad as ever. Sectarian strife is worse than ever. The economy has slowly come back to prewar levels for the most part, but is now treading water. As a result, optimism has waned. According to an International Republican Institute poll conducted in late March, more than 75 percent of Iraqis consider the security environment to be poor and the economy poor or mediocre.

This is a huge load of cr@p. It's not true at all. Wonder what their source is? The New York Times staff fiction writer?

And who is the International Republican Institute and just who was polled?

The media is evil.

[DustyMoment]

This is a huge load of cr@p. It's not true at all. Wonder what their source is?

Ummmmmm . . . . . . Sean Penn???

Just a guess, though.

[reformedliberal]

They seem to have incurred the wrath of the left:

The International Republican Institute, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to “advancing democracy, freedom, self-government and the rule of law worldwide,” has in the last two decades earned the questionable distinction of being perhaps the least-known of a group of lethal Washington institutions devoted to the trade of nation-building, or more accurately termed, nation undermining. Despite its elaborate rhetoric and claims to nonpartisanship, the IRI in fact operates as the powerful and well-funded foreign policy arm of the ultra rightist wing of the U.S. Republican Party. It is far more ideological and operational than its Democratic Party counterpart, the National Democratic Institute, and is less concerned with democracy building than hunting down leftists and crushing their causes.

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.40_IRI_Democracy.htm