I just ran a iambic-pentameter finder over the same data:

    A DATE BEFORE WHICH NORIEGA MUST
    FALL IF THE U S DOES NOT WISH TO HAVE
    THE PRECEDENT OF AN ANNULLED ELECTION

    NOT UNDERSTOOD BY MANY ACTIVISTS
    ESPECIALLY YOUTH WHO FEAR A SELL OUT OF
    THEIR CAUSE THERE

    HE EMPHASIZED THAT THERE WOULD HAVE TO BE
    A CARROT FOR MUGABE TO ENDORSE

    COUP THAT REMOVES MUGABE POSSIBLY
    WITH A GREAT DEAL OF BLOODSHED FROM WHICH IT

    THE PEOPLE ARE DEMANDING CHANGE BEFORE
    THE SITUATION GETS WORSE HE PROFESSED

    USE LETHAL FORCE ON DEMONSTRATORS AND
    WE URGE THE OPPOSITION NOT TO GET

    been branded mercenaries terrorists
    or traitors End Note On the other hand

    IRAN MANIPULATING INDIAN
    ELITE OPINION MAKERS Classified

    to peer file sharing caused grave damages
    She said that peer to peer file sharing must
    be curbed

    By POL MC Josiah Rosenblatt
    for Reasons 1 4 b and d 1 S

    important means to signal willingness
    to reconcile with former enemies

    is taking active steps to undermine
    it Many opposition groups are prone
    to dominance by individuals

    to help the government achieve those aims
    the middle class has largely been ignored

    who worked inside the final conflict zone
    the government declared no fire zone

    Brazilian Embassy in Washington
    received a bomb threat via telephone

    is almost always framed in socialist
    and revolutionary rhetoric

Which Iambic Pentameter finder is this?

I'd be interested to know how it works out syllables, especially for proper nouns - for example, how does it know that Mugabe is "Mu-ga-be" as opposed to "Mu-gabe"? A large dictionary?

https://github.com/darius/versecop/blob/master/passages.py -- it uses the CMU pronouncing dictionary and just punts on words not in it. I'd like to go back and improve it sometime. (The test passage there is from The Lord of the Rings.)

That sounds awesome, do you have source code available?

Thanks! https://github.com/darius/versecop/blob/master/passages.py

Results from a scan over some Gutenberg Project novels and Lord of the Rings at http://darius.livejournal.com/48525.html

Technically these are, for the most part, Senryū not Haiku.

The difference (in a nutshell) being that Haiku tend to deal with seasonal scenes from nature with a "cutting" word that provokes discord (the syllable thing really isn't that important), while Senryū depict "human foibles". Seen in that light makes these excerpts somewhat more profound.

Arguing about this is somewhat akin to debating about "Hackers" vs "Crackers" in contemporary usage...

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senry%C5%AB

This looks like fun, but you do realize some of these Haiku's could cause serious damage to US national security. Don't you?

(The appropriate answer, I think, is "I can't confirm or deny.")