more about pornography than torture

* newsweek:

"During six hours of intensive give-and-take with Kim Gye Gwan ( chief North Korean negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan) , both in his office and in two one-on-one dinners with only an interpreter present, he said over and over to me, "How can you expect us to return to negotiations when it's clear your administration is paralyzed by divisions between those who hate us and those who want to negotiate seriously? At the very time when we were engaged in such a long dialogue last year, your side was planning for sanctions. Cheney did this to prevent further dialogue that would lead to peaceful coexistence. So many of your leaders, even the president, have talked about regime change. We have concluded that your administration is dysfunctional.""

* someone really should take the shovel away from Chris Shays - he thinks AbuG " is more about pornography than torture" - and of course, last week he was all about Teddy Kennedy.

* billmon:

"Crazy Curt is my congressman, and his daughter's lobbying deals also involve the boss of the local GOP county machine, which has had a death grip on power hereabouts since, I don't know, some time shortly after the Civil War. I would like nothing better -- well, few things better -- than to see them both put away in the slammer for a couple of years.
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After all -- what could be prettier than a caterpiller in an orange jumpsuit?"

* arkin doesn't buy the lancet 600k deaths story, but he notes:

"What the Hopkins study has achieved through a tone of accuracy, great P.R., and a willingness to go out on a limb, is pushing the public assumptions as to estimate of civilian casualties in Iraq higher. Now editorial writers will "accept" that the number is more than 50,000, as much as 200,000 plus, somewhere lower than 600,000. "

it is remarkable that everyone can now say that Preznit Blinky's 30,000 was 'obviously too low' - If I remember, there wasn't much of an outrage about him saying that at the time, and he was almost praised for giving any number at all.

I've been trying to push everyone off the 100,000 numbers for ever:

"can everyone please stop saying that 'up to 100,000 people have been killed in iraq' - that information is now TWO YEARS OLD"

Meanwhile Gen Casey says the highest number he's ever heard is 50,000.