SEYMOUR HERSH CALLED IT RIGHT. Iraq has become a body count exercise, and we all need to be worried about the ramifications. The New York Times‘ Norimitsu Onishi asks in an article today “How Many Iraqis are Dying?” Best estimates for the past week: From Oct. 11 to Oct.

NOT TO MIMIC LYNNE CHENEY TOO MUCH, BUT IS JANET HUCKABEE a “good woman”? This just over the wire from someone who observed Huckabee’s behavior yesterday.

JANET HUCKABEE, FIRST LADY OF ARKANSAS, HAS BEEN ACCUSED of intimidating voters at a polling station in Arkansas.

LAST WEEK AT WASHINGTON COLLEGE, I WAS TREATED TO A PRETTY EXTENSIVE meeting with journalist Seymour Hersh — followed by dinner and a public lecture that followed.

RON SUSKIND LANDS THE BEST INDICTMENT YET of the Bush Administration’s hostility to reasoned, sensible and empirically-grounded policy making. Suskind writes: The nation’s founders, smarting still from the punitive pieties of Europe’s state religions, were adamant about erecting a wall between organized religion and political authority. But suddenly, that seems like a long time ago….

I WORKED FOR CLYDE PRESTOWITZ AS EVP of the Economic Strategy Institute for two years. We did great things together during that time, but we also didn’t see eye to eye on everything.

IN THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE BY WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, you can almost hear him lilting, “the RNC doth protest too much, me thinks.” In particular, I liked Buckley’s lines: Sen.

BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA JUDGE JEFFREY SMITH doled out an unacceptably harsh penalty against student streaker Russell Chmieleski, sentencing him to jail for six months to two years for a graduation prank, that he has decided was hard-core indecent exposure.

WHAT IS IT WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE SOUTH and disgusting political flyers and mailers? A nasty flyer has turned up in Tennesse politics which depicts a handicapped athlete running on a track with George Bush’s face pasted on.

I JUST DOWNLOADED GOOGLE’S NEW SEARCH TOOL that looks for items on your own computer, buried in files or email. It’s staggeringly good and fast. I read about the tool in this Washington Post article and wanted to make sure that others knew about it.