gmail chat is an evil that must be destroyed

Oh, dear. It appears as if things aren't going well for the ol' U.S. of A. This morning when I got to work the big news of the day appeared to be the U.N.'s report suggesting that Guantanamo be closed--either release the prisoners or try them in courts. I'm not surprised it's off the headlines as the White House response was to dismiss the report as the U.N. team didn't visit the site. Well, no. They didn't, but it's not as if they didn't try:

"The investigators had been seeking permission to make the trip since 2002 and obtained permission this fall to go in December. But they turned down the invitation when the United States said they would not be permitted to talk to individual detainees.
Such interviews were a "totally non-negotiable pre-condition" for conducting visits, the investigators said." (NYT)

Let's see...if I were a U.N. investigator and I was interested in finding out what exactly was going on down there would I honestly care what the administration is going to tell me...or would I be more interested in, say, talking to the prisoners. In all fairness: both should have happened and would have if the U.N. could have had access. Once again, GWB makes certain that we're only allowed to see part of the picture. We certainly wouldn't want to put the whole thing together now would we. Here's a transcript of the report if there's anyone else out there without a life and who is a complete geek.

And it appears as if I was wrong on the Patriot Act. I guess I thought with all of the secret eavesdropping investigations going on, Congress would be more likely to actually get rid of some of the more questionable aspects of the act. Thanks again, Jim Jeffords, for having more integrity than the majority of your collegues. You're going to be sorely missed when you retire this year.

More abuse photos from Abu Ghraib, Chertoff accepts responsibility for what went wrong with Katrina, but manages not to come up with anything he's actually responsible for, and Haiti's got themselves a new president: subjects I only wish I had time to comment on, but I get to go home now and read "Winter of Our Discontent."

And pack.