Making a Joke of Justice

In case you forgot, the US is still holding people at Guantanamo Bay without telling them why — 775 detainees to be exact since 2002 — and the Washington Post reports that not a single one has gone to trial, and President Bush ain’t likely to make it a priority in his last year. (And don’t forget the March three-dot piece from the Los Angeles Times describing a day in the life of a Guantanamo detainee.) What’s equally horrifying, The New York Times uncovered that 66 people died in immigration custody in less than four years, including a man who died in a coma after suffering a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages. These two pieces are enough to make you agree with the lately-ubiquitous Fareed Zakaria, who’s on the PR tour for his book, The Post-American World. Watch his Daily Show interview — at least there’s a bit of Jon Stewart’s humor thrown in to an otherwise bleak reminder that America’s international reputation is in shambles.