Apparently the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being well-treated. As long as your definition of ‘well-treated’ is ‘beaten almost to death’.

Meanwhile in Iraq, the torture stories worsen. Seymour Hersh says he’s seen unimaginably horrible things happening to detainees and their children.

What can be done?

Morrissey‘s (English) heart is in the right place, but his prescriptions are horribly wrong: if Bush were to die, Cheney would take over, and that would be worse.

If Cheney were also to die, Dennis Hastert would take over, and I don’t see that being any better. Next-in-line Ted Stevens is Alaskan, and having an Alaskan president might be groovy, but he seems a little too embroiled in the whole military mess as well. Then the first sensible person on the list is Colin Powell. It’d be nice to have State back in charge of foreign policy, and it’d also be good to have a black President…

Now, I think that calling for the simultaneous assassination of four senior politicians would be going a bit far. But if anyone enterprising fancies organising some kind of jolly for top Republicans – a trip through the Paris night in a Ritz Hotel Mercedes, perhaps, or a walking tour of Afghanistan, or a lava surfing trip to Mount Santa Maria in Guatemala (perhaps with local nuns ensuring Cheney’s safety), then I’d certainly salute them.