The Washington Post today reported that the Obama administration has backed away from plans to send prisoners still stuck on Guantanamo to the U.S. Instead, they're going to try and talk other countries into taking all of them, something that will undoubtedly go well: "hey, we're too scared to take these terrorists, so, umm, can you take them? KTHXBye." So far, that's not working out so well as the only countries that have been down with accepting some of the prisoners are Bermuda and Palau- both of whom decided to accept seventeen Uighurs- a small ethnic group of Chinese Muslims. The administration had wanted to resettle them in Northern Virginia, where there's a large Uighar population but ran into trouble when every politician in the area said "no f------ way" when it was announced. This despite the fact the Uighars were never actually charged with anything and are actually kinda innocent.

The reason for the backsliding is that Obama ran into opposition by pretty much everyone about his plan to put the prisoners in American soil as people were whipped up into a frenzy about how dangerous it could be to allow them into the country. Somehow everyone became convinced that if they were here, they'd organize some sort of prison break and go around blowing up Walmarts or some sort of nonsense. This despite the fact there are plenty of terrorists (both foreign and domestic) who are already imprisoned in the U.S., that Maximum Security prisons are pretty locked down, and has anyone seen "OZ?"

The whole thing proves that no matter how much things have changed, things still remain the same. The Republicans demogauged the issue, the press let them do it, and the Democrats folded like the proverbial cheap tent. It's looking more and more like the Democrats are still having trouble with the fact that if they actually campaigned on something, they actually have to follow through on it. It also means that Bermuda and Palua have more balls than we do.