Olympic torch relay fiasco

Michigan

This is supposed to be symbolic of bringing people together for the games in the spirit of international competition or whatever but instead
it has turned into an embarassing fiasco with demonstrations and brawls as people try to grab the thing and put it out, yesterday
in Paris they had to put in on a bus in order to keep people away from it.

Now they are saying they might cancel the relay altogether or in the least changing the route it will take in San Francisco as they are
expecting huge demonstrations on Wednesday. A large "Free Tibet" sign was on the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday.

stevek

Dam commies.

Connecticoin

I would not be totally opposed to a boycott. Ever since they were awarded the games, the Chinese have started to revert to thier old oppressive ways, and their saber rattling toward Taiwan.

Michigan

One reason China was awarded the Olympics was the naive assumption that it would inspire them to respect human rights in the spirit of
international athletic competition. It all looks now to have been a PR disaster, this won't go away with the torch as I'm sure some
people will go to the games under the guise of being tourists but instead end up leading demonstrations for Tibet freedom etc.

How the Chinese deal with that is going to be interesting and I expect some athletes will also be speaking out on these issues
also, if China tries to arrest them and kick them out of the country they are going to be getting an even bigger black eye than
they have already. If they try and mussle the athletes or the foreign press at the Olympics covering these kinds of issues that is going to backfire as well.

"Pardon the Interruption" yesterday was talking about this and one said he was looking forward to going just because of the big
unknown factor of what could happen.

mercurynut

I am anti-China (not its people just its leaders and their ways) in general and have no problem with all the demonstrations. If it weren't for the fact that these athletes usually only one get one chance to compete in the Olympics, I can't condemn them for the Olympic Committees stupidity .

BobaFett72

3/4 of the crap we buy at wal-mart et. al. comes from china...you want low low prices...you get what you pay for.
I fully support the boycott and disruption of the torch. I think it's inspiring.

stevek

The United States is not going to boycott these Olympics - it's simply not going to happen.

Hopefully what some day will happen is that the Chinese communist government will be thrown out for the tyranical thugs that they are - I believe it will happen some day...that it's inevitable.

Mercury10c

What kills me is that you don't see these same morons protesting the repression of human rights
in Afghanistan, Iran, various African nations, Venezuela, Cuba, Islamic nations in which women are
considered and treated like inferior beings or animals, etc etc etc. And when Saddam
was in power, heck, we were the a*holes for deposing him!