Below The Beltway

In the course of the same news conference, the head of the International Olympic Committee managed to say two completely contradictory things about the ability that international athletes will have to speak out during the Olympic Games in Bejing.
First, he says that the IOC stands behind the free speech rights of it’s athletes:
BEIJING, April 10 [...]

Add John McCain’s name to the growing list of politicians calling for a boycott of the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics:
Senator John McCain said today that he would not attend the opening ceremonies at the Olympics, barring significant changes in China’s behavior, if he were president.
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg [...]

The Los Angeles Times points out that the Olympic Torch Relay didn’t exist before the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics:
The Olympic torch relay was invented by the Nazis. According to historians, Adolf Hitler wanted to promote his belief in an Aryan master race by symbolically linking the 1936 Berlin Games to the ancient Greek gods and [...]

It’s just after 6am in San Francisco as I write this, and the city is bracing for protests as the Olympic Torch relay begins:
SAN FRANCISCO — The Olympic torch arrived at the airport here from Paris in the wee hours Tuesday morning, exited out a side door and was escorted by motorcade to a downtown [...]

Apparently, the White House is vacillating on what to do about the Olympic Opening Ceremonies:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House left the door open Tuesday to President Bush skipping the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics to protest China’s human rights record and its crackdown in Tibet.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, however, suggested that the [...]

James Joyner doesn’t think much of a boycott of this year’s Olympics:
It’s simply inconceivable that poking a stick in Beijing’s eye will cause them to suddenly become a Jeffersonian democracy, free Tibet, or, indeed, do anything that we want them to do.
China’s domestic human rights record is abysmal, to be sure, but it’s much better [...]

Some people in London are speaking up about the behavior of the Chinese “security” officials who are accompanying the Olympic Torch on it’s international relay:
Lord Coe last night condemned the army of Chinese “thugs” who accompanied the Olympic torch relay through London.
The head of London’s 2012 Games described as “horrible” the burly henchmen who barged [...]

The International Olympic Committee has come up with a way to stop the protests following the Olympic torch around the world.
Stop the torch relay altogether:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Security concerns for the Olympic torch’s only North American stop were high Tuesday after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists here scaled the Golden [...]

The Olympic Torch arrived in Paris today, and it got a worse reception than it did in London:
(CNN) — The Olympic torch relay was disrupted Monday by protesters in Paris demonstrating against the Chinese government, causing authorities to twice extinguish the flame and put the torch on a bus, according to The Associated Press.
The torch [...]