Below The Beltway

The blue-and-white suited “guards” that are following the Olympic Torch around the world are continuing to raise suspicions:
BEIJING, April 10 — As protesters besiege the Olympic torch on its global tour, a phalanx of tall, tough-looking young Chinese men in blue-and-white running gear have vigorously protected the flame — too vigorously in the eyes of […]

As I noted yesterday, Ron Paul was the only Member of Congress to vote no on a resolution condemning China for it’s recent violence against the Tibetan people.
Ron Lawl points out that the argument that his defenders have used against him doesn’t really add up:
The Paultards have already sent their legions over to Digg in […]

Once again, a state-scripted media tour of Western China has been disrupted by Tibetan Monks eager to get their message out:
XIAHE, China, April 9 (Reuters) - Fifteen Tibetan Buddhist monks interrupted a state-sponsored media tour of a restive region of western China on Wednesday, demanding the return of the Dalai Lama and yelling that they […]

The Chinese are still killing Tibetans who refuse to bend to their rule:
BEIJING, April 4 — Hundreds of Tibetan monks and laypeople clashed with Chinese police Thursday night in a small mountain town in western China after government officials attempted to force monks to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and arrested two monks […]

Germany’s Prime Minister became the first world leader to announce a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics:
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.
As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared […]

As the Olympic Torch makes it’s way around the world, it’s being shadowed by a group of protesters who will not be silenced:
The disruption of a Chinese official’s address during the Olympic torch lighting ceremonies in Greece last week was just the beginning of a string of protests planned to coincide with the torch’s trip […]

The Chinese escorted an approved group of journalists through Tibet but things didn’t exactly go as planned:
SHANGHAI — Tibetan monks shouting pro-independence slogans caught Chinese officials by surprise on Thursday during a highly scripted tour for Western journalists in Lhasa’s central Buddhist temple. The protest disrupted China’s effort to portray the recent Tibetan rioting as […]

The Washington Post has an article recounting several eyewitness reports from Westerners who were in Tibet when the riots erupted two weeks ago:
BEIJING, March 26 — In the moment, Canadian backpacker John Kenwood recalled, he was “young and stupid, and it was all adrenaline.” He was running, one in a mob of 200 or so, […]

Over at The Crossed Pond, Rojas gets on the bandwagon:
After some reflection, I think I’m now ready to fully endorse a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics. I don’t do so lightly. For one thing, I like sports. For another thing, I don’t like the corruption of non-governmental enterprises by political concerns.
The bottom line, however, […]

The Washington Post had a great editorial yesterday on what increasingly looks like it will be a Potemkin Olympics:
[T]he Chinese leadership may have been encouraged by Western leaders — including President Bush — to believe it could maintain these policies and still hold a successful Olympics. Though French President Nicolas Sarkozy has now said publicly […]