Rep Maxine Waters wants a US boycott of the Olympics

Democrat Representative, Maxine Waters, of California introduced a resolution just before the August recess to boycott the Olympics over China's involvement in Dafur. She summarily did so at the last second and couldn't be reached for comment. Her resolution would be non-binding, or according to Politico.com's The Crypt: "... Just asking the president to "take immediate action to boycott the Summer Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing, China." It was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. ..." [Where hopefully it dies a humiliatingly painful shredding.]

Her reasons are the same as the French left position, China's involvement with Dafur, and their defense dealings and oil contracts with them. She did not answer calls to defend it.

If you look up the word 'ineffectual" in the dictionary, you see that the derivation of the word comes from the phrase, "Olympic Boycott." It's right next to the word "Jimmy Carter" and "Francois Bayrou," the French candidate that put that idea out into the void in the first place.

Maxine Waters is a politician out here in Southern California whose district is located on the map right here: [Link]

If she is in your district, send her a note. The link regarding her boycott nonsense can be read here: [Link]

Olympic boycott is back in the news and I am livid!

Timed Finals ran the following story before any other journalistic publications that I know of picked it up. Anyway it goes like this: Governor Richardson in the Democratic debate a couple days ago suggested that an Olympic boycott over China's involvement with the Sudan and the Dafur region seemed quite reasonable and that he would support it. John Edwards chimed in and now the proverbial fur is flying. How amusing it is that two men who probably couldn't swim a 200m free or run a 10k would like to dictate the politics of a non-political event. Nice to know "great minds" think alike:

Richardson suggests US boycott Olympics The Union Leader, NH
US doesn't back Games boycott plan The Media Line
USOC, State Department reject Olympic boycott Knoxville News Sentinel (subscription)
Olympic Boycott Is Rebuffed New York Sun
No Olympic boycott over Darfur The Japan Times, Japan
Olympic boycott attempts doomed to fail - China Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand

French election: Bayrou's loss means Manadou swims

Though a "snappy" dresser, Francois Bayrou pissed me off with his comments that he would like to see France boycott the Beijing Olympics over China's economic involvement with the Sudan and Dafur. These disputes should be handled at the U.N. or other political venues rather than the Olympics; but his loss is our gain. We will now likely see a rematch between Kate Ziegler and Laure Manaudou in the 400m and 1500m.

Here is a cool cultural photo of a long line of French political posters side my side in what appears to be a park in France. I like Ségolène Royal's poster best. The red bars with the B&W photo makes the eye vibrate. Also, it does not hurt that she is both attractive and the current President. I am surprised that none of the candidates used the colors of the French flag in their posters. [Link]