We should boycott the Olympics
by Steve Hammer Jul 23, 2008
In just over two weeks, the Olympic Games will open in Beijing with a massive display of pomp and ceremony. World leaders, including President Bush, will attend the opening festivities Aug. 8 and literally embrace the leadership of the Chinese government.
For a president who tried to build a legacy upon fighting against dictators, this is yet another display of hypocrisy. The president of the United States should be playing no part in this propaganda display by a cruel and vicious regime.
In fact, our athletes shouldn’t even be present for this 16-day infomercial for totalitarianism. We should be boycotting these Olympics as a protest against the Chinese government.
President Jimmy Carter endured much criticism when he courageously led a boycott against the Moscow Olympics as a protest against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. But it was the right thing to do. President Bush should have shown the same courage this time, but in an administration based on cowardice and capitulation to the Chinese, a sudden show of determination by Bush would be as out of place as Michael Jackson propositioning a waitress at Hooters.
Bush has no problem in stirring up military tensions around the world. He led a misguided war against Iraq that made the world a more dangerous place. He started an invasion of Afghanistan that, so far at least, has been underfunded and has failed to achieve its main goal of locating Osama bin Laden.
And, if only he’d had the political support to do so, he’d gladly have started wars in Iran and Syria, if not the entire world.
So here is a president who claims to despise repressive dictatorships. Except China and Saudi Arabia. In other words, dictatorships are bad unless there’s an economic benefit in tolerating them.
It’s hard to find a more repressive government in the world than China’s. Freedom of speech, religion and assembly are unknown there. Dissent is crushed by military force on a routine basis by the Chinese with nary a word of protest from the United States.
If possessing weapons of mass destruction is a criteria for assessing a dangerous government, then China’s 850 nuclear weapons should merit consideration. But our government doesn’t seem to care.
It seems like boycotting the Beijing Olympics would be a natural action to take against such a dangerous and cruel regime. But the idea was never even countenanced for a second.
The reason why is so obvious that it doesn’t even need to be mentioned. With the approval of this administration, China is holding the United States economy hostage. We’ve borrowed untold billions of dollars from China in order to purchase oil and to fund the Iraq war. China could crash the U.S. economy overnight if it chose to do so.
Cheap imported goods from China have flooded the market and have further crippled the ability of American firms to compete in the manufacturing sector. With no guilt about exploiting slave labor, the Chinese can produce goods at little cost — and Americans happily purchase the goods.
This administration has become so dependent upon cheap Chinese goods and upon its financing of our budget deficit that we dare not speak a word of protest against our new masters.
We are so dangerously bound to China that our entire foreign policy is subject to their approval. Without Chinese support, there could have been no war on terror. Any future crisis would force us to seek Chinese consent before taking action.
This means that we are powerless to help the millions of Chinese who are oppressed, tortured and enslaved by their government. We can’t even speak out against these policies without risking our economic security.
And we especially cannot boycott the Chinese propaganda event that is the 2008 Olympic Games. Boycotting the event would send a powerful signal to China that we oppose their policies of denying human rights to its citizens. It would deprive the Chinese government of what it seeks most: legitimacy on the world stage.
Instead of taking a courageous stand, our president is allowing himself to be used as a prop in the opening ceremonies. Imagine if FDR had traveled to Berlin to embrace Hitler during the 1936 Olympics. This is similar to what Mr. Bush is doing: cozying up to a genocidal dictatorship.
So let the American media and corporations fawn over the Beijing Olympics. I won’t be watching a minute of them. To me, every medal handed out during those games, whether bronze, silver or gold, will be only one color: red.
As in soaked in blood.
Comments on We should boycott the Olympics
do away with the whole thing!
by darkleaf | Aug 1, 2008
We should not just boycott this Olympiad, we should do away with the entire institution. Very few host cities in history have actually made a profit off of the games. They suck away tax dollars from people who will probably never see the games of benefit from them. We spend outrageous sums of money on an event that has little tangible value and encourages doping, athlete abuse, and training camps where children are sent at a young age and rarely see their families. Let's just forget about the myth that these games are supposed to bring peace and cooperation. They never have, its just another corporate lie.
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Apparently, the truth hurts
by voodoo catgirl | Jul 30, 2008
Hammer got it exactly right. Those of you who are more than willing to follow your idol GW off of a cliff, be my guest. If China decides they want to take over the U.S., they won't have to fire a single shot - they'll be able to purchase us outright. Oops! They already did and all we got was this lousy war.
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Shutup Jack.
by Ugh | Jul 30, 2008
I'd like to boycott Jack the Ripple. It's a shame that someone so opinionated has no talent for translating that into print.
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PBRINDY's Question
by Jack The Ripple | Jul 29, 2008
Yes...
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Wow
by pbrindy | Jul 29, 2008
We like to trash Hammer, don't we? Regardless of the socioeconomic implications of a boycott, the moral reasons, the athletes' consideration, etc, etc, you can't disagree with his assessment of our idiot Prez, now, can you?
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Steve is a cheap pervert
by Mr. High and Mighty | Jul 28, 2008
Hey Stevie, my friends and I have a bet ,,, you won’t be able to stop jacking-off watching the the 13-year-old gymnasts at the Olympics.” As Frank Zappa once said, “$40 bill says you can’t make me cum. No, you just can’t do it.”
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Boycott China
by Gary Martin | Jul 26, 2008
I agree with Steve Hammer and I also agree that George Bush has truly made such a mess that it is entirely possible that we can't avoid supporting China. I have long thought that ethics and morals are basically dead. Money drives everything especially this administration. I support boycotting China, but agree that we simply might not be able to. Quite a mess
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Now now guys!
by Steven | Jul 25, 2008
I actually agree with Hammer for once in my life. I mean, if anyone should be punished right now its those damned athletes that have trained their entire life to get to the olypmics! The bastards! Just imagine how much would be accomplished by having them sit at home watching the olympics on television having their medals go to less talented athletes...ah the joy that brings to my heart.
And naturally, the Chinese government, upon reviewing the situation would immediately see the errors of their ways and abandon communism - leaving San Francisco as the only captialist-free zone in the world!
Another well thought and and briliantly reasoned essay by Hammer!
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Boycott White Castle Instead
by Jim McKay' Ghost | Jul 25, 2008
Shit, Steve Hammer’s going to be watching every minute of the Olympics, with a bag of pork rinks and a 40-ouncer between his legs. Steve Hammer is so transparent. He likes to get people’s goat. The truth is he’s a big Summer Olympics fan. His fat ass would rather boycott White Castle, than miss a minute of the girls gymnastic competition.
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Still No Coloring Page
by Jack The Ripple | Jul 25, 2008
Ah, who could ever forget the way our collective chest did but swell with native pride in the realization at the success of our noble Jimmah's shunning and turning from the evil bear's ignoble Olympic Games of so long ago. Oh, Peanut Breath Be Praised! Surely truth, justice and the American Way pervailed for the Soviet Union immediately saw the folly of their misbegotten ways, cancelled the devil games and laid down their arms to embrace their Afghani brothers - who then went on to form the Kumbiah Society of Former Islamic Fundamentalist Popular Front and Knitting Society, solely dedicated to only those best attributes of capitalism, communism and Hammer-ism. Who can forget how we all hooted down our self-centered sunshine patriot athletes who had trained their foolish lives away to attend the games? Selfish jocks! What did they think? Do they really believe the purpose and spirit of the games is non-political? They should have talked to the history expert Hammer. Hammer knows for he has drank the kool-aid. Have they been deluding themselves with this fairytale altruistic belief when they crawled out of bed at 4 a.m. to begin their training schedule while Hammer got up to take a leak and hurry back to bed? Boycott? This is why Jimmah Cahtah is remembered by this nitwit as the finest President of the Twentieth Century and who continues even today to spread his magical peanut fairydust clogging and clouding the machinery of Mid-East unrest. Sure, the Chi-Coms are not all peace and love, but it was the International Olympic Committee who awarded the games to them. You know, the guys who took the bribes in Salt Lake City. If you have a beef, let them know. Why punish our Olympians? I'm certain if our President chose to boycott these games, you, Stevie, would be among the very first to object. Eat a Peep, play a little Grand Theft, Otto, and shut up about things you just flat don't understand. You've not a clue. Not watching the games, eh? I'm just sorry you'll miss the five million dollars worth of ad time the junior senator from Illinois has purchased to run his hopeful commercials to keep us from further politicizing the event. Where's my damned coloring page?
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blah blah
by truthBtold | Jul 25, 2008
same shit, different subject.
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Steve Hammer's Boycott the Olympics
by david | Jul 24, 2008
You have better understanding of world politics now. USA is getting more hatred from many countries for stirring troubles around the world. China is one of the uprising countries. We need more harmony and peace around the world. We don't need your biased analysis on limited points of view. How long you have been staying in China as an ordinary people or traveler? How much do you know China? How many people inside China you have interviewed to make a judgement that people there don't like the government? You are doing your study in the internet news without real life experience of yourself. Your comments are basically negative, biased and without supporting solutions. I dare you to put a proposal on how to put the manufacturing industries and factories back to U.S.A.
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by Shinons | Jul 24, 2008
Wow, that was a great satire piece! It really came off as some idiot who glances at the headlines of CNN.com occasionally spouting off completely unsupported opinions. It was really something how he called a government genocidal without showing one example of genocide. Hilarious! Oh wait, he was serious...? That's just sad...
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