[BlackGriffen]

Der Spiegel has the story.

Translation courtesy of here:

IOC ANGRY ABOUT BUSH'S CAMPAIGN AD

Candidate George Bush is once again causing angry reactions at the IOC. After changing the traditional text used to open the Olympics into a patriotic slogan at the 2002 Winter Games, the Olympians are now livid over a tv-ad used in the US presidential elections.

Athens- At the Winter Games in Salt Lake City George W. Bush was the first head of State in the history of the Games, who abrogated the right to change the text used in the Olympic Charta to open the games. Two years later the International Olympic Committee is outraged that the president's team is misusing the olympic symbols for election campaign purposes. Officially IOC President Jacques Rogge has not given any comment and has declared the controversy to be a purely US affair. Inofficial comments sound very different however._ Says a leading IOC member: " The arrogance of the Bush administration is in league of its own. They are hijacking the Olympic symbols. There really aren't any words for that kind of behavior."

On February 9 2002, Bush had added the following text to the traditional text for opening of the games ("I declare the Olympic winter games of Salt Lake City open."): "On behalf of a proud, determined and, and greatful nation." This time it is a Bush election ad that is causing anger. In it the terms "Olympia" and "Olympic Games" as well as the symbol of the Olympic Rings are used as an instrument of pro-Bush advertising.

[...]

The controversy between the olympic and political powers is not one between equals. However the IOC possesses at least one indirect means of retribution. One IOC member had this to say regarding the competition to host the 2012 Olympics, which is to be decided in July of next year: "The chances of New York City to host the games were already not very good. Now they have dropped to near zero."

Any native speakers want to tell us if there's anything interesting in the rest of the article? I don't quite trust the BabelFish for something this complex.

BlackGriffen

[PacHead]

Your title is misleading, and your article is pure crap. Isn't that the same magazine which published those "fake" Hitler diaries back in the day ?

Anyhow, the article only quotes some anonymous people who are supposedly upset. Screw 'em. If they were that upset, they wouldn't be anonymous little wimps, and they would make their position official. The article can best be summed up as propaganda crap with no real value, based on flaky sources.

[MacNStein]

So, the chances dropped from, say, 10% to 2%? Wow, that just pains me...

[BlackGriffen]

I admit that I have no direct knowledge about the reliability of Der Spiegel. I do get the impression, though, that they're definitely not a tabloid.

BG

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by PacHead:
Your title is misleading, and your article is pure crap. Isn't that the same magazine which published those "fake" Hitler diaries back in the day ?

No, I think that was Stern. However, Der Spiegel is a rather left wing magazine, very anti-Bush. I wouldn't trust their reporting.

But anyway, who in their right minds would want the Olympics? Inviting the Olympics to your city has been compared to inviting a swarm of locusts to invade your garden.

[Lerkfish]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
No, I think that was Stern. However, Der Spiegel is a rather left wing magazine, very anti-Bush. I wouldn't trust their reporting.

But anyway, who in their right minds would want the Olympics? Inviting the Olympics to your city has been compared to inviting a swarm of locusts to invade your garden.

I'm sure those grapes would be sour, said the fox and he walked away.

[Logic]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
No, I think that was Stern. However, Der Spiegel is a rather left wing magazine, very anti-Bush. I wouldn't trust their reporting.

Care to back that up?

But anyway, who in their right minds would want the Olympics? Inviting the Olympics to your city has been compared to inviting a swarm of locusts to invade your garden.

? Bringing the Olympics to your nation brings in so much revenue and the best possible advertisement there is for the nation. Are you serious?

[djohnson]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
So, the chances dropped from, say, 10% to 2%? Wow, that just pains me...

Hurts bad huh? I wonder what the security would have been like

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Logic:
? Bringing the Olympics to your nation brings in so much revenue and the best possible advertisement there is for the nation. Are you serious?

Most olympics are collossal financial black holes. Greece is now discovering this. You go into debt and spend a massive amount of money building facilities that after the Olympics you usually don't need and shouldn't ever have built. You also disrupt an entire region for the duration of the games. Plus, cities like New York have enough problems with security without inviting the Olympics. Security was bad enough in Atlanta, so no thank you.

The only prestige that gets attached to the Olympics is generally with whichever local politician gets to claim the credit for attracting them. But notice someting interesting. Right now the 2012 Olympics are about to be selected. Whoever gets to crow about attracting the Olympics won't be in office to actually deal with the mess he attracts. That's why politicians love it.

[Millennium]

Throwing a nation out of its chance at an Olympic spot, all because of a guy who won't even be in office when that spot comes up?

Um, yeah. That's mature. It is true that the US has hosted many Games, and shouldn't automatically get a spot just for existing. At the same time, it deserves as fair a shot as any other nation.

[Capt.McDuff]

It's pretty ****ing sad when 5 rings have so much copyright protection on them that the whole thing is nothing more than a big money grab. Whatever happened to the spirit of the games along the gradual decline into the gutter?

Screw the Olympics and those greedy SOBs. We don't need them or want them here.

[Logic]

Originally posted by Capt.McDuff:
It's pretty ****ing sad when 5 rings have so much copyright protection on them that the whole thing is nothing more than a big money grab. Whatever happened to the spirit of the games along the gradual decline into the gutter?

Screw the Olympics and those greedy SOBs. We don't need them or want them here.

Why do you say they are greedy? The whole thing is about not letting politics play apart in the Olympics.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Capt.McDuff:
It's pretty ****ing sad when 5 rings have so much copyright protection on them that the whole thing is nothing more than a big money grab. Whatever happened to the spirit of the games along the gradual decline into the gutter?

Screw the Olympics and those greedy SOBs. We don't need them or want them here.

You do have a point. The IOC was corrupt long before Bush ever took office. Hell; it was corrupt long before Bush Sr. took office.

I still think they should place the entire Games into the public domain, IP-wise. Let them make their money on sponsorship and dues, not exclusive broadcast rights. Don't tell me it can't be done; that's how they did it for almost a century.

[Capt.McDuff]

How about several permanent Olympic sites be built, one on each continent, and let them be reused instead of building obsolete monunments to wasteful granduer every 2-4 years?

It's too much about money and in the process the sportsmanship and glory gets lost.

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by djohnson:
Hurts bad huh? I wonder what the security would have been like

Let's put it this way... how bad is it with a convention the size of the RNC in town? Now, magnify that by 50.

[chris v]

Maybe the bribe check bounced.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by chris v:
Maybe the bribe check bounced.

+ funny to see the Bushists howling 'sour grapes'!

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by voodoo:


+ funny to see the Bushists howling 'sour grapes'!

What sour grapes? They can just keep it in Europe, Asia, S. America, etc. for all I care.

I didn't even want the Olympics in Atlanta... too damned close. This area gathers too many tourists as it is.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Capt.McDuff:
How about several permanent Olympic sites be built, one on each continent, and let them be reused instead of building obsolete monunments to wasteful granduer every 2-4 years?

It's too much about money and in the process the sportsmanship and glory gets lost.

No, no, a thousand times no! The problems with this are enormous, and many of them have to do with endangering the feasibility of an Olympic truce: possibly the most important peace tradition of our modern age (God knows it's done more than the UN ever has).

1) Who is going to give up land to host the sites? If no one volunteers, do you intend to force someone to do it?
2) One of the major requirements for hosting an Olympics is that the host country be able to adequately protect the Games if attacked. What happens if one of the sites loses this ability?
3) Aside from military support, a host country must be financially able to support the Games; what if a site loses this ability?
4) Countries' borders change, even for the most stable nations. You can't pick up and move an Olympic site, however. What happens when one day a site's host nation is different from before?
5) Despite the short-term financial problems wrought by the Games, the regions do eventually recover and flourish, better off for this "obsolete monuments to wasteful grandeur". I question your accusation of obsolescence, in any case; many former Olympic facilities have been reused to great effect.

And aside from all this, being chosen to host the Games is still a great honor. Why take this away from nations?

[voodoo]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
What sour grapes? They can just keep it in Europe, Asia, S. America, etc. for all I care.

I didn't even want the Olympics in Atlanta... too damned close. This area gathers too many tourists as it is.

*those* sour grapes

New York applied. It's not like the IOC was going to approach NY and humbly ask them to host the Olympics! HAha!

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by voodoo:
*those* sour grapes

Don't get it. They can stop the Olympics all together for as much as I care. Doesn't really change my life one way or the other. *shrug*