Monday, August 23, 2004

there's an olympics in my bush.

greek writers were fond of using hubris as the tragic flaw of their heroes. those who stood the tallest, gleamed the brightest, always seemed to ultimately meet their end by the price of their arrogance. it is almost fitting that in the olympics' return to athens that pride is still an issue.

a few days before the olympics, coordinators stated that they were finishing their first security check. President Konstandinos Stefanopoulos said that he was enraged that the united states and nato were pushing for such security concerns that would inevitably push security costs and anti-terrorism efforts during the games to over $1 million. enraged, security would put a bad taste for the olympic games that would be destroying the true original spirit of the olympics. maybe it is an attitude of the greeks, an idealization of the world that there are no potential security threats. i would love for the olympics to be as such, an international contest of talent, of heart, of resilience that causes the world to come to a halt, for people to watch from their televisions and from the stands and for once let no other thoughts enter their minds except for pure competition. this is reality though, a reality where in probably most other olympic candidate countries they would have been on their 5th security check at that same point in time. this is not a reality where people respect competition and don't boo teams as they step onto a court. not the reality where players are so thrilled to be competing on the international spotlight for their country that they did not pass on the invitation to protect their multimillion dollar salaries and endorsements or to avoid potentially being blown up. the world didn't stop this year for the olympics, it spun on and bob costas put it all in a nice tidy package.

for the best all around swimmer in the world, michael phelps, in a sport that pits one athlete against the one next to them, it turned into a medal hunt. he was surrounded by the media propping him up to be the one to topple spitz's 7 gold medal performance and the $1 million bonus for 8 golds from speedo. records exist to be broken no? they no longer seem to exist to display the pinnacle of athletic achievement. for phelps he said he would be happy to get the chance to win just one gold medal, he realized few people in the world get this opportunity. instead of celebrating the greatest swimmer the united states has seen in years, questions posed to him such as "are you dissapointed to no longer be on track for 8 gold medals?"get misconstrued to be pompous answers. of course he's dissapointed, he didn't win. everything else was fabricated by the ever present camera hoping to catch a glimmer of humanity. he knows he is one of the best, he pushed himself against thorpe in an event that he knew he was unlikely to win, he gave crocker a shot at his own gold.

the athens games got a few other shots to put other athletes into the mold of hubris. first there was svetlana khorkina who after winning silver, said that she was still the world champion. "i'm just furius, I knew well in advance, even before I stepped on the stage for my first event, that I was going to lose." That, is a winning attitude. she said she has faced much more formidable opponents, she also seems to forget that she still lost to patterson.

and only a few days ago there was pual hamm. can you imagine being awarded the gold medal, lights flasing, your mother sobbing, girls around the country wanting to bear your children. a day later, you find out there was a judging mistake and you really got silver. the gold medal is for the best. paul was not the best, he was second best. how do you keep a medal you know you did not truly win, that you were not the best the world had to offer. that's a good question, ask paul hamm as he clutches his gold and acts like he's smeegle. your precious indeed. spirit of the olympic games, indeed.
-------------------------------------
all week senator kerry has been pushing george w. bush to specifically denounce the swift boat veterans for truth's ad running negative campaigns about his service in vietnam. bush replied that he has not and will never question kerry's service to his country. he also won't denounce the ads against kerry.

today bush came up with perhaps his most brilliant move of the presidency. he said is asking for all not endorsed by the candidate ads to be removed, that would include swiftboat ads and moveon.org ads. he says "i think they are bad for the system".

news headlines on the internet say, "bush calls for halt to swift boat veterans' ads". except once again, like war justification, it is hindsight. the ads have already done their damage. he is playing a child like, i'll do this if you do this. in one move, he could have let the damaging ads take their toll and during a time when the authenticity of the claims and the cheney/rove connection with the group (which would be illegal) is kind of being examined by the press, he can put and end to that and all of the moveon.org ads that continue to throw the same shit he throws at kerry back at him. i hope kerry keeps pushing, because this 'truce' is bullshit.

“That means that ad, every other ad,” he said. “I can’t be more plain about it. And I wish — I hope my opponent joins me in saying — condemning these activities of the 527s. It’s — I think they’re bad for the system. That’s why I signed the bill, McCain-Feingold.” - george w. bush.

that's funny, bush did the same thing to mccain when they were running for the republican ticket and now there is a campaign finance reform bill with mccain's name all over it. don't let bush take the moral highground, kerry better show he's got some back bone and pee all over this shit.

0 comments: