Free Republic

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both traveling to Copenhagen this week to promote Chicago's bid to host to the 2016 Olympic Games--and they will be making the 3,979-mile trip on separate airplanes." SNIPPET: "As reported earlier by CNSNews.com, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report cited two cost estimates for an hour of air travel by the president, vice president and first lady. One estimate comes from the White House Military Office, the other from the U.S. Air Force. Using the CRS cost estimates and the inflation adjuster from the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs,...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee Mitt Romney says President Obama is doing exactly what needs to be done by flying to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago in 2016. Romney tells ABC News that having a sitting president make a personal pitch can make an enormous difference to the 106 members of the International Olympic Committee. "I think the people in the IOC want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country," Romney said. "Does the host country really care? Is this going...

List Of Entities Announcing Exposure To Madoff Investments December 24, 2008: 03:45 PM ET The following entities have announced exposure to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the New York-based business that allegedly lost $50 billion in a giant pyramid scheme. Entity: Access International Advisors Exposure: $1.5 billion Date of disclosure: Dec. 24 /snip Entity: International Olympic Committee Exposure: $4.8 million Date of disclosure: Dec. 19 Notes: The IOC's exposure represents about 1% of its total investment portfolio. Organizing committee confirmed they will be able to meet their obligations. /snip

Why must everything be America's fault? An article published at the UK Times Online, brought on a firestorm of commentary from readers. In the literally hundreds of comments, many were in agreement that if there is any question of the girl’s age, an investigation is warranted. There were also those who thought that even if she were underage, she should still be allowed to keep her medals. Yet in addition to the comments arguing whether age should matter or not, there were a fair number of those that suggested the only reason this investigation has commenced is that the U.S....

BEIJING (AP)—The United States said Sunday it was disappointed the Olympics had not brought more “openness and tolerance” in China and pressed for the immediate release of eight American protesters as the games ended.

Yet as I sat here watching the glorious fanfare that descended upon the Bird’s Nest in Beijing tonight, I could not help but be bothered by a few nagging questions which neither the humorous sight of Jackie Chan singing at the top of his lungs or the sound of a hundred fireworks could quell. These Olympic Games were truly remarkable; few can deny that. But now what? What happens after the last foreign Olympic athlete has boarded an airplane back to his home country?...

am not going to allow myself to wonder why the IOC (International Olympic Committee) waited until three days before the end of the Olympics to fully address the Chinese gymnastic age scandal. I am not going to even dwell on the fact that the ID’s and birth certificates that China provided to the IOC last night could easily have been modified or reissued. I am just happy to see that the IOC took action...

Everyone is playing sleuth over whether China cheated in women's gymnastics. The hope is that the officials who govern Olympic competition will conduct a straightforward investigation, but regrettably, such a thing seems to be beyond their scope and spine at this point. Who are you going to believe, the Chinese government, or the Chinese government? The authorities at the Beijing Games have considered the question, and for the moment have decided to believe the Chinese government. A stack of available documentation shows that China apparently altered the ages of some of its female gymnasts, who won six medals here, including...

<p>BEIJING (AP) - Despite persistent questions about the ages of several members of the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal, the International Olympic Committee said Friday there is still no proof anyone cheated.</p> <p>The IOC asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate "what have been a number of questions and apparent discrepancies," spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.</p>

With the parents growing indignant and the Beijing Games winding down, the International Olympic Committee wants to “put to rest” persistent questions about the age of China’s gold medal women’s gymnastics team. The IOC said Friday there is still no proof anyone cheated, though it asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate “what have been a number of questions and apparent discrepancies,” spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. However, all the information the Chinese gymnastics federation presented supports its insistence that its athletes were old enough to compete.

Excerpt - BEIJING (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into allegations Chinese authorities covered up the age of a double gold medal winning gymnast because she was too young to compete. ~ snip ~

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, The Times of London reports. Faced with almost insurmountable evidence which suggests that He is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport, the IOC has launched an inquiry that could result in the stripping of He's gold medals. This news comes on the heels of another Times report that details the findings of a New York computer security expert who found official Chinese documents that list He's age as 14 years and 220 days. Mike Walker used a Chinese...

International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age Tim Reid in Washington, Jeremy Griffin and Jane Macartney in Beijing The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete. An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped...

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete. An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals. The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed today to have uncovered Chinese government documents...

On Thursday, well into the second week of the 2008 Olympic Games, Rogge must have decided that it was time to do some "tough talking." He must have thought that it was about time to show the world that the IOC did have some 'backbone' after all. Unfortunately, by the time he was finished with the interview, he had proven to the world once again that the IOC is as weak and tactless as ever. Instead of addressing issues such as the China gymnastics age scandal or the fact that Beijing has not even approved one protest request, he inexplicably...

IOC breaks ranks with hosts over protests By Roger Blitz Published: August 19 2008 20:42 | Last updated: August 19 2008 20:42 Olympic officials have for the first time openly criticised their Beijing hosts for China’s intolerance of public protests, questioning their desire to allow citizens the right to raise grievances during the games. The International Olympic Committee is also understood to believe that lower-than-expected attendances at games venues is the result of Beijing’s poor distribution of tickets for the general public, including a failure to reallocate unwanted tickets.

I have an 8-year-old daughter. I know what 8-year-old hands and feet and hips and teeth look like. They look a lot like the hands and feet and hips and teeth of the purported "teenagers" on the gold medal-winning Chinese girls' gymnastics team. The two pounds of frosty blue eye shadow and Bubblicious pink blush that the ChiComs piled on the cherubic faces of their gymnasts backfired. Rather than masking their youth, the pedo-friendly makeup made them look even younger, like 5-year-olds dressed up for a Beijing Halloween Gone Wild. One of the Chinese team members has an unexplained missing...

Olympic repression and a gutless IOC Published: August 14 2008 19:30 | Last updated: August 14 2008 19:30 It has taken less than a week for the contradictions between the reality of Communist party rule and China’s pre-Olympics promises of openness and press freedom to burst unpleasantly into the open. Perhaps the party’s decision to order a pretty nine-year-old girl to lip-synch the patriotic singing of another girl deemed insufficiently cute for the opening ceremony can be dismissed as a misguided quest for artistic perfection. Nor is the manhandling of journalists by police – as happened on Wednesday during a...

The Communist regime has spent billions on lavish sports venues, the world's biggest airport terminal, and a huge security operation. All this while sweatshop conditions are widespread and millions are still homeless after May's deadly earthquake in the region. Of course, the official line is the country’s 1.3 billion people are delighted that the Games have arrived.  And the groundswell of pride and nationalist fervour in China is obvious. But privately there is anger from some that the leadership continues to declare that running a successful Games is its "number one priority". Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of...

Chinese Olympic organizers acknowledged Tuesday they were struggling to handle an unforeseen and baffling problem inside Summer Games venues and at the showpiece Olympic Park. Two weeks after announcing they had sold every one of the record 6.8 million tickets offered for the Games, Olympics officials expressed dismay at the large numbers of empty seats at nearly every event and the lack of pedestrian traffic throughout the park, the 2,800-acre centerpiece of the competition. (snip) To remedy the problem, officials are busing in teams of state-trained "cheer squads" identifiable by their bright yellow T-shirts to help fill the empty seats...