Newsom the Beijing cadre tool designs a hide the Torch game that entertains the city and makes Newsom the tool into a laughingstock. Good game to do all that in one day. Newsom's next trick will be to attend the Olympics as a protester. Newsom represents what pols have become, nothing particular from day to day as they drift through their jobs as servants of the cadre.
San Francisco deployed ferocious wit and zest, and credit to the Windy City for making the Torch run into a fine display of what's wrong with China. Hu is out of ideas. The Torch was guarded. Guarded. Theme established. The cadre must now devote 15% of their net to guarding their symbols. In this case, the Torch is their captive, but only for a time, and not without deep irony. Guarding the Torch shrinks the cadre. The vanishing cadre and the rising Tibet. And the Torch is headed for Tibet. When Torch and Tibet are together, the game is over, Tibet wins.
There will be bumps. Next laughter, Argentina. And the IOC has never had it so good. Everyone despises it as a sweaty UN.
US Olympic torch relay rerouted
By Kevin Allison in San Francisco and agencies
Published: April 9 2008 19:27 | Last updated: April 10 2008 00:03
The North American leg of the troubled Olympic torch relay descended into farce on Wednesday after San Francisco officials made a last-minute change to the torch’s planned relay route, enabling its carriers to slip past thousands of protestors who had gathered along the city’s waterfront to watch the event.
Video: Olympic torch relay
Change of route ensures peaceful start in San Francisco
The torch was seen briefly as the first runner held it aloft to begin the relay, flanked by a security team and police officers. But the group then disappeared into a large waterfront warehouse complex.
The torch was not seen again until it was spotted more than a mile away on an alternate route, leaving protestors scrambling to catch up as it made its way across the city on its only North American stop on the way to this year’s summer games in Beijing.
“This is shameful,” said Ivy, a volunteer organiser from San Francisco, as she herded a rag-tag band of pro-Tibet demonstrators down Stockton Street towards San Francisco’s Chinatown in hot pursuit.
“This causes more chaos and friction across the city. It doesn’t give protestors the benefit of the doubt,” she said, when asked about the city’s decision to give protestors the slip....
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
'Houdini torch' relay disappoints
By Maggie Shiels
BBC News, San Francisco
Giant 'pandas' carried signs saying Beijing Welcomes You
The Olympic torch passed peacefully through San Francisco after authorities switched routes, leaving thousands of protesters and sightseers angry and disappointed.
Until the 11th hour, the city's mayor, Gavin Newsom, had always said the route along the waterfront could be altered. But he had also warned that plans were more than likely to change than stay the same.
When the torch failed to appear on its published passage, rumour and counter rumour filled the air.
Some police guarding the Embarcadero, where it was supposed to pass, surmised it had been either transported by boat, jet ski, bus or car.
After two hours, people were calling it the "Houdini torch" because it and the bearers tasked with carrying it had seemingly vanished.
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