Ok, this is friggin' REEEEEDICULOUS.......

Grrrr.............from those bastions of the politically correct embezzlement organizations, THE USOC.....

NEW YORK — American athletes have been warned not to wave the U.S. flag during their medal celebrations at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, for fear of provoking crowd hostility and harming the country's already-battered public image.

The spectacle of victorious athletes grabbing a national flag and parading it around the stadium is a familiar part of international sporting competition, but U.S. Olympic officials have ordered their 550-strong team to exercise restraint and avoid any jingoistic behavior.

The plan is part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing the country's international reputation after the deepening crisis in Iraq and damaging revelations of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.


"American athletes find themselves in extraordinary circumstances in Athens in relation to the world as we know it right now," said Mike Moran, a veteran former spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee who has been retained as a consultant to advise athletes how to behave.

"Regardless of whether there is anti-American sentiment in Athens or not, the world watches Americans a lot now in terms of how they behave and our culture. What I am trying to do with the athletes and coaches is to suggest to them that they consider how the normal things they do at an event, including the Olympics, might be viewed as confrontational or insulting or cause embarrassment."

"What I am telling the athletes is, 'Don't run over and grab a flag and take it round the track with you.' It's not business as usual for American athletes. If a Kenyan or a Russian grabs their national flag and runs round the track or holds it high over their heads, it might not be viewed as confrontational. Where we are in the world right now, an American athlete doing that might be viewed in another manner."



So wait, lemme get this straight. Because we happened to televise and publish our skeletons for the world to see, which as horrible as they were, weren't really that bad by any strecth of the imagination, we should be so ashamed as to not even wave our flag at the Olympic Ceremonies?

Are you freaking kidding me?

RUSSIA? The former Soviet Union, has less to be ashamed of than the US? Chechnya? Hello?

How about Zimbabwe? Where Mugabe has tortured and starved thousands of his own people? I could go on and on listing country after country that tortures and abuses its own people on levels approaching satanic, if not going lower.

But noooooo.. The one country that dares to put its own people on the line to help liberate others from oppression, while trying to make the world safe, we are the bad guys. To my mates in England and Australia, I imagine that you would find this type of request quite humorous, as you too have shed blood alongside ours to liberate those oppressed before.

Did they ask the NAZI's to do the same thing???? (shaking head).....


Here's what we should do. We should have our flag, and next to them should be the flags of every country the US currently aids by either food or military assistance. Every country that boos us for holding there flag along with ours gets dropped from the list.

Starting with Egypt......