Censorship? What Censorship?

So, IOC officials have now confirmed that the Chinese government is limiting access to certain websites during the Olympics. Up to now, both China and the IOC had insisted that censorship would not be an issue at these games.

If only there was some way to have predicted this. I mean, who could possibly have guessed that a regime that rolled tanks over Tiananemen Square would stoop to restricting net access to media and athletes during the Olympics?

Let's not kid ourselves. It's going to get worse. In the next two weeks, and during the games themselves, China will tighten its grip on the Olympic coverage to ensure that only the officially sanctioned version of the event reaches the west. No protesting Tibetans. No Chinese drug cheats. Just a little brutal, totalitarian oppression. And IOC - a bit totalitarian themselves, if you ask me - will turn a blind eye and argue that they aren't a 'political' organization, that it isn't there place to say anything.

Nope, nothing political about the Olympics at all. Germany 1936. Moscow 1980. Los Angeles 1984. China over Toronto for 2008. No politics at all.

Wouldn't it be nice if just once the IOC used its power to do something other than sell sneakers?