State Craft - Olympics style.

Williebee · Dec 17, 2013

In what will be viewed largely as a response to Russia's discriminatory anti-gay laws, President Barack Obama has selected former tennis great Billie Jean King and former hockey player Caitlin Cahow, who are both lesbian, as part of the delegation to represent the White House at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Rhetoric is not required to make a statement.

ZachJPayne · Dec 17, 2013

I'm not insanely familiar with Russia, or with international law in general, but I have to wonder if it's safe to flaunt their laws like this. Can they be detained by Russian authorities? (Well, it would create an international shit-storm, but seriously. It would be a good chance for Russia to show how serious they are about their law).

I get what they're trying to do. I still think the safer answer would be a boycott, if there's any chance all of them being detained/harmed.

clintl · Dec 17, 2013

No, this is way better than a boycott. A boycott mainly hurts the innocent. This is flipping the bird directly in Putin's face. There is no way Putin will do anything to Billie Jean King.

StormChord · Dec 17, 2013

Yessssss! A big ol' double-bird for our friendly neighborhood crazy Russian homophobic maniac!

Anna L. · Dec 17, 2013

This is amazing. These ladies are very brave. I would not even dare set foot in Russia.

Plot Device · Dec 17, 2013

While I realize neither of these two ladies are actually competing, I still feel I can sum this move up in two words:

Jesse Owens.

.

blacbird · Dec 17, 2013

Clintl and PlotD have said it all. This quietly barbed response to Putin's Russia is very well played. Would that Obama had done even close to as well with the Health Care roll-out.

caw

Liosse de Velishaf · Dec 17, 2013

This is brilliant. I kind of hope Russia tries to start something, so the international community can slap them down for this bullshit. (And I say that while also realizing that could be dangerous for these ladies and others like them. In my little utopian imagination, there's an international incident, but nobody actually gets hurt.)

Alessandra Kelley · Dec 18, 2013

It's a strong, compassionate move and shows the Russian law for the vile unhumanitarian rubbish it is.

Ms. King and Ms. Cahow are brave women.

President Obama will not be attending the Russian Olympics. No major US political figure is, nor any from France or Germany.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25392175

Putputt · Dec 18, 2013

This is a great move. I kinda want to snicker and go, "Way to troll Putin. Hur hur."

Zoombie · Dec 18, 2013

Way to go, to those two women! They kick ass!

Williebee · Dec 18, 2013

Jesse Owens, sure,but also Mexico '68. Which King references in Christine Brennan's USAToday story.

King talked about the general hesitancy U.S. athletes expressed regarding the law.

"Sometimes I think we need a John Carlos moment," she said on Sept. 25, referring to the U.S. track star who was expelled from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics along with American sprinter Tommie Smith for protesting racial discrimination.

"I think there's watershed moments, benchmarks. I would hope the majority of the athletes would speak out. It's a great platform."

Then she sighed. "I wish I was 21 again and in the Olympics."

Now she is, just in a different way.

Alessandra Kelley · Dec 25, 2013

Vladimir Putin has just very extravagantly, and many say cynically, given amnesty to recipients of some of the worst miscarriages of injustice he personally and Russia have doled out in the last decade or so, including Mikhail Khodorovsky, band members of Pussy Riot, and Greenpeace protesters.

It is widely felt that this is a mere ploy to give a false appearance of caring about justice, particularly since the most prominent pardonees had served almost their entire sentences already anyway.

Newly freed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has joined the call for an international boycott of the Sochi, Russia Olympics.

State Craft - Olympics style.

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

ZachJPayne

Beware: #amQuerying

clintl

Represent.

StormChord

Allegedly Gullible

Anna L.

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

blacbird

Liosse de Velishaf

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Putputt

permanently suctioned to Buz's leg

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian