Slight change in plans

Colin Powell will not attend the closing ceremonies in Athens. Riots narrowly averted.

Also...

America's biggest Olympic hero yesterday accused George Bush of exploiting the Athens Games for his own political advantage in the run-up to the presidential election.

Carl Lewis, who won nine Olympic gold medals in athletics in a record-breaking career, condemned Bush for using the presence of Iraqi and Afghan teams in Athens in a television advertisement to boost his chances of re-election.

...Iraq's footballers, who unexpectedly reached the semi-finals here, made clear last week they disliked the advertisement and regarded American soldiers in Iraq as occupiers rather than liberators. Bush was planning to visit the Greek capital and attend yesterday's football final if Iraq had been involved, but they lost in the semi-finals last week. He was also criticised for misusing without permission Olympic symbols, which are protected emblems.

  Guardian article

Can you imagine how much that would have cost us? All those extra helicopters and soldiers, and the entourage that he takes along. They'd probably have had to evacuate Athens and put a bullet-proof bubble dome over the field. After all, they wanted the Queen to reinforce the walls in the castle room he stayed in on his trip to London. (She declined.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.