NEW RULE

Chairman Mao is dead. These are the Olympics.

Senator Sam Brownback: “These hotels are justifiably outraged by this order, which puts them in the awkward position of having to craft pop-up messages explaining to their customers that their Web history, communications, searches and key strokes are being spied on by the Chinese government. If you were a human rights advocate, if you're a journalist, you're in room 1251 of a hotel, anything that you use, sending out over the Internet is monitored in real time by the Chinese Public Security bureau. That's not right. It's not in the Olympic spirit.”

Brownback is correct. China’s communism is irrelevant. Upon their citizens, they may spy. Upon anyone else, they cannot. China is the venue. They are not the authority. I hope they realize this. I pray athletes, journalists, and spectators are safe.