The Gay Bay Pre-Game Show

The pre-game show is underway for Wednesday's visit of the Olympic torch to San Francisco:

Three pro-Tibet demonstrators climbed cables on the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday to condemn China's government in advance of the Olympic torch's run through San Francisco.

The demonstrators unfurled a giant banner reading "One World, One Dream" and "Free Tibet 08", while at least one of the daredevil protesters could be seen carrying a Tibetan flag, television images showed.

Local media reported that four people had been arrested by California Highway Patrol while the three protestors remained suspended from the bridge.

San Francisco is on tenterhooks ahead of the Olympic flame's procession through the city on Wednesday, which follows events in London and Paris severely disrupted by pro-Tibet protestors.

San Francisco police say an unprecedented security blanket will be in place for Wednesday's relay as they attempt to avoid a repeat of the chaotic scenes in Europe in the flame's only appearance on US soil.

Several hundred police officers are expected to line the streets for the appearance of the torch, which has been trailed by protesters since it was lit in Greece a week ago at the start of a 85,000-mile, 21-country journey.

A San Francisco Police Department spokesman said security for the relay would be noticeably tighter than previous appearances of the torch in the city in 1992 and 1996.

Too bad San Francisco couldn't have cared that much about the US Marines, the USS Iowa, or the Blue Angels, one of whom was banned from shooting a commercial in the city, one banned outright, and the other they wanted to ban. Here's comes the Olympic torch under a cloud of genuine controversy and strife and they go out of their way to make it welcome.

This whole thing is becoming incredibly embarrassing for the Chinese government, the Olympic Committee, and the corporate sponsors who are paying for this whole torch run.