Again, the focus on protests there, not here:
"Georgia lawmakers back state of emergency; Opposition party boycotts measure" by Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili/Associated Press November 10, 2007
TBILISI, Georgia - Lawmakers who support President Mikhail Saakashvili unanimously voted yesterday to endorse his 15-day state of emergency, an indication the pro-Western leader might not go through with a pledge to end it swiftly.
Opposition parties said yesterday that they were halting street protests as they began discussions to unite around a single presidential candidate.
So Saakashvili's plan worked!! That's what he wanted!!
From protest mode to campaign mode!
Far fewer police and security troops could be seen in central Tbilisi, and the city's main avenue reopened to traffic and pedestrians. The president's popularity has declined in recent years because of his failure to tackle endemic poverty in a nation where the average monthly pension is about $30.
Many have also accused him of sidestepping the rule of law, creating a powerful executive branch, and trying to muzzle critics. Official corruption, which Saakashvili has promised to eradicate, remains widespread.
The growing disillusionment fed the latest rounds of protests, which ended Wednesday when riot police fired tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets against demonstrators. The West sharply criticized police violence against journalists and protesters."
There. Not HERE!!
"Georgian Parliament Confirms Emergency Rule" by C. J. CHIVERS
MOSCOW, Saturday, Nov. 10 — The approval was a rebuff to international organizations that called for the decree to be lifted and to foreign governments, including the Bush administration, which until this week had championed Georgia as an example of a post-Soviet state undergoing bold democratic reforms.
Yeah, but we were never serious about that as long as our man is there!
The United States expressed swift dismay at the decision of Parliament, which is under Mr. Saakashvili’s control.
And that's about as uncomfortable as the US will get with him.
Sort of like lifting a cheek and letting out a fart! That's what the US protest was!
Parliament met as the country’s prosecutors announced that they had opened a criminal investigation against Badri Patarkatsishvili, a wealthy Georgian who had pledged financial support to the opposition, on the ground that he had plotted to overthrow the state. Mr. Patarkatsishvili, who has been in Israel this week, was on an airplane Friday and not immediately available for comment, a member of his staff said.
WTF?!?! WHY are THEY in the middle of EVERYTHING?!
The presidential decree banned public assembly, limited political speech and banned independent news television broadcasts. The police also seized the offices and smashed broadcasting equipment at the country’s most popular station.
That's one reason it's a story. MSM don't like that!
It's all right to do to you or me, but...
Giga Bokeria, a member of Parliament and a close ally to the president, said by telephone that the station was now also under criminal investigation, accused of collaborating with Mr. Patarkatsishvili and actively inciting unrest, and had little prospect of reopening.
As the station was seized by the police, said the station’s archive was also destroyed or removed.
Matthew J. Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said that he would urge the opposition, which has asked the United States to list the government as a terrorist organization, and carried signs of Mr. Saakashvili with a Hitler-style mustache, to negotiate civilly:
“Dubbing a president a dictator or terrorist — that is not constructive.”
Oh my God!! Can you smell the HYPOCRITICAL STENCH, readers?
Tell it to Ahmadinejad!!!
Or the deceased Saddam Hussein, you shit-slurping weasel!!!!!!!!!!!!
Until the government’s moves this week, Georgia had been embraced by Washington.
Saakashvili secured strong relations with the Bush administration in part by sending thousands of Georgian soldiers to the American-led coalition in Iraq, and has pledged to send a smaller contingent to Afghanistan next spring. Educated at Columbia University and fluent in several languages, including English, he has been a frequent contributor to editorial pages in Western newspapers, where he has written about democratic values and scolded corrupt and autocratic governments elsewhere.
So he is one of ours! Thus the scolding of the protesters!
President Bush visited the country in 2005, and addressed a massive crowd in the capital’s former Lenin Square, where he praised the country’s progress. It was the first visit by an American president to Georgia, and left a stamp of American approval on the Saakashvili government, which renamed a main road after Mr. Bush.
Tbilisi was calmer on Friday and the police presence much lighter than Thursday, when platoons roamed the streets. But resident complained of an absence of information because of the ban on independent media.
There was at least one sign of misgivings within Mr. Saakashvili’s government as well. Levan Mikeladze, the ambassador from Georgia to Switzerland and its head of mission to international organizations in Geneva, released a public letter announcing his resignation. The letter said he was resigning in protest of “troubling developments and violence that took place on Nov. 7,” according to www.resistancegeorgia.blogspot.com, an anti-Saakashvili blog that appeared this week."
Getting their frikkin' news of the blogs while they rip us!
What fucking arrogant, elitist stinkshits at the NYT!!!
