Protesters oust Shevy in Georgia Revolution

[mbperrin]

http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1292462003

PROTESTERS stormed Georgia’s parliament yesterday, forcing President Eduard Shevardnadze to flee as thousands demanded his resignation.

The former Soviet foreign minister and darling of the West called a state of emergency after being whisked away from the parliament in Tbilisi by armed bodyguards after the opposition supporters broke into the building.

Minutes after 75-year-old Shevardnadze convened the newly elected parliament, opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili led hundreds of his supporters into the chamber. They overturned desks and chairs and leapt on to the podium. Shevardnadze was whisked out of the hall, as fist fights broke out when Saakashvili ordered all pro-government law-makers to exit the building.

"The velvet revolution has taken place in Georgia," Saakashvili announced, amid scenes reminiscent of the ‘people power’ protests in eastern Europe in 1989.
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Here's one way to deal with crooked elections!

[LSparkle]

1. I am so proud of the Georgians!

We should have done the same when our election was hijacked! My heart is with those brave people.

[Dirk39]

2. Forget the "soft revolution"....

This "revolution" was organized by James Baker

"When James Baker was sent out to Georgia this past July to lecture its President, Eduard Shevardnadze, about the need to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary elections were "free and fair," it must have raised a lot of eyebrows. Eyebrows of the "you’ve got to be shitting me" variety.

James Baker? This is the same guy who Bush Jr. hired in 2000 to steal the Florida vote, handing the U.S. presidency over to a tool who lost by half a million votes. The way Baker railroaded Bush into the presidency has done more damage to American democracy than anything since Nixon and Watergate. Sending him into corrupt Georgia to demand that they have "free and fair elections" is like sending Yegor Gaidar into Iraq in order to advise them on privatization and the transition to a market economy – which Bush also did."
article
This link was posted by another DUer on another thread about this, can't find it now!
One more time I was just shocked about the way we're misinformed and mislead, in Europe as much as in the USA.
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[LSparkle]

3. Just gimme some truth!

This is distressing -- I thought Europe had a freer press than we do in the US. I'm afraid that we're on the verge of global fascism (which means NO ONE will get the truth). HELP!

[Dirk39]

6. I fear you're right...

I would say I'm pretty sceptical and I look for a lot of information, but following what was happening in Gorgia, my reaction was exactly the same as yours. Till I did find a link to that article here on DU. It's really more than frightening.
We have some halfway acceptable newspapers and even some halfway good journalism on the german tele. For an exemple, "the revolution won't be televised" about the coup against Chavez was shown here on one of our main TV-stations on a sunday at 10 pm. But the general situation is that we have 20+ TV-stations that are commercial, which means neoliberal advertising stations for global capitalism. And the public-owned stations are controlled by the main parties: our republicans, the CDU, and the social democrats, who are as corrupt as Blairs labour-party. All important positions are owned by those parties.
The last days on German TV were just like a propaganda show, preparing a shift in position regarding Iraq as a consequence of the attacks in Turkey. I guess, Bush, Blair and Schröder thank god everyday that there is such a usefull thing as Al Quada.
Dirk

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Guardian Utd: Protesters set to evict Georgia's President

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Sunday November 23

Protesters set to evict Georgia's President
By Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow and Natalia Antelava in Tbilisi

President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia last night appeared to be on the brink of being swept from power as he was forced to admit there had been an "armed coup d'etat" after weeks of protests climaxed with the storming of parliament.
Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili said Shevardnadze could stay in office only to usher in an early presidential election.
'If he announces for himself some transitional period for new presidential elections, that's fine,' he told CNN. 'We are ready to negotiate terms of transition.'
Shevardnadze, Soviet foreign secretary in the time of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, declared a state of emergency after he was forced to flee the parliament building when protesters led by Saakashvili battered down the doors while he was speaking.
The increasingly autocratic ruler, mired in corruption allegations, for weeks rejected calls to resign from furious crowds who feel his 12 years in power have brought them little but fixed elections, corruption and social decay.

Read more.

It looks like Shevardnadze's reign is in its death throes.

[Dirk39]

7. If the democats win the next election and their candidate isn't

a DLCer: we will see thousands and thousands of american citizens fighting for freedom, storming the congress to reestablish freedom in America against those communist traitors, who did steal the election. I beg you, please read the above mentioned article about the background. It's worth reading.
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[eablair3]

5. just like the videogame

anyone ever try out that video game "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" -- kind of eery with this story much of which is in Tblisi. Anyone have any doubts that the CIA is not on top of this?