http://www.atlargely.com/2007/11/black-november.htmlBlack November...Freedom is on the march during this black November, during which three US backed foreign leaders have all declared a state of emergency, rounded up their political opponents, and shut down news media. The month is not yet over and I fear we might see even more chaos as the virus in Washington spreads around the world.
November 2: Bush ally President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan:
"Less than a day after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and scolded the country's media for being too "negative," police stormed the offices of a television station early Sunday, AAJ-TV's director of news and current affairs said.
Armed with guns, the two dozen police said they had orders to take the station's equipment, including a van that the station uses to broadcast live coverage, Talat Hussain said. "We resisted," Hussain said. "We said show us the papers."
The police didn't have proof their demands were legitimate, he said, adding the officers said only that they had orders "from the highest authority."
"They said, 'We'll do it the nice way or the other way,' " Hussain said.
A brief scuffle between the policemen and about 40 journalists in the station followed, but no one was hurt, he said."
November 7: Bush ally President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia:
"All rallies in the country are banned and only state TV can broadcast news.
President Mikhail Saakashvili imposed the 15-day emergency after six days of opposition rallies. He said "Russian special services" had fomented unrest. The pro-Western president has rejected the protesters' accusations of corruption and says he will not quit.
The nationwide state of emergency was declared late on Wednesday after police used tear gas, water cannon and batons to disperse thousands of protesters near the parliament building in Tbilisi.
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On Wednesday, police used force to disperse protesters who had tried to occupy Rustaveli Avenue. Imedi TV, which has broadcast statements by opposition leaders, stopped broadcasting on Wednesday, after riot police entered its premises.
The protesters say the police response demonstrates Mr Saakashvili's authoritarian tendencies but police said they had to unblock the capital's main road. Protesters have been gathering outside parliament every day since Friday, when 50,000 people attended the largest street protest seen since the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that brought Mr Saakashvili to power.
"If democracy is about peaceful demonstrations, then this government has shown what kind of democracy it's practising," opposition leader Salome Zurabishvili said. The protesters accuse Mr Saakashvili of corruption and of not doing enough to tackle poverty."'
November 24: Bush ally Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon:
"After nine years in office, President Emile Lahoud stepped down from his post at the stroke of midnight without the legislature having named a successor. In fact, parliament never convened as the opposition parties spearheaded by Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement of Michel Aoun boycotted the ballot, preventing a quorum from being called. Since election of the president requires a two-thirds majority, neither the opposition nor the ruling March 14 Coalition led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora can push through a candidate without the other being present.
Despite the constitutional requirement that authority be handed over to the prime minister should the presidency be vacated, Lahoud refused, stating that Siniora's administration was "illegitimate and unconstitutional. They know that, even if Bush said otherwise."
He instead declared a "state of emergency" and transferred security (but not political) powers over to the Lebanese Army under the command of Gen. Michel Suleiman. Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri set November 30 as the next date for a scheduled vote, yet tensions remained high in Beirut as checkpoints were set up and the Army positioned to keep pro-government and opposition partisans off the streets.
The political stalemate has generated anxiety over the potential outbreak of violence in the capital or the somewhat more dramatic fear that two separate, rival governments will ultimately be established in a prelude to civil war."
If you throw into the mix the chaos in Iraq spawned from the Cheney-Rumsfeld doctrine of world domination; the rise of Russia and China as a serious double threat; the rise of Hamas in Israel; the al Qaeda build-up (thanks to the Iraq war) in Pakistan; the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan (also thanks to the Iraq war); the falling dollar; and the rise in oil prices, Bush's war of terror has left behind it a truly breathtaking legacy of barbarism and destruction.
If US enemies wanted to destroy the United States, they could not have done better than to install the Bush-Cheney regime at the helm of this once great nation. Should our economy miraculously survive this crisis, we will still be a failed state, crippled by corruption and greed, taken over by large corporations, with no allies in the world, save Poland (don't forget Poland).