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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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 Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 1:15 pm Post subject: Polish president killed in airplane crash |
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... along with a whole slew of top officials
| Quote: | Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, its central bank head and the country's military chief were among 96 people killed when their plane crashed in thick fog on its approach to a Russian airport on Saturday.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the crash as "the most tragic event of the country's post-war history." Tusk, ashen-faced and wearing a black suit and tie, told a news conference he would fly to the crash site.
The death of Kaczynski, who with his twin brother was a dominant force in Polish politics, brings political uncertainty. A presidential election had been due in October but now must be held within two months, according to the constitution.
The president's wife and several other high-ranking government officials were also aboard the aged Tupolev Tu-154, which plunged into a forest about two km (1.3 miles) from the airport in the western Russian city of Smolensk.
Pilot error was a possible reason for the crash, said Andrei Yevseyenkov, spokesman for the Smolensk local government. Local officials said the plane had clipped treetops on its way down.
[...]
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, has been named acting president, as the constitution stipulates. Komorowski is also Tusk's presidential candidate in the centrist Civic Platform party.
[...]
Russia's Emergencies Ministry said 96 people were aboard the government plane, including 88 members of a Polish delegation en route to commemorate Poles killed in mass murders in the town of Katyn under orders from Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1940.
Earlier reports had said 132 people were aboard. Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufyev and Polish state news agency PAP said there were no survivors.
A Russian mission control official who had been present during conversations with the pilot told Reuters the pilot had ignored advice.
"The pilot was advised to fly to Moscow or Minsk because of heavy fog, but he still decided to land. No one should have been landing in that fog," he said, on condition his name was not published. |
My heart doesn't bleed for Lech Kaczynski; he was a scumbag bigot. Too bad all those other people died, though.
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:57 am Post subject: |
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Here's a passenger who IS worth mourning:
| Quote: | ... Also aboard the plane was Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, who served as Poland's deputy prime minister between 2004 and 2005 and was an outspoken critic of [Polish President] Lech Kaczynski's homophobic policies when he was Warsaw mayor.
Pink News reports:
| Quote: | | Kaczynski as mayor of Warsaw repeatedly banned gay pride marches from taking place within the capital. Jaruga-Nowacka spoke out at a banned event in 2005: 'We are for democracy,' she told the crowd. 'We are for protection of all human rights, not only for some groups who are in the majority in Poland. All citizens have the right to choose their own way of life.' Adding: 'I am here to express my protest against the Mayor’s decision which is a violation of the Polish constitution and of civic rights. I am here to show my respect for the Polish tradition of tolerance.' She regularly spoke at other gay rights rallies where she suffered verbal abuse from extremist nationalists and Christian groups. |
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And then there's THIS bit:
| Quote: | | Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he would personally head the investigation into the plane crash. |
Personally? Really? Really?! Does anyone else find that.... odd? Makes me wonder if maybe former KGB Director Vladimir Putin is wanting to ensure that a little "clean-up" is done....?
_________________
"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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Late Polish President's Allegedly Gay Twin Brother to Run to Replace Him
| Quote: | Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the outwardly homophobic but allegedly gay twin brother of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski, plans to run to replace him, the AP reports:
| Quote: | | Jaroslaw Kaczynski said he will run to continue the mission of his brother and others killed in the crash. 'The good of Poland is a common duty that requires an ability to overcome personal suffering, to undertake the task despite a personal tragedy,' Kaczynski said. 'This is why I have taken the decision to run for the president of Poland. I have the family's support in this decision.' |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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TS.
Delicious schadenfreude
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON
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| Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Exit polls in the Polish presidential election likely mean that there is going to be a runoff.
| Quote: | Voting has ended in Poland in an election held to replace President Lech Kaczynski, who died two months ago in a plane crash.
Exit polls estimated acting President Bronislaw Komorowski would win 40.7% of votes cast, with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late president's twin, on 35.8%.
If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote a run-off election will be held on 4 July.
Ninety-six people died in the crash in Smolensk in western Russia on 10 April.
The dead included many of Poland's political and military leaders, and the disaster has overshadowed the election campaign and made it one of the country's least aggressive, BBC Warsaw correspondent Adam Easton said. |
BBC
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson |
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