Poland elections
I never mentioned the good news from two weeks ago: Poland had elections and one of the Kaczynski twins is out of power now. What a relief. Now the conservatives have lost control of the government so at least some of the following should change for the better: gay rights; participation in the Iraq war; alienation of EU partners; extradition of US terrorist suspects to secret prisons (never confirmed which Eastern Euro countries this was happening in); placement of US anti-missile defenses against Russia which is causing lots of tension in the region.
The ironic thing is that the Kaczynskis had a snap election. There was no need for elections for some time, but because a major scandal had effectively dissolved the other major conservative party (in part due to the Kaczynskis' orchestration), they thought they could gain extra seats in parliament from the freed up conservative voters. Unfortunately for them their political scheming backfired because people had had enough of their political tactics domestically and internationally. And so out goes Jaroslaw Kaczynski from the Prime Ministry. His brother is still President, but it's not as powerful a position when parliament isn't under his party's control.
The ironic thing is that the Kaczynskis had a snap election. There was no need for elections for some time, but because a major scandal had effectively dissolved the other major conservative party (in part due to the Kaczynskis' orchestration), they thought they could gain extra seats in parliament from the freed up conservative voters. Unfortunately for them their political scheming backfired because people had had enough of their political tactics domestically and internationally. And so out goes Jaroslaw Kaczynski from the Prime Ministry. His brother is still President, but it's not as powerful a position when parliament isn't under his party's control.