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For those of you who do not know, today was a very sad tragedy. 96 top government officials were killed in a plane crash, heading to Russia for the 70th anniversary of of a massacre of Polish officers. Both the former president and the current president were killed in that crash, along with many other important people. It really is grieving to me, especially since I am a Polish-American. Something that one does not see too occasionally is a Polish news story so big, nor is Poland a very talked about country (look around for Polish history books in Chicago, where a huge population of Poles exists, and you will have a hard time finding any).

Anyways, it was such an unfortunate event. At least I hope that other countries will begin to show Poland more respect soon.

Here's a link of the event, in case any of you still didn't hear about it (or to simply view some videos of those deceased being mourned):

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/10/poland.president.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=C1

Aw, geez, that's horrible. I can't say I've ever taken much interest in polish politics, but it's always awful to hear about disasters like this.

Indeed. My condolences.

Death is always somewhat sad, and this is no exception.

I'm not a politics expert, but apparently this tragedy leaves the prime minister in foreground- and I hear he's not that nice of a guy.

It wasn't just the president, an enormous chunk of the Polish government was killed:

    * Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland
    * Maria Kaczyńska, the first lady of Poland
    * Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last President of the Polish government-in-exile
    * Jerzy Szmajdziński, the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm
    * Władysław Stasiak, Chief of Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
    * Aleksander Szczygło, head of the National Security Bureau
    * Paweł Wypych, Secretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
    * Mariusz Handzlik, Undersecretary of State in the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland
    * Andrzej Kremer, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
    * General Franciszek Gągor, Chief of the Polish Army General Staff
    * Andrzej Przewoźnik, Secretary-General of Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk

Plus several members of the Sejm, which is the legislative branch of the Polish government.

Edit: Also I just read that the top 6 generals of the Polish army were killed.

I pretty sure I can safely say this was the largest loss of government officials in a single day in peace or wartime.

Holy shit.

My condolences to whoever's affected by this. But holy crap, talk about bad luck.

It's a tragedy, though this might make government officials worldwide start taking more than one plane to go places.

Actually, the prime minister is a pretty reasonable guy (for a politician). The president wasn't particulary popular and likely wouldn't get the next election. A patriot for sure, but too conservative and not very representative.
But that doesn't really matter now. You can root for a politician or dislike one, but death of a president and so many other important figures is always a huge tragedy. Many important institutions - including the national bank - were left without head. The military got it worst with all the top officials dead.
The next few months are going to be pretty hectic for our government. The only good thing is that the tragedy united the nation and everyone now seems to be more concerned about fixing the situation than pushing his/her political option ahead. 

I love how many conspiracy theorists crawled up from under rocks and started pointing fingers. Hopefully the records of conversation between pilot and control will have shut them up and given the mourning some solace.

It's double-stupid, because I can't imagine a motive for killing a president soon before the election he's not likely to win anyway.

Not to keep the flames of stupid burning, but ... if you want to keep an unpopular party in power, a huge tragedy striking it is a pretty good way.

it's really sad... he was a good guy.

Wow, that's like the getting half the government to stand in one place, then dropping a plane on them.

That's terrible all by itself, but what other implications does this make?  :whome:

So... the best way to get people to support you is to kill all the people on your side?  :giggle:

Seems a bit counter-productive for me, yeah.

This is tragedy on a mind-boggling level. And to think what's going to happen to the government, too...