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Can this country's political scene be so fractious that members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies can't even agree on a joint commemoration of the Nov. 17, 1989, fall of communist rule? In a word: yes.
The world of Czech politics is rife with rivalries: Havel versus Klaus, Social Democrats versus Civic Democrats (ODS), everyone versus the communists, etc. To that list, add Senate versus the Chamber of Deputies.
Chamber Chairman Lubomir Zaoralek told reporters Oct. 15 that the two legislative bodies have not been able to agree on a joint plan to commemorate the revolution.
For whatever petty reason, the senators and deputies are putting their own differences and agendas before the order of the day: namely, a dignified commemoration of that important turn of events 15 years ago. Surprised? Don't be. Politicians here find it nearly impossible to rise above petty politics when appropriate. It's happened before and it will happen again.
In Absurdistan, however, nothing's easy -- especially when politicians are involved.
It is at least a comfort to know that come Nov. 17, everyone else will be remembering a day when the impossible became reality, when the Russian overseers were sent packing and freedom returned to the Czech lands. No one will be thinking about bickering politicians.
Bickering pols should remember velvet tone of 1989

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Toxic Neighbors
No two people deal with death in the same way. No two people look the same way at the Yiddish word for funeral, levaya, which means to accompany. To accompany means to be there.
Yet, I was not there so many times. I was not there for my father’s funeral in 1992. I was not there for my brother’s funeral in 2004. I was not there when my family said goodbye to my godmother Sidka this year. I was not there when they said goodbye to my Godfather Jan.
The Importance of Being There. Is there an experience as profound, as indefinable, as feared, as damaging as revisiting your soulmate’s funeral?
Whenever I come across stories like the one I read last night in the Prague Post, I found myself torn between two poles: between present and past; between memories and now; between a yearning for answers to the complex life of the Slavic race. Would I be in Australia writing this absurd blogger entry if I was not at my sister’s funeral in September 1975? My sister and many others who worked in the chemical factory in Svit were just left to die ...
Frequent accidents at chemical plant alarm local residents and politicians who call for halt of manufacturing of potentially lethal chemicals
Spolchemie Usti nad Labem has lost popularity with its neighbors after a series of accidents released potentially lethal chemicals. By Katka Krosnar
Pressure is growing on Czech chemical plant Spolchemie to stop production after the fourth leak from the plant this year. The latest incident at the chemical works in Usti nad Labem in north Bohemia happened Oct. 11 when chlorine leaked during pipe repairs
• Now we come again to the heart of darkness The incident came less than two weeks after another leak of sulphur oxide [KORISTKA AFFAIR TIMELINE - Agust 2004: Deputy Zdenek Koristka claims he was offered 10 million Kc ($385,000) if he withheld support for Prime Minister Stanislav Gross' new government in a parliamentary confidence vote. October 2004: State attorney Josef Blaha drops the charges. Scandal erodes public trust in politics, police and courts; ]
• · Resting on their laureates Kerry leads Bush in endorsements from Nobelists Mommy, why do you hate the president?; [: AP EXCLUSIVE: Iraqis reveal in secret interviews how Saddam manipulated oil-for-food program]
• · · Tim Porter: Why presidential endorsements have little, if any, impact on voters ; [Chris Sheil links to the Doctor living in the fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado and includes links to Amerikan elections: even junkies will cry for mercy after visiting]
• · · · From Backpages to Top Headlines ; [
State vs state, and more ...
• · · · · If the Americans would be smarter, they would be worried about the state of their democracy.
• · · · · · Polio was stopped in its tracks, but now we must make sure the price was not too high The dragon is slain, but its legacy lingers
[It's like a sort of blizzard in the bloodstream,
A deep, severe, unseasonable winter,
Burying everything. The white blood cells
Multiply crazily and storm around,
Out of control. The chemotherapy
Hasn't helped much, and it makes my hair fall out.
I know I look a sight, but I don't care.
I care about fewer things; I'm more selective.
It's got so I can't even bring myself
To read through any of your books these days.
It's partly weariness, and partly the fact
That I seem not to care much about the endings,
How things work out, or whether they even do]