You have read about the tragic plane crash which killed a swath of the highest ranking leadership of the Polish Republic over the weekend, including the incumbent president, Lech Kaczynski. Here’s a small part of that story I just read about.

If you’re familiar with the history of World War II, you probably know that somewhat like General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces, there was a Polish government-in-exile operating in London during the war. Indeed, the ‘Government of the Republic of Poland in exile‘ had much more continuity with the pre-war Polish government and functioned much more like a government than the entity set up by General de Gaulle.

What I did not know is that the Polish government-in-exile continued in existence in London until 1990, with an unbroken succession of presidents and prime ministers-in-exile going back to 1939. And according to wikipedia, until the end, it maintained regular cabinet meetings every two weeks at its headquarters in London. Read More

Michael Steele’s allies rallied to his defense late last week, drafting a letter of support that was ultimately signed by 58 RNC members — enough votes to overcome any effort to remove him as chairman and tamp down the Steele death watch. Christina Bellantoni looks at how that letter materialized.

Hutaree Christian militia member to stepmom: I don’t need a job — I already have one preparing for “the war.”

In the three months he’s been in office, Virgina Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has quickly become the darling of the far right wing of the Republican Party.

Can Tina Fey still be ironic after gracing the cover of Vogue? You be the judge as she reprises her Sarah Palin impression for SNL. Watch.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour comes to the defense of his fellow Republican, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. According to Barbour, McDonnell did not make a mistake by omitting any reference to slavery from his Confederate History Month proclamation because, you see, everyone already knew slavery was bad. The whole controversy “doesn’t amount to diddly,” he grumbled in an interview on CNN. Watch.

The Dems must be pretty bummed the Republicans have finally managed to put the Civil War, slavery and segregation behind them. Oh, right. Nevermind.

We know, as a matter of law, that Michael Steele can’t be fired. But things got so bad last week that it seemed even the laws of the political universe might not be able to save Steele.

That’s when a group of friends and close advisors, seemingly operating largely on their own, swung into action and shut down the Steele political death watch … at least for now.

Death threats and epithets are so yesterday.

Tea Partiers look at how to tone down the post-March image and try to go (at least a little) mainstream.

As noted earlier, reacting to some of the excess of March, national Tea Party leaders are looking for ways to tone down the group’s image and rebrand it as a mainstream (i.e., not Crazy) albeit insurgent movement. But if that’s the plan, they may need to do something about Tea Party New York governor candidate Carl Paladino.

A bunch of his emails have just surfaced with racist appeals, porn and even some good old bestiality thrown in for good measure. One email features video of an African tribal dance, entitled “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal.”