Stoic police and soldiers lined along the street gave crisp two fingered salutes as people pressed close to the barriers and threw flowers at the green army Humvees towing the presidential couple, killed along with 94 others in a plane crash outside Smolensk, Russia on April 10.

Among the procession were clergy, members of Poland’s military elite, and foreign dignitaries. Masked sharpshooters were posted atop the Wawel Castle keeping a close eye on the crowd packed on the sidewalk some straining their necks and holding cameras up in the air to catch a last glimpse of the caskets as they turned the corner up Wawel Hill. Only those personally invited by the Kaczynski family were to witness the burial ceremony at a crypt in the Wawel cemetery reserved for Poland’s heroes and monarchs.

The decision to bury Mr. Kaczynski and his wife at Wawel Castle has not been without controversy. The ancient fortress is revered as the resting place for Poland’s most honored royalty. ”I think it is a great mistake,” said one lifetime resident of Krakow, ”Wawel is a place for kings not presidents, it is a sacred place. I think they defied the will of the Polish people with this decision. He is not a king and she is not a queen. I think he should be in Warsaw like he stated in his will, that is the place for presidents.”

Another Krakow resident agreed that a lot of people were wondering why the presidential couple were to be buried at Wawel. ”This is the place where Sobieski and Kasimir are buried. Yes he died and it is a tragedy but it was only an accident, it could have happened to anyone.” The decision to bury the Kaczynskis at Wawel was put forth by church leaders and the Kaczynski family.

For hours prior to the procession people lined the street trying to find a place as volunteer scout troops from across Poland assisted with crowd control. During the funeral mass some lined along the route the prayed aloud guided by loudspeakers playing the ceremony being held at St. Mary’s church in Krakow’s old market square.

A limited amount of tickets for a public assembly at the square were given away within hours.

TMourners pray during the funeral mass

he funeral procession caps off a week of national mourning in Poland. There were even rules enforced regulating public behavior. According to locals, during the week certain nightclub owners in Krakow were fined for having loud music being heard on the street.

From midnight Saturday to 8 pm Sunday no alcohol was to be served anywhere in the country. The normally bustling Krakow nightlife was silent on Saturday evening.

One exception was a hidden party of restaurant staff who had a chance to enjoy each others company since there were no customers. Still, in the middle of the vodka fueled noise the maître d’ reminded everyone why they were there and the group observed a minute of silence.

In the wake of his death, Mr. Kaczynski is being lauded as a beloved national figure however the opinion of some Poles diverges from this.

Monika Caban, a student from Krakow said, ”to be honest most of us didn’t like him. He was

radical and xenophobic. Before this happened we always saw his bad side on the news, doing outrageous things that I think didn’t represent us as a people. Now that he’s died the news is presenting him in a wholesome light, his entire image has been changed.” Another student said he was angry that Kaczynski was being called a hero simply because he had died.

OWawel Castle

ne student admitted he liked Mr. Kaczynski, ”he understood political power and he knew how to manipulate it, he was an expert at foreign policy and that is the presidents job.”

Regardless of controversy the death of Poland’s most visible figures has changed the cultural and political face of the country.

”These were people we saw everyday on TV,” said Ms. Caban, ”and now they are all gone. If one person dies, that is strange enough but to have so many important people go at once, that is going to change a lot. Our generation knew about Katyn and Auschwitz as a part of history and now with this, we have our very own sense of loss.”

The former president of the USA has been on a crusade in equatorial Africa against not famine or war but a parasite known as GUINEA WORM, This us a a parasite you drink and in a year you have a three foot long spaghetti living inside your body eating at you from the inside, pardon my French but that is degulasse.  The things tears a whole through you to get out, and you sit there and feel it… This morning Guinea Worm levels thanks to good old Jimmy Carter, are at the all time low.  Imagine a old guy from Georgia putting his lifes work into helping afflicted African villages. It’s a truly remarkable thing.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/02/19/opinion/1194817104747/carter-vs-the-worms.html

Here is a photo slideshow from Boston.com that features classic rock and roll frontmen. It also reminds us of how rock has changed and the classic iconic frontman is more or a rarity. The slideshow misses more than a few classic frontmen, such as Kurt Cobain or John Lennon, for some lesser known indiviudals maybe more poplular with the indie scene.  I wonder what there motivation for that was, or how it was they chose who to be in the pictures.

Nelly Stevens is a Kinesiology major at Umass, she said, “I’m interested in Peace Corps because I’ve always wanted to do volunteer work and I want to go abroad. My number one place is Africa and I’d really like to go to South America as well. Health Education would probably be my number one or anything in the health area. I looked at videos of volunteers online and went through the Peace Corps web site. I heard about this meeting about two weeks ago.  I’m not 100% now, I want to talk to the representative about it.”

I asked Paul Frisoli, the representative organizing the meeting about how the meetings are held and how he got into the Peace Corps himself .”We have one meeting about once a month, and one at Amherst college so that’s five per semester. Besides Umass I do a lot of information sessions at Amherst college, and sometimes at Hampshire college.  This year I have seen a lot of Umass applications. Before I served as a volunteer I just passed by an information table and ran into a recruiter and I talked to him for like two hours and I was like, I want to apply to the Peace Corps. That was 2001, I was 21, it was my senior year. I was a French major and economics minor.
I originally went to Guinea to teach English and when I got there , there weren’t enough Math teachers and they saw I had a certain French level and they asked if I could teach math in French and it was like basic Algebra.”

He talked about how well the information sessions work in getting people informed and even admitted a collegue who for her own personal reasons left the Peace Corps early. There weren’t any penalties.

For the past week and a half I explored Estonias captial Tallinn, through the biggest blizzard there in twenty years. Everywhere was evidence of Estonias soviet past, their aspirations for the future and the spirit of a nation that has known nothing but turmoil throughout its history. These photos, taken myself, capture this transisition and were taken during my time there.

This album posted on Boston.coms ‘the big picture’ is a personal up close look at what the soldiers in Afghanistan are living like. These photos put a face on what is becoming the new front in America’s ‘war on terror’.

here is a jet landing and taking off

The reporters were given full access on the condition that none of their findings would be released until after the election. The report covered everything from the beginning to the final days. An especially savory piece of the report for Sarah Palin haters was full disclosure by her campaign staff about her questonable behavior backstage and her depiction by one McCain staffer as a hillbilly from Wasilla. The New York Times also provided an excellent post-analysis, comparing how the map changed with an interactive online feature.

The next big story of the week besides the post election cleanup was the beginning of the transition. Newsweek reports here on the bumpy ride transferring administrations can be.

Finally there were some words from the loosers and changes in the heated rhetoric from their side. One thing is for sure. Just because the election is over, doesn’t mean the media will be running out of things to talk about. It seems like it has all just begun.