Monday, January 14, 2013

Czech Politics Update

Vladimir Franz is a Czech composer, painter, and professor at Prague's Academy of Performing Arts. He was also a candidate for his nation's presidency, one of the nine people on the ballot for the election that was contested this weekend. None of this is particularly remarkable, especially in a country formerly led by playwright and poet Vaclav Havel. Franz's appearance, on the other hand, is worth noting:


Franz, who ran for office on a platform focused on ending corruption in politics, has a fairly Gheorghian response to those taken aback by his unusual appearance.  "A tattoo is a sign of a free will and that does not harm the freedom of anyone else," he explains. I'm sure our good friends in the GOP hate him already.

After polling a strong third in the days before the election, Franz faded to fifth with 6.8% of the vote. A pair of pro-EU candidates, Milos Zeman and Karel Schwarzenberg, topped the field to advance to a runoff held in late January. While the post is largely ceremonial, the Czech President does play a role in foreign affairs and appoints central bank officials.

The community of Gheorghies is saddened by Franz's loss, mostly because we're confident that had we known of him earlier, we could have brought our significant influence in Eastern Europe to bear. At the very least, we could have lifted him to the runoff. We just sent a Doofus to Europe - imagine what he could have done to rally support for Professor Franz.

Our bad.

18 comments:

Marls said...

It appears we are having trouble getting our doofus bak.

Marls said...

back

rob said...

we're bringing doofus back...yeah.

/timberlake

zman said...

Um, shouldn't we throw our support behind Milos Zeman?

rob said...

now that you mention it...

rob said...

though his constituency seems rather narrow.

zman said...

But deep.

Shlara said...

Rob--this was not the photo I wanted to see while having breakfast this morning...

rob said...

rabid anti-tattooist

rob said...

but good to know that gtb is part of your breakfast routine. helps with advertisers.

Dave said...

i'm thinking of getting a life-sized tattoo of mitt romney's face on my face. insert obama joke here.

Clarence said...

Timely political reference by Dave. Biting.

zman said...

Then rob will say "wipe that face off your face."

Squeaky said...

Public Enemy might just be trolling all of their hardcore followers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cok88P0AUlc&feature=youtu.be

Is that a Kenny G solo in there?

Jerry said...

It's surprising, but a face like that actually seems to draw one's attention to the gleaming white tea cup in his hand. If I were advising him, I would've recommended drinking out of darker and less shiny cups.

Jerry said...

Did TJ get abducted by Pizza the Hut again?

Jerry said...

And are we in the process of raising the required 1 million Spacebucks to secure your return?

Mark said...

I'm just going to wait Pizza the Hut out. He'll get hungry and eat himself to death.