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This afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed President Trump would “absolutely” be signing a resolution drafted by Republican and Democrat lawmakers “condemning” hatred. “He and [Senator Tim Scott] talked about that and discussed that and agreed that that was the appropriate place to be,” Sanders said. “In terms of whether or not he’ll sign the joint resolution, absolutely, and he looks forward to doing so as soon as he receives it.” Let’s examine what the motion, passed by both legislative chambers early this week, says. The preamble, in addition to expressing “support for the Charlottesville community,” demands...

Little Rock, Arkansas (CNN) -- A cache of new -- largely unvarnished -- interviews with former members of the Bill Clinton White House were released on Friday and offer a glimpse into both the triumphs and tribulations of the Clinton White House. Everyone from former aides like Leon Panetta and Bruce Reed to world leaders like Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic, and Kim Dae-jung, the former president of South Korea, were interviewed for the project. Released by the University of Virginia's Miller Center and conducted after President Bill Clinton left office, the transcripts will be a...

November 19. That's the date a bust of Vaclav Havel is to be dedicated in National Statuary Hall at this country's Capitol, and it's perfect timing -- for November 19 will also be the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution he led and embodied in his native Czechoslovakia. Oh, the euphoria of those days when the Cold War was drawing to a close and the Soviet Union with it, and one after the other its captive nations were breaking their chains -- none more peacefully, successfully and triumphantly than the one this playwright turned dissident led in his little country....

Vaclav Havel "The Power of the Powerless" (1978) A SPECTER is haunting Eastern Europe: the specter of what in the West is called "dissent" This specter has not appeared out of thin air. It is a natural and inevitable consequence of the present historical phase of the system it is haunting....

Twenty years after the "return to Europe" championed by former President Václav Havel, who died on December 18, the debate about the Czech Republic's relationship with the EU is dominated by two political camps that are both devoid of real ideas about the union's future. Celebrating the start of the Czech Presidency of the EU on 1 January 2009 Josef Mlejnek Jr.“Back to Europe” was the election slogan of Civic Forum [a political movement in the Czech part of post-89 Czechoslovakia] in 1990, a slogan that supporters of European integration have frequently quoted in recent years in arguments with the...

Vaclav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. Beginning in the 1960s, Havel’s work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77 brought him international fame as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia; it also led to his imprisonment. His political activities resulted in multiple stays in...

Foreign Policy interviewed Former Czech President, political prisoner and playwright Vaclav Havel on Barack Obama and the costs of moral compromise. Question: How, as president, do you decide when these small compromises are worth it and when they might lead to something more dangerous? Havel: Politics, it means, every day making some compromises, and to choose between one evil and another evil, and to decide which is bigger and which is smaller. But sometimes, some of these compromises could be very dangerous because it could be the beginning of the road of making a lot of other compromises, which are...

In these decadent times when powerful people in the West cannot conceive of any response to totalitarian jihad other than rank appeasement, and when the name of Che Guevara, a bloodthirsty Stalinist and enemy of freedom, is synonymous with heroism, it is vital that free people be familiar with — and honor — the examples of those valiant few who, living under totalitarianism, have stood up to it with a courage that today’s appeasers of Islam could hardly imagine. Among the greatest of these heroes is Vaclav Havel. Born in 1936, Havel spent his early years under the two major...

Prague - Russia in the era of outgoing President Vladimir Putin is a new-style dictatorship ruled by KGB spies and mobsters, former Czech president Vaclav Havel said in a Wednesday interview with Lidove Noviny daily. "The era of president Putin brought a new type of dictatorship, dangerous in its inconspicuous fashion," said the Soviet-era dissident playwright turned Czech Republic's long-time post-communist president. The Putin rule has been a combination of "the worse from both communism and capitalism," Havel said. "A grouping, simply said, of KGBs and mafiosi has ascended to power." He said that Russia seems to have a difficulty...

Based on what you'll read in this report, we can clearly establish that not only Havel was privileged to receive certain favors from the communists [his frequent visits of the capitalist West Germany, Austria and so forth - ordinary people would not be allowed to travel there during the openly communist era], but also Havel was glad to co-operate with these communist criminals...

February 5, 2003. Czech Republic travel warning on Kosovo, Macedonia | 13:09 | PRAGUE -- Wednesday – The Czech Foreign Ministry today warned its citizens against staying in Kosovo or Macedonia, saying that the security situation in the region had deteriorated. In its warning , the Ministry says that tension has increased throughout Kosovo and the security situation in Macedonia has again become dangerous. “Under these security conditions, the Foreign Ministry advises Czech citizens to reconsider plans to travel to these regions,” said the statement.

Václav Havel Funeral Draws World Leaders and Hundreds of Mourners Cameron, Clinton and Sarkozy at funeral of Czech Republic's first democratically elected president after Velvet Revolution 23 December 2011 Czechs and world leaders have paid an emotional tribute to Václav Havel at a pomp-filled funeral ceremony, ending a week of public grief and nostalgia over the death of the dissident playwright who led the 1989 revolution that ended four decades of communist rule. Church bells tolled while a wailing siren brought the country to a standstill in a minute of silence for the nation's first democratically elected president after the...

What do the late champion of freedom and the Russian strong man have in common? Both were recipients of Germany's Quadriga Award. [quote] Havel was given many awards in his lifetime, though never the Nobel Prizes (for peace or literature) which he so richly deserved. But notable among his prizes was Germany's prestigious Quadriga Award, which he won in 2009 and then returned earlier this year when Vladimir Putin was named the 2011 recipient. [end quote] The prize honors "role models for Germany" and commemorates the reunification of East and West Germany. What could the judges possibly have been thinking?...

Leadership: Europe's outpouring of grief over the death of Vaclav Havel, hero of Czechoslovakia's great Velvet Revolution, says much about its longing for more like him. His honesty and courage liberated Europe. Some 75,000 Czechs bearing roses and candles lined up in Wenceslas Square beginning Sunday, as they once did in 1989, to pay tribute to one of the greatest freedom fighters of the 20th century. Havel died Sunday at age 75 after liberating his country, leading his nation as president from 1989-2003, and voicing his moral authority to scourge lingering tyrants in Cuba, Burma and China. Havel, a playwright...

Vaclav Havel Was Both A Political And An Intellectual Hero. You Couldn't Say That Of Our Politicians Ed West December 18th, 2011 Vaclav Havel: thinker, statesman, hero of the people. It says much about Vaclav Havel that, perhaps alone among European politicians, his face can often be seen gracing the walls of restaurants in his homeland. People might wish to pay such a tribute to their monarch, or in some parts of Europe their religious leaders; rarely to politicians. How many of Britain or France's former heads of government might inspire such genuine affection? Havel, who died today in the...

Vaclav Havel, who died on December 18 aged 75 , was President of Czechoslovakia and later of the Czech Republic, but enjoyed his finest hour before he attained office when, in December 1989, he led “the Velvet Revolution” which toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. In those crucial days Havel was able to draw upon the moral authority which he had built up over two decades as a dissident playwright. By contrast, as President of Czechoslovakia between 1990 and 1992 he could not prevent the disintegration of the Czechoslovak federation into its two constituent parts. And after he became President...

Vaclav Havel wove theater into revolution, leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan" and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule. Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" after four decades of suffocating repression — and of the epic struggle that ended the wider Cold War. He was his country's first democratically elected president, leading it through the early challenges of democracy and its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, though...

Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic's first president after the Velvet Revolution against communist rule, has died at the age of 75. The former dissident playwright, who suffered from prolonged ill-health, died on Sunday morning, his secretary Sabina Tancecova said. As president, he presided over Czechoslovakia's transition to democracy and a free-market economy.

Via The Right Scoop, here’s a heartwarming story from Turtle Bay that will have you saying “awww.” Or perhaps, “errrr…” The UN General Assembly offered a moment of silence to honor a world leader that passed away this week — and it wasn’t Vaclav Havel: "The 66th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday observed a minute’s silence to mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 66th General Assembly session, asked the representatives of 193 UN member states attending a plenary session on...

This past weekend, two stark reminders of the nightmare that communism was, and continues to be, left the world stage. These two people couldn’t be more different in their outlook and actions. One was Václav Havel, the Czech playwright, poet and intellectual, who spent years in prison, but whose willingness to stand up and tell the truth about the lies and brutality that were the essence of the Soviet Union and his own captive nation makes him a significant figure in the pantheon of those instrumental in defeating the Soviet Union. In 1993 he became the president of the Czech...