<<< UPDATE: Photos added >>>

If you hadn't heard as yet, Martin Jan Stransky will be running as an independent candidate under the Veci verejne banner sometime around October 2008, when a Czech General Election is expected to be called.

I had an opportunity to recently sit with the famous Czech neurologist, who hails from a long line of prominent Czechs -- dating all the way back to the late Imperial period, when his great-grandfather Adolf Stransky founded popular Czech daily Lidove noviny -- owns up to a staunch dissident background, with a father who served in the RFE/RL ranks during the worst of the "normalization" years, in addition to being a practicing neurologist at Prague' Narodni Poliklinika. Said introduction was for the benefit of my international English-language readership...to my Czech interlocutors, you already know the story...

Here were some choice quotables emanating form our morning's meeting:

"Never before has there been a Czech Senator was also an American citizen. This is a unique opportunity for Czech politics, 19 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain."

"I understand the needs of the constituents of the Prague 1 District because I've been working for more than a decade and a half within it. When a local resident's power suddenly goes off, they're not the only ones who face this problem -- it plagues our offices as well. When traffic snarls cause noise decibels to use in our district, they affect the Clinic's offices as well. But there are solutions to these problems which I've been thinking about, and I'll commit to working together with our Constituents to drill down to these problems' core."

"Jednicka is a melange of different sorts -- pensioners, retirees, assertive young Czech businesspeople wishing to live closer to their workplaces...even immigrants to Cesko who vote in our elections -- I understand the various sorts because I dwell here."

"My offices are open...if anyone would like to visit me, please stop by our offices for Open House any Wednesday. I and my staff will personally greet you, we will all listen intently to your concerns, and I commit to showing you my professional world."

For more information on Martin Jan Stransky, click here, here, and/or here