The Comair commuter plane that crashed in Kentucky this morning killing 49 people, all but the pilot, reportedly took off on the wrong runway, one too short for commercial planes.

The crash was the country's worst domestic airplane accident in nearly six years.

How tragic. Our condolences go to the families of the victims.

In 2001, Oklahoma condemned murderer Alvie "Jim" Hale's last words were:

"I want to say goodbye to my family and friends. Thanks for being there and supporting me," he said. "Watch what you see here. Remember it, and go tell somebody."

In anticipation of the imminent execution of 24 year old Elijah Page who has ended his appeals and now prepares for death, reporter Jeff Martin of the Argus Leader today remembers an earlier execution he witnessed in Oklahoma, that of Alvie "Jim" Hale in 2001. It's a vivid recollection. The part about the "soundtrack of death" is chilling. But not as much as this:

Good news from Gaza. The two Fox News journalists kidnapped two weeks ago have been freed.

American correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel...Their captors, a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, had demanded the release of all Muslims imprisoned by the U.S. by midnight Saturday in exchange for freeing the journalists. It was not immediately clear whether the kidnappers received anything in return for freeing the journalists.

The kidnappers' group affiliation is still being debated. The group identified itself as the Holy Jihad Brigades, but:

It also remained unclear whether the kidnappers were local militants, either with ties to Hamas or the rival Fatah movement, or sneaked into Gaza from outside. However, some Palestinian security officials said Sunday there were growing suspicions that the kidnappers were locals.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Update: Here is the journalists' conversion video. Here's a video of Steve Centanni's first statement on release.

Illiniois has begun to see the light and takes a step in the right direction in dealing with juvenile offenders:

Barbed wire is on the way out as the state's new Juvenile Justice Department stresses education and reform to give young offenders a chance to turn around....For more than three decades, the Illinois Department of Corrections had been responsible both for the state's adult convicts and for juveniles serving time here. But this summer, in a swing of the pendulum away from an emphasis on punishment and back toward a focus on reform, Illinois created a new Department of Juvenile Justice.

...."With kids we have to lock up because of their behavior, our goal is to motivate them, not suppress them," said Malcolm Young, executive director of the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison advocacy group that helped drive creation of the new agency. "We want to stimulate them with textures, colors, softer sounds, brightness and even food they like, not stultify them in a cold, closed, hard, flat uncaring setting."

Let's hope other states will watch and learn.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and David Corn's new book, Hubris, names Richard Armitage as the leaker of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and the source for both Bob Woodward and Bob Novak. Isikoff reports in Newsweek that Armitage realized he was the leaker when he read Novak's October 1, 2003 column describing his source as "no partisan gunslinger." Armitage then reported his suspicion

Within hours, William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser, notified a senior Justice official that Armitage had information relevant to the case.a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA. (The memo made no reference to her undercover status.) Armitage had met with Novak in his State Department office on July 8, 2003--just days before Novak published his first piece identifying Plame. Powell, Armitage and Taft, the only three officials at the State Department who knew the story, never breathed a word of it publicly and Armitage's role remained secret.

This doesn't end the discussion. Isikoff has been speculating about Armitage since 2005. As Needlenose, who has followed the case closely writes:

This is one way to make sure the comments are fixed. I'll be working on the site today, so here's a place for you to write what's on your mind.

Update: Comments seem to be fixed.

********
I know there's a problem with commenting on TalkLeft today. This time it's my fault. I thought I would try to set up a separate blog for the Jonbenet Ramsey case and in copying templates I screwed something up.

I'm trying to find Mike Ditto to help me recover them. When I realized it last night, I opened up comments, but by this morning there were so many spam comments for ringtones and drugs I had to close them again.

Please be patient. It's not Typekey's fault or the hosting company's. I'll let you know when it's fixed.

How twisted is this? Jesus' General, Defamer and TBogg have more. New York officials want to ban the show.

More news on Segregation Island and Media Matters has more here.

Can you spell b-o-y-c-o-t-t? It's only seven words and it's only common sense. Whenever it airs in your locale, make sure your tv's are on and tuned to a different channel.

by TChris

If you need to be on time to your destination and you plan to fly, think about leaving a few days early. In this month of unwarranted panic, it's become common to hear about flights that return home, or land at the wrong destination, to investigate perceived threats.

Flights have been disturbed three times (so far) just today (update: there have been six reported incidents today) (second update: seven):

• A flight from England to Chicago was diverted to Bangor, Maine today to investigate a (so far unspecified) "security concern."

• A flight from Phoenix to North Carolina landed in Oklahoma City after "some kind of altercation between the passenger and a flight attendant." An air marshall subdued the passenger.

• A flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated after making a scheduled landing in Shannon as the result of a phone call that apparently conveyed a threat.

If this had happened to a parent of a small child, I bet felony neglect charges would be filed. A Merced, CA drug cop was searching a house and left his narcotics sniffing dog unattended in his vehicle for hours in 102 degree heat. The dog died from the heat.

Riley's handler, officer Jeff Horn, left her in the back seat of his patrol car outside the department's central station on M Street while he and other officers prepared paperwork to request a search warrant.

Horn reportedly left the car's engine and air conditioner running but found the engine stalled upon returning to the car. The outside temperature in Merced at the time Riley's body was found -- around 4 p.m. -- was 102 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The vehicle's windows were rolled up.

There may or may not be disciplinary charges filed against Horn. I never thought I'd feel sorry for a drug-sniffing dog, but this is so sad. What a slow, painful death it must have been.

Next week's Katrina anniversary poses a huge vulnerability for Republicans as they head into the November elections. The White House has already started a massive PR campaign to spin the facts. Don't be fooled. Think Progress has published a timeline laying them all out.

by TChris

Free speech doesn't extend to Hezbollah -- or to those who help Hezbollah speak. That's the lesson learned by a New Yorker who provides satellite broadcasts to customers. The broadcasts include Christian evangelists and, until recently, the Hezbollah station Al Manar.

Javed Iqbal's home and storefront were raided by federal agents, and now he's behind bars, held on a ridiculously high bail -- $250,000 -- for allegedly providing "material support for terrorism." Does "supporting terrorism" include rebroadcasting programming that's available in much of the rest of the world?

"It appears that the statute under which Mr. Iqbal is being prosecuted includes a First Amendment exemption that prevents the government from punishing people for importing news communications," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Such an exemption is constitutionally necessary, and the fact that the government is proceeding with the prosecution in spite of it raises serious questions about how free our marketplace of idea is."