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(LiveLeak via Talking Points Memo) Nothing happens until just after 2 minutes in when you see the plane come in from the left, seemingly having just hit the water. It comes to a stop and then the video zooms in, mere seconds later, and there are already people climbing onto the wing. And very quickly after that the first ferry arrives. Just how fast people were out, and how quickly the ferries started getting there to pull people to safety is just stunning.
(From Flikr user imjustsayin via Huffington Post) Given where that plane was heading right before the pilot changed course and headed for the river, this could have been so much amazingly worse than it was. Not just the people on the plane, but the people on the ground that would have been hit as well. Looks vaguely like he first was going to attempt to return to La Guardia, then decided he wasn’t going to make it, so headed for the river instead. That could just be the way this guy interpolated the data points though. You could easily draw a curve through those points that headed directly to the river. Regardless though, point is that if the pilot hadn’t been on the ball, there could have been quite a few ground deaths as well as those on the plane. The fact that this happened with no injuries more severe than broken bones is amazing. I’ve always thought the tradition of having people in the gallery that you point out during the State of the Union address is stupid and should be retired, but if Obama continues that condition, I think you can be pretty sure that pilot is going to be one of the ones up there. This is just awesome. (via Balloon Juice) I wish things like this happened more on a national level. (Yeah, I know, I’m a few days behind. And yes, the podcast will be out in a few hours.) Oh, and the actual official bit on video: (via Think Progress) I had work and stuff, so of course I’m many hours late on this, but the election is finally official: It’s Official!
Looks like Burris is being seated. This is the right result. And while (as I said in the podcast) I’ve heard arguments on both sides, I was most convinced by the ones saying that if the senate didn’t seat Burris, and Burris took it to court, Burris would probably win. Whatever Blago did, he is still Governor. The legislature could have impeached or scheduled a special election, but they did not. He was within his full rights to appoint someone. I still think though that he should have been a real dick about it and appointed either himself, Fitzgerald, or some random homeless guy. Well, turns out our good Governor was just in Iraq and her staff did a really bad job managing the message while she was gone. But hey, as I’m sure most of you heard yesterday Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General! (via Drudge and dozens of other places) Hmmm… Gregoire as Commerce Secretary?
All I can say is that from what little exposure I’ve had to her (seeing her in person a couple times at the Democratic caucus events and watching one of the televised Gubernatorial debates) I really really REALLY don’t like her. Yet I find myself torn between being happy she won’t be in Washington State any more, and appalled that she will be in the Obama administration. Assuming the rumors turn out to be true of course. I’m catching up on Monday’s news at the moment, and see a lot about Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller (important Dems on the intelligence committees) not “approving” of Obama’s appointment of Leon Panetta for CIA. Because he doesn’t have enough intelligence experience. I don’t buy that at all. I think what is going on here is that from the initial reports I have read Panetta doesn’t buy into a lot of the stuff that’s been going on in the Intelligence world the last few years. He’s taken an absolutely unequivocal stand against torture and “enhanced interrogation” for instance. Meanwhile, leading congressional Democrats on the relevant committees have been briefed on what the Bush administration was doing ALL ALONG. And for the most part, they went along with it and made no attempt to stop or slow what was going on, and in many cases actively supported it. I think if you get people in charge on the executive side of the fence that are on record saying these things are not just the wrong thing to do, but in many cases completely immoral and perhaps even in some cases criminal, that the facts about who knew about things and who supported things will slowly come out, and a lot of people will not come out looking good. And it isn’t just Republican’s who will be tainted. A lot of congressional Democrats will be found to have been neck deep in it as well. That is what Feinstein and Rockefeller and such don’t like. Someone who does NOT have a heavy Intelligence background (like Panetta) and who therefore hasn’t been indoctrinated into the groupthink, will come in there, see what was going on, and may very well do a “WTF??? You were doing WHAT?” and start actually making noise about some of the bad things that have happened. Some of it may be public. Chances are much more will be private and internal and not see the light of day for a long time, but feathers will still get ruffled. Or maybe I’m full of it. But when I hear Congressional Dems complaining about something like this, I immediately wonder what their real agenda is, because I don’t think it is the same as their public line. Of course, all of the above doesn’t mean Panetta would have been my pick or that I know enough to say I approve of him or disapprove of him… I haven’t looked into it enough to really say… Maybe he really is a bad fit. I’m just saying I don’t trust the folks that are criticizing on experience grounds alone right now at ALL, and that they probably have other motives that aren’t really all that pure and are probably more about themselves than about Panetta. Yellowstone is rumbling. Plume’s Path
(via Instapundit) More recent stuff from Sullivan here. Chances of a major eruption are or course actually very remote, but Yellowstone is worth watching because it is one of those “supervolcanos” that have a habit of every few hundred thousand years erupting in a way that dwarfs “normal” volcanic eruptions and sometimes effect continent sized areas. The last time Yellowstone erupted was 640,000 years ago or so. Anyway, Yellowstone is rumbling right now, with a “swarm” of Earthquakes indicating movement of the subterranean magma. Fun! |
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