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Frightening:

AUSTIN, Texas - A small plane crashed Thursday into a multistory office building in Austin, causing a fire and sending black smoke billowing from the seven-story structure, officials said. At least two people were injured and a third was unaccounted for.

Federal officials said the incident did not appear to be terrorism-related but authorities were investigating whether the pilot intentionally crashed the plane, according to media reports.

Authorities were investigating whether the plane crash was related to an Austin-area house fire earlier in the day.

The plane hit the Echelon Building, which is next to a major highway in north Austin.

Fires were burning from the second through fourth floors, KXAN reported. Crews used ladder trucks and hoses to battle the blazes. Dozens of windows were blown out of the hulking black building and vehicles traveling on a nearby highway paused to look.

All the initial reports are downplaying this as an act of domestic terrorism, including ABC, which reports the following statement from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's office:

"The Secretary is aware of the situation in Austin. We do not yet know the cause of the plane crash. At this time, we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to criminal or terrorist activity. We are in the process of coordinating with state officials and other federal partners to gather more information. At this time, we will defer additional questions to local officials and the FAA," Chandler said.

However, an NTSB official just told Fox News that this was being investigated as an intentional act.

Considering that this building reportedly mostly houses IRS buildings, it seems unlikely that it was not domestic terrorism. We'll have to wait and see.

Details as they emerge.

UPDATE: The pilot has been identified as a Joseph Andrew Stack, who appears to have left the following suicide note on the Web, titled "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS Man ... take my pound of flesh and sleep well".

It's a classic right-wing extremist rant.

UPDATE2: I'm amending this. Upon giving this a more careful reading, it's clear this is actually much more complex than your typical right-wing rant; it has a lot of standard right-wing features, particularly the fetish about the IRS and the notion that taxes are inimical to freedom; but there's obviously a lot more going on there as well. I'll post more on this later.

I'm reproducing it in full below in case it disappears from the Web:

Continue reading »

NBC Sports Chief Survives Plane Crash

By P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - A charter plane carrying NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol crashed and burst into flames during takeoff from a southwest Colorado airport Sunday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring Ebersol and one of his sons. Rescue crews were searching for another son.

Dick Ebersol, 57, and son Charles Ebersol survived the crash at the Montrose Regional Airport outside this southwest Colorado town, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV.

Eyewitness Chuck Distel told The Associated Press by phone that Charles, a college senior, helped his father out through the front of the plane, whose cockpit had been ripped off by the force of the crash. read

Jet Crashes Before Picking Up Elder Bush

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - A private jet that was en route to Houston to pick up former President Bush (news - web sites) clipped a light pole and crashed Monday as it approached Hobby Airport in thick fog, killing all three people aboard.

The Gulfstream G-1159A jet, coming into Houston, went down about 6:15 a.m. in an undeveloped area 1 1/2 miles south of the airport, officials said. The former president had been scheduled to travel to Ecuador for a conference.

"I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning," Bush said through spokesman Tom Frechette. "I'd flown with this group before and know them well. I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families."

As Dave Neiwert has so often documented, the online right wing communities are a breeding ground for rage directed at the government. But you know what I find fascinating? That these angry "patriots" are taking out low-level employees, plain old working people doing their job.

In other words, the very same philosophy al Qaeda used to justify the World Trade Center attacks on civilians. Interesting, huh?

The setting was seemingly random: an outer gate at the Pentagon at evening rush hour. But John Patrick Bedell's violent rampage Thursday made him only the latest in the growing ranks of the disaffected and disturbed to take aim at a symbol of official Washington.

The shooting contained jarring echoes of other recent attacks, from last month's plane crash at an IRS building in Texas to the shooting last June of a museum guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the District. Although the circumstances differ greatly, all were acts of rage by men who blamed their personal misfortunes on what they perceived to be sinister forces within the government.

All three also appear to have drawn ideological nourishment from the same well: online communities of like-minded people who validate and amplify extreme views. Today, more than in recent years, such communities are tapping into a broad undercurrent of anti-government discontent fueled by economic recession, joblessness and concern over the growing federal deficit, according to experts who have studied the phenomenon.

For Bedell and others like him, Washington and its institutions are an irresistible target -- the "ultimate symbol of power for the powerless," said Jerrold Post, a professor of political psychology at George Washington University.

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Fox News' anchors seemed eager to assure viewers today that the plane-crash attack on IRS offices in Austin this morning was not an act of domestic terrorism.

Oh really?

Now, it's true that Homeland Security officials originally released this statement:

“We believe there’s no nexus with criminal or terrorist activity”

They later amended this to just say "terrorist activity." Fox's Catherine Herridge also reported that Homeland Security officials had briefed President Obama on the incident, and that he had been told "this was not an act of terrorism."

So how did Fox's anchors interpret all this?

Greg Jarrett:

And the president was told this was not an act of terrorism. We have not received word, though, as to whether the F-16s are still airborne, just in case, until the Department of Homeland Security and the military is absolutely satisfied that this is the act of a single individual who used a dangerous instrumentality, to be sure, a plane, as a weapon.

And it is akin, I suppose, Megan, to, you know, somebody who gets angry at a workplace, and takes a gun, or a knife, and goes in and begins to attack people. This is unusual because instead of a gun or an automobile, it was indeed an airplane. But it has happened before.

Megyn Kelly:

Our Homeland Security contacts telling us, this does not appear to be terrorism in any way that that word is conventionally understood. We understand from officials that this is a sole, isolated act.

Well, this is true only if the conventional understanding of the word "terrorism" has now been narrowed down to mean only international terrorism and to preclude domestic terrorism altogether.

Since when, after all, is attempting to blow up a federal office as a protest against federal policies NOT an act of domestic terrorism?

Continue reading »

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Beverly Eckert with Pete Seeger at an anti-war rally.

Although this doesn't mention it, Beverly Eckert was also one of the widows who pushed for the formation of the 9/11 Commission - which, faulty as it was, was better than it would have been, thanks to her efforts.

And it also doesn't talk about her dedicated work with September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an anti-war group which works for peaceful solutions around the world.

Rest in peace, Beverly.

On September 11, 2001, Beverly Eckert was talking to her beloved husband on a cell phone as he fought to escape the World Trade Center. When the south tower collapsed, she was still on the phone with him and listened to him die.

In the days, weeks and years after the 9/11 attacks, Eckert was a tireless advocate for the victims' families. She spearheaded protests that led politicians to set aside more land for a memorial at Ground Zero, fought to ensure federal authorities would thoroughly probe the cause of the twin towers' collapse and spoke eloquently again and again about her husband, Sean Rooney, and the many others who died that day.

Today, Eckert's relatives are grieving again. She was one of the 49 people who perished in a plane crash in Buffalo late Thursday. Eckert was traveling upstate to celebrate the 58th birthday of her late husband, who was a native of Buffalo. She was scheduled to deliver an address to Canisius High School, where Sean's legacy was to be honored with a scholarship.

"We know she was on that plane and now she's with him" Eckert’s sister Sue Borque told The Buffalo News at the Buffalo Airport where flight 3047 was scheduled to land at 10:40 p.m.

Eckert, who was a member of the 9/11 Commission's Family Steering Committee, spearheaded a push to have the airlines held liable for the security lapses and other missteps that allowed terrorists to hijack the passenger jets. She told Congress she was suing the airlines because "lawmakers capped the liability of the airlines at the behest of lobbyists who descended on Washington while the September 11 fires still smoldered.”

Eckert also was instrumental in securing a compensation fund for the families of 9/11 victims. Her impassioned plea before the House of Representatives in 2004 contributed to a $7 billion pay-out to more than 5,000 families.

You silly tinfoil hat-wearing people will of course try to make me think there's a connection between this and this - or possibly even this:

LAKE TWP.: A single-prop, private airplane crashed next to a vacant house on Charolais Street Northwest Friday evening, exploding into flames and killing the pilot.

Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township, was alone in the plane, according to State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard.

Connell was a prominent Republican political consultant. He founded New Media Communications in Richfield, which developed campaign Web sites for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and President George W. Bush.

I mean, who would ever believe that nice Karl Rove would have threatened this man? Or that his attorney recently asked for protection for his client? Just another one of those coinkydinks that happen when people fly small planes!

UPDATE: Larisa has more. He was one of her sources.

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We saw on TV today that a plane crashed in Manhattan earlier. You guys know I'm a big Yankee fan and I cover them on my other blog. I just found out that Yankee pitcher, Cory Lidle was killed on that plane. I just watched him on the YES Network the other day call in and defend some of the comments he made about Joe Torre after the Yanks lost to Detroit. Cory said that he was misquoted and thought Joe Torre was the best manager the Yankees could have...I'm stunned.