As Nicole already noted here, Richard Engel and his crew were captured and kidnapped in Syria and thankfully released earlier this week after five days in captivity, before they were eventually rescued. Engel joined Rachel Maddow on her show this Friday and relayed the details of their ordeal.

Engel and his crew are very, very lucky to be alive. We don't have too many reporters who are willing to go into the middle of war zones as Engel does on a regular basis and risk their lives. I'm just glad they made it out of there alive.

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Joe the Plumber is unfortunately NOT going away but heading to Israel to be a propoganda "war" correspondent for Pajamas Media. Jon Stewart as usual puts this into the proper perspective that our sorry excuse for a "main stream media" does not.

Stewart: Hey Joe, what are you going to be doing over there brother?

JTP: We don't really get the full story. And so I'm gonna' go there, interview some Israeli soldiers, civilian population and get their take on what's going on.

Stewart: Yes your interviewing there will be very helpful. Also while you're over there in Gaza they haven't had water for ten days. So you know what they could actually use. A PLUMBER!!

[...]

Stewart: So Joe, ah, reporting, interviewing people, it's a new field for you. What kind of prep work have you been doing?

JTP: Ah you know I've just been studying new, everything that comes out on the news lately, um, trying to get uh, how to pronounciate some of the names, things like that.

Stewart: You know often the first casualty of war is pronounciunciation. Now Joe the Plumber's mission is relatively harmless but how will Joe the Plumber keep safe and Joe please phrase your answer in a way that is most offensive to the people of the region.

John McCain, I hope you're ooohhh so proud of yourself for inflicting this man and Sarah Palin on the rest of us and having that be a part of your legacy which I truly hope follows you to and haunts you in your grave.