Late Night Catch-Up. Curt Weldon Full Of It. Johnny Damon Was Right...

Late Night Catch-Up

I'm back at the keyboard after having dealt with the following issues: Playing out the league softball schedule (with a 12-5 win on Wednesday, my team is now 9-6 with one game to go tomorrow night before the playoffs begin), power outages and water in my basement (the result of torrential rains that fell this weekend).


Curt Weldon, Old Shoe Salesman

But now I'm back to report on the story with which I last left you, namely the crap about there being some type of Clinton-esque conspiracy to keep law enforcement stupider than they should have been vis-a-vis the alleged "knowledge" that Mohammed Atta was under surveillance as early as 1999. It turns out that Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon (R - Lying Shitbag) was less than "certain" about the information that led to his accusations of last week. Excerpt from Kevin Drum's Political Animal via Atrios:

In a particularly dramatic scene in Weldon's book, Countdown to Terror, the Pennsylvania Republican described personally handing to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley, just after Sept. 11, an Able Danger chart produced in 1999 identifying Atta. But Weldon told Time he's no longer certain Atta's name was on that original document. The congressman says he handed Hadley his only copy. Still, last week he referred reporters to a recently reconstructed version of the chart in his office where, among dozens of names and photos of terrorists from around the world, there was a color mug shot of Mohammad Atta, circled in black marker.

So: Weldon is no longer certain Atta's name was on his original chart? Isn't that the kind of thing that would stick in your memory banks?

And he gave Hadley his only copy? Then how did he have a poster-size copy of the chart again without Atta's name a few months later?

What's more, if Atta's name wasn't on the chart in 2001, 2002, 2003, or 2004, why did the chart suddenly have a color mug shot of Atta in 2005? Hmmm?

The first paragraph of the excerpt is taken from the Time magazine report that shows the original New York Times story to be bogus. The three questions that follow are Drum's sensible inquiries, because Weldon, it turns out, is, in the words of my grandfather, full of old shoes. The only question that remains is, will the Democrats, or the saner Republicans do anything about it?

Full story link: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_08/006908.php


Johnny Damon Was Right After All...

The Red Sox cracks are showing. Well, ackshully, it's just one huge crack, and not David Wells bending over to pick up an El Guapo sandwich. Nope, it is Curt Schilling. Fresh off the heels of a just-ended Red Sox defeat, in which he surrendered a 6-4 lead to lose 7-6 to the Detroit Tigers, it is safe to say that centerfielder Johnny Damon's misgivings about letting Schilling rehab back to the starting rotation by letting him close games in Keith Foulke's absence, was a mistake of Bush-like proportions.

Let's review: Since taking this role, Schilling has given up 22 hits for 13 earned runs (5 home runs) in 20 1/3 innings. That makes his ERA a whopping 5.75. His fastball is usually at 90-91, and he has had trouble with location on several occasions. I have no doubt he is giving it his all, but the obvious question to ask is, is he healthy enough to be out there in any capacity? I'd like to think that manager Terry Francona and his staff know more about these things than I do, but the results are there for all to see. The Sox now have a 3 1/2 game lead over the Yankees, who beat Tampa Bay 5-2 this evening. Not a good time for cracks to begin showing as the sprint portion of the marathon begins.