Pat Tillman: Just another hack job

If your reaction to my little headline is one of disgust, here's why: Tillman is an undeniably dynamic American figure.

Problem is, it's not Tillman himself who's the hack job. Rather, he's the subject of one.

News has broken stating that a prominent General warned President Bush about a week after Tillman was shot that his shooter was likely American. For those who don't remember, Tillman was the NFL safety who was killed in the line of duty. It seems that Tillman was awarded the Silver Star posthumously, between the time Major General Stanley McChrystal wrote his memo and the time Tillman's family was informed of its contents.

None of this would have even come to light, of course, except that the family has repeatedly refused to accept the official version, choosing instead (perhaps they're communists) to get real mad and demand more investigating. Now we have this memo.

Now, a man who was the symbol of the American spirit, has become a symbol of American bullshit.

Same man. It's certainly not his fault. Still a driven patriot. Still looks good in a beret.

It's the presidency that's changed.

No; that's not it. Same presidency.

It's just that after seven years... for some reason... people are starting to pay attention.

-Zed

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"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
-Sir Joshua Reynolds

Snippin de what?

Scroll down this important article for Dr. Kevin's full name.

Big Red Herring to Dr. Kevin's great, great, great grandfather.

-Zed

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"If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got."
-Unknown

Three U's Fewer

Today's Herring is an easy one. At least, we know in whose general direction to hurl it in: Venezuela's.

Now, whether we're trying to hit corrupt government officials, or the disgraced Ugueth Urbina, is unclear. But one of them has behaved very badly.

Urbina (known as the only pitcher in Major League history with the initials U.U.U., not to mention the closer for the 2003 World Champion Florida Marlins, and a strong money pitcher generally) has been sentenced to 14 years in a Venezuelan prison for an incident at his ranch involving machetes, gasoline, and some deeply conflicting versions of events.

It's the feiry celebrity who had his minions butcher a handfull of strangers -- or, it's the corrupt South-of-the-border system that would end a man's career (and subject him to who-knows-what horrible conditions in that cell) in the desperate hope to squeeze every ounce of blood from the stone, bribe-arily speaking.

One suspects the system, the same one that allowed a pack of bandits to kidnap Urbina's mother just two springs ago and hold her for an eight-figure ransom. But events are fuzzy, and this one just doesn't have enough information for the Gringos to suss out. (Put it this way; Urbina's constant free-agent bouncing around -- and lack of affiliation with a deep-pocketed Major League franchise -- could conceivably cost him his life.)

The one thing we know is we can't blink our eyes and forget this one happened.

Oh wait.

Yes, we can.

-Zed

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"I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts."
-Bethania McKenstry

Will John Kerry please shut the fuck up?

Welcome, kids, to my new blog. Don't forget, the old one was torpedoed by my own stupidity. So it can happen to anyone.

No, we won't be handing out fish carcasses on the daily. First off, we haven't got enough to go around, as the cat keeps eating them. But second, not everyone does something appropriately stupid every single day -- sometimes we have to talk about,y'know, smart stuff.

That said, Today's Red Herring goes to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA-DUH), who's gone on record again begging Major League Baseball to change the outlet for its Extra Innings subscription package. Okay, so the ludicrous spectacle of dragging Mark McGwire and co. in front of Congress worked; you still have to explain to me why the almost most leader of the freeish world has to bother persistently squawking about a small-time cable deal. Those doubting that MLB Advanced Media honcho Bob DuPuy (pronounced Do Pay, ironically) is more powerful than a member of the U.S. Senate, look no further.

As Family Guy son Chris Griffin scrawled on a wall while under the influence of his evil pimple, Doug: That's... enough... John... Mayer!

Or what have you.

Also newsworthy today:

The city of San Francisco continues to entice the 49ers with attractive alternatives to the Santa Clara alternative. (Click the link, and play this little game: find the sentence where John York pretends to care about the inhabitants of Bayview-Hunter's Point!)

Now, while it's true that, organizationally speaking, I wouldn't piss on the 49ers if they were on fire, what a nice little story to keep one of the world's most recognizable sports franchises in place. A little anti-climactic, yes, after the ne'er-was Olympic bid, but hey, no one knew about that at the time, so why lament it now?

Finally, you all are on notice: this blog is work. Work, I say (I'm sitting at work right now!) Therefore, you all must contribute by posting a comment now and then, or I'll shamelessly beg you to do so again. Hey, if it's good enough for Stephen Colbert...

-Zed

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"There are no stupid questions; only stupid people who ask questions."
-Chris Berman