Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

I used to drink in a pub called Zeno’s, but that was years ago and it might have started with an X.

Joba Chamberlain was suspended for two games for throwing two pitches high in the 9th inning to that prick Youlkilis, or however you spell his name.

Larry Craig is going to resign. Though I despise the cop who flirted with and arrested him, Craig turned out not to be a good person, a disgusting little man who couldn’t control his perverse urges.

I have been diagnosed with throat cancer.

Senator Jack Warner will not run again. Everyone thinks that seats now a walk for Democrat Mark Warner, but I think George Allen can beat him.

Well, we’ve swept three from the Sox, and the theme is the Yankees’ season-long weakness: starting pitching. Andy Pettitte pitched an artful, professional game for the Yanks, allowing three runs in seven innings, against another substandard outing by Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. He’s lost four straight, including twice to Tampa Bay and once to Baltimore. The hitting belonged to Left Fielder Johnny Damon.

On Wednesday, Rocket outpitched Beckett, and Mariano snagged a save. Damon and A-Rod carried the offense.

This afternoon, Chien Ming Wang pitched a gem and Curt Schilling furthered the case for Boston dropping him from the rotation for the postseason. Joba was ejected in the ninth without warning, showing for whom the AL crews are still pulling this season, but Edwar Ramirez finished the game. ‘T wasn’t a save situation, as the Yankees had slapped Hideki Okajima around in the bottom of the 8th.

New York trails Boston by 5 in the AL East, and as I type, they are up a half a game on Seattle for the wild card (pending the Mariners’ action at The Jake this evening). The Yankees can win the wild card, but I still do not see them catching Boston UNLESS they can sweep the Sox at Fenway beginning on the 15th of next month.

But the team which was dead at the end of June is in the pennant race, and that’s something.

The State of the Yankees is fine. We’ll see how Ian Kennedy does in Mussina’s spot, but I suspect the kid will be great.

No kidding.

This is from Reuters:

United Nations officials found vials of dangerous chemicals, which had been removed from Iraq a decade ago, in a U.N. building in New York, but U.N. officials said on Thursday there was no danger.

The FBI was called in to help remove the substances.

The material was phosgene, a chemical warfare agent, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a news conference.

The inspections unit said in a statement that the chemicals had been found last Friday.

The Iraqi weapons inspectors came across the material as they were closing their offices, which are housed in a building near the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for the inspectors.

Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a choking agent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

So the U.N. weapons inspectors found Saddam’s stuff from several years before the invasion and took it into the United States, stashing it in their offices.

Somebody print this front-and-center, front page, banner headline.

The Yankees are my team, and their third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, is the best player in baseball. They played game 2 of their mid-week series against the Boston Red Sox last night at the stadium, and I regret that I saw this bit in the New York Times’ Bats blog:

The celebrities really are out for this series. On Tuesday night, Tiger Woods, Cameron Diaz and Katie Couric were in the stands. Alex Rodriguez got Couric to autograph a bat for him, and he signed some items for her, too.

I just paid $399 for a baseball autographed by A-Rod, and she gets this stuff for free just for being giggling on the Today show several years ago.

And she wasn’t in the Middle East, as promised.

Here’s the story some guy told to the Idaho Statesman. He said that he met a guy who looked like Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) in a bathroom at Union Station in DC. He said they relieved themselves in the urinals, but the bathroom became crowded so they went to another bathroom. He claimed that he was able to fellate the guy who looked like Larry Craig for a few seconds but that bathroom quickly became crowded again. So the two of them went their separate ways.

Why did the Iowa Statesman publish this story? They’re probably drunk and just don’t care.

I don’t know about all that secret code in a Minneapolis mensroom or if the Senator is gay, but the story mentioned above is crap and should not have been published.

You all know the story.

I don’t know the mensroom gay code at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, so I cannot comment on what any of this thumb twiddling and foot tapping meant, or on the Senator’s innocense or guilt, but if he is guilty, he should resign. If he is not, he ought to seriously consider it. He plead guilty to something, for whatever reason, and this incident and the newspaper’s harrassment has made it so that he can no longer effectively serve the people of Idaho.

For that reason, he should step aside. Governor Huntsman can appoint a Republican to take the seat, and it will remain safely in the hands of the party that gives a damn about our national security and economic health.

I could not care less about the jokes from the lefties, as they live and breathe their own perverse brand of hilarity. We’ll mock those hypocrites later.

I’m dealing with a few issues which will be a distraction of sorts, but on a lighter note, Mark Feinsand says it is good that the Yankees beat the Red Sox last night in order “to make them feel good about themselves.” They’re pounding their opponents offensively, but they’re not winning.

He thinks Clemens can beat Beckett this evening. Rocket’s showing his age.

We shall see.

[This one was first posted at Rathergate.com, and it is here dedicated to Phil.]

Freedom’s Watch has produced ads, airing now on FNC and CNN, urging support for the mission in Iraq as doable and the war winnable. According to the folks at PowerLine, MSNBC and CNBC have refused to air the spots.

Like the Congressional Democrats, NBC-brand cable networks have invested too much of their capital and future credibility in a United States defeat to allow talk of victory. They are frightened that we might win, and that is sick.

[This post is dedicated to Phil.]

Phil Hughes should be pitching in AA, but this game turned on a first inning misjudgment by Hideki Matsui in left, allowing Curt Granderson to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run. It wasn’t Hideki’s fault, but it set the tone for Hughes and for the game.

Farnsworth pitched another brilliant inning, so that’s nice.

Tonight, it’s Mussina vs. Verlander. If Moose can still pitch, and not toss the ball for others to hit, he’d better do it now. He’s the question mark.

Tomorrow night, it’s Boston: Matsuzaka vs. Pettitte. That one shouldn’t be close.

[This post is dedicated to Phil.]