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September 30, 2007

Giving due

I am a frequent critic of Chronicle NFL sports columinst John McClain's seemingly endless cheerleading for the Texans. But McClain is still capable of writing a good column on occasion, such as this recent one on the colorful fights over the year between various local coaches and players, on one hand, and local sportswriters, on the other. Why can't he write this way about the Texans?

Posted by Tom at 12:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 29, 2007

That certainly answers that question

This earlier post wondered what was up with the apparently involuntary four month leave-of-absence of Galveston-based U.S. District Judge, Sam Kent.

Well, now we know.

The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday reprimanding and admonishing Judge Kent in regard to a complaint complaint of judicial misconduct lodged against the judge on in May alleging sexual harassment toward an employee of the federal judicial system. A former case manager for Judge Kent confirmed to the Texas Lawyer and then the Chronicle that she filed the complaint against the judge, but declined further comment. The former case manager now works in the clerk's office in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas.

Nevertheless, the prospect of further litigation is definitely possible. The clerk has hired prominent Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, who is always good for a quote or two. "We have been watching, with interest, the investigation," Hardin told the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, Judge Kent appears to be putting up a fight to the charges. He has hired prominent defense attorney Maria Wyckoff Boyce of Baker & Botts to represent him. My sense is that the brevity of the Judicial Council's order indicates that the panel expects further litigation over the allegetions.

Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones, who is not one to take such matters lightly, signed the order and wrote that a Special Investigatory Committee appointed to investigate the complaint expanded the original complaint and investigated other "instances of alleged inappropriate behavior toward other employees of the federal judicial system." The committee recommended a reprimand "along with the accomplishment of other remedial courses of action." The judicial council accepted the recommendations and concluded the proceedings "because appropriate remedial action had been and will be taken, including but not limited to the Judge's four-month leave of absence from the bench, reallocation of the Galveston/Houston docket and other measures." The special investigatory committee's Report, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Recommendations, and Judge Kent's Response to the Report, are confidential and will not be disclosed.

According to the Chronicle account, one of the more interesting allegations apparently investigated by the panel was the following:

"That Kent inappropriately favored former colleagues and other favorites in his decisions and in overseeing settlement negotiations. In 2001, Kent was ordered to transfer all cases from his court that were handled by his best friend."

H'mm. Wonder if that had any impact on this recent settlement (see background here)?

Update: Ilya Somin provides some additional background on Judge Kent.

And this Galveston Daily News article provides some additional information on the case:

The Daily News was told the judge called his case manager to his office, where physical contact occurred.

When she resisted, he told her she owed him because he had interceded in her favor in a dispute among clerk’s office employees, the paper was told.

Since Kent was suspended in August, The Daily News has conducted interviews with more than a dozen members of the legal community — lawyers, their employees and employees of the court. Some claimed first-hand knowledge of allegations of Kent’s misconduct, but none agreed to be identified.

McBroom wasn’t the only female employee Kent, who is more than 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds, is alleged to have touched inappropriately, The Daily News was told. [. . .]

Those aren’t the only reports that Kent engaged in inappropriate conduct.

Other sources have told The Daily News that, at a party and in the offices of a law firm, a drunken Kent cornered women and grabbed them.

Posted by Tom at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 28, 2007

Legal problem of the day

An employee of a client of yours comes to you with a problem. He has been downloading child pornography on his computer. He has not distributed it and has no information that he is under investigation. However, he is quite ashamed of himself and wants to start over. The client leaves the computer with you and asks you to destroy it. What do you do?

Well, according to this article (related NY Times article here), you better be very careful if you decide to do what your client asks:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Federal prosecutors who charged a prominent attorney with destroying evidence in a child pornography investigation want to use his own words and actions in past cases to show he should have known better

Philip Russell was charged Feb. 16 with destroying a computer that contained child pornography at Christ Church in Greenwich. Russell, a former attorney for the church, is accused of obstructing an FBI investigation that led to the January conviction of the church's music director, Robert Tate, for possessing child pornography.[. . .]

Russell acknowledges he destroyed the computer, but says he had no reason to believe the matter was under investigation or that it would lead to an investigation.

As the Times article notes, Russell pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of assisting the commission of a felony by failing to report it or by concealing it. Had he continued to fight the charge, he would have stood trial on two counts of obstruction of justice, which could have resulted in a far harsher sentence. Nonetheless, the charge that he pled to is a felony, so Russell still faces the possible loss or suspension of his law license.

Before the plea deal, prosecutors contended that Russell should have given the FBI his client's computer containing child pornography instead of destroying it. Thus, they accused him of obstructing justice under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which only requires a showing that an investigation was "foreseeable" rather than pending. Russell had “substantial experience” in such cases and, thus, prosecutors are contending that he knew that a federal investigation "was foreseeable and likely."

Russell's lawyer, Robert Casale, contended that the prosecution's reliance on his client’s positions in past cases to prosecute him in this case has dangerous implications to the defense of defendants' rights in the American criminal justice system. "In a democratic society that employs an adversarial system of justice, lawyers must be free to zealously advocate their client's interests without fear of the consequences that their words will someday be used against them personally," he wrote.

Casale's point sure sounds right to me.

Update: Ellen Podgor has more.

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One way to drug test

Steve Elling reports on European Tour Director George O'Grady's idea on an effective and low-cost drug-testing procedure for the PGA and European Tours:

O'Grady estimated that drug tests will cost $1,000 per player, which makes the possibility of testing an entire European Tour field all but impossible. The PGA Tour will have that luxury, conversely, if it elects to head in that direction. Many of the particulars on testing and penalties are still in flux and financials will doubtlessly play a huge role in how much urinalysis is done on the various worldwide circuits.

"So it's not so simple as pissing into a pot and moving on," O'Grady said. "We cannot write off a million pounds. We don't have that kind of money." [. . .]

Prodded by a reporter, O'Grady also unleashed a half-serious zinger with regard to the drug testing program, which is being initiated as much to protect the sport's reputation as it is to catch what's assumed to be a tiny handful of cheaters, if any.

Just test Tiger Woods and be done with it.

"From what I understand, he would be the first in line to volunteer for testing," O'Grady said. "If Tiger Woods' test comes back negative, what does it matter what the rest of them are on?

Come to think of it, he's got a point.

Posted by Tom at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Serious choking

Remember at the end of the 2006 MLB regular season when the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse was the most uncomfortable place in the U.S.?

This season, the same thing is true for the New York Mets clubhouse.

The Mets recently led by 7 games with 17 to go, but they have lost four straight and 11 of their last 14 while the second-place Phillies have caught fire. After losing to the Cardinals on Thursday night, the Mets fell into a tie for first place with the Phillies in the NL East at 87-72 with three games to play. To make matters worse, the Mets may have also played their way out of the NL wildcard playoff spot if they don't win their division -- San Diego leads by a game in the wildcard race going into the final weekend of the regular season. No team has ever failed to reach the postseason after being so far ahead this close to the end of the regular season. If the Mets don’t make it, this will be go down as an epic collapse, particularly by New York's rather demanding standards.

Aggies, some other fans are sharing your pain.

By the way, this will be a fun weekend of baseball. The races in the NL East, NL West and the NL wildcard race are so close and uncertain that the Diamondbacks, the team that entered yesterday with the NL's best record, still could miss the playoffs entirely. Meanwhile, the Cubs (83-76) are two up on the Brewers in the NL Central with three games to go and have the decidedly easier games (against the Reds) over the weekend (the Brewers host the NL West leading Padres).

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September 27, 2007

What a business!

For a rollicking good read, don't miss Jeff Matthews' post on KKR pulling out of the Harman International Industries deal last week:

Now, you might think that someone of Mr. Kravis’ stature in the Private Equity business would recognize a bad decision when he saw it, honor his commitments and move on.

But no, the Journal reported: KKR not only wanted to break the Harman deal, but they apparently wanted help from the bankers in paying the termination fee.

Don't miss the entire post. Highly entertaining.

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Shasta talks about the Duck mugging

We all got a few chuckles over the Oregon Duck mascot's mugging of the Houston Cougar mascot during the football game between the two institutions' teams earlier this season.

Well, the UH student newspaper provides this follow-up article on the student -- Kinesiology major Matt Stolt -- who mans the Cougar mascot costume. Stolt turns out to be a gentleman who handled the incident and the aftermath with admirable maturity and good nature. Bully for him!

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Coach Fran's strategy even has Ahmadinejad baffled

The picture on the left appeared on a Texas A&M football message board -- which is still reeling from the Aggies' debacle last Thursday against Miami -- with the following caption:

"Jovorskie Lane finish with 2 carries for 2 yards. How is this possible?"

The TV Tan Line has more.

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September 26, 2007

House calls making a comeback?

Despite the drag that America's highly-regulated health care finance system places on the delivery of medical services, glimmers of entrepreneurial hope still shine through occasionally:

A new kind of medical practice is flourishing nationwide that offers to go to where the patients are — whether a home, an office or a hotel — to treat ailments as diverse as a sprained ankle or a bad case of bronchitis. Some services may even wheel in a mobile X-ray machine or an ultrasound machine, depending on the ailment, or perhaps pull out kits to test for strep throat or to draw blood. They may dole out medication on the spot or arrange for pharmacies to deliver prescriptions.

“When you call, you can speak to a doctor in five minutes, and that doctor can be there with you within the hour. Where else do you get that kind of delivery?” said Walter Krause, founder of Inn-House Doctor. The company says it has 40 physicians on call in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Washington; some of the doctors are in private practice or work in hospitals, and they make house calls during their time off.

The convenience comes at a price. Appointment fees can range from $250 to $450, with additional tests and medication extra. And payment is due at the time of the appointment.

The website for the service is here. Critics will contend that this service amounts to house calls for the rich, but it is nevertheless a good example of how medical service markets will respond to patients controlling the funds that they are willing to spend on medical services. Frankly, my bet is that that this type of service would already be available at a much lower cost but for the fact that most patients have been insulated from the true cost of medical services and the expenditure of their health care dollars for decades now.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The troubles of Sean Jones

Former Houston Oilers defensive end and local sports radio celebrity Sean Jones appears to be in a heap of trouble.

On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Jones with failing to turn over the records from his defunct "investment advisory" business. Jones apparently told the SEC that he had discontinued the advisory business in 2004, but the business continued to maintain a Web site until mid-2007 promoting its "wealth management" programs and the fact that the company was "subject to periodic SEC examinations."

Uh, the current SEC examination is not what I think Jones had in mind.

In June of this year, Jones and four others were indicted on charges of mortgage fraud in U.S. District Court in Houston. According to the indictment, the defendants conspired to obtain home loans based on inflated propeorty values on behalf of unqualified buyers, then diverted some of the loan proceeds to themselves. Between 1999 and 2001, the prosectuion charged Jones and his co-defendants with 12 counts of bank fraud, each of which carries a possible prison sentence of up to 30 years imprisonment and a possible fine of up to $1 million.

Jones' trial on the criminal charges is currently scheduled for May 12, 2008 before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein. Jones is represented by Tom Hagemann and Marla Poirot of Gardere Wynne's Houston office.

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Sputnik and The Shadow of the Moon

This fine John Noble Wilford/NY Times article on the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's launching of the Sputnik sattelite is a timely prompt to pass along the trailer for Ron Howard's widely-anticpated documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, which opened last week in Houston at the Angelika and the Greenway theaters.

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September 25, 2007

50 years with Darrell Royal

Has it really been 50 years since the University of Texas hired Darrell Royal to revive its flagging football program?

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Selling a house?

University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee provides common sense advice on sellling a house:

So by being hung up about whether your condominium will sell for what you paid for it, you aren’t just driving yourself crazy trying to get a buyer. You may be threatening the very performance of the economy and driving up the unemployment rate — provided that many others behave in a similar way.

What is to be done? Well, if you are holding out for an above-market price to recoup your losses, perhaps you would do well to hear the advice that Professor [Christopher] Mayer gives his own family members.

“If you want to sell your house then you list it at the market price and you sell it,” he said. “If you don’t really want to sell then don’t put it on the market. But don’t say you want to sell and then set the price so high that you spend the year cleaning up every morning, having people walk through your living room and look in your medicine cabinets and reject you. That’s just painful — and expensive.”

His research offers a simple lesson for everyone out there waiting for a high price to push them back into the black: Get real.

The folks over at Political Calculations take Goolsbee's advice one step further and provide a handy calculator for determining the true value of a house.

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More on lackluster Vista

Ben Worthen's WSJ Business Tech blog post channels Warren Meyer's opinion of Windows Vista:

Microsoft started selling Vista, the latest version of its Windows operating system, to businesses last November. And despite the fact that over 90% of businesses run Windows, only 7% of large companies plan to switch to Vista this year, according to this Journal article. The article touches on all the reasons that companies are delaying the switch: Some of the security software isn’t ready; problems with special software called “drivers” that run printers and other devices; the fact that most companies run software that may not work with the new operating system.

This blog thinks it all suggests one thing: Companies don’t need Vista yet. In the past, Microsoft was replacing a version of Windows with known flaws or introducing a new version with a lot more capabilities. But XP, the version of Windows that was released in 2002, works great – or at least good enough for businesses.

The Chronicle's best columnist -- technology expert Dwight Silverman -- also contributes his thoughts on Vista.

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September 24, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(AP Photo/Dave Einsel)
Colts 30 Texans 24

Amidst the wide-eyed wonderment that a few wins by the Texans (2-1) evokes from Houston Chronicle sportswriters, the Colts (3-0) systematically build a 27-10 lead after three quarters and then cruised to the victory (previous weekly summaries here). Texans RB Ahman Green was injured on his first rushing attempt of the game and the Texans were never able to mount any meaningful running attack against the Colts. By the way, my annual preview of the Texans' season contained the following point about Coach Kubiak's decision to sign Green:

An example of the dubious decision-making regarding offensive personnel is the signing of RB Ahman Green, formerly of Green Bay. Green was a great running back in his prime with the Pack, but he has averaged less than four yards per carry for the past two seasons. Inasmuch as the Texans agreed to pay Green $23 million over four years ($8 million guaranteed in the first season), the chances that the 30-year old Green will be worth the value of this contract this season are tenuous, at best. The chances of him still being worth the contract a couple of years from now are so speculative to be off the charts.

So, let's hold off on christening of Kubiak as the next Bill Walsh just yet. The Texans go to Atlanta (0-3) next Sunday before returning home the following week to face Miami (0-3).

Miami 34 Texas Aggies 17

Oh, my.

This one was not as "close" as the final score indicates as UM (3-1) shoved the hapless Aggies (3-1) all over the field. The Aggies' model of controlling the ball with their strong rushing attack generally allows them to stay in games so long as they don't turn the ball over, but that's precisely what they did against the Hurricanes. Unfortunately, fat guy up the gut, busted option play and an incomplete pass pretty much sums up most Aggie offensive series after they fall behind by a couple of scores. The Ags get Baylor (2-2) and Oklahoma State (2-2/1-0) at home the next two weeks before a the brutal part of their schedule begins in three weeks at Texas Tech (3-1/0-1). Coach Franchione's fate appears to be hanging by a thread.

Houston Cougars 38 Colorado State 27

After spotting CSU (0-3) a 17-3 halftime lead, the Cougars (2-1) trailed CSU (0-3) 24-10 with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter and faced a 4th down and 10 situation at the Rams' 27 yard line. About 30 seconds later, after a TD pass and an ensuing fumble return for a TD, the Coogs had tied the game at 24. The Cougars tacked on a couple of TD's in the final period to pull out a win that probably established redshirt freshman QB Case Keenum as the successor to Kevin Kolb. The Cougars take on East Carolina (1-3) next Saturday night at Robertson Stadium.

Texas Longhorns 58 Rice 14

The Longhorns (4-0) rolled in this glorified scrimmage against the hapless Owls (0-4), but still showed little to lead anyone to think that they have much of a chance against Oklahoma the week after next. But at least no Longhorns were arrested on Saturday night after the game celebrating the win. As for Rice, at least the Marching Owl Band got in a few good licks.

With Texas leading 41-7 at intermission, the suspense at Royal-Memorial Stadium actually peaked when the teams left the field.

That's when the Rice Marching Owl Band — the notorious MOB — commenced its halftime show.

Known for its biting spoofs, the 80-piece MOB opened with the "Dragnet Theme." Wearing dark sunglasses and suit coats bearing the Rice crest, the musicians formed the Texas "T" near the south end zone, just as the Longhorn band does before games.

Then their fun started.

Three "Longhorns" in burnt orange shirts and white helmets scampered downfield. Three cardboard black-and-white "police" cars gave chase.

Announcer William Price, a sousaphone player in the MOB, narrated: "In the two years since the MOB last visited Austin, your team's demeanor — and misdemeanor — has changed. Buy a program at today's game. It includes Mack Brown's wrist-slap Top 10 and a photo guide to the next episode of 'America's Most Wanted.' "

The skit was a nod to the Longhorns' recent experiences with the law-enforcement community in Austin. It could've been worse.

"The idea is to entertain people," explained Rice band director Chuck Throckmorton. "People aren't entertained when they're mad." [. . .]

After their show, the musicians enjoyed a standing ovation from much of the crowd.

The Horns tune up for OU weekend next Saturday in a "payback game" against Kansas State (2-1) (who upset the Horns and began their late-season swoon last year), while the Owls have an open date next weekend before going on the road to meet Southen Miss (2-1).

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Jaffa on Tyranny

In the magnificent penultimate scene in Steven Spielberg's 1997 film, Amistad, John Quincy Adams (played brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins) concludes his oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court with the following abnomition regarding the curse of slavery that is a central issue in the case::

"We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, ourselves. Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution."

"That's all I have to say."

Harry V. Jaffa, a Distinguished Fellow of the Claremont Institute and the author of the well-known study of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (University of Chicago Press, 1959) pens this interesting blog post in which he makes the following observation about President Bush's goal of eliminating tyranny in the world:

. . . [T]he president has . . . [declared] that it is our intention to eliminate tyranny from the world. These pronouncements show a profound ignorance, both of history and of political philosophy.

Our own government, by constitutional majorities, became possible only when sectarian religious differences were removed from the political process. The Constitution declares in Article VI that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Such a provision could not be found in any instrument of government in all of human history. (The Toleration Act of 1689 in England was full of religious tests.) In the aftermath of the religious wars in Europe, in which Protestants and Catholics slaughtered each other without restraint, our Founding Fathers recognized that majority rule was not possible if Protestants could thereby determine the religion of Catholics, or Catholics of Protestants, or Christians of Jews, or Jews of Christians. Government by majority rule —democracy in any sense — is not possible unless sectarian religious differences are kept out of the political process. But in Iraq, in the Middle East generally, there are no political differences that are not sectarian.

According to Abraham Lincoln, “The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.” By this he meant the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence. It was fidelity to these principles that led Lincoln in “the great secession winter” of 1860 and 1861 to refuse any compromise that permitted the extension of slavery. Compromises are possible only among those who share principles more fundamental than the interests they are asked to compromise. As a practical historical fact, when compromises are not possible war is the alternative, as it was in our Civil War. John Stuart Mill, an admirer of Lincoln, declared that “Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians.” The dominant forms of political life throughout the Middle East are, with only one exception, as barbaric as those of Europe during the wars of religion. Only a despotism, as benign as we can find, and one that can begin turning people away from sectarian fanaticism, will answer our purpose. Otherwise, they will have to fight it out among themselves, as we did.

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The Times discovers Houston's Hotel ZaZa

The New York Times travel section reviews Houston's Hotel ZaZa (formerly known as "The Warwick" to us oldtimers) and likes what it experiences.

Frankly, given the hotel's excellent location in the Museum District between downtown and the Texas Medical Center near Rice University and Hermann Park, what's not to like?

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September 23, 2007

More from the real Texans cheerleading squad

In mid-December of last year, with two games to play in the 2006 NFL season, the Texans looked deader than a doornail and not like a particularly well-coached team. The Texans closed the season by upsetting the Colts and beating a bad Browns team to finish with a 6-10 record.

After wins against a bad Chiefs team and a decent Carolina team to open the 2007 season, one of the Texans' leading cheerleaders -- Chronicle columnist John McClain -- is acting as if the Texans game today with the Colts is a playoff game. In this breathless piece, McClain is ready to anoint Texans head coach Gary Kubiak as the next Vince Lombardi or Bill Walsh:

In 2000 and 2005, I sat in Denver coach Mike Shanahan's office at the team's practice facility and the subject of conversation was the same each time.

I asked Shanahan what he thought about his offensive coordinator as a head coaching candidate. On both occasions, Shanahan responded like a Washington power broker pushing a candidate for national office.

"I'm telling you, Gary's going to make a great head coach, and teams that pass him up are going to regret it," Shanahan said of Gary Kubiak. "I know what I'm talking about. I've watched him at every level. I've been around him since 1984." [. . .]

"Gary communicates well with his players and coaches. He knows how to get a point across. He's demanding. He's tough when he needs to be. Players want to play for him because they respect him. If a team has an opening, and they don't go after Gary, they're making a big mistake."

Shanahan was right.

Texans owner Bob McNair passed up Kubiak as the franchise's first coach. He didn't want to make that mistake again.

McNair hired Kubiak for Sundays like this one. And Kubiak came back home for weekends like this.

See Richard Justice's equally breathless column about the Texans here. This reminds me of the similar columns that McClain and Justice often wrote about Texans GM Charlie Casserly and head coach Dom Capers before the Texans' disastrous 2-14 record in Year 4 of the franchise. Maybe McClain is right about Kubiak. I hope he is. But at least make him earn the accolades first.

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September 22, 2007

The ultimate jury verdict

Stuart M. Rees of Stu's Views nails it again in depicting the true thoughts of most juries.

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September 21, 2007

Coopertown?

Dr. Kenneth Cooper of Dallas may have oversold the benefits of aerobic exercise, but will the same be true for his new real estate venture?:

Dr. Cooper is developing a $2 billion residential wellness community here called Cooper Life at Craig Ranch that is going up on the first 51 of an eventual 151 acres on the Texas plains, north of Dallas.

Taking the concept of spa real estate into the medical realm, Dr. Cooper’s community promises home buyers a life that sounds equal parts Norman Rockwell and Olympic village: a small town where doctors will make house calls and where every resident has a bevy of experts close at hand for keeping in tiptop shape.

It appears to be the first of its kind. . . .

Included in the monthly residential fee ($1,041 for an individual to $2,181 for a family of six) will be an annual physical and a six-month follow-up, which Dr. Cooper calls key to his utopian vision of a place where everyone can live in peak health. The fee also includes home doctor visits, a fitness center membership, concierge services and exterior home maintenance, lectures and social activities.

While a diverse mix of ages and fitness levels are welcome, Dr. Cooper admits that many prospective residents may well be baby boomers with cushy bank accounts. “They’ve got the money,” Dr. Cooper said, “now they want to live long enough to enjoy it.”

I get exhausted just thinking about the thought of living there. ;^)

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Something ailing you?

If so, and even if not, check out these 100 Web Resources for Medical Professionals.

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The risk of exploration

Need a refresher course on just how risky it is exploring for oil and gas?

If so, check out this Wired article on Chevron's venture to drill for oil 30,000 feet under the Gulf of Mexico.

I don't know about you, but I think the folks investing in such ventures deserve every penny of profit that is may be generated from them.

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September 20, 2007

More on "Book'em Horns"

The legal problems of current and recent Texas Longhorn football players prompted this Book'em Horns post awhile back, but yesterday's news that yet another Longhorn football player had been arrested on criminal charges generated a new round of barbs toward the Longhorns, including the farked message below on the Godzillitron at UT's Royal-Memorial Stadium. Things have gotten so bad that Austin sports columnist Kirk Bohls is wondering whether the UT football team has replaced the University of Miami as the bad boys of big-time college football?

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Seaside in Texas?

First, the Wall Street Journal discovered the Hamptons of Houston. Now, this Wall Street Journal ($) article reports that the popular Seaside beach community just east of Destin, Florida is the model for several similar projects under construction on the Texas Gulf Coast:

Inspired by Seaside, the Florida-panhandle resort community that relies heavily on traditional architecture and planning, Mr. [Tofigh] Sherazi is overseeing development of a $1 billion, 260-acre beachfront community that seeks to reflect Galveston's past. The first of the project's four phases, 160 lots for single-family homes, is sold out. The development is designed to include a pedestrian-friendly mix of homes, shops and two hotels. "This is going to be a real town," he said.

Beachtown, as Mr. Sherazi's project is called, is part of a wave of New Urbanism on the Texas coast, from Galveston to South Padre Island. A planning movement that advocates walking over driving and borrows heavily from the design of traditional neighborhoods, New Urbanism has been largely overlooked on the Texas coast, even as it has flourished in Florida and beyond. [. . .]

. . . In addition to Beachtown, a 93-acre, $175 million urban village known as Evia is taking shape in Galveston. The work of local developers, the project will include a total of about 350 residential units, with 70% of the 222 lots for single-family homes sold.

Near Corpus Christi, the Sea Oats Group, of Atlanta, is developing a 64-acre, $250 million project called Cinnamon Shore that casts itself as a traditional seaside village, complete with a town center. Sales began in February, and 42 of 82 lots in phase one are sold. And on South Padre Island, a development in excess of $250 million called the Shores of South Padre also portrays itself as New Urbanist, though local developer Richard Franke's plan to include high-rise and midrise condominiums indicates he is no purist. "It's quite different from anything else in our area," said Mr. Franke. [. . .]

James Gaines, an economist at Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center, said beachfront property in Texas costs about a fifth of the price of similar property in California, in part because of its geography. Except for Galveston and a few coastal areas near Houston, none of Texas beachfront property is near a major urban center.

In an effort to market Cinnamon Shore, Sea Oats compared the cost of beachfront lots and beachfront homes in a number of markets. A lot at Seaside costs about $2.98 million, according to the company, but lots at Cinnamon Shore are going for about $625,000. In the same survey, the company said a beachfront home at Cinnamon Shore is valued at no more than $1.5 million, while a similar home could cost as much as $6.9 million across the Gulf of Mexico in Sarasota, Fla.

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Wisconsin no longer confused with The Woodands

As noted earlier here and here, the University of Wisconsin apparently does not have enough substantive legal work to keep its lawyers busy, so the university has made a cottage industry out of threatening high schools around the country that use a "W" logo that resembles the one used by the university's sports teams.

According to this article, it looks as if UW has proven that it has more money to waste on pursuing one of those frivolous lawsuits than my local high school here in The Woodlands. The Woodlands High School has agreed to change its "W" logo to the one on the left above.

I sincerely hope that the Iowa Hawkeyes kick Wisconsin's ass on the gridiron this Saturday. ;^)

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September 19, 2007

The Lerach deal

Former class action securities plaintiffs' lawyer William Lerach finally cut a non-cooperation plea deal (Nathan Koppel's WSJ Law Blog post is here) to resolve the longstanding criminal investigation into alleged undisclosed payments that Lerach and his firm made to class representatives and co-counsel in cases that they handled.

In certain defense and business circles, there is a fair amount of schadenfreude over Lerach's demise -- he had no reservation about alleging criminal conduct against business executives, such as he did when he claimed that Enron was shredding documents during the early stages of that company's bankruptcy case (that claim turned out to be wrong).

However, before we get too sanguine about Lerach's plea deal, let's not forget the circumstances under which it has been obtained. The 61-year old Lerach was facing a horrifying trial penalty if he chose to fight the charges, and he almost certainly will lose his law license as a result of pleading guilty to a felony. And as Larry Ribstein has repeatedly pointed out, it doesn't say much for our criminal justice system that the government is paying witnesses to testify against Lerach for the crime of paying his class representative clients. As Larry points out in his most recent post on the matter, the non-cooperation nature of the plea deal does not necessarily mean that the government isn't providing Lerach some form of hidden incentive for his plea.

Update: Ted Frank argues that Lerach's plea deal is, all things considered, not so bad for him, after all. On the other hand, Peter Henning is not so sure.

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An enduring myth of regulation

The New York Times is shocked to discover that big, established businesses often attempt to manipulate governmental regulation to their advantage over entrepreneurial startups. This hidden cost of regulation is one that I noted awhile back in regard to the proposed XM-Sirius merger. Many well-meaning folks -- usually those without much experience in business matters -- believe that regulation is good for the consumer because most established businesses generally abhor such regulation. However, established businesses typically use a part of their superior resources to manipulate regulation to their advantage and against the threat of beneficial competition from new companies. A big, well-established business can absorb the high cost of regulation and pass it along to the consumer. A thinly-leveraged start-up generally does not have that luxury.

Warren Meyer, who actually confronts this phenomenom as he runs his small business, makes the same point here and provides the following insightful quote on the subject from the late Milton Friedman:

The justification offered is always the same: to protect the consumer. However, the reason is demonstrated by observing who lobbies at the state legislature for the imposition or strengthening of licensure. The lobbyists are invariably representatives of the occupation in question rather than of the customers. True enough, plumbers presumably know better than anyone else what their customers need to be protected against. However, it is hard to regard altruistic concern for their customers as the primary motive behind their determined efforts to get legal power to decide who may be a plumber.

Thom Lambert also chimes in.

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A dose of Americana

Will Veber over at Road Tips reports on his trip (with pictures) to one of the last bastions of pure Americana -- the Iowa State Fair.

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September 18, 2007

Until Proven Innocent

Jeffrey Rosen reviews Stuart Taylor and K.C. Johnson's book on the angry mob that nearly lynched the lives of several young men in the Duke lacrosse team case:

At least “many of the journalists misled by [former DA Mike] Nifong eventually adjusted their views as evidence of innocence” came to light, the authors conclude. That’s more than can be said for Duke’s “activist professors,” 88 of whom signed an inflammatory letter encouraging a rush to judgment by the student protesters who were plastering the campus with wanted posters of the lacrosse team and waving a banner declaring “Castrate.” Even when confronted with DNA evidence of the players’ innocence, these professors refused to apologize and instead incoherently attacked their critics. In the same spirit, the authors charge, the president of Duke, Richard Brodhead, fired the lacrosse coach, canceled the season and condemned the team members for more than eight months. The pandering Brodhead, in this account, is more concerned about placating faculty ideologues than about understanding the realities of student life on his raunchy campus.

Does the foregoing remind you of the actions of another group of self-righteous crusaders?

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What makes us healthy?

Gary Taubes, a writer for Science magazine, is the author of the soon-to-be-released book Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease (Knopf September 25, 2007). He provides a don't miss preview of his book in this past Sunday's New York Times:

Many explanations have been offered to make sense of the here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of medical wisdom — what we are advised with confidence one year is reversed the next — but the simplest one is that it is the natural rhythm of science. An observation leads to a hypothesis. The hypothesis (last year’s advice) is tested, and it fails this year’s test, which is always the most likely outcome in any scientific endeavor. There are, after all, an infinite number of wrong hypotheses for every right one, and so the odds are always against any particular hypothesis being true, no matter how obvious or vitally important it might seem. [. . .]

The dangerous game being played here, as David Sackett, a retired Oxford University epidemiologist, has observed, is in the presumption of preventive medicine. The goal of the endeavor is to tell those of us who are otherwise in fine health how to remain healthy longer. But this advice comes with the expectation that any prescription given — whether diet or drug or a change in lifestyle — will indeed prevent disease rather than be the agent of our disability or untimely death. With that presumption, how unambiguous does the evidence have to be before any advice is offered? [. . .]

Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at Oxford University, phrases the nature of the conflict this way: “Epidemiology is so beautiful and provides such an important perspective on human life and death, but an incredible amount of rubbish is published,” by which he means the results of observational studies that appear daily in the news media and often become the basis of public-health recommendations about what we should or should not do to promote our continued good health. [. . .]

All of this suggests that the best advice is to keep in mind the law of unintended consequences. The reason clinicians test drugs with randomized trials is to establish whether the hoped-for benefits are real and, if so, whether there are unforeseen side effects that may outweigh the benefits. If the implication of an epidemiologist’s study is that some drug or diet will bring us improved prosperity and health, then wonder about the unforeseen consequences. In these cases, it’s never a bad idea to remain skeptical until somebody spends the time and the money to do a randomized trial and, contrary to much of the history of the endeavor to date, fails to refute it.

Read the entire article.

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Another reminder of Stros mismanagement

As noted earlier here, I am not as sure as most that Tim Purpura deserved to be canned as the Stros general manager. But there were definitely reasons that justified the move, one of which we are reminded of in this excellent Dan Rosenhack/NY Times article on why New York Yankees star Alex Rodiguez will not be worth the money that some team will pay him this off-season after he opts out of his contract with the Yankees:

Few free agents actually produce enough revenue to justify their contracts, and $30 million annually for Rodriguez would not be as outlandish as, say, the $17 million a season that the Astros gave to Carlos Lee last off-season.

At the time the Stros acquired Lee, I expressed the same sentiments. Lee's stat line for the season to date is a decent 14 RCAA/.350 OBA/.521 SLG/.871 OPS/29 HR's/111 RBI's. But that's not close to the production that one would reasonably expect from a $17 million per year player.

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September 17, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(AP Photo/Mike McCarn)
Houston Texans 34 Carolina 21

Don't pinch me. The Texans (2-0) have now won four straight games (previous weekly reviews are here)!

In a game strangely reminiscent of how the Texans used to lose games, Carolina (1-1) zoomed out to a 14-0 first quarter lead only to have the Texans reel off 34 straight points over the next two and a half quarters to put this one away. After giving up those two first quarter TD's, the Texans' defense stiffened and sacked the Panthers' QB Jake Delhomme three times while forcing three fumbles and an interception and holding Carolina to 66 rushing yards rushing. Texans QB Matt Schaub was a solid 20-28 for 227 yards and two TD passes to WR Andre Johnson (who, by the way, sprained a knee and may be out for awhile), and reborn RB Ahman Green rushed for 71 yards and a TD to lead the Texans. But this one was put away by a heady special teams play when CB Demarcus Faggins stripped Carolina returner Nick Goings of the ball on the kickoff after Green's TD and Texans WR Kevin Walter recovered the fumble in the end zone for a gift TD. That made the score 31-14 early in the third quarter and even the incredible Carolina WR Steve Smith couldn't bring get the Panthers back into the game. The Texans host Peyton Manning and the defending Super Bowl champion Colts (2-0) next Sunday in what is sure to be rockin' Reliant Stadium.

Houston Cougars 34 Tulane 10

The Coogs (1-1) cruised into the Superdome and creamed Tulane (0-2) despite leaving 3 TD's on the field with turnovers. Even without an established QB, the Cougars rolled up over 500 yards total offense and the defense looked much improved from the first game debacle against Oregon. The Coogs return home next Saturday to face a Colorado State (0-2) team that has played both Colorado and Cal close.

Texas Tech 59 Rice 24

Rice’s mid-second-quarter comeback drive brought the Owls to within 21-17 of the Red Raiders, but then Tech reeled off 35 straight points over the next 25 minutes to turn this one into a rout. Tech QB Graham Harrell thew six TD passes, three of which went to super WR Michael Crabtree, who had 11 catches for 245 yards. Rumor has it that the Marching Owl Band was attempting to organize a party for the players of both teams after the game to introduce the members of the Rice secondary to Crabtree. The Owls continue the sacrifical lamb portion of their schedule next week at Austin against the Longhorns (3-0).

Texas Longhorns 35 Central Florida 32

Speaking of the Horns, they pulled out the victory over Central Florida despite losing the lead in the 4th quarter and looking utterly undeserving of the 6th place ranking in the national polls. Despite the Longhorns' undefeated record, I see all sorts of problems with this team -- iffy run defense, overall lackluster linebacker play, an inconsistent rushing attack and questionable deep ball threats outside of WR Limas Sweed, who did not play much in this game because of a sprained ankle. After a scrimmage against Rice (0-3) next Saturday at Austin, the Horns play Kansas State (2-1) before their annual matchup with Oklahoma (3-0). The Horns definitely do not look ready for the Sooners.

Texas Aggies 54 Louisiana-Monroe 14

The Ags (3-0) dominated this scrimmage over hapless ULM (0-3) in a warmup for the Ags' nationally-televised game this Thursday night against Miami (2-1) at the Orange Bowl. Miami is not very good this season, having already been blasted by Oklahoma 59-13. However, before getting too confident, Aggie fans should consider that, one week after the Ags eeked out a 3OT victory over Fresno State, Oregon creamed the Bulldogs, 52-21.

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Jane Fonda, global warmer

Freakonomics authors Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt discover the not insubstantial impact that actress Jane Fonda has had on the United States' continued reliance on coal and other fossil fuels rather than clean and cheap nuclear energy.

Of course, Larry Ribstein has been writing about this phenomenom for years.

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A great ambassador for baseball?

We already know that Chronicle baseball reporter Jose de Jesus Ortiz does not bother to engage in even elementary levels of research before writing his articles. However, the following blurb in a recent column reflects atrocious research by even Ortiz's dubious standards:

Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, truly one of the greatest ambassadors for baseball during his lifetime, will celebrate his 80th birthday Saturday.

He shares that birthday with former Astros pitcher/broadcaster/manager Larry Dierker, one of the best ambassadors for Houston baseball for the last 43 years. Dierker turns 61 on Saturday.

Lasorda was honored with a pregame ceremony Friday night at Dodger Stadium with a video tribute on Dodgervision. Fans also received a bobblehead of the former manager.

"I am so very grateful the Dodgers are honoring my birthday with such a special bobblehead," he said.

That Lasorda is a wonderful "ambassador" for baseball is one of those myths that just won't go away. In reality, he was a marginal manager of Dodger teams with generally good personnel who has about as abrasive a personality as one can imagine. It is a travesty that Dierker -- who really is a classy man -- has his name linked with Lasorda. For a dose of Lasorda's true character, check out the following video of Lasorda's tirades from over the years (warning for even the not easily offended: Very foul language):

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September 16, 2007

Gambon on acting

Sir Michael Gambon is one of the finest character actors of our day. In the brief video below (h/t to my son, Cody), he brilliantly explains his theory on acting. Enjoy.

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September 15, 2007

The Texans' valuable brand

Forbes' annual valuation of National Football League franchises (related article here) was published this week, and the annual survey rates the Houston Texans as the fourth most valuable in the NFL at $1.056 billion (the Dallas Cowboys top the list this year at $1.5 billion). The value of public financing of stadiums has a huge impact on the valuations as all of the top 10 most valuable teams are the beneficiaries of either new stadiums or stadiums currently under construction. Several observations:

The Texans will probably decline in rank a bit in another year or two as the value of the Giants and Jets increases in response to the opening of their new stadium;

If you assume that Bud Adams' Houston Oilers would have been worth at least as much as the Texans had they remained in Houston and awaited a new stadium rather than taking flight to Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans, then Adams left over a cool $100 million on the table by making that move. And the difference in value between the Texans and the Titans is increasing;

A new stadium is not always a gold mine in terms of increasing a team's value. The Cardinals and the Lions have two of the newest stadiums in the NFL, but they are ranked only 23rd and 24th respectively out of the 32 NFL teams in terms of value;

Who would have ever thought that the San Francisco 49ers would be among the lowest valued NFL franchises (30th) and worth less than the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills?

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September 14, 2007

Stossel on "Sicko"

ABC News investigative reporter John Stossel provides this WSJ ($) op-ed in yesterday's paper in preparation for his long-awaited ABC special on America's health care and health care finance system tonight at 9 p.m., CDT:

Mr. [Michael] Moore [in his documentary "Sicko"] claims that because private insurance companies are driven by profit, they will always deny care to deserving patients. For this reason, he argues, profit-making health-insurance companies should be abolished, our health- care dollars turned over to the government, and the U.S. should institute a health-care system like the ones in Canada, Britain or France. [. . .]

Mr. Moore thinks that profit is the enemy and government is the answer. The opposite is true. Profit is what has created the amazing scientific innovations that the U.S. offers to the world. If government takes over, innovation slows, health care is rationed, and spending is controlled by politicians more influenced by the sob story of the moment than by medical science.

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The most loyal pro football fans

The Texans have developed a pretty impressive and loyal local fan base, particularly given the team's lack of success so far in its first five NFL seasons. But as loyal as Texans fans are, they don't hold a candle to Cleveland Browns fans, whose once legendary team was stolen from them (that team is now the Baltimore Ravens) and then reincarnated a few years before the Texans were created as one of the worst expansion franchises in the history of the NFL. As this News-Herald article reports, the Browns are now the answer to a new NFL trivia question:

Since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970, which team named a starting quarterback for its first game and then traded that player before its second one?

(Answer: Browns starter Charlie Frye was traded to the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday for a sixth-round draft pick.)

Moreover, while their Browns were getting thumped at home 34-7 by the Steelers this past Sunday, get a load of what the capacity crowd at the Browns stadium endured in the first offensive series of the season by the Browns:

1st and 10 from the Cleveland 20: Jamal Lewis rush for 2 yards (this was the high point of the series).

2nd and 8 from the 22: Charlie Frye pass incomplete.

3rd and 8 from the 22 Charlie Frye sacked at the Browns 17 for a 5 yard loss.

4th and 13 from the 17: Browns punter Paul Ernster "booms" a 15 yarder to the Cleveland 32. But that's just the beginning of the incompetence on that particular play. Look at the rest of the stat line for that fourth Browns play of the season:

Penalty on CLV-35-J.Harrison, Defensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at CLV 32.

Penalty on CLV-90-D.McMillan, Defensive Holding, declined.

Penalty on CLV-56-A.Peek, Illegal Formation, declined.

Penalty on CLV, Ineligible Downfield Kick, declined.

So, to recap, on their first offensive series of the season, the Browns had a 2 yard rush, an incomplete pass, a sack, and a 15 yard punt with four penalties. The Steelers took possession of the ball at the Cleveland 22 and scored a touchdown four plays later.

There is a special place in football heaven for Cleveland Browns fans. ;^)

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Not an advertisement for Vista

Don't look for Warren Meyer to be a spokesman for Microsoft Vista any time soon:

The laptop I bought my kids 6 months ago is rapidly becoming the worst purchase I have ever made. Not because the laptop is bad, but because of a momentary lack of diligence I bought one with Vista installed. It has been a never-ending disaster trying to get this computer to work. [. . .]

Vista is rapidly becoming the New Coke of operating systems. I have had every version of windows on my computer at one time or another, including Windows 1.0 and the egregious Windows ME, and I can say with confidence Vista is the worst of them all by far.

Read Meyer's entire post, which he backs up quite well. Meanwhile, sales of Vista continue to lag badly behind those of XP.

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September 13, 2007

How to buy your next new car

Inasmuch as I have four college age children, I have become somewhat of a used car buying expert. But if you are in the market for a new car, check out the five-minute video below of car guy Rob Gruhl giving some practical and clever advice on how to find, finance and negotiate buying a new car.

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Shasta mugged

Although the Houston Cougars put up a better fight against the Oregon Ducks than Michigan did, Shasta -- the Cougars' mascot -- had a can of whoopass opened up on him by the Oregon Duck mascot, as the video below reveals. As a result of the fracas, the Oregon mascot has been suspended for Oregon's next home game; meanwhile, it appears to me that Shasta could use a few lessons in self-defense. As a grizzled veteran of following Houston football, all I can say is that this would never have happened to Shasta while Bill Yeoman was coaching the Cougars. ;^)

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The hottest seat in Texas

After Texas A&M's narrow escape last weekend over Fresno State, Brett Zwerneman of the San Antonio Express-News continues to lead the chorus (see earlier posts here and here) that doubts A&M football coach Dennis Franchione is going to produce a serious Big 12 South contender in Aggieland:

How did it come to a triple-overtime game against a smaller program that finished 4-8 last season? The Aggies, however, did double up on Franchione's oft-stated goal of simply scoring one more point than their opponent. [. . .]

The No. 25 Aggies had better progress in a hurry, however, if they're to compete for their first Big 12 title in nearly a decade. A&M is lucky Bulldogs receiver Marlon Moore tried sticking the ball out for a touchdown — resulting in a fumble — during Saturday's first overtime. Texas A&M Otherwise, the Aggies would be 1-1, and Franchione might've had a tough time holding on to his gig — during the season.

A road game at Miami looms Sept. 20, with contests later in the season at Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri, comprising A&M's rockiest schedule since the league started play in 1996.

The above games are supposed to be tough. Fresno State wasn't. [. . .]

Franchione is a mediocre 27-23 through 50 games at A&M, but this was supposed to be the season that his veteran squad finally emerged as a true threat in the league.

Instead, all of the old questions about A&M's direction are bubbling to the surface. As one frustrated A&M graduate put it, Franchione was hired to close the gap with Texas and OU, not Baylor and Iowa State. [. . .]

Franchione, 56, already owns the worst overall loss and the two worst bowl losses in school history over his previous four seasons.

But hey, even if the Aggie football team is not top ten caliber, the Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band is!

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September 12, 2007

A billion dollar boondoggle?

Kevin Whited reports that downtown Houston's night life continues to dissipate from lack of demand. This despite the fact that various local governmental entities have invested at least $1 billion in the downtown area by building a baseball stadium, a basketball arena, a convention center hotel, a light rail system and assorted other goodies.

Sort of makes you wonder what would happen if even a portion of that $1 billion were invested in something that Houston really needs, such as improvements to flood control and traffic hotspots? My sense is that such an investment would dramatically lessen the risk that citizens would lose their lives or suffer property loss in the event of heavy rains (which occur with some regularity around here) or a traffic accident. Thus, we aren't as safe as we could be, but our local governmental officials have seen to it that we are as comfortable as reasonably possible while being entertained. Gotta love those priorities.

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Another Justia.com search tool

As noted earlier here and here, Tim Stanley and the folks over at Justia.com are developing some of the best and most useful legal search engines on the Web. I've been meaning to pass along a recent email from Tim, which introduces yet another cool tool:

"We have put online the Federal District Court case opinions and orders that are available using the opinion report in the Federal Courts' ECF. These are updated daily. We have categorized the opinions by state, court, type of lawsuit and judge and combinations of judge and type of lawsuit. You can also subscribe to each of categories through RSS feeds to track a judge or court's decisions on different issues. And we also give the cause of action for each case.

We are using Google's hosted Business Custom Search Engine for the full text search. Google is now OCRing PDF image files, so even PDF files that have images of scanned documents will be in most cases full text indexable and searchable. Like the OCR of Google's Book Search. You will need to look at the cached copy to see the highlighted searched text though, and then find in the original PDF to be 100% that what you are reading is correct. Google should be doing a pretty good job of indexing and ocring these court decisions, although it may take a few days for a new document to show up in the index.

We have also noted on the federal district court case filing database when we have a judge's opinion (you will see a little gavel. The case filings are at here."

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Only in New York (or make that New Jersey)

I recognize that real estate is a bit more expensive in New York than in other places. O.K., make that a whole lot more expensive.

But $1 million per season for a football luxury suite?

This is crazy expensive and it doesn't even include the cost of beer and brats. But it makes sense in a New York sort of way. If you are a hot-shot broker entertaining the next great hedge funds, you can't just go out and buy a luxury suite to a Giants game (although maybe you could for a Jets game ;^)). Inasmuch as the suites are being sold on 10-year contracts and rarely change hands once they are sold, a big shot has no way to ensure that he will be able to enjoy a game in 2015 in a luxury suite unless he owns a suite. In short, it's become the quintessential asset that money can't buy by the time the games are being played, so the big shots better pony up now or they will be out of luck.

And when New York eventually swings a Super Bowl, can you imagine the price that these babies will be selling for?

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September 11, 2007

Tiger's latest milestone and another caddy snit

In case the start of the NFL season distracted you, the remarkable Tiger Woods shot a closing round 63 at Cog Hill in Chicago to win another PGA Tour tournament over the weekend, the 60th professional tournament title of his storied career. ESPN.com's Bob Harig puts Wood's accomplishment in perspective:

Woods matched the tournament 18-hole record by shooting an 8-under 63 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, becoming the first player to do so twice. He posted the lowest four-day total (262) in 104 years of tournament competition -- which beat the previous mark by 5 strokes. He won the tournament that used to be known as the Western Open for the fifth time, just one behind Walter Hagen.

Woods has won five times at Cog Hill.

And he joined Sam Snead (82), Jack Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) among those with 60 or more victories in PGA Tour events.

All at age 31. [. . .]

He has won six or more times in a season five times. This year, four of his six wins have come at the biggest tournaments -- a major (PGA Championship), two World Golf Championship events (CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational) and now a playoff event.

And his other two victories came at two of the more popular regular tour events, the Buick Invitational and Wachovia Championship.

Perhaps just as remarkable as his number of victories is the speed with which he got there. Nicklaus was 36 years old when he won his 60th title in 1976. Palmer was 41 in 1971 when he won for the 60th time. Woods could take the next five years off and still be on pace to surpass Nicklaus, Hogan and Palmer.

Or, as Justin Rose put it, "I'd have to win 15 times a year for the next four years to get there by the time I'm 31."

Meanwhile, last weekend's tournament gave us yet another entertaining professional golfer-caddy snit (previous snit posts here and here), which gives me the opportunity to pass along this classic Caddyshack clip (which happens to be one of Tiger Woods' favorite movies) in which Bill Murray's legendary Carl Spackler explains how he successfully resolved a similar snit with while caddying for the the Dalai Lama:

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A couple of Houston legal legends

If you didn't catch it over the weekend, don't miss Mary Flood's article and related blog post on two legends of the Houston legal community, plaintiff's lawyer Joe Jamail and criminal defense attorney, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes.

I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to watch both of these masters in action over the years. Jamail's special talent is in his ability to talk to and relate with jurors, while Haynes is, bar none, the best craftsman of cross-examination that I have ever seen in a courtroom. Take a moment to learn more about two of the most important Houston lawyers of our time.

Photo of Jamail and Haynes by Johnny Hanson.

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Why is Ben Stein a business columnist?

Answer: To give bloggers an opportunity to point out that he apparently does not know what he is writing about.

Inasmuch as I've taken Stein to task on several earlier columns (see here, here and here), I was getting ready to prepare a post pointing out the folly of Stein's latest column, this one on the financial impact of the meltdown in subprime mortgage sector. But then I discovered that Felix Salmon had already done so, in which he observes the following:

. . .it turns out that Stein is completely wrong, yet again: can anybody explain to me why this man still has his column?

Read the entire post.

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September 10, 2007

The Skilling Appeal Brief

As Ashby Jones and Peter Henning noted on Friday, lawyers for Jeff Skilling filed his appellant's brief this past Friday along with a motion requesting that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals waive length-of-brief rules under the special circumstances of Skilling's appeal. Inasmuch as the brief is a 240-page tome, my sense is that it will probably be modified slightly to include tables of contents and authorities when the final version is filed after the Fifth Circuit rules on the the length-of-brief motion (Update: I've since updated the link above to include the final version filed with the Fifth Circuit).

I read the entire brief while watching football over the weekend and it is brilliant. The brief is extremely well-written and organized, and eschews much of the technical legal jargon that often makes appellate briefs a chore to read. It would be extremely difficult to read this brief objectively and come to the conclusion that Jeff Skilling has not been the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice (see earlier posts on that subject here, here and here).

The first statement of the brief -- the usually mundane statement advising the appellate court whether the appellant believes that oral argument would be helpful to the court -- Skilling's appellate team crafted the best such statement that I've ever read:

Defendant-appellant Jeffrey Skilling requests oral argument. This case is perhaps the most prominent and publicized white-collar case ever prosecuted. But with certainty, it is the most misunderstood case, enveloped from the outset by perceptions and myths that bear little resemblance to the actual facts. Almost everyone believes, for instance, that Skilling was indicted, tried, and convicted for causing the 2001 bankruptcy of Enron Corporation and its devastating effects on thousands of Enron employees and shareholders. As the government itself conceded, however, the case against Skilling had nothing to do with Enron’s collapse.

Profound, inherent weaknesses in the government’s case—not just gaps in its evidentiary proof, but doubts about its basic theories of criminality—motivated the government to resort to novel and incorrect legal theories, demand truncated and unfair trial procedures, and use coercive and abusive tactics. Skilling submits that oral argument is essential to assist the Court’s understanding of the remarkable record in this case, including the multiplicity of substantial legal and procedural errors that have put Skilling in prison for 24 years not only for crimes that he did not commit, but for acts of business judgment that are not crimes at all.

Following that statement is an 11-page introduction, which -- if you don't have time to read the entire brief -- is an excellent overview of the arguments presented. My favorite parts of the brief are as follows:

The Statement of the Case (pp. 15-59). This is a marvelously clear description of Enron's business and the superficiality of the evidence that the Enron Task Force presented at trial against Skilling. In discussing Enron with hundreds of folks over the past several years, I understand how few people really understood that Enron was an innovative and successful business before its demise. Fewer still understood the shallowness of the Task Force's case against Skilling. This section of the brief takes on those widely-held misconceptions and dispenses with them cogently.

The Change of Venue Section (pp. 122-175). Given the venomous environment in Houston regarding all things related to Enron, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake's refusal to grant Skilling's motion to change the venue of the trial has always struck me as odd. Skilling's brief provides truly shocking information (heretofore not public) about the enormous bias against Skilling expressed in the answers to the juror questionairres of the jurors who ended up on Skilling's jury! Also provided in this section is heretofore non-public information on Judge Lake's questionable refusal to grant Skilling's proposed multiple strikes for cause on a large number of the jurors who who had expressed clear bias against Skilling and Lay. As the brief notes, if there was ever a trial that called for a change of venue, Lay-Skilling was the one.

The Prosecutorial Misconduct Section (pp. 175-206). The subject of this section has been a common topic on this blog, but this section provides additional unknown evidence of the Task Force's abusive tactics in prosecuting Skilling and other Enron executives. Moreover, the brief sums up brilliantly the prejudicial impact of the Task Force's threats against witnesses who would have provided exculpatory testimony for Skilling (all record citations contained in the brief are excluded here):

At trial, the severe imbalance in witness access was obvious. The Task Force’s case consisted mostly of cooperators from Enron’s senior management—people who worked with Skilling at Enron and who were his friends, including some of his closest friends. With plea or non-prosecution agreements with the Task Force, these witnesses were under the Task Force’s complete domination and control. They were obligated to testify, contractually bound to admit guilt and support the allegations against Skilling, and their ultimate fate rested in the “sole and exclusive discretion” of the Task Force. None of them would meet with Skilling or his counsel. At least two (Rice and Belden)—and probably all of them—were clearly ordered not to.

In contrast, most of Skilling’s key defense witnesses never took the stand. Specifically, Skilling sought to call David Duncan of Arthur Andersen and seven Enron executives: Greg Whalley, Rick Buy, Lou Pai, Jeff McMahon, Georgeanne Hodges, Janet Dietrich, and Joe Hirko. Each possessed critical exculpatory evidence, and would have directly refuted testimony given by Task Force cooperators. Yet all eight invoked the Fifth Amendment, fearing Task Force reprisals. Hoping to overcome this, Skilling asked the Task Force to immunize them, as it did for Ben Glisan (its own witness). The Task Force declined, thereby ensuring that vital exculpatory testimony never saw the light of day.

Without these (and many other) key witnesses, the defendants were forced to rely primarily on their own testimony. Roughly two-thirds of the defense case consisted of Skilling and Lay’s testimony; the remainder was a patchwork of character witnesses, experts, and others—anyone courageous enough to testify. Most could offer relatively narrow testimony on limited issues. Besides Skilling and Lay, only two senior executives testified for the defense, and neither was deeply involved in many transactions at issue.

Compounding the prejudice, the Task Force argued in closing that Skilling’s defense was not credible because it did not square with the testimony of many witnesses. By intimidating witnesses into silence and then refusing to immunize them—knowing they would give testimony favorable to the defense—it was the Task Force that prevented witnesses from corroborating Skilling. U.S. v. Golding, 168 F.3d 700, 702-05 (4th Cir. 1999) (“The government did not stop with the threat. Instead, the prosecutor further abused her power by using the very situation she had created against the defendant in closing argument.”). Skilling, meanwhile, could not explain to the jury why his best witnesses were missing, because the district court explicitly prohibited him from introducing any evidence of the Task Force’s threats and other misconduct.

The prejudice was irreparable. It obstructed Skilling’s preparations before trial, distorted the presentation of evidence at trial, and affected the outcome. Gregory, 369 F.2d at 188-89 (“A criminal trial … is a quest for truth. That quest will more often be successful if both sides have an equal opportunity to interview the persons who have the information from which the truth may be determined.”).

As if on cue, even before the ink on the Skilling brief was dry, some of the more vitriolic members of the mob that lynched Skilling were already dismissing it without so much as a smidgen of analysis. But my bet is that a fair review of this brief will leave most readers shocked over the weakness of the case against Skilling and the government's ruthless tactics in pursuing a conviction despite that weakness.

The popular myth of the mob is that Enron was a house of cards that was propped up by a conspiracy of greedy executives who told lies to trusting but unknowing investors. The truth is that Enron was simply a highly-leveraged, trust-based business with a relatively low credit rating and a booming trading operation that got caught in a liquidity crunch. That liquidity crisis occurred when the credit and equity markets became spooked by a variety of factors in late October, 2001, including revelations about Fastow's embezzlement of millions and the volatility in markets after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

As I've noted many times over the years, Fastow's embezzlement from Enron is a crime, but Enron's unfortunate demise is not, nor should it be. Beyond the shattered lives and families, the real tragedy here is that an angry mob convicted Jeff Skilling, trampling the rule of law and the administration of justice along the way. In truth, none of us would be able to survive, as Thomas More reminds us, "in the winds that blow" from the exercise of the government's overwhelming prosecutorial power in response to the demands of the mob. I continue to hope that Jeff Skilling's unjust conviction and sentence are reversed on appeal. Not only for his and his family's benefit, but also for ours.

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

2007 Weekly local football review

AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Texans 20 Chiefs 3

Pinch yourself. The Houston Texans have won three straight regular season NFL games (previous weekly summaries are here).

The Texans (1-0) took advantage of four turnovers and a tepid Kansas City offense to win their season opening game for only the second time in franchise history. The Texans defense, which is the area of the team that clearly has the most potential, held the Chiefs to 219 yards total offense and DE Mario Williams returned one of the KC fumbles 38 yards for an early third quarter TD that put the Texans up 17-0. Meanwhile, the Texans offense was not great, but it was better than the Chiefs' offense. QB Matt Schaub guided that unit to 315 yards total offense, including a 77 yard TD bomb to WR Andre Johnson. Schaub was 16-22 passing for 225 yards in his Texans debut, including the TD pass to Johnson and a first quarter interception in the Texans end zone. The Texans face a stiffer test on the road next Sunday against Carolina (1-0), whose back-up QB is the Texans fromer QB, David Carr.

Texas Longhorns 34 TCU 13

The Horns (2-0) pulled away late in a game that was closer than the final score indicates. Texas was down 10-7 late in third quarter when the sloppy kicking game of TCU (1-1) scuttled the Horned Frogs' dreams of a defining win and BCS bowl contention. After the Longhorns tied the game at 10, a TCU fumble on the ensuing kickoff was recovered by Texas on the Horned Frog 26 and, a few plays later, a rejuvenated Texas offense rammed the ball into the end zone for Texas' first lead of the night. Then, on the ensuing kickoff, an illegal block penalty backed up the Frogs to their own 10 and, after a three and out, Texas' next drive started at the TCU 44. The Horns ground out a couple of first downs and then kicked a field goal, making the score 20-10. The following offensive possession generated another three and out for TCU, and when the Horned Frogs punter dropped the snap, Texas' Brandon Foster scooped it up and returned it for a TD and a 27-10 Longhorn lead. Game, set, match. The Longhorns go on the road next week to Orlando to help C-USA member Central Florida (1-0) christen their new stadium.

Texas Aggies 47 Fresno State 45 (3OT)

The most entertaining game of the day occurred in College Station where the Aggies (2-0) blew a 19 point lead and then held on for dear life to pull out the victory when Fresno St. missed the mandatory two-point conversion at the end of the third overtime period. As with last season, the Aggies have a good and competent team, but it appears unlikely that the Ags will be able to contend with the likes of Oklahoma and Oklahoma for the Big 12 South championship. The Aggies can control the ball and clock with their strong rushing attack, but they have no downfield passing game and -- outside of RB Michael Goodson -- do not have anyone with quick-strike capability against first-rate defenses. Meanwhile, the Aggie defense is just average, so the Ags will be giving up plenty of points this season. Without a high-scoring offense and with a defense that will give up some high point totals, my sense is that the Aggies are an 8-4-type team. At this point, it's hard for me to see them at any better than 9-3. They have another sure win next Saturday at home against Louisiana-Monroe (0-2) before going on the road the following Thursday to play a very average Miami (1-1) team in the Orange Bowl.

Baylor 42 Rice 17

The headline to last week's Rice Football Newsletter story on the Owls' loss to Nicholls State was "Could it get any worse than this?" Well yes, it could, as the Owls (0-2) found out on Saturday in Waco. The Owls gave up 531 total yards to the same Bears team that could only muster 282 yards and no points a week earlier against TCU. It's a bit frightening to think how many yards and points that Texas Tech (2-0) might run up on the Owls next Saturday at Rice Stadium.

The Houston Cougars (0-1) were idle this week and play C-USA rival Tulane (0-1) in New Orleans next Saturday.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

What to do with the Dome?

There has been an interesting disparity in media reports about the Astrodome over the past couple of weeks. First, this one from Channel 13 investigative reporter, Wayne Dolcefino:

The county judge warns the aging Houston Astrodome may soon become too dangerous for people to even go inside.

What do you do about an important piece of Houston history? Do you tear it down? The Eighth Wonder of the World has now become a legacy of how not to pay for a sports stadium. Long after the Oilers left and seven seasons after the Astros stopped playing here it sits.

When we went to the dome this week, it was warm inside and didn't smell too pretty. It's home to a few offices but the floor of the Dome floor is now just concrete.

"The dome is old and it's falling apart," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. "It's time as they say to fish or cut bait."

"Now we've got a situation where we have what was the Eighth Wonder of the World sitting there effectively unoccupied," said Harris Co Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt.

And you are still paying. They are numbers many public officials probably had a hard time figuring out themselves. You still owe $38 million on the Astrodome. It's property tax money and every year it's costing millions just to keep it operating. In the last five years it cost $18 million. The tax assessor calls it a money hole.

"We've got to decide what to do with the domed stadium," said Emmett. "It's time to put up or shut up frankly."

Hurricanes have nearly doubled insurance on the dome. The bill has been $894,000 just this year. And you think your utility bills are high? Look at this. The bill was $1.1 million. Operating expenses this year alone were $2.75 million.

The biggest money maker at the Dome is The Hideout. That's the bar the Rodeo operates on the floor of the Dome. We get no money for that. The rest of the year the Dome was used just 13 days, making just $100,000.

"Frankly we can't let people use it much longer, it will become a dangerous place," Emmett said.

"The question we have to decide is if we can't find something for the Dome to become, then they have to think seriously about tearing it down," said Bettencourt.

Then, this one on the interminable Astrodome hotel redevelopment project:

Entrepreneurs looking to turn the iconic Astrodome into an upscale convention hotel have scrapped a "best of historic Texas" theme for a more modern, streamlined look.

A faux Texas courthouse and other features that played on the state's past are out. Plans now call for including a section of the Dome's seats, part of the diamond and an overall contemporary design that plays up the building's cutting-edge nature when it opened in 1965.

"We're going to have rides. There could be air rides that take you off the ground and make you say, 'Wow,' " said Scott Hanson, president of Astrodome Redevelopment Co., the firm hoping to transform the Dome. "We're going to have a few of those. They would be easy-going rides that would show off the venue."

Astrodome Redevelopment still has hurdles to clear before it begins work. Willie Loston, director of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp., which oversees Reliant Park, will update the Commissioners Court on the company's progress in executive session Tuesday.

The court's approval is needed before work could begin. And Astrodome Redevelopment needs to work out revenue sharing and parking deals with the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the major tenants of Reliant Park.

But Hanson and Astrodome Redevelopment's chief executive, John Clanton, said the company is making progress and hopes to begin work on the interior as early as next April.

Hanson previously said the company had obtained financing for the $450 million project. But he and Clanton publicly announced the lender, Deutsche Bank, for the first time Thursday.

The article goes on to claim that the "entreprenuers" of the project have a new Atlanta-based partner who will supposedly add equity to the deal and make it more viable.

Frankly, this silly notion that entreprenuers can arrange private financing for the conversion of the Astrodome into a hotel has been going on for three years. Now, the Chronicle would have us believe Deutsche Bank has approved a $450 million financing commitment on a highly-speculative covention hotel project in during the tightest credit market in years? I'm willing to bet that any such commitment has more outs than the Stros lineup this season.

All of this imagery about the proposed Astrodome hotel would be all fun and games except that it is costing the County real money to maintain the Dome, probably around $10 million just since the dome hotel project was first floated. Given that we are three years into this and the entreprenuers are not even at the stage of cutting deals with the Texans and the Rodeo over use of the Reliant Park property during times of mixed use, just how long is the County going to dawdle over the Dome before moving on to more realistic uses of the property?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 9, 2007

Fighting Irish bashing

It has not been a good year so far for Notre Dame.

After getting hammered 41-14 by LSU in the Sugar Bowl, Fighting Irish head coach Charlie Weis got poured out in the trial of his medical malpractice lawsuit against the surgeons who performed a gastric bypass operation on him. Then, the Irish were pummelled in their first two games of the season, 33-3 at home by Georgia Tech and 31-10 yesterday by Penn State. A wounded but talented Michigan team looms next week.

Thus, it's probably no surprise to anyone that more than a few of Notre Dame's opponents are enjoying the current troubles of the Fighting Irish. One of those passed along the flow chart below:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 8, 2007

Stros 2007 Season Review, Part Seven

Gosh, it's amazing how fast 20 games go by for the Stros (62-79) when the club's General Manager and manager are fired in the interim (previous periodic reviews are here). The reactions to the firing were varied (see here and here), and they prompted some dire warnings about the direction of the club. However, as the club started to wind down the 2007 season over the past 20 games, I saw enough to like that I'm cautiously optimistic about the direction of the club.

The past 20 games was really no different from the way the club has played all season. The Stros went 8-12 in this seventh 20-game segment of the season, including ugly 14-2 and 11-3 losses to the Brewers and the Mets over the past two games. The hitting continues to be slightly below-National League average (-9 RCAA), although Lance Berkman (31 RCAA;/.388 OBA/.506 SLG/.894), Hunter Pence (25/.368/.558./926), Carlos Lee (15/.354/.522/.876) and Luke Scott (14/.358/.510/.869) are providing a nice nucleus of solid hitters to build around. The Stros overall hitting places them ninth among the 16 National League clubs.

Nevertheless, the Stros overall pitching has remained atrocious. To put this in perspective, Stros pitchers saved 78 more runs last season than an average National League staff would have saved in the same number of innings (RSAA), which was the best performance by a pitching staff in the National League last season. This season, the Stros pitchers have already given up 83 more runs than an average National League staff would have given up in the same number of innings, which is dead last in the National League.

Thus, with 21 more games to go in the season, the Stros pitching staff is an incredible 161 runs worse than the club's pitching staff from last season. Frankly, with that size of decline in the club's pitching performance, it's amazing that the club's won-loss record is only 7 or so games worse than the club's record was last season at this point in the season. If the Stros win half of their remaining 21 games, the club will end up finishing (72-90) a full 10 games worse than last season's club (82-80).

Despite that somewhat bleak landscape, the reason for my optimism is that Stros' management has embraced many of my earlier recommendations regarding preserving the club's assets during the remainder of this lost season. The Stros are not overpitching their best pitching assets (Oswalt, Qualls, Lidge, the rehabbing Backe and Sampson) or there most promising younger pitchers (Patton, Guitierrez, Paulino, etc). They went ahead and had Jennings get his elbow surgery over with so that he might be a viable option for the 2008 season. They are giving younger players such as catcher J.R. Towles some playing time to measure when they might be able to contribute at the MLB level. Although Drayton McLane is interviewing several of the typical hacks who always seem to get their foot in the door on MLB general manager interviews, he is also interviewing some of the younger GM prospects who understand the importance of statistical analysis in evaluating players and who know that re-energizing the Stros' floundering farm system is the key to turning around the club's fortunes in the long run.

Meanwhile, with a few solidying moves, next season's roster could look pretty competitive. Can Towles take over as the full-time catcher in 2008 despite just a cup of coffee at in Triple A and a month in MLB? He is sound defensively and hit very well at Double A this year, and he looks quite agile for a catcher. He's probably a year away, but the Stros might just take a flyer on him next season and back him with one of the "catch and throw" veteran catchers that the club seems to covet. Let's just hope that it's not Ausmus (-15/.317/.322/.639) again.

The club will improve by subtracting Craig Biggio (-14/.285/.392/.677), but Chris Burke (-12/.315/.358/.673) has had a bad season as he again has been deprived of playing his natural position during the prime of his career. I would be inclined to give Burke a chance at second base next season simply because of how badly he has been jacked around over the years, but I also wouldn't object if the Stros went out into the market and brought in a solid-hitting veteran such as Tadahito Iguchi, who filled in nicely this season in Philadelphia during Chase Utley's injury.

Shortstop remains a problem and the free agent market for shortstops is horrible this upcoming off-season, so expect Everett to be re-signed assuming that he fully recovers from the broken leg that he suffered earlier this season. Everett has to field at his National League best even to come close to justifying his sub-.600 OPS. Given how bad the the Stros defense has been this season, a healthy Everett is a nice luxury to have at shortstop. But if his range is limited as a result of his injury, it might be time to go try and sign a better hitter such as Edgar Rentaria to play the position for a couple of seasons while developing younger talent at that position. Ty Wigginton (3/.378/.441/.819) has not been much better than Morgan Ensberg (-1/.269/.458/.728 since moving over to the Padres) at third base, so the new GM is going to have to consider filling that hole, too.

But as noted above, Berkman at first base and the outfield of Lee, Pence and Scott is pretty salty. Stros management has mishandled Mike Lamb, so he will probably opt to leave after this season, but he would be a solid utilityman to keep, if possible. And amazingly, a case can be made that the Stros' traditional pitching depth is likely to turn around this season's abysmal pitching performance as soon as next season. Oswalt remains one of the best in MLB, and Wandy Rodriguez, Woody Williams, Backe, Sampson, Matt Albers, Patton and Guiterrez are all reasonable prospects to fill out the no. 3-5 spots in next season's pitching rotation. That leaves the Stros with the same question that they had in this past off-season -- who is going to man the no. 2 pitching spot in the rotation behind Oswalt? The free agent market for starting pitching this coming off-season stinks, so it's not likely that the Stros will find their answer there. There may be too much water under the bridge to bring Jennings back on a "make-good" deal, but the surgery that he is having is not likely to be career-ending. He could bounce back to become the workhorse that he was in Colorado. It is an option worth considering.

Thus, despite this poor season, the Stros do not appear incapable of bouncing back next season if the new GM can pull off a couple of moves to upgrade the roster. On the other hand, if McLane ends up hiring a hack to become the new GM, a couple of moves in the other direction could put the Stros franchise into a downward spiral that will take years to turn around. Although that's possible (McLane hired Jimy Williams, after all), my sense is that McLane will hire a knowledgeable and innovative GM. McLane is a sharp cookie and he realizes that his window of opportunity to return to the post-season with Oswalt, Berkman, Lee and Pence will close fast if he doesn't take decisive action in the GM post.

After two more games against the Mets over this weekend, the Stros return home to face the NL Central-contending Cubs (71-68) in what should be a fun series, the Pirates (61-79) in a battle to avoid the NL Central cellar, and then the Brewers (71-68) in a series that will likely have playoff implications. After a final road trip to play the Cards (69-68) and Reds (63-77), the Stros close the season at home in the final weekend of September against the Braves (71-69), who also are not going to make the playoffs this season.

So, it looks as if we can all look forward to watching Biggio play catcher one last time in that final series. In a season such as this one, you have to take your entertainment whereever you can find it.

The season statistics for the Stros to date are below, courtesy of Lee Sinins' sabermetric Complete Baseball Encyclopedia. The abbreviations for the hitting stats are defined here and the same for the pitching stats are here. The Stros active roster is here with links to each individual player's statistics:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 7, 2007

Houston Texans, Year Six

Rejoice! The seemingly unending National League Football pre-season is over!

It's Year Six for the Houston Texans and the fourth annual preview of the Texans since this blog began back in 2004 (previous previews are here). Thankfully, this past off-season for the Texans was not as eventful as the off-season after Year Four:

After unexpectedly finishing the 2006 season with a couple of wins, the Texans are riding a wave of optimism into the 2007 season. Unfortunately, most of those optimists forget that the team looked deader than a doornail in the game before those final two wins;

After changing the management model of the football team during the off-season after the 2005 season, Texans owner Bob McNair and second-year coach Gary Kubiak changed the marquee player of the franchise, which was followed by the typical potshots that occur after such changes;

Does the Michael Vick affair provide some hope for the Texans' draft strategy?; and

Texans owner Bob McNair -- one of the truly good guys among NFL owners -- was rated much more highly than his team.

So, is the optimism for the 2007 Texans justified? Well, in addressing that question, it's helpful to review briefly the Texans' tumultuous first five seasons. As noted in the pre-season review before last season, the Texans were the toast of the town for their first three seasons of existence in which the team and the local media trumpeted the party line that the organization was building a playoff contender "the right way" -- i.e., through prudent drafting and development of young players while eschewing the temptation of short-term rewards provided by over-priced veterans who were on the downside of their careers. The progressively better won-loss records in the first three seasons (4-12, 5-11, and 7-9) -- plus the drafting of young stars such as WR Andre Johnson, RB Dominack Davis and CB Dunta Robinson -- seemed to indicate that the Texans' plan was working.

Unfortunately, those progessively better won-loss records during the first three seasons camouflaged some big problems, such as the fact that the Texans entered each of their first four seasons with the same two core problems -- the Texans' offensive line could not protect the quarterback and the Texans' defensive front could not apply adequate pressure on the opposing team's QB. Although former Texans GM Charlie Casserly tried (remember the Texans' flirtation with LT's Tony Boselli and then Orlando Pace?), the Texans were never able to address those problem areas effectively. Ultimately, both Casserly and original Texans head coach Dom Capers were fired after the disastrous Year Four for their failure to solve those two core problems.

That miserable Year Four prompted McNair to blow up his management model and surprisingly hire Kubiak, who promptly made a whopper of a blunder in his first significant personnel decision as Texans' coach -- the decision to retain David Carr as the Texans QB. Inasmuch as a rank amateur such as me expressed doubts about Carr way back before Year Three, Kubiak's decision to make a go of it with Carr was as bad as any of the dubious personnel decisions of the Casserly era. Not only did the Texans blow an $8 million option bonus paid to Carr after the 2005 season, Kubiak's decision to retain Carr effectively negated an opportunity to dangle the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NFL draft in a trade that probably would have allowed the Texans to receive some much-needed value plus still draft one of the star QB's in that draft, Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler, or Vince Young, the Houston and UT icon who won the 2006 NFL offensive Rookie of the Year Award and become the first rookie quarterback to play in the NFL Pro Bowl. Kubiak quickly soured on Carr during the early stages of Year Five, resulting in the Texans having one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season and arguably overpaying for new QB Matt Schaub over the past off-season.

But at least Kubiak is willing to admit his mistakes and take risks in making changes to improve his team. Over his first two seasons at the helm of the Texans, the offensive-minded Kubiak has continued a trend that started during the final two years of the Casserly-Capers regime of emphasizing development of the Texans' defensive unit. If high draft picks CB Robinson, MLB DeMeco Ryans, DE Mario Williams and DT Amobi Okoye develop as charted, the Texans will have four Pro Bowl-level starters on their defensive unit within a couple of seasons of further seasoning. If the Texans can elevate the performance level of the personnel surrounding those potential stars, it's not unreasonable to expect that the Texans could have a dominating NFL defense by about the 2009 season, give or take a season.

Nonetheless, the same level of optimism is not as reasonable for Kubiak's area of expertise, the offense. Outside of the Schaub decision, almost every move that the Texans have made with regard to the offense reflects mediocrity. Although the conventional wisdom was that it would take at least a season for the Texans to adjust to Kubiak and offensive coordinator Mike Sherman's offense, the Texans go into the 2007 season with seven different starters on offense than what the team trotted out for the 2006 opener, including new starters at QB, running back, left tackle (again!) and wide receiver.

An example of the dubious decision-making regarding offensive personnel is the signing of RB Ahman Green, formerly of Green Bay. Green was a great running back in his prime with the Pack, but he has averaged less than four yards per carry for the past two seasons. Inasmuch as the Texans agreed to pay Green $23 million over four years ($8 million guaranteed in the first season), the chances that the 30-year old Green will be worth the value of this contract this season are tenuous, at best. The chances of him still being worth the contract a couple of years from now are so speculative as to be off the charts. Similarly, the Texans' problems at wide receiver behind Johnson are partially attributable to Kubiak prematurely giving up on an acceptable no. 2 WR, who is now flourishing with the Patriots.

Moreover, although Schaub has looked good in pre-season, his backup duty in Atlanta -- a poor game against the Saints in 2004, a great game against the Patriots in 2005 and decent performance in mop-up duty during 2006 -- is not dispositive proof that he is destined to become a high-caliber NFL QB. Staub has thrown only 161 passes during his NFL career, which is simply not a large enough sample size to predict much in terms of future performance. Schaub looks the part of a big-time QB, but so did Carr. Schaub will probably be better than Carr (it's unimaginable that he could be worse), but it's premature to anoint him just yet as the second coming of Warren Moon. Remember Rob Johnson?

Meanwhile, what about those two chronic problems that the Texans have faced each pre-season? Well, in terms of protecting the passer, it remains unclear whether the Texans have improved much from the 2006 unit. Staub appears to have better pocket presence than Carr, whose lack of same contributed to the incredible 272 sacks that he took over his five seasons in Houston. However, the Texans continue to rely on longtime linemen such as Chester Pitts, Seth McKinney and Fred Weary, none of whom have distinguished themselves as top flight offensive linemen. Add to that mediocrity the fact that the Texans still have not found a dominant left tackle and it becomes apparent quickly that Staub and Green better be prepared to take more than a few hard licks this season.

In terms of pressuring the passer, the Texans still have not solved the problem, but it appears that they are getting closer. Williams and Anthony Weaver were actually quite good last season against the run and in improving the pass rush, and first round draft choice Okoye should bolster the generally horrible defensive tackle play that the Texans endured for most of last season. MLB Ryans is also a first-rate talent, so the Texans are starting to accumulate the critical mass of talent up front that is necessary to generate an effective pass rush in the NFL. My question is whether that talent is sufficiently developed to create consistent havoc this season?

Thus, my bottom line is that the Texans offense will probably be slightly better than the defense this season, but that both units will still likely be below-league average in terms of performance. My sense is that the defense will soon overtake the offense in terms of becoming an above-league average unit in terms of performance, but that shift is more likely to occur next season and in following seasons as the talent around the nucleus of Ryans, Williams, Robinson and Okoye improves. As a result, I am placing the over-under on Texans wins this season at 7, which is one more than last season's correct pre-season over-under prediction and one game better than last season's 6-10 record.

The Texans first game will be reviewed in next Monday's 2007 Weekly local football review. Meanwhile, the blooming of the sports blogosphere has finally reached the point this season that there really is no reason to endure the superficial cheerleading of the mainstream media in obtaining information about the Texans. The following blogs provide superior analysis of the Texans to most anything that you will find in the mainstream media:

Stephanie Stradley, who used to blog as the Chronicle's Texans Chick, now provides an excellent blog on the Texans over at AOL Fanhouse;

Although not a blog, Warren DeLuca and the other writers at Houston Pro Football.com provide first-rate commentary on the Texans;

DGDB&D (for "Da Good, Da Bad & DeMeco") is a clever new blog that characterizes itself as "a seemingly harmless Texans blog";

Matt Loede chimes in with another new blog entitled Texans Gab;

Battle Red Blog is the blog on the Texans from the SB Nation family of blogs; and

Longtime Chronicle NFL columnist John McClain's blog is here, although McClain increasingly tends to wander off on to topics other than the Texans.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

September 6, 2007

Loren Steffy's Enron myopia

Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy is a particularly vitriolic critic of former Enron executives Jeff Skilling and the late Ken Lay. Steffy convinced himself early on that Skilling and Lay had lied to investors about Enron, so he made a good part of his living for the past several years appealing to resentment and scapegoating rather than fair-minded analysis in covering Enron's demise.

Even the fact that the criminal cases against both Skilling (see also here) and Lay turned out to be rather weak made no difference to Steffy. He rarely, if ever, gave Skilling or Lay any credit for the enormous wealth that was created from their legacy of beneficial risk-taking. Stoking anger toward wealthy business executives is much easier than nuanced analysis of often complex markets and business transactions. Probably sells more newspapers, too.

So, against that backdrop, imagine my surprise when I came across this recent Steffy column in which he defends embattled securities fraud plaintiff's lawyer, Bill Lerach. As regular readers of this blog know, Lerach is in the cross-hairs of a federal criminal indictment for lying to federal judges and his firm's class clients about payments that his firm allegedly made to class representatives in certain of the cases that Lerach's firm and former firm (Milberg Weiss) handled. Despite these allegations, Steffy sees the good in Lerach's work:

Lerach and his lawyers have held countless executives accountable over the years. They've recovered billions for fraud victims, both individuals and, more recently, pension funds and institutions.

All of this, of course, has made Lerach wealthy, which fuels the criticism against him. [. . .]

Past mistakes may have caught up with him, and if they have, he must pay the price.

But for . . . thousands of other shareholders, those mistakes may tarnish Lerach's reputation, but his legacy remains unblemished.

As noted several times over the past year (most recently here), I also have doubts about the anticipated criminal case against Lerach, although not for the same reasons as Steffy. My radar system for abuse of prosecutorial power is always activated whenever the government's case is based on witnesses whose testimony has been bought and paid for.

But here's what gets me. Steffy balances Lerach's alleged lying to judges and his investor class-clients against the economic benefit of the recoveries his firm made on behalf of those investor-clients (many of those recoveries actually reduced the value of the companies that Lerach's clients owned, but that's another issue). However, Steffy excoriates Skilling and Lay for their alleged lying to investors despite the fact that the two former Enron executives created enormous wealth that dwarfs any economic benefit that Lerach's firm ever generated.

Thus, to Steffy, Lerach is Robin Hood who deserves some slack, while Skilling and Lay are greedy shysters who got what was coming to them. But in reality, what happened to Skilling, Lay and Lerach is far more complicated than that. Too bad that Steffy prefers his simple morality plays to analytical clarity that might actually lead his readers to understand that encouraging the type of risk-taking that Lay and Skilling promoted at Enron facilitates productive markets, employment growth and wealth creation.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Considering Giuliani

Daniel Drezner has an interesting recent observation about Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid:

Take this for what you will:

Over the past month, I've had at least two dozen conversations with various people about Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. A lot of these people are Democrats, but there were a healthy number of Republicans and independents as well. These are all smart observers of politics who generally do not make knee-jerk assessments. The one common denominator was that, at some point, all of these people had lived in the New York City area while Rudy was mayor.

What is astonishing is that, despite the fact that this collection of individuals would likely disagree about pretty much everything, there was an airtight conensus about one and only one point:

A Giuliani presidency would be an unmitigated disaster for the United States. That is all.

UPDATE: Commenters have reasonably asked the "why?" question. For some answers from New Yorkers, click here and here.

Here is my contribution on why Giuliani should not be elected president.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

This should make Stros fans feel a bit better

It's been a bad season for the Stros, so fans of the local ballclub have to look for solace anywhere they can get it.

A couple of weeks ago, the Cubs inked ace starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano to a 5 year $91.5 million deal ($18.3/year) to keep him off the free agent market this coming off-season. The deal makes Zambrano the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball.

As if on cue, over his last six starts, Zambrano's record is 0-5 with an 8.29 ERA. On Monday night, he was the starter for the Cubs in an 11-3 loss to the Dodgers, prompting desperate Cubs fans to boo Zambrano as he left the field for the day. For the season, he has saved only seven more runs than an average National League pitcher would have saved in pitching the same number of innings (RSAA, defined here). Zambrano's ERA is a rather pedestrian -- at least for a $91 million pitcher -- 4.35.

Zambrano is only 26 years old and has already thrown almost 1200 big league innings. The Cubs have a legacy of overworking young pitchers (think Kerry Wood and Mark Prior), so Zambrano's downturn this season is a definite warning sign that something may not be right physically with him. Even if he is not battling an injury, Zambrano is a high injury risk given his workload over the past five seasons. If he is sidelined for any significant period during the term of his contract, then the Cubs investment in him will make the Stros' recent bad deals seem tepid in comparison.

See, feel better? ;^)

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September 5, 2007

The Wyatt Oil-for-Food Trial

83-year old legendary Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt will be fighting to live the remainder of his life as a free man beginning today in a U.S. District Courtroom in New York City. Wyatt is being tried on criminal charges that he bribed Iraqi officials in a scheme to acquire Iraqi oil in violation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program (previous posts here, here, here and here). The Houston Chronicle ran major stories here and here on the trial over this past weekend, and the NY Times story on the beginning of the trial is here.

The Wyatt trial has the potential to be particularly noteworthy because of a part of the defense strategy -- to paint the prosecution as political payback by two of Wyatt's old oil field rivals, U.S. President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, the former president.

Wyatt is charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and trading with a country that supports terrorism. The indictment essentially alleges that he arranged for about $4 million in secret payments to Iraqi officials funneled through shell foreign companies and Swiss intermediaries to the Iraqi government from 2000 through 2002. In response, Wyatt contends that the U.S. government has targeted him for prosecution because he has been an outspoken critic of the two Bush administrations, particularly over the two wars in Iraq. Wyatt is the most prominent U.S. businessman indicted in the affair, althought eight other individuals have been convicted or pleaded guilty to similar charges to those against Wyatt. Likewise, charges are pending against five others.

A 2005 report from a commission led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker alleged widespread corruption in the $64 billion oil-for-food program, which was created to allow Iraq sell oil and use the proceeds to buy humanitarian goods to offset sanctions imposed after the Desert Storm War in 1991. Mr. Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The Volcker commission's report accused 2,200 companies from 40 countries of conspiring with Saddam Hussein's regime to divert $1.8 billion from the supposedly humanitarian campaign.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin today and the trial is expected to last four to six weeks. Wyatt and his defense attorney -- noted New York criminal defense attorney Gerald Shargel, who previously represented the late reputed mobster, John Gotti -- have not yet decided whether Wyatt will take the stand in his own defense. This one looks to be worth the price of admission, so stay tuned.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ida Mae reports on the Horns

Those Texas Longhorns are playing football again (albeit not very impressively), so it's time for Ida Mae Crimpton to provide the inside scoop on the Horns first game, straight from her front porch in beautiful Elgin, Texas. According to Ida Mae, the first game was bad, but the after-the-game Longhorn locker room was much worse:

And based on what Mack's wife, Sally, told me, it wasn't any picnic in the locker room after the game, either. Sally said that Mack really read the guys the riot act. He yelled at them and told them that after the way they played, they didn't need to expect any post-game orange Gatorade, either (and he was true to his word, too…he made them stand in line at the water cooler). And then when Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis got back from gassing up Mack's car and bringing it around (he also lets the air conditioner run for a while so it's nice and cool when Mack gets in to drive home), he told the offense how disappointed he was. He said that Mack had every right to be pissed off and that they would be doing double drills this coming week in preparation for TCU. Well, that made the guys groan, let me tell you. It was a pretty glum locker room…you'd have thought we'd lost or something.

But that's not all. Read the entire piece.

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A worthy campaign

James Anderson over at AstrosDaily discovers a glaring oversight -- the dean of Houston sportswriters, Mickey Herskowitz, has not been elected to the sportswriting section of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Not only is Herskowitz the finest sportswriter of the past generation in Houston, he was also intimately involved in encouraging the investors who ultimately brought Major League Baseball to Houston in the early 1960's. As Anderson notes, Herskowitz is richly deserving of this honor and all longtime Houstonians who have had the opportunity to enjoy his work over the years should be squarely behind the campaign to award him this honor.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 4, 2007

DeLong on the rise from poverty

Yeah, things might be a bit testy lately in the credit markets, but Brad DeLong does a magnificent job of reminding us just how much better we have it than folks who lived not all that long ago:

. . . in 1905 an anonymous American college professor--"G.H.M."--wrote a four-page article for the Atlantic Monthly in which he pleaded for more money for college professor salaries, and claimed to be vastly underpaid. The first thing to note is his salary: he claimed that the "average college professor’s salary"--the salary that he saw as clearly inadequate and unfairly low--"is about $2,000" in the dollars of that day, 1900. Yet Stan Lebergott's estimates in the Historical Statistics of the United States are that the average annual earnings of an employee in America in 1905 were $490 dollars if employed for the entire year (or $451 taking account of the hazards of unemployment): $2,000 was four times average of GDP per worker at the turn of the century. In order to match turn-of-the-century professors in terms of income relative to the national average, a professor today would have to make an academic salary of $300,000–a height rarely attained, and far above any average.

There is much more, so don't miss it. DeLong's chapter is a vivid reflection of the power of compounding economic growth. Sort of makes you wonder about those folks who advocate shaving a bit of economic growth here and there to promote some special interest. Over a century, compounding that small loss of economic growth can have a huge impact.

Posted by Tom at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Another great college football resource

The Web continues to amaze with the depth and quality of the sites being generated. Check out this one analyzing the win-loss record of every BCS and mid-major college football team and conference in the U.S. What a great way to track trends among conferences and teams -- or simply to keep up with your favorite team -- throughout the season.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

You don't say?

This NY Times article reports on more research that goes into the "who needs a research project to prove that?" category:

. . . the broader question — whether police officers in some towns are motivated by fund-raising as well as safety when writing traffic tickets — has been examined systematically by others. Michael D. Makowsky, a doctoral student in economics, and Thomas Stratmann, an economics professor, both at George Mason University, studied the issue in a recent paper, “Political Economy at Any Speed: What Determines Traffic Citations?”

They examined every warning and citation written by police officers in all of Massachusetts, excluding Boston, during a two-month period in 2001 — over 60,000 in all. Their conclusion wasn’t shocking to an economist: money matters, even in traffic violations. They found a statistical link between a town’s finances and the likelihood that its police officers would issue a speeding ticket. The details are a little sticky, but they show that tickets were issued more often in places that were short on cash, and that out-of-towners received tickets more often than drivers with local addresses.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 3, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

The Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the college football season and HCT's weekly local football reviews, so here's the first edition of the 2007 season:

Oregon 48 Houston 27

Well, you have to hand to the Coogs, they certainly don't schedule only creampuffs for non-conference games and they keep things entertaining. After spotting Oregon a 14-0 first quarter lead, the Cougars closed to within 34-27 with 1:50 left in the third quarter. But then on the next play, the Ducks exploited a chronic weakness of the Cougars during the Art Briles era -- a porous defense -- for an 80 yard TD run for a 41-27 lead that took the wind out of Houston's sails. The Cougars actually outgained the Ducks (538 yds to 468 yds), but Houston's five turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles and blocked punt, three of which were inside the Oregon 20) more than made up for that offensive output. Despite the continuing defensive struggles, the Cougars appear to have found a good QB in redshirt freshman Casey Keenum and will have two weeks to regroup before taking on Tulane in New Orleans on September 15.

Texas Longhorns 21 Arkansas State 13

H'mm. Texas fans are rightfully concerned after watching the Horns fumble and stumble against Arkansas State. The Indians outpassed the Longhorns (272 to 223), outrushed them (125 to 117), tallied more first downs (26 to 23), punted fewer times (3 to 4), threw fewer interceptions (1 to 2), had a stronger kickoff return game (94 return yards to 73), and held the ball longer in time of possession (30:12 to 29:49). The Longhorns have been tabbed as 10 point favorites in their game against mid-major power TCU (1-0) next Saturday in Austin, but expect that line to move down a bit as the game approaches. Absent a substantially better effort against the Horned Frogs, the Horns could well lose that game.

Texas Aggies 38 Montana State 7

After spotting Montana State an early 7-0 lead, the Ags methodically hammered out the victory using their somewhat boring but effective strategy of emphasizing the rushing attack, throwing short passes and restricting turnovers. However, even the most optimistic Ags have to be concerned about an Ag defense that gave up over 400 yards to a Division I-AA team that replaced its head coach just three months ago and an offense that still does not appear to be able to execute a pass play of over 7 yards or so. The Aggies get a stiffer test at home next week against Fresno State (1-0), who enter the week as 17 point underdogs.

Nicholls State 16 Rice 14

Coming off the Todd Graham affair, this is not how the Owls wanted to kick off the David Bailiff era. The Rice Football Webletter commented as follows in this article entitled "Could It Get Any Worse Than This?":

Perhaps the worst strategic decision made on the turf of Rice Stadium Saturday night came not from the Owl quarterback, not from the head coach – though both sources stunned the crowd of 11,800 with the length and breadth of their miscreancy during the course of this excruciating, five and one-half hour game.

Nope, the worst decision came from the tongue of Rice Athletic Director Chris del Conte, who, given the election of sending the teams home and playing the game over later in the season after the second of two, hour-long, lightning-induced weather delays – or electing to wait it out and get the game in – chose to stand fast and play ball.

The Rice Owls responded by imploding their own building here Saturday night as a, shall we say, less-than-imaginative offense yielded up five key turnovers en route to a 16-14 loss to an aroused, strutting and confident Nicholls State team.

The fancy banners which newly-adorn the stately, former-72,000-seat-edifice still stand on a muggy Sunday morning. But down like so many tons of concrete and structural steel have fallen the remains, not of a building, but of a rebuilding.

Ouch! The Owls attempt to rebound as 6 point underdogs next week in Waco against Baylor (0-1).

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

September 2, 2007

A continuing abuse of power

Economist James Buchanan won a Nobel Prize for his work on applying economics to explain how incentives impact the behavior of government officials. In short, Buchanan concluded that government officials are people who behave in the same selfish manner as most folks. For example, when dealing with the government's awesome prosecutorial power, prosecutors often could care less about discretion and justice. Rather, they often use that power to advance their personal interests, to extort tribute from the private sector, to blackmail politicians into increasing prosecutorial resources and privileges, and to manipulate the media in their favor.

The foregoing seems to be an apt explanation of what continues to go on in the Enron-relates debacle known as the Nigerian Barge case:

A federal prosecutor wants a former Merrill Lynch & Co. executive to serve the entire prison term imposed for five Enron-related crimes even though three of those convictions were overturned by an appeals panel last year.

But lawyers for James Brown say the prosecutor is pushing to incarcerate their client for the remainder of his three-year, 10-month term because he has refused to plead guilty to another felony and possibly testify against two co-defendants.

Read about the entire tawdry affair. Brown's perjury and obstruction of justice convictions were upheld in this Fifth Circuit decision that reversed the convictions against him and his co-defendants on the other three charges. However, Judge Harold DeMoss' dissent lucidly explains just how flimsy the convictions on the perjury and obstruction charges are:

[The majority decision relies on] two types of evidence [to support the convictions of Brown on the perjury and obstruction charges]: (1) business negotiations preceding a deal ultimately reduced to a written agreement and (2) an after-the-fact oversimplification and shorthand description of the barge partnership investment by Merrill employees during the discussion and evaluation of a subsequent and entirely unrelated deal. Neither of these types of evidence should be used to support an inference of the falsity of Brown’s testimony.

After what the prosecution has put Brown and his Merrill Lynch co-defendants through, the prosecution's continued pursuit of this case borders on the barbaric. Here's hoping that Judge Ewing Werlein rejects the prosecution's continued pursuit of this Enron-related witch hunt in the same manner as he rejected the prosecution's original over-the-top sentencing recommendations. Perhaps a few decision of that nature would induce some adult supervision to return to the Department of Justice.

Posted by Tom at 8:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 1, 2007

The state of the Stros

As I've noted many times, the Chronicle's coverage of the Stros is pretty pathetic overall. But markets are wonderful things, so the blogosphere has quickly developed into a far superior source of analysis about the Stros than the mainstream media. Although several blogs provide good information about the Stros (see the link list on the right), I have particularly enjoyed reading Lisa Gray's analysis of the Stros over at The Astros Dugout, where Lisa blogs a post on every Stros game. Her insight is excellent and she writes in an engaging and clever manner.

Lisa is now branching out a bit and she recently posted this Hardball Times article on the state of the Stros. Despite the fact that I disagree with her on a few things (I think she is a bit harsh on Drayton McLane, who is the best owner that the Stros have ever had), Lisa's article is the best I've seen on the mistakes that have been made in the Stros organization since the club's 2005 World Series appearance. Check it out.

Bill James coined the "Law of Competitive Balance" to explain the trend that teams that win tend to slack off in the following year because team management doesn't work as hard, don't take risks to make the team better and think defensively. For example, Stros management reacted to the playoff appearances in 2004-05 by rationalizing that "if we won with Ausmus and Everett in those seasons, then why can't we do it again this year." Such complacency almost always is reflected in a poorer won-loss record, and the Stros gradual decline over the latter stages of the Biggio-Bagwell era is powerful evidence of the truth of the Law of Competitive Balance.

Posted by Tom at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)