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November 30, 2007

The real NatWest Three deal

I gave up hope long ago that the mainstream media would ever provide particularly accurate reports regarding the Enron-related criminal prosecutions. However, the mainstream media news reports on the plea bargain hearing earlier this week in the Enron-related NatWest Three case (see NY Times, WSJ, Chronicle) are particularly devoid of any meaningful perspective of what really happened in the case (a copy of one of the plea agreements, which is the same as the other two, is here). The real story of the plea bargain can easily be distilled from the pleadings that are on file in the case. It's a substantially more nuanced story than what you are hearing from the mainstream media.

The prosecution in the NatWest Three case alleged that the three bankers defrauded NatWest, their former employer, by conspiring with former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow and his sidekick, Michael Kopper, to underpay NatWest for its interest in an entity named Swap Sub, which was an affiliate of one of Enron's special purpose entities (LJM1) that Fastow and Kopper ran.

Swap Sub was involved in one of LJM1's primary transactions, which was to hedge Enron's valuable but highly volatile interest in a technology company called Rhythms NetConnections, Inc ("Rhythms"). The NatWest Three were responsible for overseeing the banking relationship between Enron and NatWest, including NatWest's interest in Swap Sub. Another investor in Swap Sub was Credit Suisse First Boston ("CSFB"), which owned the same percentage interest in Swap Sub as NatWest.

In early 2000, Fastow and Kopper offered to buy NatWest's interest in Swap Sub for $1 million. NatWest evaluated its interest in Swap Sub in response to the offer and concluded that its interest was worth zero. At the time, NatWest was in the process of being taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland and, thus, was amenable to disposing of the Swap Sub interest. So, NatWest agreed to accept Fastow's $1 million offer, Fastow and Kopper created an entity called Southampton specifically to buy NatWest’s interest in Swap Sub, and the deal closed on March 17, 2000.

After NatWest had agreed to accept Fastow's offer to buy the bank's Swap Sub interest, Fastow offered to sell a portion of that interest to the three bankers personally for $250,000 upon Southampton's completion of the purchase of the interest from NatWest. The NatWest Three still worked for NatWest at the time of Fastow's offer, but they were all contemplating leaving the bank because of the impending takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Inasmuch as acceptance of Fastow's offer while they were still working for NatWest might run afoul of the bank's conflict of interest rules, the NatWest Three took an option to acquire the Swap Sub interest rather than buy it outright.

Subsequently, one of the bankers (David Bermingham) resigned from NatWest, exercised the option in late April, 2000 and paid Southampton $250,000 for the interest. At the time that Southampton bought NatWest's interest in Swap Sub, the NatWest Three did not disclose to NatWest that they had bought the option to acquire a portion of that interest through Southampton. That non-disclosure ultimately became an important fact in the plea bargain of the NatWest Three.

Shortly after Fastow offered to buy NatWest's interest in Swap Sub for $1 million, Fastow and Kopper -- unbeknownst to NatWest or the NatWest Three -- offered CSFB $10 million for its interest in Swap Sub. CSFB, like Natwest, also evaluated its interest in Swap Sub at the time of the offer and concluded -- as did NatWest -- that the interest had zero value.

Inasmuch as Fastow and Kopper didn't have $10 million to buy CSFB's Swap Sub interest, they reached an agreement with Enron on March 22, 2000 to unwind the Enron-LJM1 hedge transaction on the Rhythms stock, the result of which was that Enron would buy a large chunk of Enron stock from Swap Sub for $30 million. Inasmuch as the unwind transaction would not close until the end of April, Fastow borrowed $10 million from Enron on March 22nd to pay CSFB for its Swap Sub interest. Neither NatWest nor the NatWest Three knew anything about these developments.

Subsequently, in late April, 2000, Fastow arranged with former Enron chief accountant Richard Causey to close the unwind transaction between LJM1 and Enron on the Rhythms stock. The transaction has since been subject of a substantial amount of scrutiny in the various investigations and litigation relating to Enron and it appears reasonably probable that Enron should not have paid a dime (much less $30 million) to LJM1 for agreeing to unwind the hedge. The best explanation that I have heard is that Fastow and Kopper pulled a fast one on Causey, who received nothing from the unwind transaction.

After receiving the $30 million in connection with the unwind transaction, Fastow used $10 million to repay the loan from Enron that he had used to pay CSFB for its interest in Swap Sub and paid the NatWest Three $7.3 million for their interest in Swap Sub. Fastow spread the balance of the money around to some of his underlings, including Enron treasurer Ben Glisan, who received about $1 million. Glisan's failure to disclose his receipt of that $1 million eventually led to his termination in early November, 2001 as Enron's treasurer. It also formed the basis of the criminal case against him.

Interestingly, the first time that the NatWest Three had any indication that the $7.3 million that they had received for their interest in Swap Sub may have resulted from a Fastow fraud on Enron was when they heard that Glisan had been fired in early November, 2001 over his failure to disclose his receipt of $1 million from Southampton. As a result, the NatWest Three immediately and voluntarily reported everything to the UK Financial Services Authority (the UK equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission) -- their involvement in the sale of NatWest's interest in Swap Sub to Southampton, their purchase of the option from Fastow to acquire a portion of that Swap Sub interest, their non-disclosure to NatWest of the option at the time, their exercise of the option and purchase of the Swap Sub interest from Southampton, and their eventual receipt of $7.3 million for that interest.

The UK authorities passed along that information to the SEC and, the next thing you know, the NatWest Three had become the subjects of a criminal complaint filed on June 27, 2002 in Houston (that really encourages voluntary disclosure of information, now doesn't it?). No US investigator ever contacted the NatWest Three to get their side of the story before filing the criminal complaint against them. UK criminal authorities never pursued any charges against the them.

The Enron Task Force originally alleged that the NatWest Three knew at the time they took the option to acquire a portion of NatWest's interest in the Swap Sub that Fastow and Kopper were going to unwind the hedge on the Rhythms stock. Thus, the Task Force asserted that the NatWest Three knew that the unwind transaction would make NatWest's interest in Swap Sub worth far more than either the zero value that NatWest placed on it at the time or the $1 million that Southampton eventually paid NatWest for it. In that connection, the Task Force contended that the $10 million that Fastow arranged to pay CSFB for its interest in Swap Sub and the $7.3 million that the NatWest Three eventually received for their interest in Swap Sub was conclusive proof that the bankers had defrauded NatWest of the true value of its interest in Swap Sub.

Alas, the government's theory of the case appears largely to have fallen apart over the past year and a half. NatWest and CSFB's zero valuations of their respective interests in Swap Sub at the time Fastow offered to buy them proved to be valid and accurate. Given those valuations, the $250,000 that the NatWest Three agreed to pay at the same time to buy a portion of NatWest's Swap Sub interest was clearly a speculative bet that placed the three bankers at considerable risk of loss of their entire investment.

Similarly, it also turns out that Fastow had a good reason to pay CSFB more for its interest in Sub Swab (i.e., $10 million rather than the $1 million paid to NatWest). At the time, CSFB was providing a myriad of other financial services on Enron-related deals for Fastow. Thus, buying the Swap Sub interest for $10 million was a convenient vehicle for Fastow to curry favor with CSFB. It did not mean that CSFB's Swap Sub interest was worth anything close to $10 million.

Finally, considerable evidence emerged during the case that confirmed that the NatWest Three knew nothing about Fastow and Kopper's plan to unwind the Rhythms hedge with Enron when they bought a portion of NatWest's former interest in Swap Sub. Importantly, that lack of knowledge is consistent with the story that the NatWest Three told to UK Financial Services Authority in November, 2001 immediately after learning of Fastow's possible fraud on Enron as a result of Glisan's resignation.

So, after years of litigation, the NatWest Three pled guilty to a single count of wire fraud. The basis of the guilty plea is that the three bankers failed to disclose to NatWest the option that they had taken from Fastow to purchase a portion of NatWest's interest in Swap Sub at the time that NatWest sold that interest to Southampton. Importantly, the basis of the plea deal is not that the NatWest Three knew and didn't tell NatWest that the value of the bank's Swap Sub interest was going to skyrocket soon after Southampton bought it as a result of Fastow completing the unwind transaction with Enron.

Subject to court approval, the plea bargain provides that the defendants will serve 37 months in prison, that they will pay restitution of $7.3 million to the Royal Bank of Scotland (NatWest's successor) and that the prosecution will support the defendants' request that they be allowed to serve their prison sentence in the UK. Under UK rules pertaining to prison sentences of white collar criminals, it is expected that the three former bankers would be released from their UK prisons after serving approximately half of their sentence.

As noted earlier here and as the Financial Times' Martin Wolf observes here, this plea deal appears to be the product of the draconian trial penalty that the three bankers faced if they availed themselves of their right to a trial and lost. Under those circumstances, the defendants were facing possible sentences of 35 years each, although the sentences would likely have been considerably less than that. Nevertheless, the sentences after a trial probably would have been greater than 37 months and, had the NatWest Three defended themselves at trial and lost, the prosecution almost certainly would never have agreed to support a request to serve their prison sentences in the UK.

Thus, on one hand, the defendants could risk a trial in a virulent anti-Enron environment (see also here) that could result in a long prison sentence that would have to be served in the US prison system thousands of miles away from their families. Or, on the other hand, they could enter into a plea deal that gives them the hope of being able to serve a considerable amount of a definite sentence in the UK prison system near their families.

Given those choices, my sense is that the NatWest Three's choice was a rational and reasonable decision. It's simply not a choice that they should have been forced to make.

Posted by Tom at 11:00 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Say what, John Edwards?

Following on the previous post, have you heard about demagogue John Edwards' latest proposal?

A two-year ban on advertising for prescription drugs.

Paul Jacob suggests a common sense ban of another sort.

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

The key issue in the 2008 Presidential race

As usual, the Onion identifies the issue with precision:

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

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

Shell's cell phone policy

The Chronicle's Mary Flood reports Shell Oil Co. general counsel has directed attorneys at law firms who do work for his company not to drive and talk on their cell phones while doing Shell business.

I wonder if this means that Shell will also direct its outside counsel not to talk to people riding with them in their car while doing Shell business?

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

November 29, 2007

The return of Coach Slocum on a Mobile

New Texas A&M football coach Mike Sherman was an assistant coach in the A&M program under R.C. Slocum, the folksy former head coach who was somewhat unceremoniously dumped when the A&M reached to hire Dennis Franchione five years ago. As one Aggie friend put it to me earlier in the week: "So, we endured Coach Fran for five years just to turnaround and hire one of R.C.'s former assistants? Why didn't we just do that in the first place?"

At any rate, Slocum had been exiled from the Aggie football program during the Franchione regime. Incredibly, Sherman's press conference earlier this week in which he accepted the A&M job was the first time that Slocum -- who still works for A&M in its alumni relations department -- had been in the new A&M Bright Football Complex. He apparently had never been invited before!

Nevertheless, Slocum is experiencing a rebirth in the A&M football program with the hiring of his former assistant Sherman. And one of the fringe benefits of that new level of involvement is the reappearance of the weekly segment that used to run on John Granato and Lance Zierlein's local morning radio show during Slocum's tenure at A&M, "Coach Slocum on a Mobile."

"Coach Slocum on a Mobile" is comprised of an impersonator doing an incredibly precise imitation of Coach Slocum's folksy East Texas twang as he provides often hilarious answers to questions tossed to him by Granato and Zierlein. Yesterday morning, Granato and Zierlein's new KGOW 1560 AM morning drivetime show carried its first segment of "Coach Slocum on a Mobile," which included the following gems:

On A&M's new offense under Coach Sherman:

"Well, we're bringing back the 'Gulf Coast Offense' with QB Randy McCown."

On A&M's 38-30 win over Texas this past weekend:

"Did you see (former A&M RB) Jamaar Toombs run over (former UT DB) Michael Griffin this past Friday? It was great!"

On the insecurity of big-time college coaching positions:

"You know, I've always said if you can go 7-5 and have the opportunity to go to Shreveport, maybe Houston, for a bowl game, you ought to keep your job."

The old "Coach Slocum on a Mobile" segments during Coach Slocum's head coaching days at A&M were classics, which included such pearls of wisdom as "1/2 of the teams in America lose every week and so I don't think there's any shame in losing," that the tight end position in the Gulf Coast Offense is a "supertackle," that "Baylor is the Notre Dame of the South," and -- channeling former UT coach Darrell Royal's observation about passing -- "Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of 'em ain't good."

If you want a taste of pure Texas football culture, then tune in to a few segments of "Coach Slocum on a Mobile." You won't be disappointed.

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

The real issue behind the Ashby high-rise

Don't miss this Christof Spieler post in which he identifies the real issue that needs to be addressed in regard to the controversial Ashby high-rise condominium project -- the issue of the project's scale in relation to the rest of the neighborhood. Thus, enacting a "hurry-up" city ordinance addressing a not-as-important issue (i.e., alleged traffic congestion) is a prescription for making poor public policy. Solid analysis. (H/T Charles Kuffner).

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

That's what you call a plug

I thought what occurred to the football after the punt in the video below only happened to my golf shots on soggy courses. I guess that's what you get from re-sodding a football field immediately before a several-inch deluge:

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

November 28, 2007

Todd Graham's Inferno

Rice University gave Todd Graham his first opportunity to be a head coach of a college football program. As noted earlier here, Graham in his first year on South Main led the Owls to their first bowl game since the early 1960's, was named Conference USA Coach of the Year, renegotiated his contract, and then announced a couple of weeks after the bowl game that he was leaving to replace his former boss as head coach at the University of Tulsa. By virtually all accounts, Graham handled the job change about as badly as possible.

Well, as predicted in my post at the time of Graham's job change, it was just a matter of time before Rice's notorious Marching Owl Band ("the MOB) would have an opportunity to comment on Coach Graham's antics, and that opportunity presented itself this past Saturday during halftime of the Rice-Tulsa game at Rice Stadium. The MOB performed a halftime show entitled "Todd Graham's Inferno," which concluded with the following comment over the stadium public address system:

You know, that reminds me of a joke: A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Now, I forgot how the rest of it went, but I think in the end "Todd Graham is a douchebag."

Ladies and gentlemen, the two-thousand seven Marching Owl Band. Please send all complaints to: your mom at mob dot rice dot E-D-U.

Childish for sure, but nothing out of the ordinary for the MOB. And it was certainly not even as clever as the MOB's theme for their halftime show during Rice's bowl game against Troy last year -- "Troy Loses. Read Homer"

So, how did the University of Tulsa respond? By doing precisely what the MOB probably wanted -- fueled the inferno by filing a complaint against the MOB with the C-USA commissioner:

The University of Tulsa has sent a formal complaint to Conference USA regarding Rice's halftime show during the Golden Hurricane-Owls football game on Saturday.

The performance by the Rice marching band was titled "Todd Graham's Inferno" and depicted a search for the former Owls coach through different circles of Hell, based on Dante's "Divine Comedy."

After taking numerous jabs at Graham, the show ended by calling the Tulsa coach a "d-----bag" over the public address system.

"We filed a formal complaint with the conference and that's where it stands now," TU athletic director Bubba Cunningham said.[. . .]

When asked what he wanted the complaint to accomplish, Cunningham said, "We need to provide an environment where a student-athlete can participate and fans can enjoy college athletics in a very positive way."

Sportsmanship has been a point of emphasis in C-USA, the Tulsa athletic director said.

"When we don't meet those standards, we need to look at ourselves as a league and find how we can make that experience better," he said.

Yeah, that was real sportsmanship displayed by Cunningham and Tulsa last year when they lured Graham away from Rice right in the middle of recruiting season.

At any rate, all of this provides the opportunity to pass along again the following anecdote about football coaches that legendary Houston sportswriter Mickey Herskowitz tells:

In the mid 1960's, the Los Angeles Rams had hired George Allen off of the coaching staff of George Halas in Chicago.

Halas was furious that the Rams failed to ask for his permission and threatened to take Allen to court. At a league meeting after the issue was resolved, Halas used the occasion to vent his anger at his former defensive coach.

"George Allen," Halas raged, "is a man with no conscience. He is dishonest, deceptive, ruthless, consumed with his own ambition."

At that point, Vince Lombardi leaned over to the owner of the Rams and whispered: "Sounds to me like you've got yourself a helluva football coach."

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

Hedging the trial penalty

Although some have questioned his business ethics, no one has ever questioned that legendary Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt is good at hedging risk. After Wyatt was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison as a result of his plea deal (previous posts here), my sense is that Wyatt hedged the trial penalty risk (i.e., a life sentence) in an reasonably effective manner.

Meanwhile, in another plea deal, a tenured economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania faces a likely prison sentence of 4 ½ to seven years for bludgeoning his wife to death. The professor says he "just lost it." What must Jamie Olis think about that as he finishes serving what will almost certainly be a longer sentence than the professor will serve?

And what about Chalana McFarland, a first-time offender who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme. Ellen Podgor is following that case Or former Enron executive Jeff Skilling, who continues to serve a 24-year sentence for simply availing himself of a forum in which to defend himself against charges that are far more nebulous than murder or mortgage fraud?

Finally, tomorrow afternoon in Houston federal court, the NatWest Three, three former bankers from the U.K. who have been forced to live in Houston apart from their families in the U.K. for the past year and a half, will likely enter into a plea deal in order to hedge the considerable risk of a lengthy prison sentence if they were to defend themselves in a U.S. court from Enron-related charges that U.K. authorities concluded were too weak to merit a prosecution there (see previous posts here and here).

Is the draconian trial penalty in the American criminal justice system really generating the type of results that a truly civil society wants?

Update: The real NatWest Three deal.

Posted by Tom at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The NY Times on the DeBakey-Cooley rapprochement

Following on this earlier post about Todd Ackerman's fine piece on the rapprochement between longtime Texas Medical Center rivals, Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley, this New York Times article examines the history of the feud and the recent reconciliation.

The article passes along the following famous anecdote from the investigation into Dr. Cooley's use of an artificial heart back in the early 1960's without proper authorization:

Dr. Cooley recalled that a lawyer had once asked him during a trial if he considered himself the best heart surgeon in the world.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Don’t you think that’s being rather immodest?” the lawyer asked.

“Perhaps,” Dr. Cooley responded. “But remember I’m under oath.”

Read the entire article.

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

November 27, 2007

The Sherman hiring

Well, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne's "nationwide search" for a new head coach to replace Dennis Franchione took a couple of days and extended all of about 100 miles southeast of College Station as A&M hired Houston Texans assistant head coach Mike Sherman as its new head coach yesterday. The deal is for seven years at $1.8 million per year. Ryan over at TAMaBINPO has a nice overview of Sherman's coaching career.

Although some in the Aggie nation were disappointed that A&M didn't hire a "big-name" coach de jour, my sense is that hiring Sherman is a reasonably good move. A&M is currently in the latter stages of a somewhat divisive search for a new president, so the A&M Board of Regents doesn't need more faculty flak from another flank. Moreover, A&M overpaid badly to hire Franchione, so the buyout of Coach Fran's contract is going to be expensive, even by A&M standards. Under these circumstances, eschewing a high-priced, big-name coach is certainly understandable.

Within the coaching profession, Sherman has an excellent reputation as a hand's-on coach, which frankly Franchione did not have when A&M hired him. The only negative comment that I've heard about Sherman is that he was not a particularly good evaluator of talent as Green Bay's general manager from 2001-04. That trait has certainly reared its head during his stint with the Texans -- Sherman was among those who blessed the questionable decision to pick up an expensive option to keep former Texans QB David Carr around for another year and he lobbied hard for the Texans to overpay old and injured RB Ahman Green. Those two decisions are costing the Texans big-time in terms of salary cap space.

Nevertheless, Sherman will have plenty of assistance in picking talent for A&M's football program and he inherits one of the richest bases for recruiting good football players in the U.S. The initial problem that Sherman faces in the recruiting wars is that three Big 12 South programs -- Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech -- have been clearly superior to the Aggies' program for a prolonged period now, although the reasons for each program's superiority are different. UT and OU have had better overall talent than A&M, while Tech has simply outcoached A&M while deploying comparable talent.

At this point, the OU and Texas programs are two of the select few big-time college football programs that are recruiting almost entirely high school prospects who project to have the potential to develop into players capable of playing in the National Football League. A&M does not yet have that luxury in recruiting players into its program, so Sherman will be dealing with a talent deficit to programs like OU and UT for at least the first 2-3 years of his tenure at A&M. With the exception of A&M's last two victories over UT, Franchione's A&M teams did not generally compete well against teams that had superior talent. How Sherman's teams deal with that talent deficit during his initial A&M seasons will largely determine whether Sherman succeeds or fails in Aggieland.

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

Reviewing the Kindle

This John P. Falcone/Webware article does a good job of providing a preliminary evaluation of the new Amazon Kindle reading device:

The Bottom Line: With its built-in wireless capabilities and PC-free operation, Amazon's Kindle is a promising evolution of the electronic book (and newspaper, and magazine)--but overpriced content could be its Achilles' heel.

The six-minute Amazon video on the Kindle is here.

Update: The WSJ's technology reviewer, Walter Mossberg, is not particularly impressed after using the Kindle for a few days, while the Chronicle's excellent technology columnist, Dwight Silverman, is a bit more optimistic, but not yet sold.

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

How the Shark was hooked

This earlier post noted that former PGA Tour member Greg Norman had duck hooked his divorce and was probably going to have to pay for dearly for doing so. After a cooling off period, Norman and his former wife settled matters quietly. Or so they thought.

Now, it appears that the Shark is calling a rules violation (H/T Stu Mulligan) on his ex-wife over her public disclosure of the details of Norman's affair with former tennis star, Chris Evert. As you might expect, tails are wagging among the Palm Beach society crowd:

Golf legend Greg Norman has a message for his ex-wife: You won't get any more of my money!

Norman's legal eagles have filed a lawsuit against the sport's former first lady, Laura Andrassy, alleging that she has already breached their two-month-old divorce settlement.

The filing asks a Martin County judge to award damages. Several sources close to the case - who asked to remain anonymous because no one familiar with it is legally allowed to talk about it - said those damages could include Norman's keeping a large part of the settlement he still owes her. [. . .]

So, why's the fair-haired golfer ticked off?

According to Norman's filing, it's because Andrassy squawked to the press about her broken marriage, former tennis champ Chris Evert, Norman's new love, and how Evert "stole" the Australian from her.

In an interview for papers in Oz and another with Page Two in late September, Andrassy described in detail how Evert befriended her while visiting the Normans' home on Jupiter Island, then moved in for the "kill." Andrassy said she suspects Evert, then married to former Olympic skier Andy Mill, first hooked up with her hubby last year when the two couples were on a fishing trip.

Fine and dandy! But the problem, according to Norman's filing, is there's supposed to be a confidentiality agreement between him and Laura - and she breached it.

"The confidentiality agreement is really not that specific, and besides, I didn't talk about Greg. I talked about myself and Chris, and I have no agreement with her," Andrassy said by telephone as she drove through California's Napa Valley on Tuesday. [. . .]

Norman's new high-octane attorney, Jeff Fisher, did not comment. Said Norman's White Shark Enterprises CFO Jack Schneider: "At least we abide by our agreement."

Evert "hooked up" with Norman on a fishing trip and then moved in for the "kill"? Stay tuned for the next episode of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

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

November 26, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(Jay Janner/Austin American photo; previous weekly reviews here)

Texas Aggies 38 Texas Longhorns 30

For the second straight year, the Aggies (7-5/4-4) upset the Longhorns (9-3/5-3), this time as a resignation present for Aggie head coach Dennis Franchione. I trust that dirty look that Franchione gave to A&M athletic director Bill Byrne at the post-game press conference when he announced his resignation is an indication of how buy-out negotiations have gone. A&M officials have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. today to introduce Texans offensive coordinator Mike Sherman as the Aggies' new head football coach while hoping that Aggie fans didn't notice the Texans' offensive gameplan in yesterday's game (see below).

At any rate, the Aggies dominated this game as the porous Longhorns defense made A&M QB Stephen McGee look like Joe Montana, and that's really hard to do. But the irony of the victory is that the Ags gameplan was precisely what A&M fans thought they were getting when A&M hired Franchione five years ago -- diverse offensive production, forcing turnovers, creating big plays, exciting trick plays and consistent wins over top tier teams of the Big 12. Unfortunately, this second straight win over the Longhorns came way too late for Coach Fran.

Meanwhile, almost as interesting as the Aggies' coaching search is the quandry that faces Longhorn coach Mack Brown. With the defeat, the Horns have now lost to Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the same season for the first time since 1993. The Horns have also lost two straight games to unranked and underachieving Aggie teams and have squandered BCS bowl berths in two consecutive seasons. And that's even after the Horns played one of the their easiest schedules in recent history.

However, most troubling for the Horns is a defense -- and even more precisely, a pass defense -- that has plummeted over the past year far below UT standards. As noted above, the Horns defense made McGee, who is a mediocre college QB, look like an NFL prospect while throwing for 362 yards. And that was not particularly unusual, either. Against a weak schedule, the Horns defense gave up an average of 533 yards in its final three games, gave up 28 points or more in half of their games as well as 35 points per game over their last four. My sense is that Coach Brown will be taking a hard look at whether staff changes are in order this off-season.

The Aggies and Longhorns now await bowl assignments, although it appears likely that the Aggies will meet Michigan or Penn State in San Antonio's Alamo Bowl. The Longhorns are probably ticketed for yet another appearance in the Holiday Bowl, which was their typical destination before the now fading-in-memory 2005 National Championship.

Browns 27 Texans 17

I'm not making this up. After the Texans' (5-6) recent two game winning "streak," the Texans' cheerleaders in the local mainstream media were actually mentioning the word "playoff" in their media pieces. Then, the Texans in this game proceed to score one TD in the first 57 minutes against the NFL's worst defense, convert only two third-downs all game, and commit three turnovers, giving the team 29 on the season, four more than last season's 6-10 team. Message to local mainstream media -- the words "playoffs" and "Ron Dayne, starting running back" are incompatible. It would also be nice if the Texans defense didn't make the Browns' (7-4) RB Jamal Lewis look like he had just become five years younger. The Texans travel to Nashville next Sunday to face Vince Young and the fading Titans (6-5) before returning home for three of their last four games of the season.

Tulsa 48 Rice 43

The feisty Owls (3-9/3-5) made a game of it, but ultimately simply did not have the horses to stop Tulsa (9-3/6-2) and win the Todd Graham Revenge Bowl. It would have been a nice victory for the Owls and the Houston Cougars, who would have won the C-USA West Division for the second straight year if Tulsa lost. But Rice returns its offensive nucleus of QB Chase Clement, WR Jaret Dillard and HB James Casey, so next season's Owls will still be able to score some points. Now, if they could just find someone to tackle . . .

Houston Cougars 59 Texas Southern 6

Remind me again -- why was this game scheduled? It seemed absolutely appropriate that the game ended up being played in a mush pit caused by a cold, driving rainstorm. The Cougars (8-4/6-2) have accepted a Texas Bowl berth at Reliant Stadium on December 28th against probably a Big 12 team, either Oklahoma State (6-6/4-4) or Colorado (6-6/4-4). If the Big 12 qualifies two teams for BCS bowls, then the Coogs will play an at-large opponent such as TCU (7-5/4-4).

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

Arena wasteland

Anne Linehan over at blogHouston.net has been having fun (as has Tory Gattis) watching Houston city officials try to rationalize how the city is not really going to have to cough up any money to subsidize a portion of the Houston Dynamo's proposed new downtown stadium. Anne's coverage of this issue is particularly timely given this recent San Antonio Express-News article that reports that the San Antonio Spurs are seeking another $164 million from the local government for the ATT Arena that is only five years old!

To make matters worse, San Antonio -- which has its share of infrastructure problems -- has not enjoyed any of the economic growth around the ATT Arena that was predicted by promoters of the arena when it was approved back in 1999:

When Bexar County asked voters in 1999 to approve a $175 million arena for the San Antonio Spurs, officials promised it would spark "economic development opportunities" for the neglected East Side.

Today, few businesses have opened their doors near the arena — even as the Spurs ask for more tax dollars to upgrade the 5-year-old AT&T Center.

A new tattoo parlor on Houston Street appears to be the latest investment in the neighborhood. It opened in a stretch of boarded-up buildings in early 2006, said David Leon, the shop's ornately tattooed owner.

Business is good, Leon said. But no customers stop by after a Spurs game.

"I think they're too scared to even stop, because of how bad the label of the East Side is," Leon said.

Despite a lot of talk and studies, the neighborhood around Leon's shop hasn't changed much since Nov. 2, 1999, when voters overwhelmingly agreed to subsidize the arena with a venue tax on hotel rooms and car rentals.

The team wants to tap into the venue tax again, a move that will be up to voters. The Spurs started with a wish list of $164 million in improvements for the AT&T Center. The county told the team to whittle their proposal to $75 million.

But so far, the arena has failed to accomplish everything voters were once promised by the county. Sluggish growth near the AT&T Center has troubled those who argued against the location.

"It's been disappointing to me that there hasn't been more development in that area," said former Mayor Howard Peak, who tried unsuccessfully to have the arena built downtown. [. . .]

From the Spurs' perspective, spokesman Leo Gomez said the NBA team is proud of its neighbors. But he emphasized the Spurs never promised a new arena would bring them an economic boom.

"We know better than that," Gomez said. "It hasn't worked in any other community in the country. And it's not going to happen here."

Gomez said the real question for voters is simple: Should the AT&T Center continue to be a top-notch facility for San Antonio? If so, he said, it needs more tax dollars to keep it that way.

Within view of the arena last week, a woman stood across from Leon's tattoo parlor, hawking purses to passing motorists. . .

As noted earlier here, the notion that professional sports stadiums promote economic development is a myth. Maybe there is a good reason to provide public financing for a downtown soccer stadium in Houston. But building it to spur economic development is not one of them.

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A Texas Medical Center giant

This Alexis Grant/Chronicle Q&A column interviews one of the truly outstanding physicians who has made the Texas Medical Center one of the most extraordinary medical centers in the world -- Dr. Ralph Feigin of Texas Children's Hospital. Take a moment to review Dr. Feigin's remarkable biography and the interview, and then take a moment to appreciate this man's tremendous contribution to pediatric medicine in Houston over the past 30 years. It's a legacy that will not soon be matched.

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November 25, 2007

The Rockets crash

After a quick 6-1 start, the Houston Rockets have fallen flat on their collective faces, losing six straight games before beating Denver at home last night. Inasmuch as the fawning local mainstream media fails to provide any meaningful analysis of what ails the Rockets, the blogosphere steps into the vacuum as this Dave Berri post analyzes the problem precisely -- Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Chuck Hayes are playing reasonably well, but the rest of the Rockets' production is among the worst in the NBA. As Berri points out, why on earth did the Rockets acquire two washed-up guards -- Mike James and Steve Francis -- who absorb minutes at the two-guard position that forces McGrady to play small forward, which forces Shane Battier to play power forward where he is far less effective than at the small forward position. Yes, peer effects in basketball make a big difference.

By the way, just how long are the Rockets going to wait before either acquiring or developing at least an NBA-average point guard? For the record, it's been over a decade since the Rockets have won a playoff series.

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November 24, 2007

Hayes Carll's show in The Woodlands

One of the highlights of the Kirkendall family's Thanksgiving holiday was a family outing one evening that my older son Andy and his friend Jon Charbonnet arranged to enjoy a show by Hayes Carll, the emerging Texas singer-songwriter who grew up in The Woodlands.

The location of the show was Dosey Doe's, a delightful coffeehouse/restaurant/bar that has become the go-to club venue over the past year in The Woodlands and Houston's north side for performing artists. The show we attended was recorded as a segment in KVST-FM 99.7's series, "Real Life, Real Music," which airs from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening.

When Carll burst on the national scene with his 2002 album Flowers and Liquor, some critics assumed that it was just a matter of time until he became another local Texas singer who made "good" in the mainstream Nashville country music scene. But Carll followed up his first album with the 2005 Little Rock, which cemented his reputation for remaining steadfast to his Texas-rooted songwriting in the same vein as such legends as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett.

Carll put on a wonderful show for my family and the other local folks, intermingling his soulful and heartfelt music with humorous and self-effacing memories of growing up in The Woodands, his college days in Conway, Arkansas, and "competing" for preeminence in the distinctive club scene of Crystal Beach, Texas during the early days of his performing career. At one point in the show, Carll admitted that he was struggling with naming his third album (scheduled for release in April, 2008), but that his mother -- who attended the show and still resides in The Woodlands with Hayes' father -- suggested the title "He's a Very Good Boy."

Check out Carll's touring schedule. If you enjoy Texas country/folk/rock music, then you will not be disappointed if you take in one of his shows (he is playing the Mucky Duck in Houston on December 1st). In the meantime, enjoy the video below of Carll singing "It's a Shame," which is on Flowers and Liquor. There is a reason that some are calling Hayes Carll the new "Bob Dylan of Texas."

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November 23, 2007

The 2007 UT-A&M Game

Although the 113 year-old rivalry game between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies is always interesting, this year's edition at 2:30 p.m., CST today in College Station (ABC) has an added element of intrigue over the typical UT-AM slugfest.

First, just a season removed from arguably saving his job by guiding the Ags to an upset of the Horns in Austin, embattled A&M head coach Dennis Franchione will almost certainly be coaching his final game for the Aggies. Franchione did not fit in at Aggieland and never seemed capable of winning big games consistently -- his Aggie team followed up that big win over the Horns last year with a humiliating 45-10 loss to Cal in the Holiday Bowl. You never know what to expect from players who are playing their final game for their coach. Could be good, could be bad.

Second, the 13th-ranked Horns (9-2/5-2) need a win if they are going to keep their slim BCS Bowl game hopes alive. With a win and an Oklahoma loss on Saturday against Oklahoma State, the Horns would win the Big 12 South division and play either Missouri or Kansas in the Big 12 title game in San Antonio on December 1st. But a loss to the Ags not only would end those hopes, it would earmark the Longhorns to a middle-tier bowl game for the second straight season.

The Horns are a 5 1/2 point favorite, but there really is not much difference between the two teams this season. Texas throws the ball more effectively than A&M, but that's not saying much because the Aggies act as if the forward pass is a new-fangled innovation that cannot be perfected until some uncertain date in the future. Both teams run the ball with about equal effectiveness and neither team's defense has been particularly dominant. Although the Horns have reeled off five straight wins since their loss to Oklahoma, the wins came over teams with a combined conference record of 12-26.

The Horns have dominated the series with an overall record of 73-35-5 record, but that record is a bit deceptive, particularly with regard to how close the series has been in recent decades. If you back out the Horns' dominant 31-3-1 record during the period from 1940 through 1974 when A&M was being transformed from a small, male-only military institution into a large, co-educational state university similar to UT, the record is a more balanced 42-32-4. In fact, since 1975, the Aggies actually lead the series 17-15.

Finally, for once, the UT-A&M game will not be the biggest game in the Big 12 this weekend. That moniker goes to the Border War showdown on Saturday night in Kansas City between no. 2 Kansas (11-0/7-0) and no. 4 Missouri (10-1/6-1). Take a moment to read this fine Joe Posnanski column on KU head coach Mark Mangino, a fellow for whom it is really easy to cheer.

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November 22, 2007

A butcher's turkey carving instructions

I've been carving the family's Thanksgiving turkey for the past 25 years, so I speak with a bit of expertise in saying that this NY Times article and accompanying video provides the best turkey-carving instructions and tips that I've come across in quite awhile.

Have a restful and joyous Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading Clear Thinkers.

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November 21, 2007

The Chronicle continues to defy reality

As noted in this earlier post on the improbable Astrodome hotel redevelopment project (previous posts here), the Chronicle continues to beat the drum in support of the deal without any meaningful financial or economic analysis. The intro to the editorial reveals the depth of the Chron editorial board's analysis -- "The public favors preserving the world's first indoor stadium; all parties should cooperate to do that."

Here are just a few of the questions that the Chronicle editorial board should be asking:

If the Astrodome were not in Reliant Park, would anyone in their right mind even be thinking of investing over a half billion dollars to build a 1,300 room resort hotel in the middle of Reliant Park?

If the answer to the prior question is "no," then why should anyone in their right mind even be thinking of investing over a half billion dollars to build a 1,300 room resort hotel in the middle of Reliant Park simply because the decrepit hulk of the Dome is there?

In one of the tightest credit and equity markets in years, and with many economic forecasters predicting a U.S. recession over the next 12-18 months, who realistically is going to fund the half billion dollars that the promoters claim is necessary to convert the Dome into a resort hotel?

If the promoters have not been able to put together a viable plan for redevelopment of the Dome in over three years of trying, then why are we still talking about this?

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The red-light camera scam

Anne Linehan over at blogHouston.net has been doing a good job of following the City of Houston's red-light camera scam on its citizens. As Anne's post notes, it's not at all clear that the red light cameras are reducing accidents or that they are even generating enough revenue to justify the cost of the program.

Although red-light cameras sound peachy in theory, my sense is that they are quite likely to cause more accidents, not fewer. As drivers become aware of the cameras, more rear-end collisions will likely result as drivers slam on their brakes at the first sight of yellow to avoid the risk of being photographed running a red-light. The red-light cameras should have been carefully evaluated first and then installed only after it was established that they truly increase safety. That they were installed without such an evaluation reveals that the cameras are nothing more than another local government money grab. And not even a particularly effective one at that.

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Lubbock is just a tough place, period

As this earlier post notes, Lubbock -- the home of the Texas Tech Red Raiders -- is a tough place to play for visiting college football teams.

But the video below shows that Lubbock is also a tough place for at least a couple of the hundreds of excited Tech fans who rushed the field after Tech's Saturday night victory over fourth-ranked Oklahoma.

What on earth are these police officers thinking?

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November 20, 2007

A real insurance fraud

I've been meaning to pass along this James Q. Wilson/WSJ ($) op-ed that lucidly describes the crisis that has developed in property insurance markets along the Gulf Coast as a result of the litigation risk and attendant cost of clearly inapplicable claims being asserted against property insurance policies:

When Hurricane Katrina hit our southern coast, it was the worst natural disaster in American history, killing 1,800 people, forcing more than a million to evacuate the area, and putting four-fifths of New Orleans under water. In the struggle to recover from this event, people turned to their insurance companies for help. Thousands of claims were handled, but for some people there wasn't any coverage. The problem was they were not insured against flooding.

Insurance companies' policies are quite clear on this, and state insurance departments, including the ones in Mississippi and New Orleans, have approved these rules. The homeowners' policy issued by State Farm, for example, says that water damage from a flood, waves, tidal waves, or a tsunami are not covered. . . .

The reason for the exclusion of water damage is quite clear: Hardly any insurance company wants to encourage people to build or occupy structures in places where such damage is likely. If they did allow this, either the company would go bankrupt from losses it could not pay or it would have to charge a premium so high that hardly anyone could afford the insurance. Even without water-damage coverage, insurance companies paid out around $40 billion to Katrina victims. [. . .]

Not content with these policies and rules, trial lawyers and politicians in Mississippi demanded that insurance companies should be required to pay for flood losses even though they were not covered by the policies. Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, a veteran of class-action suits, and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood worked together to create a lawsuit that would retrospectively ban the flood exclusion rule. (Mr. Scruggs was a major source of campaign money for Attorney General Hood.) At the same time, Rep. Gene Taylor from Mississippi urged Congress to require a retroactive payment of flood insurance. Never mind what the homeowners' insurance policies said or what their coverage was, demanding money to which they were not entitled became "good public policy." [. . .]

In time some measure of sanity was restored. A federal district court judge upheld the flood exclusion in insurance policies, a view that was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. More recently, the Fifth Circuit has affirmed that there is no coverage when an excluded peril (such as flooding) and a covered one (such as windstorms) both contribute to the same damage. A Louisiana state judge agreed that policies not written to provide flood insurance did not, in fact, provide it. . . .

But the return of sanity was of short duration. In June Mr. Scruggs filed a lawsuit against State Farm saying that it engaged in racketeering, and Attorney General Hood filed a new civil lawsuit -- and then followed up with another grand jury investigation contrary to his prior agreement with State Farm. One wonders how its claims adjusters feel when they are told that they are no better than members of the Mafia.

In light of all this, State Farm announced earlier this year that it would no longer sell new homeowners' policies in Mississippi, not to punish people there but because politicians had made it impossible to do business in an orderly way. In response, Attorney General Hood demanded that the governor order State Farm to write new policies. Gov. Haley Barbour replied, quite reasonably, that he does not have the authority to tell a private company that it must do business in his state. There will no doubt be congressional investigations of the insurance business because it did what it told people it was doing.

And Hood calls himself a public "servant" (see earlier post here)?

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Nicklaus sours on the public corporation

This Bloomberg video interview reveals that you can count legendary PGA Tour champion Jack Nicklaus as another businessman who has had enough of the public form of corporation:

The biggest mistake I ever did was let my guys talk me into taking a part of the company public. That was the biggest mistake I ever made. I had no idea what--what the rules and laws were of a public company. And we did a public company. And a lot of people lost money, including me...It was a great lesson. But, you know, if you're gonna get into that business, you better know what the devil you're doing.

Nicklaus discusses a number of different topics during the 20 minute interview, including his golf course design business and the evolution of Tiger Woods. Check it out.

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The economics of divorce lawyers

Tim Harford passes along some interesting data on the economic impact of hiring a lawyer in connection with a divorce:

The Austrian economist Martin Halla has collected data from divorce proceedings in his home country, and he finds a curious pattern. Husbands end up paying the smallest alimony when no lawyers are involved. If the husband hires a lawyer, but his wife does not, the alimony payment rises (and then there are fees to be paid, too). If the wife hires a lawyer, or the couple hires a joint lawyer, the husband forks out still more. Worst case scenario for hubby is if both sides hire their own lawyer. On top of that the proceedings are longer and more expensive.

One of the funniest war stories about attorneys' fees that I've ever heard involved a couple of old Houston litigators fighting over a divorce estate. Remind me to pass it along when we bump into each other.

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November 19, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews here)

Texans 23 Saints 10

The Texans (5-5) enjoyed the return from their bye week with a convincing win over the Saints (4-6), who appear to be a shadow of the team that played in the NFC Championship Game last season. QB Matt Schaub (21/33 for 293 yds, 2 TD's, no ints), who had his best game as a Texan, and previously injured star WR Andre Johnson (6 rec, 120 yds, 1 TD (73)) were particularly effective, while the Texans defense led by DE Mario Williams and an undermanned but feisty secondary kept the Saints' offense off-rhythm for much of the game. The Texans go on the road over the next two weeks for games against the Browns (6-4) and the Titans (6-3) before returning home for three of the season's last four games.

Houston Cougars 35 Marshall 28

The Cougars (7-4/6-2) kept their fleeting Conference USA title hopes alive with a close win over Marshall (2-9/2-5) as the potent Houston offense came alive in the 2nd half after taking a long nap during the debacle last week against Tulsa and during the first half of this game. The Coogs finish up their regular season with a non-conference game next Saturday against hapless Division I-AA Texas Southern (0-10) while awaiting the outcome of Rice's grudge match against Tulsa at Rice Stadium. If the Owls can pull off the upset against Tulsa, then the Coogs win the CUSA West division title and advance to the conference championship game on December 1st against Central Florida.

Tulane 45 Rice 31

The Owls (3-8/3-4) modest three game winning streak came to an end as Tulane RB Matt Forde rolled up 194 yards and 5 TD's against Rice's overwhelmed defense. Rice's Chase Clement was 35-of-55 passing for 353 yards and four touchdowns, and -- with 379 total yards -- set a Rice season record for total offense with 3,319 yards. The Owls could do a big favor for their cross-town rival Cougars by upsetting Tulsa (8-3/5-2) in the Todd Graham Grudge Match next Saturday at Rice Stadium. However, without a meaningful defense, the Owls offense will probably have to put 60 points on the board against Tulsa for Rice to have a chance to win the game.

Texas (9-2/5-2) and Texas A&M (6-5/3-4) were idle this weekend as they prepare for their annual Friday afternoon (2:30 p.m./ABC) game, which has taken on added importance with Oklahoma's (9-2/5-2) loss to Texas Tech (8-4/4/4) on Saturday night. If the Horns beat the Aggies and a beat-up OU loses to Oklahoma State (6-5/4-3) next Saturday, then the Longhorns will win the Big 12 South Division and represent the division in the Big 12 championship game in San Antonio on December 1st.

And finally, in another type of football, the Houston Dynamo won its second straight Major League Soccer Cup Title, defeating the New England Revolution 2-1. The Dynamo are the first team to win back-to-back MLS Cups since D.C. United did so in 1996-97. The Dynamo will celebrate their latest championship on Tuesday at Houston City Hall from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

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Transit survey raises more questions than it answers

Isn't it interesting the different reactions that Anne Linehan, Charles Kuffner and Tory Gattis had to the 2007 Houston Area Survey regarding transit options? The Chronicle and other light rail enthusiasts immediately seized upon the survey as evidence that Houston-area residents want to dump more money into the light rail money pit.

But the problem with such surveys is that they generally ask people questions in a vacuum and do not address Peter Gordon's three elegantly simple questions regarding economic choices:

1) At what cost?

2) Compared to what? and

3) How do you know?

For example, assume for a moment that the persons surveyed were informed of the fact that the average urban freeway lane costs about $10 million per mile and that the average light rail line costs about $50 million per mile while carrying only one-fifth as many people as the freeway lane. And these are only average figures -- as Randal O'Toole recently pointed out, Seattle's recently rejected light rail expansion was projected to cost $250 million per mile, a whopping 125 times more expensive at moving people than a freeway.

Moreover, let's also assume that the persons surveyed are informed that the expenditure of a billion or so of public money on expanding a poorly-used light rail system has real consequences, such as leaving inadequate funds to make improvements to Houston's infrastructure that would dramatically decrease the risk of death and property damage from flooding. Or whether the billion or so being flushed down the light rail drain would be better used to fix various area traffic "hotspots" where accidents or bottlenecks occur with high frequency.

No one knows for sure, but my bet is that the survey results would be dramatically different if the foregoing costs and alternatives were included as a part of the survey. It's a shame that neither the City's current leaders nor the mainstream media are asking the simple questions set forth above that would generate a meaningful cost-benefit analysis and ensuing well-informed debate regarding continued investment in expensive public works projects such as Metro's light rail system.

Instead, we get this:

Metro executive vice president John Sedlak led off [a presentation to the Transportation Policy Council, a group of elected officials and agency staffers that sets priorities for transportation spending in the 13-county Gulf Coast planning region] with a slide show describing the [proposed Metro University light rail line] project and told the panel its approval was needed so Metro could get federal funding and start engineering work.

If there was a short delay, Holm asked, "What would be the consequence?"

Sedlak replied that the project is on "an aggressive schedule" and that a delay "would send a message to Washington that there are issues with our overall program."

Holm asked why Washington would think there were issues and not just loose ends to tie up.

"They watch every activity that takes place very carefully," Sedlak said. "The federal government is aware we are having this meeting today."

Holm asked what the application deadline was. Sedlak said it was "in the month of December."

"If the delay was just a few days, would it jeopardize the funding of the entire program?" Holm asked.

"I truly believe it could," Sedlak replied.

Kemah Mayor Bill King had questions, too.

How many more passengers would the rail carry than the buses on Richmond do now?

Sedlak said he did not know, but Metro could get him the answer.

King asked how the line would impact traffic on Richmond.

Sedlak said there would be some negative effects, but the finished line should "take vehicles off the street." Numerical estimates are in the line's environmental impact document, he said.

Holm spoke again, her voice a little shaky.

"There are cities," she said, "that have never been turned down for a funding request. It's not because they agree on everything they want. It's because they do their due diligence and they do their battles at home.

"We need to still build consensus in this community. We need to be able to walk hand-in-hand in supporting a project," she said.

Update: As usual, Tory Gattis has additional insightful thoughts.

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"In the Hamptons"

As economists such as Nouriel Roubini increasingly predict a recession and a hard landing for the U.S. economy, Merle Hazard channels Merle Haggard, Arthur Laffer, Milton Friedman, Mac Davis, Ben Bernanke and Elvis -- to name just a few -- in expressing Wall Street's current trepidation. It doesn't get any better than "In the Hamptons" (H/T to the NY Times via Larry Ribstein):

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November 18, 2007

Thinking about the Bonds case

Two topics on this blog are legal matters and baseball, so Barry Bonds has been a frequent subject of posts here over the past four years. Inasmuch as this post from over two years ago speculated that Bonds would be indicted, regular readers of this blog weren't surprised when the shoe finally dropped on Bonds this past week.

The Bonds indictment was met with typical self-righteous vindication by much of the mainstream media, but the blogs have thankfully provided a much more measured analysis of the charges. For example:

Peter Henning provides this excellent analysis (see also here) of the indictment and the probable course of the prosecution. Also, JC Bradbury compiles some thoughts from other legal commentators about the Bonds case, and Keith Scherer provides this extensive analysis of the Bonds case;

Norm Pattis provides this interesting post that analyzes the probable prison sentence that Bonds is facing, which is far less than those typically reported in the mainstream media. Thankfully, Bonds does not appear to face a draconian trial penalty if he chooses to defend himself at trial;

Reason's Hit & Run blog provides this balanced compendium of blog posts and articles from over the years that remind us that witch hunts are common when a controversial person such as Bonds is prosecuted for covering up an alleged crime when the investigation was actually into the alleged crime, not the cover up; and

Along those same lines, Scott Henson questions the prosecution's motives and judgment in pursuing Bonds.

And as Bonds is being singled out while more popular ballplayers have had a pass on being investigated for alleged illegal use of steroids, I'm trying to figure out why the Apple Rule is not available to protect Bonds? Could it be for the same reason that it was not available to former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson during an earlier era?

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November 17, 2007

The managing partner

The incomparable Stu Rees of Stu's Views passes along a common experience shared by most attorneys who have had the "pleasure" of managing a law firm:

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November 16, 2007

Mike Leach's selective memory

By now, most folks who follow college football know that Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach received a record fine and public reprimand from the Big 12 Conference for his post-game comments questioning the integrity of the referees who officiated last weekend's Texas-Texas Tech game in Austin in which the Horns hammered the Red Raiders, 59-43.

But not as well publicized as Leach's outburst is Leach's hyprocrisy in making the remarks in the first place. One of Leach's main gripes with the officiating crew last weekend was that one of the officials on the crew was from Austin, referee Randy Christal. However, what Leach failed to mention is that the last two Tech-Texas games also have had a Lubbock resident as an on-field crew member -- Tim Pringle last year in Lubbock and Kelly Deterding this past weekend in Austin.

Moreover, this week's Tech-Oklahoma game in Lubbock renews a similar controversy after the controversial ending of the 2005 Tech-OU game in Lubbock, but Leach wasn't complaining about the referees after that game. Both Lubbock resident Deterding and Austin resident Christal were on the officiating crew during that 2005 game when the officials flagrantly missed a spot on a key fourth down play that kept a last ditch Tech drive alive and then allowed Tech to win the game on a disputed Taurean Henderson touchdown run on the final play of the game.

The video of the blown spot call that kept the final Tech drive alive is below. It's 4th down and 3, Tech QB Cody Hodges' pass is batted in the air and Tech WR Danny Amendola and an OU defender come down with the ball well-short of the first down mark. After the play, both television announcers observe that, even if Amendola caught the ball cleanly, he was stopped well short of the first down marker. The announcers are incredulous when the officiating crew spots the ball and gives Tech a first down:

Of course, that play is followed by the last play of the game where the video shows Tech RB Henderson s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s the ball over the goal line. At least Henderson's TD stretch was a closer call than the Amendola "phantom first down" catch.

To his credit, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops didn't make a public issue of it at the time even though he had a better case than Leach did after his recent outburst in Austin. Stoops' maturity is one of the many reasons that he is a better and more successful coach than Leach.

By the way, that controversial 2005 Tech-OU is also famous for the following video, which establishes that Lubbock is not only one of the toughest places for a visiting team to play, but also one of the toughest places for a visiting player to give a post-game press interview:

Update: Tech upset the Sooners, 34-27.

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Remembering 1968

In 1968, I was a 15-year old concentrating on playing various high school sports in Iowa City, a Midwestern college town. However, even in that somewhat sheltered environment, it was impossible not to realize that 1968 was an unusually tumultuous year. This Daniel Henninger/Opinion Journal op-ed reminds us of just what a wild ride 1968 was:

In 1968, Nicolas Sarkozy was 13 years old. John McCain was 32 and Hillary Clinton was 21. Barack Obama was 7. It is not beyond imagining that the precocious Messrs. Sarkozy and Obama were alert to events in 1968, but for the first wave of baby boomers just touching adulthood that year, it was the beginning of a strange journey.

Nearly any one of the events that went off in 1968 would have been enough to dominate another year. To list what actually happened that year even today boggles the mind, and spirit.

The year began with sales of the Beatles album, "Magical Mystery Tour." In retrospect, it was a premonition. In late January, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and crew members. A week later, the North Vietnamese army launched the Tet offensive.

On Feb. 27, Walter Cronkite announced on CBS News that the U.S. had to negotiate a settlement to the Vietnam War. On March 12, Sen. Gene McCarthy defeated incumbent President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, aided by antiwar students that Sen. McCarthy called his "children's crusade." Two weeks later, LBJ announced on TV that he would not run for re-election. One week later, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was only April 4.

There were race riots everywhere. On April 24, students occupied five buildings at Columbia University, protesting the war. In May bloody student riots erupted in France, likely witnessed by the impressionable Mr. Sarkozy.

On June 3, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol in a New York City loft. Two days later, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In August, the Soviet Union occupied Czechoslovakia. Seven days later, antiwar demonstrators at the Democratic convention fought pitched battles with the Chicago police.

On Nov. 4, having absorbed all this, the people of the United States voted. They gave 43.4% of their vote to Richard Nixon and 42.7% to Hubert Humphrey. Alabama Gov. George Wallace got 13.5%. Four years later, George Wallace was shot while running for president. 1968 lasted a long time.

Whatever civic culture the U.S. had until the 1960s, it was now transformed. After '68, we had a new kind of political and social culture, pounding like a jackhammer into the older bedrock. The country cracked. Look at those 1968 popular vote numbers; half the country went left and half went right.

Read the entire piece.

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The nation's worst-managed transit system

Tom Rubin is an accountant who has audited many transit agencies and is an expert in transit system accounting. Randal O'Toole channels a Rubin presentation in describing the nation's worst-managed transit system:

Participants in the Preserving the American Dream conference were encouraged to ride [the] light-rail line to one of the conference events. What they saw was not a pretty picture. Trains were infrequent (one of the supposed advantages of rail is that they run so frequently that riders don’t need to consult schedules), the in-street tracks are dangerous (one conference goer slipped on a rail and fell into a curb), and the fellow patrons are not always people you want to be around (several conference goers were treated to the scene of someone becoming violently ill on board, leading one of our members to say, “So that’s what they mean by ‘vibrant streets’”).

Beyond these impressions, Rubin observes that [the light-rail system] has “the worst operating statistics of any American transit operator.” The reason for this, he says, is that [the area] — being built mostly after World War II — is one of the most spread-out urban areas in the country. Not only are people spread out, but jobs are spread out, with no job concentrations anywhere.

This makes large buses particularly unsuitable for transit because there is no place where large numbers of people want to go. So what was [the transit system's] solution when its bus numbers were low relative to other transit agencies? Build light rail — in other words, use an expensive technology that requires even more job concentrations.

Now it has one of the, if not the, poorest-patronized light-rail systems in America. So what is its solution? Build heavy rail, a technology that requires even more job concentrations.

What transit system are O'Toole and Rubin describing? Well, it sure sounds like it could be Houston's, but it's not. They are talking about San Jose, California's system.

But how long do you think it will be until Houston's light rail system is in similar shape?

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November 15, 2007

What goes up, usually comes down

The BBC's Evan Davis provides a short article on how to keep the recent spike in oil prices in perspective:

It's clear that $100 a barrel is very high. Although it's worth saying, it's still not a record.

1864 was in fact the most expensive year for oil. It was over $104 in today's money. Notwithstanding that record (and most of us in the media will ignore it when talking of record highs in the next few weeks - we'll be using the high of $104.7 reached in 1980 after the Iranian revolution) we can at least say an impending $100 barrel is getting historically significant.

And Davis provides the following observation about the market for oil that echos that of former Exxon chairman, Lee Raymond:

But the point of volatile market is that it swings both ways.

The longer we have higher oil prices, the more we can economise on oil - by switching to smaller cars for example. And the more oil that gets produced – a small excess of supply over demand - and the price can plummet.

The lesson of history, is that when oil prices soar up to record levels, they usually then fall back down.

And here's one final price of oil thought for the day, courtesy of Shai Agassi:

The cost of the average used car in Europe is now cheaper than the cost of gasoline to drive it for a year . . .

Posted by Tom at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Edwards returns to demagoguery

After an effective television ad, the John Edwards campaign returns to Edwards' usual form of demagoguery against business interests in the ad below:

By the way, one of Edwards' proposed ways in which to force Congress to take action on his call of universal health care coverage won't fly.

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The Philly reaction to the Lidge deal

Tuck depicts the quintessential Philadelphia reaction to the Lidge deal.

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November 14, 2007

Jumping to conclusions on Judge Kent

Embattled U.S. District Judge Sam Kent is an easy target these days (all previous posts here). Along those lines, Chronicle legal columnist and blogger Mary Flood makes the following statement in this blog post on the Chronicle's latest story about the allegations against Judge Kent:

The law sees the judge as innocent until proven guilty of these allegations, though so far he faces no criminal or civil lawsuits over the matter anyway. But it is important to note that his fellow judges removed him from work (albeit with pay) for the last four months of the year and reprimanded him for sexual harassment (emphasis added).

Flood's above assertion may be correct, but we do not know that at this time. The Judicial Council's order certainly says no such thing. The order states that a judicial complaint alleging sexual harassment was filed against Judge Kent and that a special investigatory committee reviewed the allegations and expanded the investigation to review other allegations of "inappropriate behavior" toward other federal employees. The order goes on to state that, after completing the investigation, the investigative committee recommended a reprimand and other "remedial courses of action." The Judicial Council accepted the committee's recommendation of reprimanding Judge Kent and concluded the proceeding "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 ofthe Galveston/Houston docket and other measures." The Judicial Council's order also admonished Judge Kent "that his actions . . . violated the mandates of the Canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges and are deemed prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts and the administration of justice."

Thus, here's what we know. A judicial complaint alleging sexual harassment was filed against Judge Kent. An investigation ensued and was expanded beyond the allegations contained in the initial complaint to other "inappropriate behavior." Judge Kent presumably defended himself in regard to the allegations, but he is precluded by applicable rules relating to such investigations from discussing the matter publicly. The Judicial Council reprimanded and admonished Judge Kent, but the findings of fact and conclusions of law upon which the council based its reprimand have not -- and probably will never will be -- made public.

Thus, at this point, stating that Judge Kent was "reprimanded for sexual harassment" is speculation. He may have been, but the reason could also have been inappropriate behavior not related to sexual harassment, such as a drinking problem or simply acting badly toward subordinates. Further legal proceedings appear to be likely, so I'm inclined to wait to see what information develops in a forum where he can defend himself before jumping to conclusions in the matter of Judge Kent.

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

Weary's Taser lawsuit

Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary -- who was Tasered under dubious circumstances by a couple of HPD officers on the side of one of Houston's busiest freeways last year around this time -- has filed a civil rights lawsuit in Houston federal court against the City of Houston and the officers involved in the matter.

The misdemeanor criminal charges against Weary that supposedly justified the Tasering were dismissed in short order shortly after the arrest. A copy of Weary's complaint is here and the case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, who worked as a Houston Police officer while he went to law school at the University of Houston in the late 1970's. Weary is represented by Joseph Walker of the Houston firm of Franklin Mosele & Walker.

As noted in the prior post and as reflected by the summary dismissal of the charges against Weary, the police conduct in stopping and then Tasering Weary doesn't pass the smell test. My bet is that it won't play well in court, either. Stay tuned.

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Tiger v. Vijay

Although it's off-season for golf, I've been meaning to pass along the video below for awhile. I'm not sure about Peter Kostis analysis, but one thing is certain -- these are two very good golf swings.

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November 13, 2007

Vince Young's $5 million donation to UT

Michael Lewis (previous posts here) -- author of Moneyball and The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (previous post here) -- pens this NY Times op-ed in which he addresses a frequent topic on this blog -- that is, the shameful economic exploitation of athletes by many universities in the business of big-time college football (see previous posts here, here and here):

College football’s best trick play is its pretense that it has nothing to do with money, that it’s simply an extension of the university’s mission to educate its students. Were the public to view college football as mainly a business, it might start asking questions. For instance: why are these enterprises that have nothing to do with education and everything to do with profits exempt from paying taxes? Or why don’t they pay their employees?

This is maybe the oddest aspect of the college football business. Everyone associated with it is getting rich except the people whose labor creates the value. At this moment there are thousands of big-time college football players, many of whom are black and poor. They perform for the intense pleasure of millions of rabid college football fans, many of whom are rich and white. The world’s most enthusiastic racially integrated marketplace is waiting to happen. [. . .]

If the N.C.A.A. genuinely wanted to take the money out of college football it’d make the tickets free and broadcast the games on public television and set limits on how much universities could pay head coaches. But the N.C.A.A. confines its anti-market strictures to the players — and God help the interior lineman who is caught breaking them. Each year some player who grew up with nothing is tempted by a booster’s offer of a car, or some cash, and is never heard from again. [. . .]

Last year the average N.F.L. team had revenue of about $200 million and ran payrolls of roughly $130 million: 60 percent to 70 percent of a team’s revenues, therefore, go directly to the players. There’s no reason those numbers would be any lower on a college football team — and there’s some reason to think they’d be higher. It’s easy to imagine the Universities of Alabama ($44 million in revenue), Michigan ($50 million), Georgia ($59 million) and many others paying the players even more than they take in directly from their football operations, just to keep school spirit flowing. (Go Dawgs!)

But let’s keep it conservative. In 2005, the 121 Division 1-A football teams generated $1.8 billion for their colleges. If the colleges paid out 65 percent of their revenues to the players, the annual college football payroll would come to $1.17 billion. A college football team has 85 scholarship players while an N.F.L. roster has only 53, and so the money might be distributed a bit differently. [. . .]

A star quarterback, . . . might command as much as 8 percent of his college team’s revenues. For instance, in 2005 the Texas Longhorns would have paid Vince Young roughly $5 million for the season. In quarterbacking the Longhorns free of charge, Young, in effect, was making a donation to the university of $5 million a year — and also, by putting his health on the line, taking a huge career risk.

Perhaps he would have made this great gift on his own. The point is that Vince Young, as the creator of the economic value, should have had the power to choose what to do with it. Once the market is up and running players who want to go to enjoy the pure amateur experience can continue to play for free.

Read the entire piece.

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UT's Sooner legacy

This post from earlier this fall noted that this season was the 50th anniversary of the legendary University of Texas football coach Darrell K. Royal (previous posts here) taking the reins of the then faltering Longhorn football program and turning it into one of the most successful programs in the country over the next 20 years. If you are interested in this fascinating man, then don't miss this excellent Wann Smith article on Coach Royal, which passes along the story of why Coach Royal elected not to return to his alma mater (the University of Oklahoma) after the 1963 season when famed OU coach Bud Wilkenson finally stepped down:

After Bud Wilkinson resigned following the 1963 season, there was a groundswell of support for the idea of bringing Darrell Royal back across the Red River. Royal was inundated by calls from old schoolmates and friends urging him to take the OU job.

But Royal wasn't interested in returning to his home state. He had made it clear from the start that he had no interest in the Oklahoma coaching vacancy. However Royal's decision to stay in Austin had nothing to do with any enmity for either the State of Okahoma or for his Alma Mater.

"I had been searching for something," said Royal. "And I found it in Texas. . ."

Read the entire article.

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The ins and outs of college football recruiting

An all college football series of posts today starts out with this IndyStar.com article titled "Recruiting 101" by a former high school football coach who passes along his experience in what college coaches are looking for in high school football players. The article contains many interesting insights, including the former coach's final one, which runs counter to the specialization of athletes that is the clear trend at most big high schools:

Regardless of position, it appears that in the recruiting of [big-time college football] players that being a multisport athlete at the high school level is the norm. I encourage athletes to play as many sports as long as they can. The benefits of multisport participation are many.

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

November 12, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(Eric Gray/AP photo; previous weekly reviews here)

Texas Longhorns 59 Texas Tech 43

The Texas Longhorns (9-2/5-2) had been left for dead after losing to Oklahoma six weeks ago, but the resurgent Horns are in solid contention for a BCS bowl game after defeating the defenseless Red Raiders (7-4/3-4). Although Tech closed to within 10 points a couple of times during the 47 point 4th quarter, this one was really never in doubt because Tech's defense simply could not slow down, much less stop, the Horns' offense. At least Coach Leach didn't fire his defensive coordinator or blame his players after this defeat. This time, Tech's loss was apparently the fault of the referees. Referring to Randy Cristal, the head referee for Saturday's game, being an Austin resident, Leach asserted the following in post-game comments:

"That can be argued in a variety of directions. Maybe it is something as simple as guys sitting over the water cooler in their office, in Austin, talking to their friends about the great game they are going to see, the great players they are going to see. Perhaps a preconceived notion has developed how it's going to come out."

Leach apparently forgot that Tech was the beneficiary of a couple of dubious hometown calls at the end of one of Tech's rare victories against Oklahoma. The reality is that Leach is a mediocre coach of a one-dimensional program that is 1-11 against ranked teams and 2-13 against UT and OU during his tenure at Tech. The Horns close their regular season against Texas A&M (6-5/3-4) in their annual rivalry game the day after Thanksgiving.

Update: Here is Leach's after-game rant. The remarks will almost certainly result in the Big 12 Conference levying sanctions on Leach.

Update 2: Leach was fined $10,000 by the Big 12 on Tuesday and received a public reprimand. According to a Big 12 press release, Leach is “on notice that any future such behavior will result in a more serious penalty, including a possible suspension.”

“Coach Leach’s public statements called into question the integrity and competence of game officials and the Conference’s officiating program,” Dan Beebe, the Big 12 commissioner, stated. “Accordingly the seriousness of this violation warrants a public reprimand and the largest fine issued to date by the Conference.”

Tulsa 56 Houston Cougars 7

The Cougars (6-4/5-2) laid a major egg in their effort to win their second straight Conference USA title when they laid down and rolled over to Tulsa (7-3/5-2). Houston has had problems with its defensive unit for years, so giving up 56 points to Tulsa is not all that surprisng. But It's hard to understand how a team such as the Cougars, that is averaging almost 550 yards per game, would generate less than 400 yards of total offense against a poor Tulsa defense, 97 of which came in the Coogs' only TD drive of the game while behind 56-0. The Cougars will attempt to regroup next week against an improving Marshall (2-8/2-4) that has won their last two games. Meanwhile, perhaps Houston head coach Art Briles won't be such a hot commodity for other head coaching jobs after the Tulsa debacle.

Missouri 40 Texas A&M 26

The Aggies (6-5/3-4) actually were in a position to pull ahead during the 2nd half of this one when Aggie head coach Dennis Franchione called a series of plays that is typical of why he will be fired come season end, if not before. Early 4th quarter, the Aggies were marching down the field pounding the rushing game against a tired Mizzou (9-1/5-1) defense after closing to within 24-19. After reaching a 1st and 10 on Mizzou's 12 yard line, the Aggies telegraphed a dive play on first down that was stopped for a one yard gain, QB Stephen McGeen threw an incompletion on second down and, on 3rd and long, Franchione inexplicably called a middle screen pass that was completed for a seven yard loss. Thus, rather than continuing to pound the rushing game against an overwhelmed defense in clear four down territory, Franchione inexplicably turned to the Ags' ineffectual passing game, which stifled the drive. After Aggie kicker Matt Szymanski pushed the 36 yard field goal attempt wide right, the Aggies had completely lost the momentum, prompting the Tigers to score 16 fourth quarter points to put the game away. The Aggies close their season on the Friday after Thanksgiving in their annual rivalry game against the Longhorns (9-2/5-2).

Rice 43 SMU 42

What more can you say about the resilient Owls (3-7/3-3)? This time, the Owls came back from a 15 point 4th quarter deficit to pull out the victory on a game-winning 31 yard field goal. The potent Owls offense generated 535 total offense, including 365 yards passing from QB Chase Clement. The Owls finish with two home games, next week against Tulane (3-7/2-4) and against Tulsa (7-3/5-2) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The Texans (4-5) were off this past weekend. Next Sunday, they play Reggie Bush and New Orleans (4-5), which is coming off a loss yesterday to previously winless St. Louis.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Why is the Chronicle beating this dead horse?

The Chronicle continues its apparent campaign to breath life into the second largest local urban boondoggle (second only to the Metro light rail system) -- the proposed Astrodome hotel project (previous posts here). Rice professor and local political pundit Bob Stein comments about the apparent dilemma:

"For public officials, it's like being in a maze," Stein said. "You don't know which turn you make is going to help you. You have the rodeo and the Texans — the stakeholders — and then you have the public."

In reality, there is no dilemma at all. As USC economics professor Peter Gordon observes with regard to such issues, three simple questions need to be addressed: 1) At what cost? 2) Compared to what? and 3) How do you know? Despite the public's fondness for the Dome, it is an obsolescent hulk that serves no useful purpose and costs a considerable amount each year just to mothball. The cost of the renovation is enormous and will almost certainly require some type of public contribution, particularly given the currently spooked credit and equity markets. Even if the deal could be financed without a large public contribution (I doubt it can), the county still has to face the prospect that the project will fail (many new hotels do) and that large operating subsidies will be necessary in the future. To make matters worse, there is inadequate demand for the city's existing supply of hotel rooms, much less a supply that is increased by 1,300 rooms that the Astrodome hotel project would contribute. Finally, the current tenants of Reliant Park object to the hotel project.

So, in the face of all of the foregoing, why does the Chronicle continue to beat the drum for the project? Inquiring minds would like to know.

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

More on the matter of Judge Kent

The Houston Chronicle continued its investigative series into the matter of Galveston U.S. District Judge Sam Kent with this Lisa Olsen/Sunday edition article that provides the most detailed account to date of courtroom deputy Cathy McBroom's sexual harrassment allegations against Judge Kent (previous posts here). The Chron's account is based primarily on the Chronicle's interviews with a close friend -- Charlene Clark, a San Antonio schoolteacher -- with whom McBroom apparently confided after the alleged incident with Judge Kent, Ms. McBroom's mother and another former courtroom deputy of Judge Kent, Felicia Williams.

Under the Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sanctions order relating to the matter, Judge Kent is barred from commenting on the matters relating to the investigation and his attorney -- Maria Wyckoff Boyce of Baker & Botts -- has refused all requests for interviews and referred all questions to the Fifth Circuit. Judge Edith H. Jones, chief judge for the Fifth Circuit, has also refused comment on the investigation.

According to the Chronicle's account of McBroom's friend, the following is what McBroom told her occurred:

McBroom was summoned to the judge's chambers on Friday, March 23, at about 3 p.m.

Her hands were full of legal papers when the judge — a former high school athlete who is more than 6 inches taller and at least 100 pounds heavier — asked for a hug.

She told him she didn't think that was appropriate, but reluctantly approached.

The judge grabbed Mc-Broom, pulled up her blouse and her bra and put his mouth on her breast. Then, Kent forced her head down toward his crotch.

As McBroom struggled, Kent kept telling the married mother of three what he wanted to do to her in words too graphic to publish. The papers fell to the floor. The pet bulldog Kent kept in his chambers began to bark.

The incident was interrupted by the sound of footsteps from another staff member in the corridor, and the judge loosened his grip. As she left, the judge said McBroom was a good case manager and then made suggestions about engaging in a sexual act.

McBroom ran out crying. [. . .]

Between 2003 and 2007, McBroom experienced about 15 to 20 other incidents of alleged harassment, five involving improper touching, according to Clark and another source.

"He talked incredibly crudely when he was under the influence," Clark said. "He described sex acts. . . "

Olsen reports that McBroom, Ms. Williams (the other former case manager) and at least three other women later gave statements to Fifth Circuit investigators regarding Judge Kent's alleged abuse of employees. According to Olsen, women with knowledge of Judge Kent's actions contend that the first incidents of alleged harassment and unwanted physical contacts with female court employees began about ten years ago. Williams, who is now retired, also spoke with Olsen regarding her experience with Judge Kent:

Williams, who had worked for Kent from 1993 to 2002, said her firing came days after she apparently offended the judge with a comment she'd made about his arriving late for a hearing, though she says she was given no official reason at the time.

Williams told the Chronicle that over the years she frequently had seen Kent appear inebriated at work after long lunches with lawyer friends, was regularly asked for "hugs" and subjected to lewd remarks.

The judge said he could "service me when my husband was being treated for prostate cancer," Williams said. "He told me sexual dirty jokes, and (I) was expected to listen to his rude comments regarding other people."

Williams said she never told co-workers or even her husband about most of the comments out of loyalty to the judge — and out of fear that he would retaliate.

"I need to relay how Cathy and I felt threatened due to (Kent's) power and authority and were always concerned about our positions and knew we could be dismissed at a moment's notice," Williams said. "Since (I) no longer work for him, I feel more comfortable talking but will always feel the emotional pain."

Williams later worked at the federal courthouse in Houston until her retirement in 2006 with 33 years of U.S. government service.

McBroom filed an internal judicial conduct complaint against Kent on May 21st. On Sept. 28th, the Judicial Council's formal reprimand was issued and, about a month later, Judge Kent was reassigned to Houston. Judge Kent remains on a leave of absence until January, 2008.

With these latest revelations, my bet is that the matter of Judge Kent is headed to the House Judiciary Committee after the first of the new year.

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November 11, 2007

Why didn't the mainstream media expose Spitzer's abuses?

Regular readers of this blog know that former New York attorney general and current NY governor Eliot Spitzer's abuses of power have been a frequent topic for a long time, particularly Spitzer's dubious prosecution of former New York Stock Exchange chairman, Richard Grasso.

Well, as the years pass from Spitzer's odious term as AG, additional information is beginning to filter out that indicates that Spitzer's abuses of power were every bit as bad as suspected. Dealbreaker's John Carney has posts here and here reviewing Charles Gasparino's new book, King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange (Collins 2007) in which Carney summarizes Garparino's research on Spitzer's dubious tactics in investigating Grasso. Suffice it to say that Spitzer's tactics would have qualified him for a key position in any of the secret police units of the former Eastern European totalitarian regimes.

In Carney's latter post, he makes an excellent point about the mainstream media's myopia regarding Spitzer's abuses of power, which were regularly noted in the blogosphere, but rarely mentioned in the mainstream media outside of the Wall Street Journal. Carney observes:

Why didn’t [the mainstream media covering Spitzer's investigation of Grasso] reveal the slimy tactics of the Spitzer squad? We suspect part of the problem was the fear of being “cut off” of access. Reporters compete for scoops, and often those scoops depend on sources who will leak information to them. In the NYSE case, reporters assigned to the story were largely at the mercy of the investigators, who could cut-off uncooperative reporters, leaving them without copy to bring to their editors while their competitors filed stories with the newest dirt. They probably felt—not unrealistically—that their very jobs were on the line.

This reveals an unfortunate state of affairs. Playing bugle boy while government officials call the tunes from behind a veil of anonymity is not investigative journalism—it’s hardly journalism at all. It’s closer to propaganda. It would have been far better had the journalists turned their backs on the Spitzer squad, or even revealed these tactics to the public. Sure they may have lost some “good” stories but they could have painted a truer picture of what was going on. But that’s probably too much to hope for.

Exactly.

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November 10, 2007

Jerome Solomon's real bad Aggie joke

Kevin Whited catches Houston Chronicle sports columnist Jerome Solomon making arguably the worst attempt at an Aggie joke in history:

It is sad that Texas A&M has spent the '00s playing the role of little brother to Texas' big brother.

While the bratty Longhorns constantly rub A&M's nose in national championships — no matter how infrequently they come — the Aggies have to play with matches to get attention. (emphasis added)

Earth to Jerome, Earth to Jerome. The Aggie Bonfire collapse in 1999 was a horrific tragedy for not only Texas A&M University, but the entire state. Making light of it is in extremely poor taste.

My sense is that Mr. Solomon should sit in the corner for awhile after that one.

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November 9, 2007

The Lidge deal

New Stros General Manager Ed Wade's first major move was to end Brad Lidge's career with the Stros. Wade traded Lidge and utilityman Eric Bruntlett to the Phillies for CF Michael Bourn (a Houston native and former University of Houston player), reliever Geoff Geary and AA 3B Michael Costanzo.

I'm a firm believer that you evaluate trades primarily on the front end. A Major League ballclub wants its general manager to take reasonable risks in an attempt to improve the club. Because of the nature of risk, a reasonable trade can turn out bad. The Jason Jennings trade is a good recent example. It was a decent trade on the front end, but injury risk undermined the Stros' purpose for the trade. Sure, many local pundits condemned the trade after the Stros risk was realized, but that's an unfair way to evaluate a trade. If a GM is going to be ridiculed after the fact for taking risks to help the club, then that's going to deter the GM from taking those risks. That's a poor policy for developing and maintaining a successful ballclub.

Thus, evaluating this trade on the front end, it looks like a pretty good deal for the Stros, despite having to give up Lidge. One of the favorite pastimes of Stros fans over the past couple of seasons has been to psychoanalyze Lidge, who has taken it all in good-natured stride. His story is a compelling one. During the 2004 season, Lidge burst on the scene in essentially his second season of Major Leage Baseball and was, at least for a part of that season, the best relief pitcher in MLB and one of the primary reasons why the Stros won 36 out of their final 46 regular season games to make the playoffs and eventually come within a game of the 2004 World Series. In 94.2 innings that season, Lidge had a microscopic 1.90 ERA and saved 26 more runs than an average National League pitcher would have saved in the same number of innings (RSAA, explained here).

Lidge was very good again during the 2005 season (2.29 ERA/14 RSAA in 70.2 innings), but the first cracks in his armor began to show late that season. With the Stros one out away from the 2005 World Series and Lidge dominating the Cardinals, Albert Pujols hammered a game-winning Game 5 NLCS shot that still has not come back down to Earth. Lidge's confidence seemed to evaporate in the wake of Pujols' massive tater.

By the end of the following season (2006), Lidge had performed worse over the course of the season than virtually any other regular member of the Stros' pitching staff (5.28 ERA/-6 RSAA in 75 innings). It was not really difficult to understand why -- Lidge lost the ability to throw his devastating slider for strikes consistently. As a result, hitters laid off Lidge's slider and laid into his fastball, which Lidge does not locate particularly well. Moreover, Lidge has a long history of arm and specifically elbow problems owing to his violent mechanics -- as a starter in the low minors, he appeared in just 19 games from 1999 to 2001. His struggles with his control over the past couple of seasons just might indicate that the future injury risk for Lidge is quite high.

Lidge did make a nice comeback in 2007 (6 RSAA/3.36 ERA in 67 IP) from his horrifying 2006 season, but he still struggled with his control frequently. Curiously, the Stros delayed his knee surgery to remove loose cartilage until after the season, so it's clear now that they were showcasing him for a possible trade. Lidge is talented and an asset for any pitching staff, but his one dominant season (2004) does not mean that he will regain his stature as a dominant closer. My sense is that Chad Qualls may well end up being a better fit for that role.

Inasmuch as the Stros need to re-stock the young talent on their big league club and in their minor league system, trading veteran talent such as Lidge in his last year before free agency makes sense. Bourn is a potential leadoff man with on-base skills that Willy Taveras never mastered, and he runs and plays CF well. The downside risk on Bourn is that he will be an inexpensive OBP and defensive tool for a couple of years. Finally, picking up Bourn allows the Stros to move Hunter Pence to right field and dangle Luke Scott as trade bait for more pitching.

The prospect in the deal -- Costanzo -- is not a top notch prospect at third, but he projects as an average MLB 3B by his 270 AVG./.368 OBA/.490 SLG in his age-23 season in AA ball. Inasmuch as it is doubtful that Ty Wigginton is the long range answer for the Stros at 3B, it is conceivable that Constanzo could make Wigginton available as trade bait before the end of next season. That's the kind of flexibility that the Stros have lacked over the past several seasons as their minor league system became depleted.

Geary can be a serviceable reliever for the Stros, but I'm not going to get too excited about him until I see how he adjusts to the short porch in Minute Maid Park's left field. He pitched very well for the Phillies during their playoff stretch drive this past season, but ge is not a flamethrower. Right-handed offspeed pitchers (starting with the forgettable 2000 performance of Jose Lima) don't generally do all that well at Minute Maid. especially pitchers such as Geary who do not generate an overabundance of ground balls.

Nevertheless, I like this trade. Bourn has the potential to be what Taveras probably will never be, Geary can contribute right away and Costanzo is a solid prospect. All in all, a good day's work for the Stros new GM.

Update: Jeff Albert provides this optimistic analysis of the Lidge deal from the Phillies' perspective.

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The smog Olympics

The photo on the left is from this James Fallows post, which describes the dubious air quality at noon in downtown Beijing, the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. As Fallows asks:

"But, seriously: how is this not an all-out emergency from the Olympic committee's point of view?"

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Nice guys on the PGA Tour

Golfweek's Jeff Rude provides this entertaining column in which he passes along some of his experiences with the truly nice fellows on the PGA Tour, the nicest of which, in Rude's view, is Beaumont native and former University of Houston great, Bruce Lietzke:

[Lietzke] had all the attributes you want in a next-door neighbor: Self-deprecation, humor, a pleasant nature, a realness, a playfulness, a deep sense of family and a vintage car collection to die for. With Lietzke, you could walk next door and get a golf lesson, borrow a wrench and, for the umpteenth time, hear his famous banana-under-the headcover story or about the time he revved one of his hot cars up Magnolia Lane.

My favorite Lietzke story, and the one that clinched his status as No. 1 favorite, happened in 1995. I needed to interview him but our schedules were conflicting. I was leaving for the British Open, and he was going on one of his long summer vacations and time was running out. So I read him the list of questions while in a taxi on the way to the Dallas airport and asked him to leave his answers on my answering machine. I told him I’d then listen to his answers and transcribe the quotes during a layover in Chicago on the way to Scotland.

When I retrieved messages at O’Hare Airport, sure enough Lietzke had called. Problem was, my voice mail cut off after two minutes. So to make this work, Lietzke had to call back and continue with his answers. And call back and continue. And call back and continue. When I got done writing down his answers, I realized he had called my answering machine 13 times.

I mean, telemarketers looking for cash don’t call my answering machine 13 times. And this was a PGA Tour player with 13 victories. I mean, some winless players don’t have 13 seconds (as in time) for someone carrying a notepad and pen.

Professional athletes in need of media training don’t need a seminar. They just need to hang out with Lietzke for a day.

Read the entire piece. I had the pleasure of playing a round with Liezke years ago at a University of Houston function and concur with Rude that he is a perfectly charming fellow.

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November 8, 2007

An expensive illusion

As I've noted several times previously, EconLog's Arnold Kling is among the clearest thinkers in the U.S. on reform of the health care finance system. He has been addressing health care finance issues again this week, first in this podcast interview with Russ Roberts, and also in posts here and here addressing issues raised by Greg Mankiw's NY Times article on the misleading nature of certain statistics that are frequently tossed around in the health care finance debates. But the most insightful Kling health care finance post this week was this Cato-at-Liberty post in which he analogizes the third party payor health care finance system to subsidized prostitution:

Suppose we were 20-year-old guys who hung out together, and one of our friends was down on his luck with women. He’s really depressed about it. We decide–not necessarily the brightest idea–to hire him a prostitute. We don’t want him to know she’s a prostitute, so we all chip in and pay her, tell her to meet our friend at a bar, and make him feel better about himself.

Next morning, we ask him how it went. He says, “Great. I really feel better about myself. In fact, I’m going to see her again tonight.”

As friends of the guy, we look at each other and realize that he will be devastated if he learns the truth. So we chip in again and pay the prostitute to make our friend feel better about himself. This keeps happening day after day, and eventually maintaining our friend’s illusion about his love life gets to be really expensive.

Similarly, free health care is an attractive illusion. It’s just gotten to be really expensive to maintain the illusion.

Before the blogosphere, discussion and analysis of health care finance -- which has become one of the key domestic issues of our time -- was largely buried in technical books, economic or medical journals and an occasional op-ed on the editorial pages. As a result, health care finance was largely misunderstood by the public and even a large segment of the medical profession. Now, through the leadership of economic bloggers such as Kling, the important issues relating to health care finance reform are instantly available for the world to review as a virtual cornucopia of economic bloggers has emerged to provide commentary and insight. That's a wonderful legacy for Kling, and one for which we should all be appreciative.

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The DeBakey-Cooley rapprochement

The longtime feud and resulting intense competition between Houston cardiovascular surgeons Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley was a part of what catapulted Houston's Texas Medical Center into the upper tier of the world's great medical centers over the past 40 years.

Now, the Chronicle's fine Texas Medical Center reporter, Todd Ackerman, reports in this article that the DeBakey-Cooley rift is no more:

It's considered one of medicine's best-known feuds: two brilliant and egotistical doctors on the frontiers of cardiovascular surgery, whose falling-out divided a community and became the stuff of legend.

Immortalized in a Life magazine cover story, the rift persisted for decades. Although the competition spurred them to achievements that transformed the Texas Medical Center into the world's heart treatment center, the former collaborators avoided each other and barely spoke.

But recently, Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley buried the hatchet.

"I'm glad the rivalry may have passed by," Cooley said on Oct. 27, presenting DeBakey with a lifetime achievement award at a meeting of Cooley's Cardiovascular Surgical Society. "I hope this is not just a temporary truce or cease-fire (but) ... a permanent treaty between us."

DeBakey, 99, responded that he was glad to be there for two reasons: "One is, I'm alive. And the other, of course, is to get this award. Denton, I am really touched by it."

Read the entire article.

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What's really wrong with Ahman Green

Leading Texans cheerleader, Chronicle pro football columnist John McClain, reports on the baffling nature of the injury that is holding back the Texans' high-priced running back, Ahman Green:

Meanwhile, the Texans asked running back Ahman Green, 30, to have his sore right knee examined by [Dr. James] Andrews to see if he can find something that might help him stay on the field.

"We're trying to find out what's really going on, why it's swelling and giving me pain and discomfort," Green said after practice Tuesday. "I've had three MRIs, and they still don't know from that, so I'm going to fly over there and see what we can find out." [. . .]

"I'm hoping we'll finally know," Green said. "I hope we can find a solution for this. We'll have our finger on the dot to see exactly what it is. Once we find the problem, we'll have a solution.

"I know what I bring to this team, and my teammates depend on me a lot. And when I'm injured, I can't do the things I know I can do."

In reality, the acquisition of Green was a mistake -- and a very expensive one at that -- from the beginning. Moreover, that it was a mistake should not have been a surprise to anyone. As noted in my annual preview of the Texans' season:

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.

In short, you won't read about it in McClain's columns, but Green represents another indication that the hiring of current Texans coach Gary Kubiak has not changed the legacy of dubious personnel decisions over at Reliant Park.

Ahman Green = eventual salary cap hit.

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November 7, 2007

Last weekend's truly biggest game

The grudge match between LSU and Alabama was certainly the most watched big college football game of this past weekend. But for my money, the most interesting game of the weekend was Navy's dramatic 46-44 triple overtime victory over Notre Dame at South Bend, ending a 43 year losing streak by the Midshipmen against the Fighting Irish. The win was made even more satisfying for the Middies because a blatant "hometown" pass interference call by one of the referees gave Notre Dame another chance to tie the game at the end of the third overtime, but Navy stuffed the Irish on the retry to preserve the victory.

John Feinstein provides this excellent analysis of what Navy's victory means:

Skeptics will point out that this is a bad (now 1-8) Notre Dame team. It doesn't matter. Every Notre Dame team should dominate Navy on the football field. At one point during the game, NBC -- also known as the Notre Dame Broadcasting Co. because it pays the school millions of dollars a year to televise all its home games -- did a promo for a high school All-Star game it televises in January. Only the country's top-rated high school seniors are invited to play.

"Twenty-one of the current Irish players have played in that game in past years," NBC play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond said.

That would be exactly 21 more than are currently playing at Navy. Or, as Hammond's partner Pat Haden pointed out: "With all due respect, Navy doesn't get to recruit blue-chip football players."

Just blue-chip people. [. . .]

The best description I ever heard of what it is like to play football at Navy, Army and Air Force came from Fred Goldsmith, who coached at Air Force: "At a civilian school the hardest part of a football player's day is football practice," he said. "At an academy, the easiest part of a football player's day is football practice."

Navy can't possibly beat Notre Dame. Except on Saturday a group of youngsters who were too small or too slow (or both) to play big-time college football did just that.

With all due respect to Notre Dame and all its blue-chip players, Navy's celebration should be our celebration.

By the way, the game included one of the worst coaching calls that I've ever seen. Notre Dame's Charlie Weis decided to go for it on 4th and 8 at the Navy 24 yard line with 45 seconds remaining in regulation instead of attempting a 41-yard field goal that could have won the game. If a 1-8 record at Notre Dame doesn't get Weis fired, then that type of coaching decision almost certainly will.

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Final PGA Tour money lists

After last weekend's final PGA Tour tournament of the year, the PGA Tour money list has been finalized for purposes of qualifying for the 2008 PGA Tour events. The top 125 on the list are fully exempt next year and the top 30 gets into the Masters. The Nationwide Tour money list is also finalized. The top 25 on that list earn a PGA Tour card for 2008.

Players not otherwise exempt that finish between 126-150 on the money list usually still get into 16-20 events in the following year, but they have little control over their schedules because they do not know what tournaments will be available for them. Many of these players in that part of the list also rely on past champion and sponsor exemptions. The players who are really in a tough spot are those who finished outside of the top 150 and have no other type of exemption status.

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Bad judgment alert

As if corruption in the Texas Youth Commission, the bursting state prison system, reform of the judicial selection system, or reorganization of TSU isn't enough to keep Texas legislators occupied. Now, a local state legislator is teaming up with a colleague to confront a truly important issue -- that Texans are not going to be able to watch certain NFL football games on certain cable television networks:

Cable companies and the NFL Network are competing for Texas lawmakers' support in their national fight over whether cable customers should be charged extra for the football channel.

While some cable companies have agreed to carry the network's eight regular-season games, Time Warner Cable, the largest in Texas, has not come to terms with the network.

Pressure has been mounting on all parties as the Dallas Cowboys' Nov. 29 matchup with the Green Bay Packers approaches. The game will only be shown on the NFL Network.

"I've had a lot more people contact me about NFL football the last two months instead of child protective services, windstorm insurance or worker's compensation, which are frankly more important issues," said Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, R-Tomball. "I don't control what constituents call me about." [. . .]

Van Arsdale and Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, said last week that they would consider introducing consumer-oriented legislation in the 2009 session if the two sides don't reach an agreement.

"Cable companies need to focus on giving their customers what they want, which is football," Brimer said. [. . .]

Five Democratic members of the Texas House from Bexar County have sent letters to the Federal Communication Commission asking it to intercede in the argument.

Of course, all of these games are readily available on the Dish Network, so no consumer is prevented from buying that product if they want to see these NFL Network games bad enough. However, that doesn't stop the seemingly limitless amount of bad judgment in legislative circles over defining a legitimate legislative issue.

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November 6, 2007

30 year anniversary of the first angioplasty

Angioplasty has been a common topic on this blog, so it seems fitting to pass along this article and related video about Dolf Bachmann, the first patient to undergo balloon angioplasty. Bachmann was 38 years old when he underwent the procedure on September 16, 1977 and now is a healthy and happy 68 year-old who enjoys an "excellent life" that includes hobbies such as "hiking, Nordic walking, skiing, working in my garden and playing cards."

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Dell quietly complies

One of the fringe benefits of the turmoil at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup last week is that Austin-based Dell Inc quietly filed five 10-Qs, a proxy statement and last year’s 10-K (see this previous post about Dell's delinquent filings). The filings contain restated financial information stretching from 2003 to the first fiscal quarter of 2007 and brings Dell into compliance with Nasdeq rules regarding filing of periodic financial reporting. Jack Ciesielski in this AAO Blog post does the heavy lifting in analyzing Dell's filings.

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Winning by losing

Dr. Michael Lewis penned this NY Times op-ed last weekend in which he asserts that Major League Baseball's present revenue-sharing formula does little to affect the quality of the various teams on average, even though small market teams do well now and then:

The Colorado Rockies’ appearance in the World Series last month may have looked like evidence of success for revenue-sharing. Like the Oakland Athletics, the Minnesota Twins, the Detroit Tigers and the San Diego Padres last year, a small-market team proved competitive enough to reach the playoffs. But revenue sharing, as it is now structured, actually makes lasting success less likely for all five of these teams. [. . .]

Since 1998, millions of dollars have been transferred from richer teams to poorer ones in an attempt to let all teams share in the economic advantages associated with playing in big markets — a large fan base, lots of press coverage and lucrative local cable television contracts. Last year, more than $300 million was transferred.

Yet since revenue sharing began, at least one team from each of the big four markets — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston — has appeared in every World Series except 2006. In the 10 years before 1998, in contrast, only two Series included one of those big-market teams.

The problem is that the teams receiving payments have come to use them as a primary source of income — rather than to build winning teams. . .

As John Palmer sums up:

Revenue sharing has little impact on the expected marginal revenue and marginal costs of ticket sales, and it especially has little impact on the expected marginal revenue product and marginal factor costs of hiring more talent for the team. As a result, many teams like, say, Tampa Bay, respond to what is essentially a lump-sum transfer by pocketing the extra cash. [. . .]

So revenue-sharing also reduces the marginal revenue of an expected win, and not just for the big-market teams that are taxed to support the programme; it also reduces the incentive for small market teams, the recipients of revenue-sharing, to win too.

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November 5, 2007

2007 Weekly local football review

(Sue Ogrocki/AP photo; previous weekly reviews here)

Texans 24 Raiders 17

The banged-up Texans (4-5) gamely beat a dreadful Raiders (2-6) team in front of a few close friends and relatives in a nearly-empty Oakland Coliseum. Although the Raiders are one of the worst teams in the NFL along with Miami and St. Louis, the Texans played hard and overcame injuries to their starting QB (Matt Schaub), their best defensive back (Dunta Robinson) and their best running back (Ahman Green). The Texans get a badly-needed bye week next weekend before returning weekend to face the revived Saints (4-4) at Reliant.

Oklahoma 42 Texas Aggies 14

As one columnist put it:

Texas A&M chewed up considerable chunks of Owen Field turf with precise execution Saturday night.

And then the Aggie Band left the field.

A comment from an Aggie friend pretty well sums up how far the Aggies (6-4/3-3) football expectations have fallen under Coach Fran: "Well, at least it wasn't 77-0."

With less than 9 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, with the Aggies already down 28-0 and with a first down on the Oklahoma 44, check out the following sequence:

1st and 10 at TA&M 47 -- Jorvorskie Lane rush for 9 yards to the Okla 44.
2nd and 1 at OKLA 44 -- Stephen McGee pass incomplete.
3rd and 1 at OKLA 44 -- Stephen McGee pass incomplete.
4th and 1 at OKLA 44 -- Justin Brantly punt for 27 yards, fair catch at the Okla 17.

4th and 1, in Oklahoma territory, down by 28, and Coach Fran doesn't have the Aggies go for it? My sense is that the Aggies have surrendered. Another lopsided loss is likely at Missouri (8-1/4-1) next week before the Aggies' regular season mercifully ends on the Friday after Thanksgiving in College Station against UT (8-2/4-2).

Texas Longhorns 38 Oklahoma State 35

With under 12 minutes to go, the Cowboys (5-4/3-2) led the Horns (8-2/4-2) 35-14 and had outgained the Horns 495 yards to roughly 300 yards. Less than 8 minutes later, the Longhorns had tied the score and, a couple of minutes later, Longhorn K Ryan Bailey kicked the winning field goal to pull out the victory.

During that 4th quarter, Texas had 311 of its season-high 589 yards of total offense and scored on all four possessions, including drives of 91 and 99 yards. QB Colt McCoy completed all eight of his passes in the 4th quarter for 145 yards and came up with a 14-yard scramble that put the Horns within range of Bailey's game-winning field goal.

But the real story was RB Jamaal Charles, who had an incredible 4th quarter for the second straight week. Charles had 125 of his 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the 4th quarter, which means that he has 340 rushing yards and five TDs in the 4th quarter during the last two games!

As noted a couple of weeks ago, this relatively mediocre Longhorns team remains in the hunt for a BCS bowl game if they can beat Tech (7-3/3-3) at Austin next Saturday and the Aggies in College Station on the Friday after Thanksgiving. On the other hand, this Horns team is eminently capable of losing both games. Now, that's entertainment!

Houston Cougars 38 SMU 28

The Cougars (6-3/5-1) dodged an inspired bullet in beating the Mustangs (1-8/0-5) in the ESPN Sunday night game at the Rob. The Mustangs, who clearly were playing with enthusiasm for their recently-fired head coach (Phil Bennett), gave the Coogs all they could handle. Only a revived Houston defense in the 4th quarter and the usual 500+ of total offense from the Coog offense pulled this one out. And, oh yeah, the Cougars all-everything RB Anthony Alridge even threw for a TD in this one. The Cougars go on the road for their C-USA showdown game with Tulsa (6-3/4-2) next Saturday.

Rice 56 UTEP 48

How on earth did the Owls (2-7/2-3) manage to win this game despite committing seven turnovers and allowing UTEP to recover two onside kicks? QB Chase Clement was outstanding (395 yards passing and six TDs; 103 yards rushing and two TDs), while WR Jarett Dillard (11 receptions for 168 yards and two TDs) was merely very good (he lost a fumble after a 60 yard catch and run). Ever since last year's Rice-UH game, I've been a big Clement fan, so it would not surprise me if the Owls win their final three games of the season (at SMU (1-7/0-4), at home against Tulane (2-7/1-4) and Tulsa (6-3/4-2)), particularly if the Owls can mount any meaningful defense in those games. Clement and Dillard are the real deal.

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Risky business

The tragic death Saturday morning of 28-year-old veteran marathoner, Ryan Shay, during the United States Olympic trials marathon in Central Park in New York City reminds us of a very important health tip -- long-distance running is not particularly healthy.

Update: Another participant in the marathon died afterward.

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Edwards scores

I've criticized John Edwards over the years for his demagogic tendencies. However, I must admit that the video below by the Edwards campaign is darn effective. Don't you know that Team Hillary will be working on those debating skills in the coming weeks?

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November 4, 2007

The Houston-Cleveland connection

Other than bad NFL football teams, what do Houston and Cleveland have in common? Not much, except that they are the only U.S. markets in which the Patriots-Colts game this afternoon will not be available for home viewers via network television.

The Browns play the Seahawks on FOX at the same time as the Patriots-Colts game, so the Cleveland market gets that game. Similarly, Houstonians must endure the Raiders-Texans game on CBS rather than the Patriots-Colts game. Oakland area residents wisely didn't buy enough tickets to sell out the Raiders-Texans game, so that game is mercifully blacked out in the Bay Area, allowing viewers there to watch the Patriots-Colts game.

It's painful enough having to watch the Texans all the time. Isn't it about time for the NFL to ditch these absurd rules that prevent the best games from being viewed in certain markets?

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November 3, 2007

Texas Haute Country

The New York Times discovers what we in Texas already know -- the Texas Hill Country is wonderful!

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November 2, 2007

Lyle Lovett turns 50

While the subject of the previous post is a new Houstonian, the subject of this Tennessean.com article is one of my favorite native Houstonians, the humble and multi-talented, Lyle Lovett.

Lovett performed and received the "Trailblazer Award" at the Americana Music Awards and Honors in Nashville last night. He also turned 50. As the article notes, Lovett's marvelous talent has generated a remarkably consistent musical product throughout his 21 year recording career:

A back-to-back listen to his self-titled debut album and to new album It's Not Big It's Large offers evidence that Lovett has broadened but not changed his sound or style during his career. His songs have always been layered, intelligent and emotionally precise, written in moments of inspiration and whittled to marrow. Back then, they called his stuff "country." Now it's "Americana." Go figure.

A marvelous songwriter, Lovett passes along arguably his most important songwriting quality:

"I don't feel like [songwriting is] harder as you go along," he said. "I've always felt like it's hard. I'm always blocked as a writer, always. And every time I write something I'm happy with, I have this feeling like, 'That could be the last one.' "

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The Rockets' stathead

Check out this excellent Jason Friedman/Houston Press article on new Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey. As noted in this previous post, I liked Les Alexander's decision in hiring Morey, who is a stathead. That quality has been sadly lacking in the Rockets' management suite over the past decade as the team declined from its mid-1990's dominance. Now, if Morey can just find the Rockets an above-average point guard.

By the way, if you want to read a blog that Morey almost certainly reads, then check out Dave Berri's Wages of Wins. Berri is one of the co-authors of the popular Wages of Wins (Stanford 2006) that shows how statistical analysis debunks a large amount of the conventional wisdom regarding professional sports. In this post prompted by Friedman's article on Morey, Berri explains how the traditional basketball boxscore often misleads the reader as to the effectiveness of the participants in a particular game. In my view, Berri is writing the most insightful analysis on the NBA in the blogosphere right now, and his insights on the NFL aren't bad, either.

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Why is Richard Justice analyzing sports, part II

Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice's inability to analyze the subject that he covers has been a common topic on this blog (see also here and here). Following up on that theme, Matt over at DGDB&D provides this clever post on his attempt to engage Justice in a dialogue over the latter's constant criticism of Texans' defensive end Mario Williams. He also notes that most of the articles and columns generated by the Chronicle sports staff about the Texans can be categorized into one of three columns:

At this point in the season, the majority of columns proffered by that group (that aren't pure Megan Manfull rumormill) can be lumped into one of three categories: (1) Richard Justice bashing Mario Williams like a jilted schoolgirl, (2) blame-laying columns that excoriate the whipping-boy du jour (these are sometimes disguised as Vince-Young-praise columns that excoriate the fact that he was not drafted by Houston), and (3) jump-off-the-bandwagon pieces from the same people who profess to be the biggest cheerleaders.

The specialized blogs covering the Texans -- DGDB&D, Stephanie Stradley, and Texans Tail Gate, to name just three -- are far superior to the Chronicle in providing insightful analysis of the local team. Those layoffs that occurred this past week over at the Chronicle happened for a reason -- readers are gravitating toward better analysis than what the Chronicle is providing. Absent an influx of new talent on the Chronicle sports desk, that drift is not likely to change.

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November 1, 2007

Look who is hosting another "charity" golf tournament?

So, this Chronicle article reports that former PGA Tour golfer and longtime Houstonian Doug Sanders is hosting another charity golf tournament, this time at the Palmer Course in The Woodlands on November 12th. The article notes that Sanders has signed up 16 foursomes for the event, but would like to have 20.

I wonder if Wayne Dolcefino has put a foursome together yet?

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Speaking with authority

I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

On Tuesday morning, Ohio congressman and chronic Democratic Party presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health:

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

On Tuesday evening during a debate between Democratic Party presidential candidates, Kucinich confirmed that he had once seen a UFO and that it was O.K. because former President Jimmy Carter once admitted that he had seen a UFO, too.

As the blog post notes, at least Carter didn't admit it on national television.

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A Halloween harbinger?

From the incomparable Stu Rees of Stu's Views:

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