Eventually, Congressional staffers are going to refuse to allow their bosses to be interviewed by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert (previous posts here).
However, until they do, let’s continue to enjoy Colbert exposing the hilarious (and somewhat frightening) lack of perspective among our nation’s members of Congress, this time of Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia (remember, it’s not a state):
If you are interested in Major League Baseball races from the past, do not go to this new website (described below) if you have some pressing deadlines — you will not be able to leave for awhile:
BaseballRace.com is the creation of . . . Christopher J. Falvey. It is an online application that allows you to view any Major League Baseball season, split by league or division (even wild card races), as an animated, date-by-date race between the various teams you choose.
It was designed to bring a historical season to live more so than mere standings or graphs. With BaseballRace.com, you can experience an entire season “live.”
The data goes back to 1901, and includes every game of every season up through yesterday (7/30/2006).
Unless you are a Phillies fan, go to September 20 of the 1964 National League season and watch what happens over the final two weeks of the season. Hat tip to Eric McErlain for the link.
Following on this previous post from last year, this WSJ ($) article reports that colorful Dallas-based investor Sam Wyly (previous posts here) and his brother Charles get hauled in front of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations tomorrow in connection with the panel’s investigation into the Wylys’ use of the the Isle of Man tax haven to protect assets and avoid US income taxes.
The Isle of Man is a quasi-independent, largely agrarian republic of about 75,000 people in the sea between England and Ireland that operates under its own financial laws, the most important of which is that a foreign government cannot enforce a claim for unpaid taxes against an Isle of Man entity. As a result, wealthy foreigners for years have used Isle of Man-based shelf corporations and trusts to shield assets and limit taxes. This arrangement has often led to the unusual scene of $1,000 per hour London soliciters and barristers waiting for their court hearing to be called in the Isle of Man courts while the judge (called “the Dempster”) adjudicates a dispute between local farmers over such matters as, say, the ownership of a goat.
The Senate panel has been probing offshore tax havens for several years under the direction of its panel’s senior Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan. Interestingly, Sam Wyly is one of the largest benefactors of the business school at Senator Levin’s home state university, the University of Michigan.
As noted in the previous post, the Wylys are already the subject of a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the IRS and the SEC over their Isle of Man arrangements. The WSJ article reveals for the first time that the Wylys were advised on their Isle of Man investments by a network of shady characters, including former attorney David Tedder, a California-based, self-styled “asset-protection expert” who was disbarred in California before moving his practice to Florida in the 1990’s. Tedder is currently serving a five-year federal prison sentence on tax and money laundering charges unrelated to his work for the Wylys.
Unlike most Senate hearings on rather dry financial matters, this one could be pretty entertaining.
The best radio announcer that the Houston Astros Baseball Club has ever had — Gene Elston — will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today in Cooperstown, NY. Here is my previous post on Elston at the time that his induction was announced, and the Chronicle’s David Barron has this interesting interview of Elston in the today’s Chronicle.
I couldn’t help but notice Elston’s response to Barron’s question about his opinion of former Cardinals and Cubs announcer, the late Harry Caray:
What did [Elston] think of Harry Caray?
“Harry Caray was a gem. He was one in a million. He was one of the greatest guys you would ever want to meet. Just absolutely fabulous.
“He was not a good play-by-play man, but he was the fans’ announcer. He was an entertainer. He sold the game. He probably sold the game more just by being there than anybody I can think of.”
A little bit different opinion of Caray than that expressed by another Hall of Fame announcer for the Stros, don’t you think?
Update: Richard Justice has the story from Elston’s induction ceremony.
Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice wrote the following answer to a question in his blog recently (toward the end of the blog post):
I love [disabled Stros slugger Jeff Bagwell] to death, but his big contract and him not wanting to admitt his playing day’s are over has cost this 2006 team more than we thought it would.
I don’t think so. Drayton McLane was told last summer that if he allowed Bagwell to be activated in September, his chances of winning an insurance claim would be reduced 50 percent. He was advised not to let him come to spring training because they’d be reduced another 50 percent.
He made the decision because it was the right thing to do. Did he nudge Bagwell toward retirement? Sure he did. No matter what happened, he was going to be obligated to pay Bagwell $17 million this season. What happens between the Astros and the insurance company may takes years to settle.
There’s a fairness issue. Bagwell wanted to play. He still wants to play. Problem is, he can’t. One doctor told him he has the biggest bone spur in his right shoulder he’d ever seen. If Bagwell chooses to have it removed, he risks doing permanent damage to his deltoid muscle. His alternative is a shoulder replacement procedure. Neither choice is very good.
To the many people who ask, he comes around only occasionally. He has purchased a home in San Diego and spends more and more time there. He also has a home in Cabo San Lucas and spends time there.
So, Justice is suggesting that Stros owner Drayton McLane acted reasonably with regard to Bags’ injury? How on earth does Justice square that view with his broadsides against McLane over McLane’s handling of the Bagwell injury situation set forth in previous blog posts here, here, here and here?
Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net has previously noted the tendency of Justice to take both sides of an issue, although not usually in the same article. However, Justice’s diplomatic blog post above regarding McLane’s handling of the Bagwell injury situation is hard to square with his previous over-the-top criticism of McLane in regard to the matter while, at the same time, ignoring Bagwell’s somewhat childish behavior.
I’ll give Justice credit in that he is willing to admit when he takes a position that turns out wrong. Will Justice publicly apologize to McLane for his previous criticism of him over the Bagwell injury situation? Inquiring minds want to know.
I don’t follow soccer closely (previous posts here), but I’ve come to appreciate the sport during this World Cup season and I particularly enjoyed Chronicle sports columnist John Lopez‘s World Cup reports from Germany.
Now, Bill Simmons passes along this video of star Liverpool, P.C. midfielder Steven Gerrard‘s ten greatest goals, which is well-worth the seven minutes it takes to view it. Gerrard is the English soccer equivalent of Reggie Bush, so take a moment to marvel at this wonderful talent.
By the way, the comments of the British announcers are priceless!
In a story that appears to be flying underneath the radar of the local media, Houston-based sports player agent and lawyer Carl Poston has been suspended from representing NFL players for two years by the NFL Players Association because of alleged “bad faith efforts to delay, frustrate and undermine” an arbitration hearing about Poston’s role in a contract dispute between NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington and the Washington Redskins. The NFLPA licenses agents of NFL players as a right granted under its collective bargaining agreement with NFL owners.
The NFLPA’s disciplinary committee previously suspended Poston for two years due to his actions in connection with the December 2003 contract extension signed by Arrington with the Redskins. Inasmuch as the most recent action is a separate two-year suspension, Poston could now be barred from representing NFL players for up to four years.
Since the mid-1990’s or so, Poston and his Michigan-based brother Kevin have made a splash for themselves for their “take no prisoners” approach to representing high-profile professional athletes, such as former NBA star Penny Hardaway, NFL All-Pro tackle Orlando Pace of the St. Louis Rams, Kellen Winslow Jr. of the Cleveland Browns, Charles Woodson of the Oakland Raiders, and Charles Rogers of the Detroit Lions. The Postons were somewhat unique in that they tended to represent linemen, defensive backs, and other NFL players who traditionally have earned far less than the marquee players at the skill positions.
But controversy has increasingly dogged the Postons recently, as many management-types within the NFL considered them to be unrealistic and needlessly adversarial in contract negotiations. Last year, Pace fired the Postons as his agents after they failed to secure a long-term contract for him with the Rams, and then quickly obtained a lucrative contract with the Rams after retaining another agent to represent him.
The Arrington case is particularly troubling for the Postons because the main issue is whether the team negotiated one contract and then — unbeknownst to Carl Poston — slipped Arrington another to sign, minus a $6.5 million bonus. That a lawyer didn’t bother to read the contract of his client before having the client sign it is not a particularly effective basis for the client’s claim.
Yes, lunch in LA can be so interesting.
You remember Barry Munitz, don’t you? Former UH wunderkind president, Maxxam executive, California state university administrator and besieged Getty Museum director, the talented Mr. Munitz certainly knows how to get around the key social circles in SoCal. Previous posts on Munitz are here.
And remember California attorney general Bill Lochyer? He is that gem of statesmanship who told an interviewer in 2001 during the aftermath of the California power crisis that “I would love to personally escort [the late former Enron chairman and CEO Ken] Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'” Of course, left unsaid by Lockyer was that Lay and Enron had little to do with that crisis, which was caused primarily by California state politicians (including then state senator Lockyer) who botched deregulation of electric utilities by freezing retail power rates while utilities bought juice from a newly-created wholesale market at prices that had no caps. Lockyer is the sort of politician who prefers to rely on myths and appeal to resentment rather than confront the truth.
Lockyer’s office launched an investigation of then Getty Museum chief Munitz in mid-2005 after the LA Times reported that Munitz had made grants to friends, demanded a raise amid cost-cutting, traveled lavishly, expense and used staff to perform personal errands, all at the expense of the non-profit Getty (subsequent post here). Munitz resigned as the Getty Museum CEO this past February, agreeing to forgo more than $2 million under his contract with the Getty and to reimburse the non-profit $250,000 to resolve “continuing disputes.”
However, it’s now almost August and still nothing has been heard from Lockyer’s investigation of Munitz. So, the LA Times started nosing around and asking questions and, earlier this week, Lockyer responded to the Times by admitting that he and Munitz had met in mid-January for lunch (at LA’s Rocket Pizza, which has very good crust), smack dab in the middle of Lockyer’s investigation of Munitz and a month before Munitz bailed out from the Getty.
Lockyer, who is now running for California state treasurer (can’t this guy get a real job?), is in full retreat over the disclosure. He actually told the Times that the get-together did not violate his unwritten policy of not meeting alone with targets of an investigation because the probe was not discussed.
“This was, in my mind, lunch with a personal friend that I’ve known for a long time and it didn’t have anything to do with the case,” he said. . . “I was being a good listener, kind of consoling him as he leaves a job that he loves,” said Lockyer, characterizing the discussion, which eventually shifted to books and movies, as “therapy with a friend.”
I bet the pizza was good, too.
Texas has its share of insect problems.
First, it was the invasion of the killer bees.
Then, it was the onslaught of those nasty fire ants.
Now, it’s the invasion of the Libytheana bachmanii larvata.
Or, as they put it in South Texas, “Looks like you ran into some snouts.”
The current escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is currenly getting most of the attention on the world stage, but NYU Islamic Studies professor Bernard Haykel reminds us in this NY times op-ed that an even knottier problem than Islamic hatred of Israel is the conflict within Islam between Sunni and the Shiite ideologies.
Sunni ideology regards Shiites as heretics and Sunni groups such as Al Qaeda profoundly distrust Shiite groups such as Hezbollah (Al Qaeda reportedly gave the green light months ago to Sunni extremists in Iraq to attack Shiite civilians and holy sites). But if Hezbollah is successful in its current attack on Israel — and “success” may only necessitate survival — Haykel sees ominous signs for the West:
What will such a victory [by Hezbollah over Israel] mean? Perhaps Hezbollahís ascendancy among Sunnis will make it possible for Shiites and Sunnis to stop the bloodletting in Iraq ó and to focus instead on their ìrealî enemies, namely the United States and Israel. Rumblings against Israeli actions in Lebanon from both Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq already suggest such an outcome.
That may be good news for Iraqis, but it marks a dangerous turn for the West. And there are darker implications still. Al Qaeda, after all, is unlikely to take a loss of status lying down. Indeed, the rise of Hezbollah makes it all the more likely that Al Qaeda will soon seek to reassert itself through increased attacks on Shiites in Iraq and on Westerners all over the world ó whatever it needs to do in order to regain the title of true defender of Islam.
Read the entire piece. And don’t miss Dan Senor‘s Opinion Journal op-ed that explains how the militant Shiite forces in Iraq are shaping domestic and foreign policy there.