Monthly Archives: May 2007

Mapping political contributions

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chp_capitol_hill.jpgThis is interesting. Maplight.org is a new Web site that attempts to correlate lawmakersí voting records with the money theyíve accepted from special interest groups. Other sites such as OpenSecrets.org provide information on the source of candidates financing, but to my knowledge, Maplight.org is the first site that attempts to establish the relationship between money given and votes actually cast.
Click the “Video Tour” button on the home page and the site takes you through a six-minute video that illustrates the site’s purpose. In deliberating on the U. S.- Oman Free Trade Agreement, the video reveals that special interests in favor of the bill — such as pharmaceutical companies and aircraft manufacturers — gave each senator an average of $244,000. On the other hand, lobbyists for the anti-poverty and consumer groups that opposed the bill could generate only $38,000 per senator. Under the “Timeline of Contributions” button, you can see that the contributions increased during the six weeks leading up to the vote and a hyperlink is provided to the name of each member of Congress so that you can see how much money each legislator received.
Oh yeah, in case you had any question about it, the bill passed. ;^)
Maplight.org is not particularly user-friendly, but the folks who designed the website are still adding features and data to the site. It’s definitely worth plugging around for awhile and checking back in on from time to time. As they say in the smoke-filled rooms, it’s always good to know who is for sale in Washington. ;^)

Dan Jenkins for the World Golf HOF

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dan%20jenkins053007.jpgIn this GolfWorld op-ed on why Clear Thinkers favorite Dan Jenkins should be in the World Golf Hall of Fame, John Hawkins sums up Jenkins’ remarkable writing talent well:

Knowing Jenkins as I do–he’s far more of an idol to me than a confidant–I don’t suppose for a minute he cares all that much either way. In what might serve as a crummy imitation of his prose, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an avid golf fan who has become engrossed in his work. Like the Merry Mex himself, Jenkins has all the shots and has never backed away from anyone. A bust in St. Augustine would be a nice touch, a fitting end to a stellar career, but then, the old man would probably write another novel, this one about some warhorse wordsmith who missed his Hall of Fame induction because he was canoodling some broad named Mimi Whatnot.
Either way, Jenkins is a 15-time major champion in my profession, a guy other writers love because he keeps it simple but takes it deep. When you’re one of the best who ever lived at what you do, when you make people laugh and get them to think, you’ve earned a spot on the ballot. From there, let the votes fall where they will.

Voting in the Wiz’s Digital Billboard Contest

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UT%20AM%20Billboard.jpgYou can now vote for your favorite submission in Jay Christensen’s college football-digital billboard competition (previous posts here and here).
With this late submission, University of Texas supporters now have a tough choice between that one and this earlier submission.

Is there such a thing as
Texans Underexpectation Syndrome?

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Matt%20Schaub.jpgMaybe it’s simply because the Texans have been one of the NFL’s worst expansion franchises in modern times.
Maybe it’s because of the scars from the Tony Boselli deal. Or perhaps the Philip Buchanon deal.
Maybe it’s just because of the concern that is raised whenever Richard Justice declares that the Texans are about ready to turn the corner.
But does it trouble anyone else that the management of the Atlanta Falcons apparently knew this information about QB Michael Vick and still traded their backup quarterback to the Texans, anyway?

Damaged goods?

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Jason%20Jennings%20052907.jpgDon’t you know that an eyebrow or two was raised around town with the following disclosure deep within Jose de Jesus Ortiz’s Chronicle article today on the return of the Stros off-season acquisition Jason Jennings from a bout of tendonitis in his pitching elbow:

Jennings, who is earning $5.5 million this year, was 9-13 with a 3.75 ERA last year with the Rockies. The workload was a testament to his pain tolerance. He dealt with discomfort since June and skipped bullpen sessions between starts for most of the second half. It’s too early to tell whether he’ll need surgery to fix his elbow.

Jennings is eligible to become a free agent after this season, so it was a bit odd that the Stros announced that they had put contract negotiations on hold with Jennings until after the season shortly after Jennings went on the disabled list. Jennings is a proven MLB starter and overuse injury risk is a fact of life for MLB pitchers. However, if Jennings and the Rockies did not disclose that Jennings was dealing with the condition last season when the clubs consummated the trade for Jennings, or if the Stros medical team believes that the condition is more serious than mere tendonitis, then that would certainly explain the Stros’ stance in backing off of contract negotiations. One can’t blame Stros management for being a bit miffed that the club traded away its best minor league pitching prospect, Jason Hirsh, for goods that the club did not know were damaged.
By the way, the other players involved in the Jennings deal haven’t set the league on fire. Hirsh has been slightly above-average for the Rockies with a 2 RSAA and 4.30 ERA in 60 innings of work so far this season (10 starts, 2-4 record). The other two former Stros players included in the deal — CF Willy Taveras (-4 RCAA/.378 OBA/.340 SLG/.719 OPS) and pitcher Taylor Buchholz (-4 RSAA/5.81 ERA) — continue to be well below-average MLB players. The throw-in from the Rockies to the Stros in the deal — Miguel Ascencio — has been horrible at AAA Round Rock, giving up 23 earned runs and 37 hits in 23 innings of work, which computes to an atrocious 8.75 ERA as a reliever. Somehow, he retains a spot on the Stros’ 40 man roster.

The Bo Legend

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Bo%20Jackson-124x124.jpgHas it really been 20 years since Bo Jackson made his Major League Baseball debut? Joe Posnanski tells some of the remarkable stories about this era’s larger than life athlete.

Chronic lack of adult supervision

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Department%20of%20Justice%20L.jpgIn the wake of the Monica Goodling Congressional testimony, James Joyner laments the lack of adult supervision in the Bush Administration Justice Department.
Joyner has a valid point, but did he just notice the problem now?

Training the enemy

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insurgents.jpgRegardless of one’s position on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, this does not sound good:

Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents. [. . .]
But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomberís body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.
ìI thought, ëWhat are we doing here? Why are we still here?í î said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. ìWeíre helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us.î [. . .]
On April 29, a Delta Company patrol was responding to a tip at Al Sadr mosque, a short distance from its base. The soldiers saw men in the distance erecting burning barricades, and the streets emptied out quickly. Then a militia, believed to be the Mahdi Army, which is affiliated with the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, began firing at them from rooftops and windows.
[Sgt. Kevin OíFlarity] and his squad maneuvered their Humvees through alleyways and side streets, firing back at an estimated 60 insurgents during a gun battle that raged for two and a half hours. . . .When the battle was over, Delta Company learned that among the enemy dead were at least two Iraqi Army soldiers that American forces had helped train and arm.

Read the entire troubling article.

Richard Justice, Texans Cheerleader

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justice052907.gifFollowing this post from last month, the Chronicle’s Richard Justice continues to lead the cheerleading (see also here) for the Houston Texans:

Times have changed. The Texans have this city’s best owner in Bob McNair. They have competent people in charge, especially GM Rick Smith. They’ve got a core of talented under players around which to build, and for the first time, they’ve got veteran leadership. The Texans seem headed for respectability in Gary Kubiak’s second year on the job.

Interestingly, Justice’s effusive praise of the Kubiak-Smith regime sounds remarkably similar to the following September 12, 2004 article ($) extolling the talents of the now disgraced Charlie Casserly and Dom Capers:

The Texans have made good use of their honeymoon. They’ve drafted wisely and spent shrewdly on free agents. They’ve assembled a front office admired around the NFL. Their players seem to be quality people. [. . .]
The danger for them is that their greatest strength could become their greatest weakness. They’ve done so many things right and have built such a model operation that it’s impossible not to put expectations on a fast track. [. . .]
So far, it’s impossible not to be impressed with what the Texans have done. They are run as efficiently as any sports franchise I’ve ever been around.
Just before the start of training camp, Casserly gathered his employees and thanked them for all their hard work. Then he went down the list of different departments and explained some little thing each had done that made the team – and the organization – better.
That’s the kind of thing the people who run sports franchises almost never do, and it left every person who was mentioned proud to be associated with the Texans.[. . .]
Capers believes it’s vital to emphasize doing things right because “if you ever slip, you can never get it back.”
So far, the Texans haven’t slipped in any significant way.

That sunny appraisal of the Casserly-Capers regime was immediately before Year Threee, and Justice held on to that view well into the disastrous 2-14 Year Four when most reasonably well-informed folks had concluded that the direction of the franchise needed to change. Of course, Justice eventually embraced a disparaging view of Casserly and Capers as if he had doubts about the two from the beginning.
Justice may be right about the current direction of the franchise under Kubiak and Smith, but it’s worth noting that the chronic left offensive tackle problem has not been resolved, the pass rush remains unproven, no receiver has emerged to force teams to back off double teaming Andre Johnson, the running back position has no gamebreaker and a porous defensive secondary has not been upgraded. A little more objectivity from Justice about the Texans’ situation may allow his analysis of the team to age a bit better.

Is Jamie Olis’ Freedom Worth Less Than Ours?

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The title to this post poses an unsettling question on this day when we pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

But recent revelations from the trial of the civil case relating to the criminal trial of former Dynegy mid-level executive Jamie Olis reveals that some powerful forces did not consider Olis’ freedom worth very much at all.

Earlier posts on this blog reported that the Department of Justice threatened to put Dynegy out of business unless it threw Olis under the locomotive of the DOJ’s criminal investigation of a complicated structured finance transaction called Project Alpha.

The Chronicle’s Tom Fowler follows up with this revealing article regarding the nature of the enormous pressure that the DOJ brought to bear on Dynegy’s leaders to abandon Olis:

The letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that arrived at Dynegy’s headquarters on Jan. 9, 2003, was hardly welcomed by CEO Bruce Williamson.

“We have become increasingly concerned that Dynegy’s ‘cooperation’ is more apparent than real,” read the letter from former U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby, referring to an investigation of a deal called Project Alpha. “As a result, we are re-evaluating whether we can continue to rely on Dynegy’s claim of good faith cooperation with the investigation.”

Williamson was just a few months into his new job trying to turn around the troubled natural gas and power company. Dynegy teetered close to bankruptcy as it dealt with an industry-wide fallout of Enron’s collapse, a flagging stock price, and civil and criminal investigations.

When Williamson met Shelby face to face the next day, he was lectured on what Dynegy needed to do to avoid criminal charges.

“I walked out of there a few pounds lighter,” Williamson testified in court last month.

“An indictment clearly would have put the company out of business.” [. . .]

Shortly after the January 2003 meeting, Williamson testified, Shelby sent him the Thompson Memo. Williamson said he saw it as a message to stop paying fees for Olis and Foster.

Several months passed, during which Shelby’s office built its case against the trio.

On June 12, indictments against them were unsealed, and they were arrested.
Shelby made a point of thanking Williamson publicly that day for his cooperation, and even sent a wall plaque for his office saying as much.

A month later, on July 15, an assistant U.S. attorney called Larry Finder, a Haynes & Boone lawyer representing Dynegy, asking why the company was still paying for Olis and Foster’s legal fees.

On July 18, Williamson sent an e-mail to Shelby saying he was “totally supportive of trying to modify our legal support posture. I have wanted to do so for some time.”

Shelby wrote back the next day, thanking him for “looking into this” and adding, “I think it is in neither of our interests to have the company pay for the defense of individuals whose actions were so egregious.”

So much for the presumption of innocence, eh?

Fowler also provides this related article regarding the testimony from the civil trial by Olis, who did not testify during his criminal trial that initially resulted in a barbaric 24 year prison sentence. Based on Olis’ testimony, it appears that over a half-dozen unnamed Dynegy employees should be giving thanks to Olis for their freedom:

Jamie Olis repeatedly turned down offers to cooperate with prosecutors, even after the former Dynegy worker was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

“I just couldn’t do it,” he testified in a civil trial this month.

Olis spoke by phone from federal prison in Bastrop during the trial, where his former attorney won legal fees from Dynegy that he claimed the company held back under pressure from prosecutors. A recording of the testimony was obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Olis testified that in May 2003, shortly before he and two co-workers were indicted for their roles in Project Alpha, the government pressured him to make a deal. Olis said an assistant U.S. attorney took him aside after a hearing and said: ” ‘Hey, we know you’re the small guy on this stuff, plead guilty and you don’t owe anybody anything.’ “

Olis declined, and he and his boss, Gene Foster, and co-worker Helen Sharkey were indicted on June 12.

In August 2003, after Foster and Sharkey entered plea agreements, Olis said he was offered a similar deal but he didn’t take it. Even after he was found guilty in November 2003 and later sentenced to 24 years in prison, he said prosecutors tried to get him to enter into a deal that would reduce his sentence.

Lloyd Kelley, an attorney representing Olis’ former attorney in the trial, asked if he was tempted to take it.

“I did think about it, but there was no way I could have done it,” Olis said.

“Why?” Kelley asked.

“Because it wasn’t a matter of just pleading guilty,” Olis said, his voice trembling with emotion. “What they wanted was for me to tell the story that I and everyone else engaged in a conspiracy.”

The “everyone else” was a list of more than a half-dozen Dynegy workers that Foster said in the criminal trial had conspired to withhold information about Alpha from outside accountants. No one beside Olis, Foster and Sharkey has been charged.

“And I couldn’t ruin those people’s lives,” Olis continued in a halting voice. “I’m Catholic. And I can’t do that.”

Olis claimed Foster’s testimony about a conspiracy wasn’t truthful.

“We were all consistent in our SEC depositions, and we never talked to each other,” he said, referring to statements the three gave to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Then at the trial Mr. Foster comes on after pleading guilty and does a 180, and starts to say we had a conversation.”

So, Olis works on Project Alpha with over a dozen other Dynegy employees, lawyers and accountants in an effort to improve the company’s earnings.

In the inflamed anti-business environment of the immediate aftermath of Enron, the SEC launches an investigation of the transaction, to which Olis cooperates.

The U.S. Attorney decides to criminalize the transaction and makes Dynegy’s CEO an offer that he cannot refuse — throw Olis and a couple of his co-workers under the bus and the federal government will not put Dynegy out of business as it did with Arthur Andersen.

When Olis is the only one of the defendants who provides a consistent story in both the SEC investigation and the criminal case, the DOJ prosecutes him to the hilt, resulting in a 24 year sentence, later reduced to “only” six years.

For what it’s worth, the current U.S. Attorney sees nothing wrong with all of this.

As we contemplate on this Memorial Day the sacrifices that have assured our freedom, do any of us really think that we could preserve that freedom and stand upright in the winds of the overwhelming governmental power that was brought to bear on Jamie Olis if that power were turned on us?

Judge Kaplan, I hope you are listening.