Monthly Archives: February 2008

The "leadership" of Bill White

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mayorwhite 022908 Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

On one hand, private businessmen invest millions in buying a run-down property and following the city’s existing laws and regulations in preparing to build the Ashby high-rise, a large-scale residential redevelopment similar to dozens of others that dot Houston’s landscape. When neighbors of the development object to the scale of the development relative to the surrounding neighborhood, Mayor White orders one of the city’s approvals relating to traffic ingress and egress to be revised to delay or undermine the development altogether.

On the other hand, Mayor White proposes that the city spend at least $15-20 million to buy six blocks of downtown Chinatown property at a premium price for a soccer stadium that will block more east-west thoroughfares in a part of downtown where Minute Maid Park, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Toyota Center already block a large number of such thoroughfares. Moreover, Mayor White is pushing this deal through City Council even though the city already owns six blocks nearby that is a better location for the soccer stadium (it wouldn’t block any additional east-west thoroughfares and wouldn’t require a major modification to another boondoggle). Meanwhile, the city has no financial commitment from the local soccer team even to build the stadium.

This is making the Harris County Commissioners’ dithering over the Astrodome hotel project look downright prudent in comparison.

 

They just don’t make football players like that anymore

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The Johnny Carson interview below of former Baltimore Colts defensive tackle Art Donovan had my late father and me (as well as Carson himself) in stitches when we first saw it together back in 1990. Donovan’s description of his on-the-field spat with Norm Van Brocklin is a classic.

Indexed

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Indexed 022908 Jessica Hagy has had a smart blog for awhile. Now, she has a smart book. Barry Ritholtz provides a taste of her work. She is a very insightful lady. Enjoy

I’m shocked, shocked! There is academic cheating in big-time college football!

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claude rains in casablanca145 The entertaining hypocrisy of big-time college athletics continues at Florida State University. (H/T Jay Christensen). Just like Rick’s Cafe, everybody knows what’s going on, too.

So, what level of embarrassment in regard to "academic integrity" is it going to take to prompt university presidents to reorganize big-time college football into the professional minor league business that is its true nature?

This imbroglio reminds me of an insight into academia that my late mentor, Ross Lence, passed along to me years ago. As regular readers of this blog know, A Man for All Seasons — the story of Sir Thomas More’s conflict with King Henry VIII — is one of my favorite movies and it was one of Ross’ favorites, too. Ross particularly enjoyed the scene early in the movie when Sir Thomas attempts unsuccessfully to persuade his student, Richard Rich, to eschew a political appointment for a teaching career. After rejecting Sir Thomas’ advice, Rich takes a political appointment from Henry’s henchman, Thomas Cromwell, in return for agreeing to betray Sir Thomas.

"Sir Thomas knew that Rich had a corrupt heart and would never be able to resist the corrupt temptations of politics," Ross observed to me once with a chuckle. "So he recommended that Rich become a teacher." Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Ross posited the question for discussion:

"But was Sir Thomas suggesting that a corrupt heart is not a problem for an academic?"

Baseball Prospectus 2008 is here

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Baseball Prospectus 2008 TK Baseball Prospectus 2008 is now shipping, so it’s time to order your copy in plenty of time for the beginning of the MLB season. In terms of improving your understanding of baseball, it’s the best $14 you can spend.

Given the direction of the Stros over the past two seasons, I was prepared for the BP experts to trash the local club’s chances for this season. But it’s really not all that bad. BP even kind of likes new Stros General Manager Ed Wade’s "win-now strategy," which they characterize as "so crazy that it just might work" in the chronically mediocre National League Central Division.

But even though BP doesn’t trash the Stros too badly, the same can’t be said BP’s treatment of Stros owner, Drayton McLane. Most of BP’s overview of the Stros is critical of McLane, such as the following on McLane’s revolving door policy with regard to General Managers and Managers:

This front-office turnover has contributed to a fundamental disconnect between the aspiration to contend and what appears to be the preferred means of doing so. Rather than focus on how to contend through improving the personnel in the lineup, the Astros have instead operated for years on the assumption that certain players were building blocks because they liked them, not because of what they actually contributed on the field. When the players in question are Biggio and Jeff Bagwell in their primes, that’s fine; when they are Ausmus, Everett, or a completely cooked Biggio, the term "building block" is robbed of its meaning.

Given this mentality, it was really no surprise that the Astros turned 2007 into a supersized Viking funeral for legitimate franchise great Biggio, complete with a team-level self-immolation, and with little but the ashes left to show for it at the end.  .   .

I really can’t recommend Baseball Prospectus 2008 too highly. For serious students of baseball, it’s 600 pages of pure reading pleasure.

Justice for Perverted Justice?

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predator-hansen-book-cover Earlier posts here, here and here addressed NBC’s To Catch a Predator series, in which a television crew cooperates with police and a vigilante justice group to create child predator crimes. Then, the television crew follows the police as they apprehend the suspects, which NBC broadcasts for all to see in a sort of modern version of a witch hunt. This dubious combination of law enforcement and "entertainment" resulted in the tragic case of Louis Conradt, Jr., the late North Texas prosecutor who committed suicide with the witch hunters were on his front doorstep.

Now, this Dan Slater/W$J Law Blog post reports that Condradt’s sister is suing NBC in New York for $100 million, claiming, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress. Slater reports that her case has already survived the preliminary motion to dismiss stage of the lawsuit.

I don’t know about you, but I hope she rings the bell on NBC.

Dick Armey on immigration

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I must admit, I never thought that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey would sound like a statesman to me. I was wrong. Watch the video to find out why.

The Hollywood Dome?

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astrodome 022608 It is a reflection of how low my expectations have sunk for rational decisions from Harris County officials. I actually felt a sense of relief that officials do not appear to be taking this seriously:

Lights, camera, action: Dome needs a makeover

The Astrodome was a stage for baseball and football prima donnas to strut their stuff, but it could become a forum for Hollywood stars.

At least that’s what would happen if the Houston Association of Entertainment Professionals gets its way.

The association, a new, non-profit group representing film industry workers, has heard that not all county officials support the Astrodome convention hotel plan and has come up with an alternate proposal — turning the Dome into a film production studio.

"It would bring an entire new economy to Houston," said association president Elise Hendrix. "We should make a home for the film-making industry."

Astroturf and stadium seating would give way to studio space where sets could be built, a film-processing operation that could produce dailies, a 100,000-square-foot, underground sound stage and offices.

Hendrix pitched her idea to the Houston Film Commission, an arm of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, last week.

But she and other association members may appear light on the gravitas needed to have their plan taken seriously. Hendrix, 25, is a professional makeup artist who left the University of Louisiana at Lafayette before graduating. She was a fashion design and merchandising major.

The association doesn’t have a web site, only a page on MySpace.

But Hendrix said the association is courting investors who would put up the estimated $50 million to $200 million needed to gut the Dome and turn it into Astrodome Production Facilities. She declined to name investment groups that she is courting.

Willie Loston, director of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp., which oversees Reliant Park, said the association hasn’t contacted him about the proposal.

"Great," he said after learning of it. "They got some money?" [.  .  .]

Given the speculative nature of the Astrodome Hotel boondoggle project, and assuming that the County powers have decided that razing the Dome is political suicide, why aren’t County and Texas Medical Center officials figuring out a way to renovate the Dome into the premiere medical training and education facility in the world? Just a thought.

The diversity of Texas

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texas 022708 Yes, Texas is a diverse place. It’s a part of its charm. But following on this post from yesterday, that diversity does not make it an easy place to get one’s arms around.

The importance of running a Presidential campaign

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Hillary_Clinton_2008 022608 On the heels of the Frank Rich/NY Times column castigating the Hillary Clinton campaign team, one of the best business law professors in the U.S. explains why the ability to run a large political campaign is an important qualification of a President:

A virtue of our political system as it is operated today is that it ensures that no one can be elected president who cannot run a major organization. This may not be enough – Bush ran two smooth campaigns but has had more trouble running a war. But it should at least be the price of admission.

And candidates should keep all this in mind before they go bashing "big business." If the candidates can’t achieve the same level of competence as the firms they bash in bringing order out of chaos, they should just stay in the Senate and let others do the more important jobs.

Read the entire post. As this Richard Murray post indicates, early voting trends in Texas do not look good for the Clinton campaign.
By the way, did you catch the following Jon Stewart crack during the Oscars?: “Away From Her is about a woman who forgets about her husband. Hillary Clinton called it the feel-good movie of the year.”