Richard Justice’s revisionist thinking

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justice10.gifChronicle 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.

Meet Steven Gerrard

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Gerrard.jpgI 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!

Local player agent suspended

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Postons.jpgIn 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.

Let’s do lunch

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munitz12.jpglockyer140.jpgYes, 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.

So that’s what’s on the grill of my car

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snout butterfly.jpgTexas 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.”

Islam’s real struggle

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islamic_woman.jpgThe 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.

Lance Berkman is a funny guy

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LanceBerkman_P35.jpgAmidst the Stros disappointing season, slugger Lance Berkman (42 RCAA/28 HR’s/.403 OBA/.617 SLG/1.020 OPS) is having another outstanding season, slugging his way to production that is second only to the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols in the National League.
In last night’s Stros win over the Reds, Berkman whacked another two yaks, one of which was a 452 foot bomb that landed in the restaurant that overlooks centerfield at Minute Maid Park. Berkman, a happy-go-lucky, life-long Texan who is a genuinely nice fellow, commented after the game on his mighty home run:

“I think the waiter made a nice play.”

Berkman’s career stats are below. In the history of the Stros franchise, only Jeff Bagwell (stats below, also) has had better hitting statistics than Berkman at the same stage of his career. Berkman, who is 30, currently has 331 RCAA for his career and is about ready to overtake Craig Biggio (currently at 352 RCAA for his career) for second place on the Stros career RCAA list. At the completion of the season (1998) that coincided with his 30th birthday, Bags’ RCAA was 431, and Bags tops the Stros career RCAA list at 680.
It’s sometimes easy to overlook, but we have been blessed to have been able to watch in Bidg, Bags and Berkman the three best non-pitcher players in the history of the Houston Astros Baseball Club.

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The Yates verdict

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andrea yates2.jpgIt took awhile, but the Texas criminal justice finally got it right yesterday in the sad case of Andrea Yates, thanks to an honest and dispassionate jury.
Of course, as noted here earlier, this is a prosecution that never should have been tried once, much less twice. Yates and her attorneys were always willing to cut a deal in which the obviously insane Yates would spend the rest of her life in a tightly-controlled state mental hospital, yet the Harris County District Attorneys office stubbornly refused to provide any meaningful prosecutorial discretion in the case. The result has been a four year saga in which untold millions of dollars of has been spent so that the prosecutors could prove what? That this obviously insane woman just was lucid enough when she killed her children that she should spend the rest of her life in a maximum-security prison rather than a state mental institution?
Yates initially will be sent to a maximum-security hospital, probably North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, and then if doctors determine she is not a danger to herself or others, she later will probably be moved to a medium-security state mental health facility, such as the Rusk State Hospital where she lived for several months pending her retrial. Oh yeah, where she lived before prosecutors insisted that she be detained in the Harris County Jail during her retrial.
Although the Yates defense was successful this time around, there is no real victory here. Yates will spend the rest of her life in a heavily-guarded mental institution and any time she regains even a little bit of lucidity, she will descend back into a deep depression with psychotic features and schizophrenia when she realizes what she did to the children that no one involved in the case disputed that she adored.
One aspect of the case that I’ve not seen reported much in the media is that this trial only involved the deaths of three of the five children that Yates killed, so the Harris County District Attorneys office clearly hedged its bets that it could lose this case when it elected not to prosecute the deaths of the other two Yates children. Thus, it’s possible that the DA’s office could mount another murder case against Yates, although even their bad judgment in pursuing the first case against Yates through two trials does not seem to make that a likely scenario.
The bottom line on this case is that good people afflicted with terrible mental illness are capable of committing horrendous acts during a period of harrowing madness. That’s the reason why insanity is a defense to a murder charge under our criminal justice system, and there is simply no reason to have that defense at all if the state insists upon using its overwhelming prosecutorial power to place obviously insane people such as Andrea Yates in prison — rather than a more humane mental health facility — for the rest of their lives.

Air France competitors, listen up!

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Air_France_logo3.jpgAir France is right on the law in this recent Fifth Circuit decision (written by Judge Fortunato P. Benavides), but woefully wrong on the public relations front. In not settling the case, Air France has given an enterprising advertising firm for one of Air France’s competitors the basis for an effective “we’d never do this to you” advertising campaign against the airline.
Here’s what happened. Air France charged Edo Mbaba a $520 excess baggage fee for the four extra bags he took on his trip from Houston to Lagos. That was no problem, but when Mbaba flew through Paris, the flight was delayed and he missed his scheduled connection. As a result, he had to spend the night in the terminal and reclaim his baggage.
The next day, when Mbaba went to check his bags with Air France again for his flight to Lagos, Air France inexplicably advised him that he would have to pay another $4,000 in excess baggage fees. Thinking much as I would if confronted with such a demand, Mbaba requested that Air France simply return his luggage to Houston, which prompted the Air France personnel to inform Mbaba that if he didn’t quit griping and pay the four grand fee, they would take his luggage outside and barbecue it. Mbaba paid the fee, but then sued Air France in Texas for breach of contract and other state law claims.
Alas, the U.S. District Court and the Fifth Circuit concluded that Mbabaís claims are preempted by the Warsaw Convention. Nevertheless, here’s hoping that some of Air France’s competitors pick up on the decision and use it in the advertising wars so that the few bucks that Air France saved by stiffing Mbaba becomes an expensive lesson on how not to treat customers. Hat tip to Robert Loblaw for the link to the Fifth Circuit decision.

Harvey Miller takes one on the chin

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Harvey_Miller_Greenhill_&_Co.jpgAs noted in this previous post, former Weil, Gotshal & Manges bankruptcy partner and current Greenhill & Co. investment banker Harvey Miller is arguably the most leader of the movement over the past 30 years to elevate the compensation of corporate reorganization lawyers to levels commensurate with that of other corporate and securities lawyers. In so doing, Miller was not accustomed to losing many disputes over his firm’s fees in big reorganization cases, but — as the Wall Street Journal’s ($) Nathan Koppel reports here — Miller absorbed a hit on his fees as an investment banker earlier this month that could be the largest in the history of US corporate reorganizations.
Based on a July 21 ruling of New York Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, Miller’s employer — New York investment bank Greenhill & Co. — must return $4.6 million of the more than $11 million the firm was paid as an adviser to Loral Space & Communications Ltd. in the satellite company’s chapter 11 case. Judge Drain concluded that Greenhill had improperly claimed a bonus for advising Loral in its 2003 bankruptcy and that Greenhill’s retention agreement did not authorize such a bonus. Greenhill was allowed to retain the $7 million balance of its compensation.
As noted in the previous post, my sense is that Miller and attorneys at the Akin, Gump law firm are not going to be exchanging holiday greeting cards any time soon.