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June 27, 2014

U.S. Senator Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (1925-2014)

Class Act: Sen. Baker (R-TN) at Watergate Hearings, 1973. See Chicago Tribune

Posted by JD Hull at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2014

Floundering, fear and a modicum of loathing at the EU.

And you think the U.S. economy proceeds at a limp and that citizen faith in leadership is waning? See The Perils of Merkelvellianism in England's enduring The Economist. It begins:

The European Union is in deep trouble. Growth is sluggish at best, unemployment punishingly high and deflation threatens. The European elections returned many populist, anti-EU members to the European Parliament; public support for the project has plummeted. Against this background, the squabble over who should be the next president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, looks an ever more dangerous tragicomedy: Franz Kafka meets Dario Fo.

The front-runner for the job is Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured). The former prime minister of Luxembourg was picked as “lead candidate” by the centre-right pan-European political group, the European People’s Party (EPP), in March. He stands for the cosy [sic] federalist consensus that many European voters want to change. He was an ineffectual head of the euro group of finance ministers, creating doubts over his ability to run the commission—a huge job at the moment.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2014

National Harbor, Maryland: The look of real wood and pleated vinyl.

Be advised. National Harbor makes Branson, Missouri seem like Nantucket.

Last week, at the last minute, I learned I needed to come back to Washington, D.C. two days earlier than originally planned. Unfortunately, the week marked the beginning of tourist and "school trip" seasons. Moreover, several large annual conventions raged. Congress was in session. Not unexpectedly, I found that nearly every hotel room in town (rental cars, too) was booked. So I was forced to stay for two nights at the gargantuan, astonishingly over-priced--if I type what we paid I will need to lie down for an hour--and graceless Gaylord Hotel in "National Harbor", Maryland.

But the user-unfriendly Gaylord, with its listless staff and unfathomable room numbering system, is just a detail. The problem is National Harbor. Opened in 2008, National Harbor is a "waterfront resort destination", convention center and "multi-use development" of hotels, restaurants and condos on the banks of the Potomac River in Prince George's County (in the honest but unexciting suburb of Oxon Hill). It is 5 miles across the Potomac from Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, 10 miles from downtown D.C. and, due to poor planning, hopelessly isolated from both.

National Harbor gives you an idea of what all American convention centers would be like if Germany had won the war, McDonald's was eventually commissioned to build brothels and either Teens for Jesus or the Victoria, Texas Junior League was hired to run them. It is the stiffest, most soulless 300+ developed acres you could experience in any state, province, county or country. It features bad architecture (everywhere), boisterous, insincere third-rate service, fake smiles, the look of real wood, pleated vinyl and no class. Plus there is zilch Washington Metro accessibility. Just a $30 or more cab ride to either Reagan National or downtown Washington.

National Harbor, Maryland makes Branson, Missouri seem like Nantucket.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2014

For the Love of Cuba: Rick Garcia, an artist's artist.

Above: "Love and Hate", by Rick Garcia. Born to Cuban parents, Miami native Rick Garcia was raised in a household where Cuba and the Cuban people was a daily subject of discussion. As an artist, Garcia in recent years began to mix images of "old" Cuba with a more contemporary pop treatment to capture Cuba's sounds, colors, textures, energies and spirit. Rick Garcia's websites are here and here.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2014

Did we all die and go to Hallmark?

"Praise empowers people, criticism intimidates, ignoring confuses."

--Via LinkedIn mail this morning

Died and went to Hallmark. That's the feeling we had when we read this somewhat Orwellian sentence quoted immediately above. A few inches below, you see the cheery declaration again, this time in its original form, and the way it appeared this morning on the happy, positive thumbs-up image. Just two other things. First, we prize solving hard problems for customers. That's what we do. It's what any services provider does. Second, we would never build, and would not feel comfortable spending any time around, a workplace culture that: (1) praised employees for no reason except to make them feel good, (2) withheld criticism (even harsh criticism) from employees to avoid hurt feelings, (3) expected senior people and supervisors to worry about the effect of every word and action on employees, and (4) otherwise put employees ahead of customers.

Have a nice weekend, everyone. Whether you are working or playing, don't hold back.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2014

Marché aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II.

On D-Day, June 6, 1942, King George VI was England's king and his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, had just turned 18 in April. During D-Day celebrations in Paris last week, Queen Elizabeth, now 88, visited the 206-year-old Flower Market on Ile de la Cité, the island in the Seine recognized as the historical center of Paris. From the Paris blog Peter's Paris, by Peter Olson.

P. Olson

Posted by JD Hull at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

Show of hands. How many of you in the last year have been menaced by an iPhone?

I'll be brief. More than a year ago I switched from Blackberry to iPhone--and for months I've been a robo-spazz. Late one night in April, I was in my bedroom trying to change the main mail app on the iPhone from Outlook to Gmail and started up my vintage 1987 Saab Turbo 900 parked in the garage. True story, mainly. Am I alone in this? Is your iPhone messing with you, too?

Posted by JD Hull at 05:28 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2014

Europe's ever-shapeshifting antisemitism just got even lower: "We'll do an oven load next time."

It's very clear what Jean-Pierre Le Pen "was thinking". He's done this kind of thing before. And at 85, the French National Front Party's founder doesn't get a pass on grounds he's a really old French right-wing fascist. When this story broke yesterday, I had to read it twice as I assumed I had misread it the first time. Here's a update at this morning's WSJ: "Jean-Marie Le Pen Comments Stir Outrage in France". It's hard to offend me with speech, but this did. Read both stories. Amazing.

Jean-Marie Le Pen

Posted by JD Hull at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2014

Blowing it in Brooklyn: When prosecutors withhold evidence favorable to the accused.

Sometimes winning isn't everything. To be sure, there are times when winning is ugly and disturbing.

This morning I was riveted to "For a Respected Prosecutor, An Unpardonable Failure", by Joaquin Sapien at ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism project launched in 2007 that won Pultizer prizes for reporting in 2010 and 2011.

Every criminal defense lawyer is familiar with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling 50 years ago that suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to a defendant who has requested it violates due process. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) . As a result of Brady, federal and state prosecutors are in effect under a continuing obligation to disclose information or evidence which tends to prove the innocence of a criminal defendant, or would allow the defense to impeach the credibility of government witnesses.*

Sapien has written a fine article about wrenching and almost unfathomable consequences for defendants and their families when even well-regarded Assistant U.S. Attorneys or Assistant District Attorneys fail to turn over exculpatory evidence and information. Lengthy but excellent.

*Prosecutors under Brady are also required to turn over evidence or information which could be used to reduce a sentence.

(Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)

Jonathan Fleming (above hugging one of his lawyers) was 27 when he reported to prison after his conviction on a murder charge. Last month, after serving 24 years in prison of a 25 year sentence, Fleming, now 51, was released. The withheld evidence in his case was a time-stamped phone bill and a communication from the Orlando police (indicating Fleming was seen around his Orlando hotel at the time of the Brooklyn murder) that powerfully supported Fleming's alibi he was in Orlando, Florida rather than Brooklyn at the time the murder occurred.

Posted by JD Hull at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2014

Normandy, 6:30 a.m., June 6, 1944: Our fathers and grandfathers. My heroes. The last American class.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Allied forces' invasion of Normandy. Although June 6, 1944 would be celebrated as the eventual end of the war in Europe, much (if not most) of the execution of the plan for the invasion's earliest hours was botched. Improvisation by the first American, British and Canadian soldiers to reach French soil won the day.

But before any of that success could be achieved, the men who were the first to arrive would experience, and eventually overcome, unexpected hell, horror and carnage that no training could have prepared them for.

This was especially true of the landing at Omaha beach. For too many--military historians think this was deliberate if strategic--Omaha was their first time in combat. At Omaha alone, there were nearly 2500 casualties, mostly in the first 2 hours, so that 34,000 could be landed on the beach by the end of the day.

It was our fathers and grandfathers, for the most part frightened but dutiful young men, who struggled onto Omaha and those five other Normandy beaches that day. These are the guys I think about more and more as I get older. We will never equal them in character, grit or resilience. That day and what they did? This is our real American class.

16th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. © Robert Capa.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2014

Blaise Pascal: On Brevity.

I have made this letter longer--because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

--Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, physicist, philosopher, in "Lettres Provinciales", No. 16, 1657

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

June 02, 2014

Client Money.

Rule 8 is Think Like the Client--Help Control Costs. Knowing what the client is paying your firm informs and affects the strategy of every big project and, if the stakes are high enough, affects even the overall business strategy of the client.

(MTV/Mike Judge)

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)