Bar Exam Hell Over - Let the employment begin!

Finally! The bar exam is done. Hopefully that will be the last time I see the Texas Bar Exam.

Now I can finally join the full-time workforce and start earning an income again. My credit cards are just begging to be paid down, and they certainly will be over the next couple of months. Once I get that out of the way, it will be time to start looking at a new car. Then (*shudder*) my consolidated student loan will start coming in.

The great part about this is that there are no more tests. No longer do I have to go through the cycle of starting a semester, working through the semester, cramming for finals and then suffering through the finals weeks to come back down to an extended time off. Personally, I'd rather have a stable work environment where I'm going to the office 8-5, coming home knowing I've left everything at the office and I can just relax. Then, when I want time off, I can take vacation time when I want and actually have the money to do something interesting during that time off instead of sitting at home and playing on the XBox.

Now I truly feel like an adult.

Studying for the bar ... at the bar.

Yeah, so usually it might not be a good idea to study for a very important exam while drinking beer. In my experience, however, I find that if one drinks quite a bit of coffee while studying (as I have done at Kaveh Kanes in downtown today), then you really need to off-set the jitters resulting from the caffine.

In this case, I'm working practice MBE questions with Bar/Bri's StudySmart software on my laptop at the Flying Saucer (also in downtown) while sipping on a much needed Saint Arnold's Amber Ale. Signs of a problem to some? Yeah, probably. A proven method of studying for any task? 8 years of higher education tend to support this theory.

I figure it's better than taking up smoking again, much as I did while writing my thesis in undergrad. Plus, beer tastes much better than cigarette smoke.

Thoughts on Karl Rove

I have to say that I have always respected Karl Rove. I don't agree with the man's politics, but I deeply respect his political talents.

Now it seems as if "turd blossum", as Bush likes to call him, has fallen into a hole from which he can't seem to escape. Many have equated Rove's lawyer's poor attempt to play damage control to Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale" defense.

To make things worse, the White House has now completely stonewalled the media on the issue, claiming that they cannot discuss "an ongoing investigation". Hmmm.. Oddly enough, that didn't prevent White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan from categorically denying that Karl Rove had anything to do with the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent. What were your exact words there, Scott?

QUESTION: Weeks ago, when you were first asked whether Mr. Rove had the conversation with Robert Novak that produced the column, you dismissed it as ridiculous. And I wanted just to make sure, at that time, had you talked to Karl?

McCLELLAN: I've made it very clear, from the beginning, that it is totally ridiculous. I've known Karl for a long time, and I didn't even need to go ask Karl, because I know the kind of person that he is, and he is someone that is committed to the highest standards of conduct.

QUESTION: Can you say for the record whether Mr. Rove possessed the information about Mr. Wilson's wife, but merely did not talk to anybody about it?

McCLELLAN: I don't know whether or not -- I mean, I'm sure he probably saw the same media reports everybody else in this room has.

QUESTION: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, did you ever have this information?

McCLELLAN: We're going down a lot of different roads here. I've made it very clear that he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was.

Then there was yesterday:

QUESTION: Does the president continue to have confidence in Mr. Rove?

MCCLELLAN: Again, these are all questions coming up in the context of an ongoing criminal investigation. And you've heard my response on this.

QUESTION: So you're not going to respond as to whether or not the president has confidence in his deputy chief of staff?

MCCLELLAN: You're asking this question in the context of an ongoing investigation, and I would not read anything into it other then I'm simply going to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Riiiight.