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.

Bar/Bri and the Texas Bar Exam

I'll admit that I originally considered not taking a bar exam prep course at all, opting instead to do self-study and prepare myself by using study guides.

Two problems with this idea: 1) The bar exam is graded on a curve of sorts, so I would be immediately at a disadvantage by not having the exact same instruction as the vast majority of people taking the bar in July. 2) I'm not the most motivated person in the world when it comes to studying for something, so I couldn't rely on myself to study completely on my own without having some semblance of structure.

So I opted for Bar/Bri, and one week into it I have to admit that this prep course may very well be worth it. It covers pretty much every little detail that could possibly be tested on the bar exam and gives some great perspectives on how to get the most points out of the essay questions.

My only gripe so far is that whoever planned the location for this course should never be allowed to plan anything beyong a pizza order from this point forward. We're located at the Arabia Shrine on North Braeswood, which has quite a bit of parking, but it is clearly insufficient for the number of students enrolled in Bar/Bri. The actual ballroom used for the class isn't much better, with people relegated to sitting anywhere they can find a spot, even in the lobby outside of the ballroom (thank God for the speaker system piping the lecture out there). Honestly, the obvious problems with this venue just had breach of contract written all over it when I first showed up to the course.

Enough bitching about the little problems with Bar/Bri. Everyone seems to have learned to cope with it, and it turns out that that trouble is worth the breadth and depth of knowledge the lecturers are able to impart.

Nuclear Option Averted - Senate Compromises

CNN is currently reporting that seven Democrats and seven Republicans have brokered a deal wherein the option to filibuster will remain.

It looks like Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen's nomination is going to move forward to an up-or-down vote before the entire Senate, presumably tomorrow on the basis of Sen. John Cornyn's (D-TX) motion for cloture.

I'm glad that some sort of compromise has been reached in this situation. I simply can't foresee the drastic change in the judicial landscape that would happen over the years as the normal politic cycle produces Democratic majorities in the Senate, followed again by Republican majorities, just as we have seen over the last 150+ years.