There is no question that Obama won the third and final debate. Check any insta-poll on CBS, CNN, ABC (the scientific ones that don’t allow multiple voting). Not only did Obama meet expectations of those already voting for him, he swung people his way from that middle group of undecideds and independents.

Let’s do some direct subjective comparisons:

Obama was calm, collected, and polite. McCain was snarky, agitated, and rude.

Obama carefully and clearly outlined the specifics of his policies when asked. Look at his answer to the question of whether we can reduce reliance on foreign oil within four years. McCain spoke generally with phrases like “I know how to bring down defense spending” and “we can do this with the job creation of energy independence.”

Obama laid the traps. And McCain walked into them. The negative ads and comments from the McCain campaign about Obama’s links to William Ayers and ACORN have been coming fast and furious without much direct hitting back from the Obama campaign. Wondering why? Tonight was Obama’s best venue for repudiating those ridiculous claims (that every internetter has already debunked multiple times through their own research). McCain took the bait and said it to Obama’s face. And he got destroyed on the topic when Obama easily pointed out that he never “palled around with terrorists” and gave a simple explanation of what the ACORN controversy is all about.

Every attack McCain made was swiftly parried by Obama, making McCain look like a desparate fool attempting to throw anything against his opponent to see what would stick. The fact that anyone could expect Obama to be anything but supremely  prepared on every possible issue is almost unbelievable. In comparison, McCain seemed to struggle with rebutting accusations against his policies and was very repetitive when Obama did shoot down his attacks.

I think that some people may mistake McCain’s desperation tonight for passion or conviction. But to me it was very clear. This campaign is on its last legs and Obama just weakened them almost to the point of breaking. In two weaks there won’t be much left beyond a defeated, aging Senator and his inexperienced VP pick gathering up the remnants.

P.S. Just to be clear, I STRONGLY disagree that Sarah Palin is a role model for American women. ;)

Last night the American public got to witness the highly anticipated debate between Democratic VP nominee Senator Joe Biden and Republican nominee Governor Sarah Palin. Oh what fun. This one entertained me far more than the first Presidential debate, which was boring and tedious by comparison (though I still appreciated the foreign policy questions and thought the answers given revealed a lot about both candidates). But let’s confess. Most of us tuned in to see if Sarah Palin would screw up. And also to see if anybody would get rickrolled. (Chris Matthews was the first victim!).

I’m going to keep this analysis short and preface it by saying I’m an Obama/Biden supporter. You can some more in depth commentary from MSM outlets. Here’s what I thought.

I thought Biden did a pretty good job. Many said beforehand that he had to be very careful not to appear too intellectual or condescending, yet avoid sounding patronizing, while also avoiding a “bulldog” moment. As much as the man could, I think he fit that bill last night. He answered questions more directly than Palin did, and even if he was guilty of question dodging at times it was because he wanted to return to his core message of the non-difference between McCain’s policies and George Bush’s policies. I think his most powerful moments were when he choked up speaking about his experience as a single father and when he called out Palin for continuously using the “maverick” term in her answers. Overall he sounded intelligent and experienced. As an old white guy, though, he lacked a certain relateability to the common viewer (though I think the single dad thing and the constant shoutouts to Scranton may have helped).
Palin, on the other hand, had about zero expectations going into this thing. If you haven’t seen her terrible answers in the Couric interview I suggest you go check them out on youtube. As a result of the week of bad press she’s had, all Palin had to do last night was not make a big mistake. To me, there were a couple hugely terrifying things she said, but I don’t think these things will register with the greater American public or the mainstream media. I don’t think it’s appropriate in any measure to tell a man whose first wife died in a car accident that his second wife (a schoolteacher) will have “her reward in heaven.” I also didn’t appreciate the fact that Palin repeatedly painted herself as a mother in an average American family, when she has refused to release her tax return reports on time (as required by the Federal Election Commission). I find it terribly convenient that her campaign worked out a deal with the FEC to delay the release of those reports until after this debate. I have a feeling they will reveal her income is nowhere near “average.”

Rherotically, I thought it was clear that Palin had a shallow base of knowledge and talking points that she felt comfortable with, and she was terrible at segueing back to those points. She openly asked Gwen Ifill a couple times “Can I talk about X unrelated thing now?” She hammered “energy independence” like she invented the phrase and couldn’t stop saying “team of mavericks!” I’m not sure that most viewers will particularly care about her not answering questions or blantantly changing the subject, but it really bothered me.

It’s obvious that Palin’s strong point is relating to the American public and her down-home, country style. Her answers were littered with colloquial phrases like “darn right” and “heck of a” and “say it ain’t so.” I don’t have a problem with this style in particular, though personally I consider it a bit unprofessional in a nationally televised debate for the second highest office in the land. The problem is that Palin has no substance behind the style. She failed to distinguish her ticket’s policies from the policies of the last eight years that almost no one in this country wants to repeat. And often she failed to even give specifics about the plans McCain had on certain issues, instead giving a broadstroke answer along the lines of “we’re going to clean up this mess!”

In the end, then narrative is goign to be that Palin “won” due to not screwing up and restoring some faith in her mental capacity after the horror of the Couric interview. But I think the debates were still very telling. She is a little fish in a big pond, and she’s not adapting fast enough or well enough to be considered ready for the position she’s running for. This is on top of all the problems with her governancy of the State of Alaska (a few of which will come to more light very soon). I think Biden really showed the country that he is ready to lead and is knowledgable on all issues, not just the two or three that Palin can claim to be an expert on.

Regardless, I look forward to the next debate on Tuesday. The political atmosphere is really charged up this year, and it makes watching and getting involved in the political process a lot more fun.

Rest assured, I’ve been zapping them pretty easily with the Wordpress comment moderation system. You should see no change in your regularly scheduled (sporadic!) service round these parts.

But for some reason cats are extremely capturable in cute and funny positions. So in the spirit of lolcats and cuteoverload and the Japanese obsession with Scottish Folds, let me show you my top five Youtube cat videos. My videos. Let me show you them.

The Ninja Cat

This scared me when I first watched it, no joke.

Demon Cat

And this cat’s even scarier.

Talking Cats

Turn up your volume. D’awwww.

Engineer’s Guide to Cats

I know I know it’s 7 minutes long. Watch it. You won’t regret it.

Finally…

Jumping Cat

This is clearly the most awesome cat ever.

We started with some early dinner at Deschutes Brewery’s Portland Pub. It’s a very nice restaurant style pub with large open spaces and cool wooden sculpted artwork lending a real Northwest theme to the former warehouse building. They serve their lunch menu until 5 PM, so if you don’t mind being an early bird you can save a couple bucks. My friend and I split a veggie burger (pretty good, a little fall-aparty) and a caesar salad (average). I’m not a beer person so I just had your standard Mirror Pond Pale Ale, but beer people who don’t know about this famous Oregon brewery (second largest in the state!) should remedy that fact as soon as possible.

Next up: Vault martini bar. Kind of a fancy place, but we walked in with jeans on anyway because hey, $4 martinis at happy hour! Heck yes. If you like fruity drinks, chocolate drinks, Habenero infused vodka…they’ve got it. The bar was populated by young and old professionals alike (at least at 6:30ish on a Friday night). The bartender accidentally made an extra drink so we got a free drink, hooray! My other friend who works for FedEx met up with us still wearing her uniform, which amused me - the Pearl needs to loosen up sometimes, for real. We sucked down some grapefruity drinks and headed off to try the next happy hour.

We walked into Oba’s bar side but unfortunately we’d missed the happy hour prices and $8 margaritas were not palatable at that point in the evening. I can’t recommend this bar enough though if you do happen to catch the happy hour (4-6:30 and after 9 weekdays, like all day Sunday). The food is realllly good and a pretty good deal as well, and the margaritas are bomb.

So we trekked it to Tube because we wanted to go to a nearby arcade afterward. There were only a few people at the bar when we walked in; Revenge of the Nerds was playing on the tv screens and the DJ was blasting some semi weird music, so it took a bit for us to settle in. But we collected a few more friends, and purchased a few more $2 (!) well drinks, and acheived relaxation. Tube is a great place to hipster-watch, and I hear they have some good themed music nights. Plus you guys. $2 well drinks!

We diverted to the fancy Saucebox to grab some more food because some of us drunkies were hungry again. Really good food and specialty drinks, but warning, NOT cheap. You just might need to hop three bars beforehand to muster up the courage to order the $12 coconut drink and $11 sushi. And of course they put us all on one check, added 19% gratuity automatically, and refused to split the check. As the new lawyer I felt obligated to front the rather hefty bill - bring cash if you’re in a group and want to go here.

Finally we meandered over to Ground Kontrol where much DDR and pinball was played. They don’t have covers anymore on Thursday and Friday (they used to have live bands those nights) and there’s a bar inside with cheapish drinks. Whee! They also have Rock Band Tuesdays if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally I think I need to go back and whoop up on that Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine some more (I almost defeated the Kracken dammit!)

Portland is a pretty awesome happy hour town, and the Pearl is no exception if you know where to look and aren’t afraid to wander into Old Town as well. And with that, I raise my glass (of OJ!) to all those who studied for and passed the bar this July, and pour it out for those who just missed joining the expensive attorney’s club.

Sun breaks through the cloud cover on Mt. Baring, as seen from Barclay Lake.

I’ll highlight a few of my favorite shots here as I talk about the places I’ve been lately, but to see more you can always check out the Travel set on my flickr account.

The Northern Cascades Mountain Range in Washington:

About four hours away from Portland you head out on the 2 from Seattle and into Stevens Pass and oh boy. It’s pretty awesome. The Cascades run from Cali to Canada and really, they’re gorgeous all the way down and up the range. This area’s no exception. I hiked part of the Iron Goat Trail and also did the hike to Barclay Lake, which gives stunning views of Mt. Baring’s stern face.

I love the desert environment I grew up in (high desert to be exact) but alpine environments, or sub-alpine I suppose, are neat as well. Crips air whistles through pines and cedars and birch trees (aspens perhaps? I can never tell the difference). Every peek at the horizon makes you feel small. And very few bugs as well!

Part of the Iron Goat Trail.

Odell Lake, Oregon:

Big trees on the shore at Odell Lake.

My family has a cabin on Odell Lake, about an hour and twenty minutes south of Bend, OR. It’s a great place to go and unwind. There’s really nothing like reading a book by a wood stove, then playing cribbage and eating Jiffy Pop popcorn, then getting up the next morning to go hike around nearby Salt Creek Falls or the myriad of other trails available. Or you could do some fly fishing off the dock or hike around the lake and check out the bear sign and beaver-felled trees. Guess how many of these things I did when I was down at Odell! And as always when you’re out and about in Oregon, you’ve got beautiful surroundings to raise your spirits.

Odell Lake sunset

Smith Rock State Park, Oregon:

Smith Rock State Park is nationally reknowned as a great place to rock climb. I recently learned to rock climb there - it’s harder than it looks but super fun. Even when I didn’t get very far (did I mention I don’t like heights?) I got a nice workout. And if you don’t fancy clawing your way up a rock face, you should visit anyway for the nice hikes and beautiful rock formations.

This route is called Five Gallon Buckets

Getting outdoors is satisfying in a lot of ways, and I’m glad I had some time this summer to do so. Living in the city is great, but I think periodic forays into the “wilderness” are an important reminder of how beautiful and valuable the natural resources of this state (and country) really are.

The race takes place over a Friday and Saturday and involves (for 12 person teams anyway) two vans full of six people each. The way our team did it, the first van ran legs 1-6, then we ran 7-12, etc switching off until the very end. For about 30 hours, someone from our team was always running. The rest of us? Either driving to the next checkpoint to get ready to exchange a runner or trying to catch a couple hours of sleep.

Runners wait at an exchange point

I ran about 15 miles across my three legs. I started out with a 6.89 miler down the Springwater Trail - a long stretch of it that I’d never been on. This was in the late afternoon, so thank goodness there was moderate shade almost the whole way down the trail. I think this was my slowest leg, because I was scared of overdoing it, having never run more than about 5.5 miles at once before!

The crowd at the Hawthorne Bridge exchange point

Next up was a night run - 4.18 miles on a country road east of Portland. We’re talkin’ 3AM here. This one was really fun and for some reason running at night energizes people. Everyone in the van liked the night run the most I think. You wear a headlamp and really feel alone out there - just you and your reflective vest. I think I ran sub-ten minute miles. ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Our van decorations were minimal. Some people were wayyy more elaborate - even had speakers blasting out the Top Gun soundtrack on top of the van.

Finally I had a 4.2ish run in the middle of the day. HOT! Full sun with some shade, a couple hills - it was challenging to keep going. I tried to really push out the last quarter mile, which was uphill, and that was the only time I felt like I had no gas left in the tank, so it was pretty difficult.

It’s a great feeling when you finish your final leg. An  hour or two later, I was pretty much totally exhausted. I went to bed at 9PM and then slept until noon thirty. Then I went and played a soccer game at 3:30! I’ve heard that some people stay overnight at Seaside and get up to do their morning run the day after the race. Though I’m not that into running, it’s easy to see how people can be. Hood to Coast is a really good time, for the super trained and the amateur alike. I’m glad I put my body through it and came out injury free and feeling relatively good. There was a point when running a mile seemed daunting - I never thought I’d be running multiple miles a week for training and actually going through with this crazy relay.

Funny thing is - can’t wait to try again next year.

Back in action faster than you can say Michael Phelps has funny lookin’ ears. (Note: NOT faster than Michael Phelps actually swims.)

Onward to my own list, which shall enlighten you in various unexpected ways, I’m sure…

Preliminary note: I just outlined three practice Contracts essays. I kind of want to throw myself in front of the next train that comes by this coffee shop laying on its ridiculously loud horn for ten seconds straight. This is your fair warning that the following content may suck. Also there are not actually ten things here. Get over it.

Knowledge tested is not knowledge required.

Our review lectures were constantly peppered with the phrase “In bar exam land…” which is apparently a far off mystical place where one can find ridiculous common law rules of criminal law and property which make no sense today. I’m so glad that the definition burglary that I memorized is used in pretty much ZERO states in this country. Never mind that the rules we’re learning have been modified, downright abolished, or simply have never existed at all in the place we intend to actually practice law. Let me tell you how much I enjoy working through a practice problem that is based on a hypothetical statute that bans “oral copulation.” About as much as guys hate blowjobs in the real world. That is, NOT AT ALL.

Example essay answers are terrible.

The best way to study for the bar is to do practice questions and practice essays. I paid Bar/Bri over two thousand dollars to provide me with materials to work through. The least they could do is give me appropriate and helpful example answers to these goddamn essays that are the bane of my existence right now.

Let me break it down. On the bar, we have to do nine essays on various subjects. These essays are limited to 4000 characters (measured by an incredibly overpriced shitty MS Word knockoff program I had to buy…and they double charged my card…let’s not go down that road). So Bar/Bri provides us with 4000 character example answers, right? Like: “Here’s what an actual answer would look like, here’s how you pass the bar, here’s a cookie for getting most of the points hooray you!” WRONG. When you turn to the answer, after having taxed your brain to remember the four tests for criminal insanity, you get a 12,000 character answer that rambles onward like an unrestricted McCain speech, using the most complicated words and rule definitions possible. 4000 characters is about one page of text, single spaced. The example answer to the Contracts essay I just did? Three full pages of text, single spaced.

Bar/Bri is a ripoff and possibly illegal.

As I mentioned before, Bar/Bri costs a ton of money. When I drop 2.5k I sort of expect like, stellar service. Right? Instead I get a course administered by two volunteer students and half of my review lectures on tape instead of live. During the course we did practice exams and essays. Several people’s essays were simply lost outright and never returned. Those that were returned were apparently graded by someone who failed penmanship (multiple times) in elementary school. What comments were discernible usually were along the lines of “work on memorizing the rules,” which is basically the equivalent of “study moar and l2p, nub.” Thanks.

Other Bar/Bri failings included email failure, multiple printed out “pep letters” that actually could have been sent by email and basically said “keep on studying hyuck!”, the shittiest website known to man, and oh yeah, the OUTRAGEOUS price. One final note: for “recycling purposes,” Bar/Bri kindly requests you return all your books and materials after the exam. Try to sell them to someone else or copy them in any way? You’re in breach of contract and lose a $250 deposit. Yeehaw!

Did I mention Bar/Bri got sued for antitrust violations? Unfairly stifling competition and price gouging is the American way. Apparently they settled that case, but how they expected to avoid getting sued when the company’s business is training lawyers and causing them inordinate amounts of stress is beyond me.

Summer o’ guilt and stress.

Strained relationships. Ignored family members. Dead libidos. Neglected chores. These are some of the side effects of a summer built around studying for one test that will allow you to profit from your three years or law school hell. Of course, I brought this upon myself, but I see no reason not to whine about it here. I’ll tack on the annoying “How’s studying going!??” and “Oh when’s the test again?” questions that have rained down upon me from day one of this ordeal from well meaning family and friends. Here’s your answer guys: Studying ruined my summer and punched my kitten, and the test is IN FOUR DAYS. Oh god. Time to go back to the books.

Basically, a federal court decided that the FCC, a federal agency authorized to regulate the airways and keep our children safe etc. etc., acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it told CBS to fork over $550,000 for the indecent image (a woman’s breast, OH THE HORROR) appearing on airwaves between 6 AM and 10 PM. I’m guessing most readers know basically nothing about administrative law. Trust me, you’re better off this way. But for your benefit, here’s the big deal with this case. The “arbitrary and capricious” standard is very hard to violate. This standard of review pretty much lets courts approve lots of agency actions that are downright dumb or ill-informed, as long as they aren’t arbitrary.

The big problem the court had with the FCC’s action was that it was totally inconsistent with what the agency had been doing for decades, with regard to “fleeting instances” of nudity or profanity. Up to the Janet/Justin incident, these fleeting instances weren’t fined or disciplined, because they were so small that they didn’t really do anyone any harm. After “nipplegate,” the FCC (urged onward by the Bush administration, I have no doubt) cracked down on all those scary things like accidentally blurting out “shit!” or revealing parts of the human body that are “indecent.” And at least with regard to the particular discipline of CBS, this federal court says no way Jose. An agency has to be consistent in its regulations, or else regulated parties will have no idea what is and what isn’t a violation of the rules.

This case is going to the Supreme Court, so we’ll see what the eventual ruling on this issue actually turns out to be. For now, CBS gets to have a party and the FCC gets a taste of what may be a major smackdown to come in future years regarding the ever increasing strictness of its rules and policies.