It looks AMAZING. Borders Books has an excerpt here.

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have….

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I’ll tell you what we didn’t do. We didn’t agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn’t agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that’s a dictatorship, not a democracy….

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It’s all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn’t safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush’s moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he’d regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn’t listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, I don’t know what will….

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America’s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had enough.

“In just one more sign of the stripperization of the Everywoman, Benefit’s Benetint, conceived in the seventies for an exotic dancer to color lips and cheeks, is now also being sold at Sephora and elsewhere as a ‘kiss-proof and water-resistant’ nipple tint. ‘Women want nipples to be pert and fresh-looking, and this shade makes them appear that way,’ Benefit spokeswoman Alison Haljun says. ‘For a long time, the idea of a ripe, rosy nipple has been considered appealing and alluring.’ But aren’t the nipples usually undisplayed? ‘Even if you don’t show it off, you know they’re rosier and more perky,’ she says. Sonia Ossorio, president of NOW in New York, says, ‘I can barely keep up with keeping my nails manicured, much less this nauseating onslaught of new beauty standards. While women are spending their energy, time, and money getting their areolas just the right shade of pink, the Supreme Court is getting more conservative and closer to taking away our long-fought right to reproductive choice’.”

I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. I am all about protecting reproductive choice…but seriously, NOW-lady, that was the wrong place to make your point. Although I suppose people are now making a point about it, and it’s definitely a way to convince Justice Thomas to agree with your point.

July has been rather chill. I’ve mainly been working, and it’s rained or been cloudy for nearly half the month, which is rather depressing. However, the sun did ALMOST come out today, which was almost pleasant. I’ve been spending much of my evenings, though, doing work (or buying games and playing them on my Nintendo DS Lite), applying for clerkships, teaching, and stuff.

It’s been fairly busy since the end of June with looking at things, though. I went over to the Indoor Part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which was very cool – the museum chronicles the history of Tokyo and has really neat things. Photos are here.

The next week (wow) and a little later, I went back to Harajuku (always a treat) and did some more shopping and saw cute dogs wearing sunglasses. I also ate taco pizza at Shakey’s (all-you-can-eat, just 990 yen!).

There’s also a trip out of Tokyo, about one hour, to see the Star Festival (Tanabata Matsuri); the Temple University Japan summer festival, and with my buddy SK, a pretty cool trip to the Outdoor part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which has amazing examples of architecture from around the Tokyo area.

And because I have a great love for things that light up, food, and festivals, here’s the Yasakuni Shrine Lantern Festival. There are at least 20,000 of these lit up all over the shrine.

• What is a “conflict of laws?”
• How come Bush does all these things that aren’t in the Constitution?
• Why are there no social protections in the U.S. Constitution?
• How does a bill become a law?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Japan, whose constitution was written by the U.S. after WWII, has all these wonderful social welfare and social service protection in the constitution. The U.S. doesn’t have any, and it always keeps messing stuff up. We have an imperial president who pisses on the Constitution, and oftentimes, no one knows what law to use!

At least one thing is clear:

I’m Just A Bill

Boy: Whew! You sure gotta climb a lot of steps to get to this Capitol Building here in Washington. But I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is?

I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it’s a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It’s a long, long wait
While I’m sitting in committee,
But I know I’ll be a law some day
At least I hope and pray that I will
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy: Gee, Bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage.

BILL: Well, I got this far. When I started I wasn’t even a bill, I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local Congressman, and he said, “You’re right, there oughta be a law.” Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress. And I became a bill, and I’ll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law.

I’m just a bill
Yes I’m only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I’m stuck in committee
And I’ll sit here and wait
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy:Listen to those Congressmen arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you.

BILL: Yeah, I’m one of the lucky ones. Most bills never even get this far. I hope they decide toreport on me favorably, otherwise I may die.

Boy: Die?

BILL: Yeah, die in committee. Ooh, but it looks like I’m gonna live! NOW I go to the House of Representatives, and they vote on me.

Boy: if they vote yes, what happens?

BILL: Then I go to the Senate and the whole thing starts all over again.

Boy: Oh no!

BILL: Oh yes!

I’m just a bill
Yes, I’m only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then I’m off to the White House
Where I’ll wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then I’ll be a law.
HOW I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy:You mean even if the whole Congress says you should be a law, the president can still say no?

BILL: Yes, that’s called a veto. If the president vetoes me, I have to go back to Congress and they vote on me again, and by that time you’re so old …

Boy:By that time it’s very unlikely that you’ll become a law. It’s not easy to become a law, is it?

BILL:No!
But how I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

MAN:
He signed you, Bill Now you’re a law!

BILL:
Oh yes!!!

By ROBIN KELSEY
Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As an alumnus of Yale Law School who spent less time practicing law than studying it, I take great pleasure in offering unrequested advice to people contemplating a career in law. Here are five myths about legal education and practice.

Myth #1: A legal education is a great means to embark on any of a variety of non-legal careers.

Absolutely true. If studying law doesn’t get you to embark on a non-legal career, then nothing will.

Myth #2: Legal thought is intellectually rigorous.

Also true. Law students have been known to spend days debating whether an italicized comma differs in appearance from a normal comma, and which comma should be employed when citing sections of the United Hairstylists Personal Hygiene Code. As a lawyer might say, “that’s not just rigor, that’s rigor mortis.” (i.e., “that’s some deadly serious Latin rigor.”)

Myth # 3: Life as a high-powered attorney at a big New York firm is exciting and glamorous.

This is entirely true, if:

1) You laugh uncontrollably when your great uncle Larry does his impersonation of Dwight Eisenhower eating potato salad;

2) Your adrenalin flows when you spot a typographical error in the want ads of the Guilford Post-Gazette; or

3) Your bedroom wall features a large framed photograph of you shaking hands with Home Depot’s Vice President in Charge of Shower Curtain Inventory because it’s a moment you wish to cherish forever.

Myth #4: Most national leaders went to law school, so if you go to law school, you will probably become a national leader.

If you subscribe to this myth, there are a few things you should know. First, you will bomb the LSAT so completely that your driver’s license will be revoked. Second, there are other ways to become a national leader. You could make a billion dollars playing Internet poker, for example. Or you could get married to Renee Zellweger and three days later have the vows annulled. Or you could write a self-help book entitled “Reorganizing the FEMA Within.” Remember that this is America and ergo (“ergo” is Latin for “out of the pale, pale blue”) leadership is as close as the next episode of “The Apprentice.”

Myth #5: Being a lawyer brings with it vast wealth.

The accessibility of big money is undeniable. Let’s say you are a first-year associate in New York. Your parents tell all their friends, who experience such acute boredom that they drift away from the conversation to watch their cuticles age. But that is beside the point. The point is that you make about $125K a year. You work the standard 120 hours a week (and bill clients for at least twice that), so your job is equivalent to three jobs of 40 hours a week that each pay you $41,667 per year. Given your high tax bracket and the vodka martinis you feel compelled to buy for friends who are “artists” living off trust funds they never mention, you probably come away dead even with someone working normal hours at $29,000 per year. Namely the guy who conducts Jell-O salad taste tests for a nursing-home chain.

Ah, you say, but here’s the rub: Whereas the Jell-O taster may never make anything of himself, you will one day become partner. Yes, partner! When that big ship docks at your port, you will have permission to use the partner-only bathroom, first pick of the firm’s Shea Stadium seats right behind the visitors’ dugout, and oodles and oodles of cash. You will stuff your mattress so full with Krugerrands that you will sleep with your face squished against the ceiling. Even after making payment on your two alimonies, three mortgages, and endless pharmacy bills for anti-depressants, you will have enough left over each month to buy two decaf triple grande mocha eggnog lattes.

But the question is: Will you be happy? And the answer is simple: Not if they’re decaf.

Note: A lot of this is about the “big firm” search that the career offices focus on. They get ranked by salaries and stuff, so if they place a lot of embryotic law students into positions where they make $140,000 per annum, then it looks really good. See below for “A Big Firm?“.

First off, the most important thing to do is to know people. I knew people, but apparently forgot to take advantage of this, which harmed me in several ways. I’m still trying to recover. What do I mean by know people? Basically, you want to be able to drop names and then ask for favors. Yes, it sounds wrong and horrible and awful, and everyone who should does it. Who are good people to know?

• Your significant other’s parent who is a lawyer;
• Your family friend who is a law partner;
• Your friend who at least is an associate, even though that doesn’t help as much;
• The dean who you made friends with and knows everyone in the city/state/country/universe;
• Lawyers you met while out with student groups or from various other non-scholarly pursuits;
• Etc.

What do these people do? They help you get a job, if they can. Having someone pulling for you is a lot different than going in there shock cold and hoping that you’re impressive like whoa!

Second: Career services is great, BUT…
See, this is a big BUT. Face it, if you aren’t at one of those top top schools, and you’re not in the top so-and-so percent of your class, you’re probably not going to get picked for an interview. At my law school, they post them on the wall – and the same twenty or so people have interviews every single day. You know who I’m talking about: 3.7+GPA and Law Review. Well, here’s the dirty little secret about this: there are more “top students” than there are summer associate positions. For example, let’s say you want to work in Washington D.C., at Arnold & Porter, and you’re coming from, say, Rutgers-Newark Law. You’re in a bit of a bind. Why? Because all those damn kids at Georgetown and Harvard and Chicago and Yale and so on also want to work there. So they want to have a “diverse” incoming class of associates – but they also want “prestige” associates.

If I were to be really cynical, I would say that at most big firms in the top twenty to forty probably do their hiring like so:

We have 40 summer associate positions here at the New York office of Big & Firm LLP. Now, we’re ranked number 12 in the world…so let us set aside 20 of those associate positions for people coming from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Penn, Chicago, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, (you get the point). Now, Senior Partner Johnson’s son is graduating from Temple this year, so I don’t think we want to keep him out. And these other people all have recommendations. So we’re left with five more associate spots – let’s bring in one hundred kids to interview!

Now, that would kind of by cynical. But I’ve got a feeling that’s how it’s done. Why? Because there’s a certain Philadelphia firm that is upset every year that they lose all their selections to other firms. Wanna know why? It’s kind of an open secret: they keep picking the top ten people from all the law schools to interview – who can basically choose where they want to work. And where they want to work is certainly not there. It’s great that they want to get these great people – but it won’t work like that. And they also screw the rest of the people who would give an arm (or a leg) to work there but don’t have a 4.01GPA .

Don’t fret, though! There’s still luck to be had. While all those guys are competing for the same position at the BIG FIRM, there are all these small and medium size firms that are actually much much nicer. Also, don’t forget the government – it may not pay as well, but the benefits and the hours more than make up for it.

I’ll finish this soon. Until then, fight the power, kiddies!

Matt Hoffman, of the [non]billable hour placed an excellent post up about how to fix law schools. By the way, I hadn’t read the 5×5 with Law Student Bloggers until midway through this post. And here I was thinking that I had been somewhat novel with my idea for “rotations.”

Oh well – great minds think alike, I guess…

• I would really like to see a “rotation” program begin for law schools. Look, at most law schools, only a few people will get a summer associateship with a big firm – and at some, no one will. But this is one thing that could fix a lot of things – helping people who “really shouldn’t be lawyers” figure out what they should be and helping people who aren’t sure what kind of law they want to do figure that out. It’s not that hard – they do it in medicine. You don’t want a cardiologist who hates doing cardiology, do you? That sounds like it would be a good way to lose heart – but hundreds of law students go out there, get miserable, and then decide that what they’d really like to be doing is sailing a boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands instead of ever having considered law in the first place.

  How would rotations work? Well, it would need the ENTIRE legal community behind it, I think. There’s already some “interaction” between the law schools, judicial system, and law firms – but we’re talking major interaction. Law school would be extended by one year – but during that one year, students could even get paid. (I suppose this could also be done without extending it and using the third year as the rotation year – but there are some really interesting upper level electives that would get killed…Heck, it could even be one semester!)

  Each student would spend a month or so in a practice area: in-house counsel, judicial interning, small firm practice, large firm practice, state/local government, federal government, non-profit, NGO, criminal prosecution, and criminal defense. Now, I haven’t quite worked out any logistics, but this would expose students to so many things that they wouldn’t normally get to do. Andy suddenly is able to figure out that while he didn’t enjoy working for a judge, he really enjoyed working with people at South Jersey Legal Services. Molly can learn that while she hated the atmosphere at Workem & Payem and couldn’t see herself as a big firm lawyer, she greatly preferred working at the Philadelphia Prosecutor’s Office. And Ashanti, who went through all those and decided that while she loved law school, practice wasn’t for her? Well, she’ll know that she should concentrate on consulting – I hear McKinsey & Co. is hiring!

  See the changes that would wrought on the profession? Rather than a bunch of mopey-eyed miserables, people will be doing something they actually want to do.

• Big Firms: I had a professor say something very interesting to me today that put a lot of my recruiting worries to rest: “Why are you so worried about life after third year? Go out, do your associateship, and don’t shut the door on the rest of your life. You don’t have to take the offer. If you like working at the big firm, swell! You’re one in a million, take the money and go for it. If you don’t, say “Thanks, but no thanks,” tell them you appreciate the offer, and go off to England or work for the Justice Department or whatever you want! It’s a summer job, not a marriage.”

  But seriously, I understand the point about big firms – and he agreed. I don’t know if it’s what I want, and I’ve been told how miserable it can be (and believe me, I love being in law school; if I had a choice between working as a lawyer and being a professor somewhere, I would jump to be Professor Monkey rather than Mr. Monkey, Esq.). But I definitely won’t know if I don’t try it – and even though you’re in a magical happy land for the summer, you can still see the way other people work. If I don’t like it…well, I suppose I just will have to find something I like! I hear American Samoa is nice all year round.

• You know, I wonder how to better reach out to solo & small firms. I bet it wouldn’t be too hard – there’s a phone book & e-mail everywhere these days. Why the heck not just do a mail merge and say “Hey guys, we’ve got all these young lawyers looking for work, and they want jobs.”

  Back when I was a marketing major, one of the ways to “takeover” a company was the “internal buy-out” method. I don’t know if this is the real name, because I can’t find my notebook from Professor Nickel’s class. But here’s what I remember:

  Find an old person who wants to retire in a few years. Agree to work for a certain number of years at a certain salary, getting more and more money and control of the company every year – and you keep paying them a salary and then possibly even a pension (I think one has to pay the pension). At the end of the few years, take over the firm.

  What does this do? You keep the old person’s company alive. They get money. They get someone who cares about it. You get the goodwill of the company and the trust of the community. EVERYBODY WINS. This is something that small firms can do pretty easily, and I think it would translate well.

• Okay, this might sound odd, but the most interesting work I did all summer had to do with attorney ethics. I would love to take a class on advanced ethics for attorneys (and actually, call me a turncoat, but if there was an ethics prosecution, and there probably is, but I’m currently too tired to search for one) I would jump to serve on it. It could be all about what naughty lawyers have done, and discuss philosophies in law and how to better encourage an ethical and moral bar. And you know, speaking of attorney ethics, I want more outrage when attorneys do bad things – how come we can talk about “bad CEOs” or “bad government officials” in business school or social studies, but not “bad lawyers” in law school?
• Since I mentioned teaching above, why is there such an insistence on “Harvard/Yale + Law Review + Clerk” to teach? One professor, when I asked about teaching, gave me five options: Go to Harvard/Yale; get an LL.M. from Harvard or Yale; work at a soul-crushing big firm in NYC (and get a LL.M. from Columbia or NYU); clerk at the Supreme Court; or donate a lot of money to the school on the condition of becoming a professor. Here’s my idea: I’m fine with getting an LL.M. (frankly, I’m excited by going to school) especially if I can get one from Oxford or the London School of Economics. I have no problem with practicing for a few years. So I’ll take this: I’ll go to one of the British universities (or even Harvard or Yale, I guess) and I’ll work for a few years. And I’ll throw in a bonus: I want to teach, not just write boring articles and sit on my ass – and you should know that someone who wants to do something is usually going to do a much better job than someone who doesn’t care.
• More Free Food. Look, law school is expensive anyway. I could use a cookie or something other than just pizza. How about sandwiches once in a while? Maybe a nice taco tray, or some of those little tomatoes with whitefish inside? Gosh, those are good.

The lawyers representing Patricia Santangelo, who is the first RIAA defendant to refuse to settle, have set up a blog detailing the events of the case:

We are lawyers in New York City. We practice law at Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.

Through the Electronic Frontier Foundation we and our firm have undertaken to represent people in our area who have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for having computers whose internet accounts were used to open up peer-to-peer file sharing accounts.

We find these cases to be oppressive and unfair, as large law firms financed by the recording industry sue ordinary working people for thousands of dollars.

We have set up this blog in order to collect evidence and input about these oppressive lawsuits.

1) I have no idea how other law students make such lovely blogs and keep them updated with lawyerly things during law school. It amazes me to no end. Maybe it’s because I was a 1L last year and it didn’t seem like I had any time? I mean, I wish I was able to do political commentary, or review the new law clerks for the Supreme Court, or even just discuss the weather over the now-closed DMA parking lot…But I never felt like I had time before.

2) I think that people who say that you never forget the first person you love (or at least, kindasortamaybe love are right. We used to have this discussion, where I would tell her how wonderful she was and she would tell me how easy it would be for me to replace her. Well, I never actually have and she actually was wonderful. It’s really weird. I mean, it’s two years hence and I still think about girls in comparison to her…I suppose everyone does that, you want to compare everyone you ever know to everyone else and then you get all confused. Maybe that’s wrong, but that’s sort of it. Kinda silly, really. Stupid things, feelings. We could just all be Vulcans, that would make it a lot easier, I think.

“I’ve been making a list of the things they don’t teach you at school. They don’t teach you how to love somebody. They don’t teach you how to be famous. They don’t teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don’t teach you how to walk away from someone you don’t love any longer. They don’t teach you how to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind. They don’t teach you what to say to someone who’s dying. They don’t teach you anything worth knowing.” – Neil Gaiman, _The Sandman_

3) Classes are killing me. It really is tough to manage this long interminable day, but I do like the job in the courthouse – it’s just the classes afterwards that bug me. I’m finding it difficult to care about either evidence or professional responsibility, and I am, of course, worried about my grades. Always grades, it comes back to those damnable things. We should totally just be judged on the content of our character rather then on grades, we’d be a much better society.

4) I really need to start writing again. I’ve been (yes, this is dorky) re-reading Harry Potter, and then because I like to see what people do, I keep ending up and reading HP fanfiction. Nothing DIRTY, but I’ve been trying to read the good ones. Most of them are crappy, which is a common theme in fan-writing, apparently. They like to write really crappy stuff.

And no, I’m not going to be writing that. I want to get this damn book out of my head so I can do something else with it. I sort of know the plot, and I sort of know the characters, and I sort of have an idea, but not entirely, which hurts the writing. Although for me writing is not the sort of thing that’s “plotted out,” it’s more along the lines of the sort of thing that just happens. You put pen to paper (or fingers to keys, as it were) and just get one’s type on. T’cha, y’know?

5) My life is seriously kinda boring right now. As I pointed out, I don’t do much other than work, class, and sleep…there’s no time for anything else! But I’m kind of excited for the Fourth of July this year. With Live 8 and Elton John coming to Philadelphia, it’s going to be way exciting. Hopefully I’ll get to see both concerts, it’s going to be pretty cool.

I just noticed this, and it’s a good idea…

Property : DONE
Constitutional Law: Friday, May 6th
Criminal Law: Tuesday, May 10th.