Friday, June 23, 2006

Interesting (and important) case going to Supreme Court

Get ready for an ethical/moral/constitutional battle at the Supreme Court. A few days ago the High Court granted certiorari (they agreed to hear the case) to Planned Parenthood v. Gonzales, 435 F.3d 1136 (9th Cir. 2006). This case was brought by PP as a challenge to the constitutionality of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The District Court agreed and ruled in favor of PP; the Ninth Circuit affirmed; and now the Supreme Court will hear the case. You can read the whole Ninth Circuit opinion here (warning: 64 pages long), but the basic constitutional arguments are:

1.The PBAB Act imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose to terminate pregnancy before viability because it creates a substantial risk of criminality for virtually all abortions performed after the first trimester.

2.The Act is unconstitutional vague because the use of unrecognized medical terms inhibits fair notice to physicians and encourages arbitrary enforcement.

3.The failure to include a health exception in unconstitutional.

You can NEVER predict where the Court will come down on any issue, but you can be certain of one thing: Both sides of the abortion debate will be trumpeting this as a very important case and there will be a lot of attention on how the newly-formed Roberts Court will decide these types of decisions.

And remember one other thing: the Ninth Circuit has the highest percentage of their cases overturned by the Supreme Court among all the circuits. (From a 2004 study: “Over the past four Supreme Court terms, the Ninth Circuit has been reversed more than any other court in the nation. Overall, cases from the Ninth Circuit constitute a whopping one-third (33.1 percent) of the Supreme Court’s reversals of federal appellate decisions. Of the 81 Supreme Court opinions in cases originating from the Ninth Circuit, the High Court reversed or vacated the Ninth’s decisions in 60 of them, for a 74.1 percent reversal rate. Once again, the number of Supreme Court reversals arising from the Ninth Circuit dwarfed the next three most frequently reversed circuits combined: the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits together were only reversed 51 times through written slip opinions during the last four Supreme Court terms.”)

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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Very disappointing World Cup for the Americans

Well, I woke up this morning and turned on the U.S. v. Ghana game; a game that the U.S. absolutely had to win to advance out of the group. I probably should have stayed in bed...

After an uncharacteristic mistake from American team captain Claudio Reyna, the Black Stars scored first. Drew and I were celebrating like crazy when Clint Dempsey scored an awesome goal just a few minutes before half. But that elation was quickly defeated when the ref called a cheap foul on American defender Onyewu in the penalty box. Ghana drilled it and the score was 2-1 at half. The Americans had a few chances in the second half, but I essentially knew they didn't have it in them by about the 60th minute (15 min. into the second half). The game ended 2-1 for Ghana.

All in all, a really disappointing showing by the U.S. in this World Cup. To be sure, there were high expectations coming in. The U.S. looked pretty good in qualifying, they had beaten some quality teams, and they had climbed to fifth (I think that's accurate) in the FIFA world rankings. And what did they do in Germany? How did the Americans capitalize on their momentum and show the world that their run to the quarterfinals in 2002 wasn't a fluke? They got embarrassed by the Czech Republic; they fought to a draw with the Italians, and they couldn't win the big game when it counted (against Ghana).

One of the things that is especially disheartening is that the U.S. can't seem to score goals. They only scored ONE goal in three games (their other goal was an own-goal by Italy). In their defense, they played against two of the world's best goalkeepers (C.R. and Italy), but the U.S. didn't even really get that many great chances (i.e. near-misses, hit posts, great saves against them etc...).

I thought Landon Donovan - supposedly America's best young player - disappeared in almost all of the World Cup. If I had to pick my three favorite American players of this World Cup it would probably be Kasey Keller, Pablo Mastroeni (didn't play against Ghana - a big loss), and Oguchi Onyewu. A close fourth and fifth would probably be Brian McBride and Steve Cherundolo, who I thought both played pretty well.

I'll still keep watching the games, but I have to say that my interest will wane significantly now that the Americans are gone. Very disappointing that they will be coming away from this World Cup with only one point. I wonder if this means we won't see Bruce Arena on the bench in 2010.


Good World Cup blog here.


Landon Donovan

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Long update with lots of pics

Why does it take me until Wednesday to post a blog entry from the previous weekend? Anyway, here goes…

On Thursday afternoon I got off work a bit early and we headed up to Portland for the weekend. On Thursday evening Missi and I went to a concert by O.A.R., one of our favorite bands. We have seen O.A.R. every time they come to Portland in the past 4 years of so, so this was probably our fifth or sixth time seeing them. As always, the concert was great. These guys have an amazing energy and I would highly recommend them to anybody looking for a fun concert. Afterwards, Missi and I met and talked with Richard On (their guitar player) and Jerry DiPizzo (sax player), which was kind of cool.

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Missi and I at the OAR concert

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Missi and I with Jerry DiPizzo from OAR

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Missi and I with Richard On from OAR

Friday I watched the kids while Missi worked for awhile and then we went to my grandparent’s house for dinner. It was a really nice time with them celebrating my grandfather’s 80th birthday.

Saturday we visited our friend’s the Zimels to see their new baby. Then we met up with my cousin to check out some flower girl dresses for Samantha. She is going to be in my cousin’s wedding so they had to get an idea of what to look for. Samantha looked adorable, but she loved the dresses so much that she wanted to take them home with her. She didn’t understand that the dress was the wrong color and size. She DID NOT want to take it off.

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Saturday evening was our friend Megan’s birthday party. We had dinner at Saucebox followed by dancing/hanging out at Aura. It was a great time with good friends (or perhaps I should say it was a good time with great friends – works either way)

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Jeff, me, and Jesse on Saturday night

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Nicole, Missi, and Adrienne at the birthday party

Sunday was Father’s Day. Missi and the kids got me a new shirt, a sweet new watch, and a gift certificate to go bungee jumping with my buddy Jesse later this summer! It was a fun morning. After going to church, we went to the Portland Beavers baseball game for Father’s Day. My father-in-law had a suite for the game so it was nice to allow the kids to run around a bit and not be confined with just one seat. The game was actually pretty exciting too with lots of runs and good plays in the field. The Beavers won 13-3. We returned home to Eugene late Sunday night.

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Father's Day 2006 (nice "smile" Samantha!)

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"Mmmmm, cotton candy is good!"

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Sam gets tired at the game and finally falls asleep


This week it’s back to work for me. Drew is in baseball camp and absolutely loving it. We’ve had two T-ball games so far this week, which has been fun. I spoke at Oregon Boys State yesterday to about 120 high school seniors and I think it went pretty well. It certainly brought back some memories of my time at Boys State and what a great experience that was.

Enjoy the first official day of summer!

3 quick sports-related notes...

1. Congrats to the amazing Dwyane Wade and his teammates on the Miami Heat for winning the NBA Championship, but in my humble opinion there is just NO WAY the Mavericks should have lost that series. To be up 2-0 and then just lose the next 4 games consecutively? There's no excuse for that...

2. Tomorrow the US faces a must-win situation in the World Cup. If they can beat Ghana and Italy beats the Czech Republic, the US will advance to the knockout stage where they would meet Brazil. If somehow they can get out of the group, most people will look at the World Cup as a mild success and hopefully forget the 3-0 embarassment they suffered at the hands of the Czech Republic in their first game.

3. Oregon State is still alive in the College World Series. They have now beaten Georgia and Miami and tonight they face Rice (TV on ESPN2). They would have to beat Rice two times to advace to the championship series. I don't usually root for the Beavs, but in this case I'm pulling for them.

A longer, more detailed post (with pics!) hopefully later today.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Soccer, Lizards, and Missionaries

Let’s start with the World Cup:

I thought that it was off to a great start with some really good games, but I’ve become pretty disheartened after the 3-0 shellacking given to the US by the Czech Republic. I didn’t actually watch the game yet but I’ve got it on tape and I’m sure I’ll feel up to watching it eventually (I was working when the game was shown live). The US now faces a HUGE uphill climb just to get out of their group. Hopefully some of my excitement will be renewed with Brazil’s game today.

Next subject:

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of 6-year olds like a….LIZARD?! That’s right, our T-ball team conducted a very democratic process and decided that we should be called the Lizards. Our jerseys are green, so that helps, but who ever heard of a baseball team called the Lizards?
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And finally…
(This story makes a lot more sense if you realize that I wear a suit and tie to work every day now)

The other day Samantha was over at a friend’s house while I was at work and Missi was in Portland. Our friend had her front door open but a screen door was closed. Sam was inside playing when all of a sudden she yelled “Daddy!” and ran over to the door. Our friend thought to herself, “That’s weird, John shouldn’t be getting off until later this afternoon.” She went to the door to see who was approaching the house and she saw two nice young Mormon missionaries in their shirts and ties approaching the house. That’s right, my daughter mistook me for a Mormon missionary.

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Thursday, June 08, 2006

The World's Greatest Sporting Event

Anybody else excited that the World Cup starts tomorrow? I'm also glad that these games will be on during decent hours. I remember waking up at 2:00AM during the 2002 World Cup to catch some games. The first game (Germany v. Costa Rica) starts at 9:00AM tomorrow on the West Coast on ESPN2. Get ready for some amazing soccer!

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Wednesday, June 07, 2006

A "real" update...

Wow, where do I begin?

My summer "vacation" has now officially come to an end and I have once again joined the ranks of the gainfully employed. I was tremendously excited when I got this job and it has lived up to (or exceeded) all of my expectations. Every day I am encountering something that is extremely interesting.

Today marked my first week on the job and so far I have been doing a lot of training on the policies and protocol of the office. Along with that I have been in court quite a bit, usually watching sentencing hearings or detention hearings. I have also sat in on a proffer session, which is basically where a convicted defendant spills their guts in the hope that the information they share will lead to a reduction in their sentence. Along with that I have done some research projects on the marital privilege (in general, a husband or wife cannot testify against each other) and sentencing enhancements. Every one I am working with has been great and I really feel like I am learning a lot not just about the law, but also what it is to be a legal professional. It's great to have a job that I am excited to go to every morning. Of course, let's just hope that I continue to feel that way in about 6 months.

Another exciting development that has transpired in the past few weeks has been an invitation to speak at Oregon Boys State. As some of you know, I went to Boys State as a high school senior, and that experience, along with the subsequent trip(s) to Boys Nation really helped define some of my life goals. I'm not sure exactly what I will speak about but I have a few ideas that I'm tossing around.

The fam is doing great. Samantha is growing up more each and every day - speaking more, becoming more independant, fighting with her brother - all the usual stuff! Drew is on the verge of finishing his first year of "real" school - kindergarten. He loves playing T-ball and he is excited about his recent acquisition of a Gameboy. Missi is in Portland for a few days working (shopping) at the Nordstrom's half-yearly sale.



My girls at a community festival we went to last weekend



Also, one of my best friends in the world, Adam, and his wife welcomed a new son into the world two days ago. Congratulations to them!

The amazing MySpace continues to surprise me by "connecting" me with friends from the past who I haven't heard from in years.

This post has been sort of a smorgasbord of information and I haven't been too focused or direct in communicating it, but the basic message is that, all in all, it has been a great summer so far.

Currently listening to: OAR live at the Hammerstein Ballroom, November 27, 2004

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

A new post that doesn't really say anything...

It's been 4 or 5 days since I've updated my blog and I have much to write about. Life, as usual, is full. All that being said, I've been up since about 5:45AM, it's after 11:00 now, I'm tired, and I've got another full day tomorrow. I'll try to write something more substantive tomorrow night...

One of these days I'll add a blog entry about my job and the amazing experience I'm having there. All in due time.

JW

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Funniest show on TV

Anybody else watching the "The Office" marathon on NBC tonight? I've seen these episodes but it's still confirmation of why this is the funniest show on TV (and one of the only shows I watch regularly).