Democrats, Judicial Nominees, and Filibusters. Oh My!

If you have not been following the news, President Bush has appointed several judges to the Federal Judiciary. This is not just a routine and constitutional function of the Presidency, but it also happens to be one of the most powerful influences the President has on the nation. The judges of the Federal Judiciary rule on, implement, and enforce decisions regarding Federal Statues and Supreme Court decisions. (For example, Federal District Courts were charged with enforcing Brown v. Board of Education.) Thus, these judges have considerable latitude in exerting and implementing a President’s political philosophy in the real world.

Nothing But An Overdue Update

So things have been pretty hectic around here.

After my last post I realized that I’ve been a way too much of a forensics-debate kick for the last six weeks, and I’m glad that the season is largely over. Since I’ve last posted, I helped run Memorial’s forensics tournament, drove through a billard to get to New London’s tournament, judged way too much poorly done interp at Hartford, went back to Sheboygan for a few days, watched my brother lose his first boxing match, got a perscription for my “sinus infection,” spent Easter with both of my grandparents, drove back to Madison only to go back to Sheboygan to run the LD division at Sheboygan North’s tournament four days later and then come back to Madison a day after that, chose our state team the next day, coach LD later that afternoon, coach every day during that week in preparation for NFL qualifiers, drive to West Bend for NFL Qualifiers and be disappointed and happy with the results at the same time (we didn’t get our top LD and Duo through, but we did get our top DI, Orator, and Extemper), take a day off, and coach all of the next week for the state tournament, drive to Ripon last friday, and then come back to Madison very late at night only to pass out and finally breathe. And somewhere in there, I studied for two midterms and wrote four papers, not to mention two debate cases, as well as looking at about 20 apartments for next year. And in between trips to Madison and Sheboygan I found out Brian got an at large bid to the TOC.