with obama and clinton announcing their presidental bids this week, new mexico governor bill richardson is expected to announce his own campaign for president today. i saw richardson on wednesday for a volunteer conference at the state capitol building in santa fe. i was sent, with two of my co-workers, to represent our americorps program.



richardson is extremely popular here, winning his second term last november with 69% of the vote. i am impressed by his dedication to international affairs, particularly his recent work in darfur. his resume is about a mile long and extremely varied, however his popularity is completely eclipsed by that of clinton and obama. example: today, i said to joe, 'richardson is probably going to announce his run for president today' and joe says, 'is that the guy from montana?' referring to tester. getting his western cowboy dems mixed up i guess. whatever. so anywho, it's between the african-american, the woman, and the hispanic. i like them all.

back into the routine here in cruces. after a week of training, and then 2 days up in santa fe, i finally got back to onate high school on thursday. things are looking up for us over there. i have two new coworkers with me, replacing my one partner from last semester. they are doing a great job. i lost four great students from last semester, two moved away, one got long-term suspended, and the other dropped out of school. i was shocked and upset to hear about that last student. he succumbed to the pressure to quit school and work full-time to support his mom. he is also deep into gang culture. he was excited about the catcher in the rye, the first real book he ever read. i worked really closely with him on that book. i asked him what he wanted to do in the future, and he said 'have you seen the movie blow ?' anyway it was sad to see him drop out.

watched the pianist last night. it was pretty much amazing. even though joe was reluctant to watch it, but who can blame him...when is anyone in the lets-watch-an-extremely-depressing-holocaust-film mood ?

stephan colbert was on the o'reilly factor last week.

o'reilly: I have a sheet here that says you dislike and you are afraid of bears and owls. Is that true?
colbert: I am afraid of bears. I think owls are a waste of time.

think we're going to play cards tonight. haven't done that yet in NM. better watch out, cruces! you don't know what you're up against...suckers!