So we were pretty bummed after Texas-Ohio at the beginning of March. We'd hoped that Barack could seal the deal, and we could all move on and start focusing on the fight against McCain, whose warmongering, Iran and Al-Qaeda-confusing ineptness is still getting a free pass from the Media.

I really wanted to do something significant to contribute to Obama's effort. I realized I had a few days free. Campaign contributions are great, phonebanking is a great way to help, but in elections there's no substitute for boots on the ground.

I'm not at liberty right now to talk about the specifics of my short adventure in the Monongahela valley, but I can say that the Keystone State is rather pretty this time of year.




We weren't expecting a win. I was hoping for a slightly better margin. But consider that she was more than twenty points ahead in PA just a couple of weeks ago. And despite all the media hoopla, she only netted 9 delegates. The map hasn't really changed.

Do you want Barack Obama to be your president? Do you agree that this is probably the most pivotal election of your life thus far? Democracy is not s spectator sport! There are lots of ways to help. You can make calls from your home, you can join others, you can write postcards, you can put 20 bucks on your credit card, you can even hit the road or get on a plane.

Start by going HERE.

At the very least, if my (or anybody else's) kid asks me in twenty years what I did when I saw what was going on in the world around me. . . and where my country was headed. . . I'll be able to say, "I tried."

-jw

So, I'm going to attempt to blog with some regularity and have created my own home & garden blog. Never fear Casa Blog enthusiasts! I will post duplicates of any entries that would be interesting for our general Casa Blog audience here but the more, shall we say, technical posts will only appear on my home & garden blog- after all, I don't want to put Craig to sleep every time he visits casaogden!

This is actually a duplicate post of what's on the other blog right now but my first "official" post should be up soon! I've added a handy link on the left bar for you're future convenience. Craig you can use it if you get insomnia.

-liz

And now for something completely different.

Two Saturdays ago was World Pillow Fight Day.

How did I know this? Liz, who knows all. How did she know? Uhh. . . Myspace bulletin from Angela?

Anyway, somehow we ended up downtown (a place I've spent about as much time in as I have in San Francisco) in Pershing Square. What ensued is as follows:



(P.S., if you click on a picture it will enlarge. Better yet, command or option click to open in a new tab, if you have that technology.)




LA's finest weren't particularly amused.




This woman, apparently, was a principal instigator.



Elizabeth Camp, true to form, took it upon herself to help with the cleanup. . .



And afterwards we had some gelato in Little Japan and, shortly thereafter, tacos on Olvera Street. The walking tour of Downtown LA was graciously led by Angela's friend David.

Gregg couldn't be with us because he was a couple of blocks away attending to the world's largest Slip N' Slide. But that's another story.

-jw

40 years ago today, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.



Bobby Kennedy, who was campaigning for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, was about to make a speech in front of a huge, mostly African-American audience in Indianapolis when word of what had happened reached him.

There was no CNN, no "24hr. news cycle" in those days. It was up to RFK to break the news to the crowd. He stood on top of a car with a microphone and made an extemporaneous speech that has resonated in the decades since King's -- and his -- untimely death. It's a speech that I have come back to more than a few times since I first heard it. I think it's worth hearing again. It reminds me that sometimes there really is power in spoken words and ideas. And that we've largely forgotten -- perhaps until this year? -- that our politicians can, maybe in rare cases, actually be leaders. . .

rfkonmlkdeath.mp3

It was a dark night. There was rioting and violence in a hundred cities in this country. But not in Indianapolis.

-jw

I can't take it any more. I am sick of fighting the good fight. I am tired of seeing my hopes and dreams for my country and the world dashed against the rocks of cruel reality.

I have come to realize that raw power and blind ignorance are the only real currency in this cold, dark world. So I am giving up, turning in my peace signs and giving away my books.

I have decided to become a republican.

Happy April 1st.

-jw

One of the Clinton Campaign's ridiculous attacks of late has been that Barack Obama was not really a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago but merely a "lecturer." They have accused him of being "misleading" by saying he was a professor. Because "details matter."

(Um, how about the completely fabricated details of HRC's trip to Bosnia? Nevermind.)

Well, details do matter. Yesterday the U of C was apparently happy to clarify that Obama was, of course, a professor at the law school.

Which reminded me that I've been curious for awhile about what his former students might have to say about him as a teacher. We've heard very little about this side of the candidate. Should I not be surprised that it's a chapter in his career that the media doesn't much seem to care about?

Then I stumbled across this Chicago Sun-Times article.

-jw