Cindy Sheehan celebrates her 50th...

...in Crawford Texas on the weekend after the 4th of July, and Wavelength Clothing will be there. It'll be my first Crawford pilgrimage, and in addition to celebrating, I'll be working to document the festivities on video. Bree Walker recently purchased Cindy's property in Crawford and plans to turn it into a memorial of those lost in Iraq and a commemoration of peace and diplomacy.

The photo at right accompanied an October 2006 article on Cindy in The Rocky Mountain News.

As usual, The Onion rules....

White House Used Third Party Email

According to a report by the oversight committee, at least 88 White House staffers used outside e-mail accounts for official business, thus circumnavigating archival requirements. What do you think?

Tom Zangara,
Delivery Driver
"Wait, I'm confused.
What exactly is the difference
between circumnavigating federal law
and shitting all over it?"

One angle of the immigration debate...

...that always drives me nuts is the idea that undocumented immigrants take jobs that Americans "just won't do." Ruben Navarette, a nationally syndicated Hispanic columnist often featured in San Diego's daily paper, is one of those pundits who frequently uses this angle to defend the exploitation at the core of Bush's guest worker idea. Here's a note I recently wrote to Mr. Navarette on the issue, as well as his promptly emailed reply.

Mr. Navarette, a quick question for you about those jobs that Americans won't do at any wage: "?Como?"

You think Americans wouldn't pick strawberries if it paid $20 an hour? You think Americans wouldn't clean houses if it meant earning a comfortable wage and gaining health coverage? You think Americans wouldn't work in a slaughterhouse if the job offered the chance for advancement and a path to comfortable retirement?

Balderdash.

I'm reminded of the ridiculousness of your assertion every time I see the show "World's Most Dangerous Catch," which features boatloads of American fishermen who labor in extremely uncomfortable, extremely dangerous conditions. Why do they do it? As the fishermen tell it, there's one central reason: the pay is sufficiently lucrative to compensate for the blood, sweat, and tears demanded by the job.

The chief reason why Americans don't take jobs that often go to undocumented immigrants is that the employers in question don't have to compete to hire Americans. Instead, the employers take advantage of the desperation of non-citizens, who don't have the benefit of the social safety nets Americans enjoy.

By asserting that jobs taken by undocumented immigrants are jobs Americans won't do, you're insulting both undocumented immigrants (by implying they will do anything for a buck) and Americans (by implying they are lazy, conceited, or both). You're also helping perpetuate economic exploitation. Please, for the sake of a healthy discussion of how to make progress on this issue, spare us the establishment-serving rhetoric and start talking about reality.

Mr. Navarette's reply:

Thanks for the note. Glad the piece stirred you. Best, Ruben Naverette.

Wavelength's web statistics...

...help illustrate how interest in anti-Bush shirts tends to ebb and flow. Take the page that offers our "Impeach Bush & Cheney" shirt. Just under 30,000 people have visited that page since we created it in February 2006. This is an average of about 2000 visitors a month - but as the chart below shows, the actual number of visitors in a given month has varied widely.


What factors make months like April and May such standouts? Some of it is due to the timing of promotions by our partner websites like AfterDowningStreet.org, who will sometimes include a link to our page in emails to their registrants. But I think the biggest push is breaking news and the W-related anxiety it stirs up. Recently, events like the inquiry into Alberto Gonzalez's attorney tampering and the showdown over Iraq war funding seem to have driven people to sites like ADS.org. And the more frustrated these folks are, the more likely they are to click-through on ads to our t-shirts.