SlowpokeBlog

I'm currently sitting in Café Cubano, another Charlottesville coffee shop in which I sometimes attempt to work. At the moment I am simmering with frustration at my laptop, which claims to be connected to the wireless network, yet is in fact not. To the casual observer, I appear to be lazily dinking around on my computer, yet inside I am vibrating with techno-rage.

This week's cartoon is a kind of sequel to the original Gay-Ban strip. I hadn't really intended to do a cartoon about immigration. While the issue is certainly important, I feel it has become a distraction from more pressing concerns like the health insurance crisis, or the possibility of Verizon controlling internet content, or the fact that we're gobbling fish laced with PCBs and mercury. I fully expect to be squawked at by angry readers who think I am suggesting immigration policy is not a legitimate concern -- but that's not what I'm saying. The cartoon is about the vile race-baiting coming out of the right-wing blabosphere, the pundits and politicians who are using "those people" to incite rage among their audience. The right has long understood the emotional component of voting, and they manipulate it ruthlessly. Isn't it interesting that we 're having this debate now, a few months before the congressional elections, at a time when the majority of the country has become deeply dissatisfied with the Republican party?

And isn't it interesting that the people complaining about all the social ills caused by "the illegals" are mostly mum about the same problems caused by Wal-Mart? Deal with those first, and then I'll take you seriously.