LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[December 21st, 2005] PUBIC-INTEREST JOURNALISM

Just when I thought Portland couldn't get any more turned on by itself, out came WW's Dec. 14 cover story ["The Fuzz That Was"]. With all that's happening here and globally, I often worry: Is my pussy hip enough?

Kaisa Bourgidu
Southeast 43rd Avenue

THE PASSION OF THE COWBOY

To David Walker: Thank you for your thoughtful article regarding Brokeback Mountain ["Love As Revolution," WW, Dec. 14, 2005]. Yours is an intelligent, cogent point of view, and we feel gratified that you have given so much consideration to our efforts on behalf of the screenplay and film.

Just a small FYI: We optioned the short story from Annie Proulx with our own money way back in 1997 in order to write the screenplay. This has been a labor of great passion for us ever since. We are proud of our cast and crew for their dedication and determination to make a great film. We were in an interview recently with Heath Ledger, in which he was asked if he felt brave for taking on the role of Ennis del Mar in our movie. His response: "Firefighters are brave. I'm just an actor, getting paid to do what I do. Lucky would be a better word to use." And that is how we feel as well.

All best,

Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry
[via email]

I'LL TAKE YOUR PART, ART

I enjoyed Mr. Baumgarten's interview with Courtney Taylor-Taylor [Riff City, WW, Dec. 7 and 14, 2005]. It inspired me to listen to "Bridge over Troubled Water," for the first time in about 15 years, and certainly agree with Mr. Taylor-Taylor that it's a real piece of crap. But Art Garfunkel also sang on "Richard Cory" and four or five other great songs, and I think it's regrettable that Mr. Taylor-Taylor should stoop to take such a gratuitous dump on a distinguished fellow artist.

I do, however, without reservation share Mr. Taylor-Taylor's distaste of jackhammers.

Ralph Porter
Northeast 15th Avenue

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER

I have this to say concerning the continuing excellent coverage of Enron/PGE ["Pants on Fire," WW, Nov. 30, 2005].

Q: Why do we need to cry foul before City Council to keep a $100,000-per-year neighborhood pool?

Q: Why do we need to raise our taxes again to maintain a quality education for the next generation?

Q: Why are so many people living on the street?

Q: Why do we continue to allow PGE to siphon $100,000,000 per year (a thousand neighborhood swimming pools) from our economy?

A: Because we allow it to be so.

Please petition Portland City Council to condemn PGE. For the EZ Web form and a fun map, go to CondemnPGE.org.

Joe Meyer
CondemnPGE.org
Southeast Alder Street

LAWBREAKERS, NOT VICTIMS

Regarding your article "Esclavitud en Portland (Slavery in Portland)" [Dec. 7, 2005], I must say I felt the need to vomit when I read yet another article depicting illegal immigrants (drug-peddling at that!) as "victims."

If potential immigrants want to demonstrate a reverence for our country and its opportunities, maybe they should start by respecting our immigration laws. Breaking the law as your first act when you enter this country is not demonstrating anything but disregard for our way of life. Being poor does not diminish the crime.

As for the mantra that we are nearly all descendents from immigrants and should identify with the desire to seek opportunity, that's crap! There are plenty of immigrants in this country who are legal because they do respect our laws. When open immigration was allowed in America, it was a different ballgame. My immigrating grandparents lost three children to starvation and suffered other terrible hardships. Turn-of-the-century immigration made Mexico look like the Hilton. The suffering our forefathers endured gives us the government and security we enjoy today. It's a legacy passed down as from their sacrifices, their socioeconomic development, their contributions!

Want a better life? Try reform in your own backyard. As demonstrated in your article, since illegal immigrants already broke the law to get here, most don't have a problem with continuing to break the law to stay here, even if it means selling drugs on the MAX line my son rides every day. If you think they do the jobs nobody else wants, you're right. Last time I checked, nobody I know wanted to sell smack to my kid.

Holly Damico
Northeast Ainsworth Street

THE FEDS' STICKY FINGERS

I have concerns regarding the recent article "Tainted Goods" in the Nov. 9, 2005 edition of Willamette Week. Reporter Nick Budnick made faulty assumptions and then drew erroneous conclusions based on his selective reading of a 225-page affidavit filed with the United States District Court as part of an ongoing, second-hand store investigation. In his article, Mr. Budnick asserted that the FBI's long-running investigation into the problem of stolen goods moving through second-hand stores in the Portland-metro area may have actually fueled the problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. Had Mr. Budnick bothered to thoroughly research his assumptions, he would have been hard-pressed to stand by his analysis.

When Mr. Budnick informed the FBI as to his conclusions, he was, within an hour, provided contact names and numbers for two high-ranking security officials at Safeway and Target—two of the hardest-hit retail store chains. He was told these contacts worked extensively with the FBI throughout the investigation and had, indeed, asked for help from the FBI to address the issue of retail theft. Instead of using these contacts to corroborate the severity of the problem, both prior to and during the FBI's investigation, Mr. Budnick advised he just "didn't have time" to make a simple phone call to these experts. He apparently did have time to select portions of the written affidavit (which clearly includes the assertion that it does not cover each and every aspect of the investigation) and then use those selected portions out of context.

Mr. Budnick focused on the work of DR#1, a cooperating witness who gathered evidence for the FBI. DR#1 worked as a driver. DR#1 helped move boosters from one retail store location to the next, and eventually back to the second-hand stores, where the boosters sold their stolen goods. There are three important points here: 1) DR#1 worked for two of these boosters prior to FBI involvement; 2) decisions about which geographic areas and retail stores to target were made collectively by the group (not at the FBI's or DR#1's direction); and 3) DR#1 worked with a total of only four boosters.

Over the course of this investigation, agents have identified at least 300 and possibly as many as 500 boosters operating in this region. To suggest that DR#1's work exacerbated an existing problem when DR#1 was involved with, at best, 1 percent of the Portland area boosters, borders on the ridiculous.

Mr. Budnick also discussed the work of a wholesaler who bought merchandise at the second-hand stores and then resold it, mainly on eBay and Craigslist. He alleged the wholesaler, working with the FBI, expanded his reach from three to nine stores over the course of the investigation. While true, Mr. Budnick failed to mention that the second-hand store owners themselves directed the wholesaler to stores four through nine, not the FBI.

The FBI is patently not responsible for encouraging the problem. The FBI is absolutely responsible for being a law-enforcement agency willing to devote resources to criminal activity that falls within its jurisdiction and which impacts the lives of the citizens of Oregon.

Robert J. Jordan
Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Portland Division

Nick Budnick responds: With all due respect to Special Agent in Charge Jordan, the two main shoplifters whom the federal informant drove around, Bryan and Nanette Thompson, were not just any "boosters." His own agency's affidavits suggest they were among the most prolific boosters in Portland. The documents authored by Jordan's agency and filed in court are filled with references to how prolific the two boosters became after going into business with the FBI driver. Documents show that the Thompsons' reach expanded from two states outside Oregon up to nine while being driven by the FBI.

Moreover, documents suggest that the influence of the FBI informants extended beyond their direct activities/involvement. Specifically, they gave business advice to shoplifters as well as store managers on how to expand their activities and increase success in the stolen-goods market. For instance, the driver-informant counseled other non-FBI-affiliated participants in the Portland shoplifting trade by spreading the word that stealing was easier and more fruitful when done out of state.