OK, I'm going to do something here that some people won't like.

I'm going to give Cindy Sheehan a huge boost.

How?

By linking to her blog.

Why should it matter? From her Sitemeter:

Total: 332
Average Per Day: 5
Average Visit Length: 1:13
Last Hour: 0
Today: 20
This Week: 34

Five a day? Has she become so irrelevant that you can count the number of people who come to read her writings using the fingers on one hand?

Over the last 30 days, her peak traffic was 44 hits on the June 18. At the time I write this, her day's traffic is 20. I suppose that will change given my Saturday and Sunday traffic runs at over a thousand each day.

Where is her traffic coming from? Mostly Google hits. Besides Google, the most recent hits are coming from this article at AlterNet, a left-wing online independent media outlet.

Her website was created by Theron Parlin, a part-time web designer, so I would doubt this is technical problem.

I just expected something else. A couple of thousand hits a day from adoring fans at Code Pink and elsewhere. But a couple of dozen?

Maybe this is an example of the difference between the media and the people they serve. Cindy Sheehan still makes it in the papers and on TV with her fasts and her foreign trips to visit the likes of Hugo Chavez. But in the blogosphere, where you choose what news you want to read, people are going elsewhere.

Interesting.

Update: Some people have wondered if the blog is, in fact, a parody, or otherwise not legitimate. That might be the case. However, the registration information looked right (including an address in Berkeley where Cindy Sheehan now resides). The email address provided checked out with a comment left on Tim Blair's blog that also seemed right. The link from AlterNet certainly adds credibility. I've scratched my head on why the blog of such an anti-war celebrity seems to be so dead, and I've considered that maybe this isn't her blog at all. But I can't find any reason not to think it is her blog, and several reasons to think it is. If it is a parody, I don't get the joke. But then an unfunny parody is not likely to get a lot of traffic, now is it.

If anyone can confirm this one way or the other, let me know.

Here is something interesting to consider. I just went through every subpage of Michael Moore's recommended links (Alternative Media, Community, etc), and I found no mention of Cindy Sheehan on any page under any category. Daily Kos does not have her on the Blogroll. In fact, Google can't find any pages that link to her blog (too soon for my link to show).

Regrets: I have to say that I am starting to regret highlighting Cindy Sheehan's blog (if indeed it is hers, or run by someone close to her). People have been visiting the blog and leaving some very crude and vicious comments. Obviously I'm not responsible for what someone else does with their online time, but to know that they used my link in order to spew their bile makes me hope that most of my readers are made of better stuff than that. If you are one of those posters and you are reading this, please consider other blogs and websites than mine where you might be welcome. You aren't welcome here.

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