Molly Ivins RIP

[aoxamaxoa]

I Heart Molly Ivins
By: RJ Eskow on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 10:02 AM - PST    
The great Molly Ivins is in the hospital . My wife Janet won't mind if I tell you that I love Molly.  Have for years.

"I am not anti-gun," she once said.  "I'm pro-knife."  Right away she sounds like a gal after my own heart.

She went on to explain why, in the context of gun control: "Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives."

i've been a huge fan of Molly's for years.  She's always been a strong voice for the good guys - especially at a time (the early years of this war) and a place (Texas, by God!) when there weren't very many strong voices being heard.   With W. deciding yet again that he's "The Decider" it's good to remember what Molly had to say about that:

""We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war."  

She never sugar-coats her message.  Here's another quote:

"It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America."

More Molly gems:

"Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong."

"I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle."

Molly's knife quote reminds me of that great old song, "That's The Way the Girls Are in Texas." In Ry Cooder's version he sings the last verse in heaven:  "She was guilty, I was dead/and what do you think that old judge said?/'Well, that's just the way the girls are here in Texas - case dismissed!'"

This chorus is for Molly,.  She's a true daughter of the Lone Star State, the San Antonio Rose in America's lefty bouquet.  Give her a thought or a prayer, or whatever you care to give.  She's one in a million.

[RecycleMichael]

Say a prayer for Molly.

I hope she beats cancer.

[RecycleMichael]

Molly passed away today...

She was the nation's best known critic of President Bush and a great, witty writer.

[iplaw]

quote:
She was the nation's best known critic of President Bush

I thought that was Goatwoman...I mean Helen Thomas.

[aoxamaxoa]

RIP MOLLY....even TulsaWorld showed her some respect.

http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2007/01/r-i-p-molly-ivins-aug-30-1944-january.html

"This is the hardest thing that I've ever had to write since Hunter S. Thompson's suicide on February 20, 2005. Molly Ivins is dead and with her last breath, the Batman-class criminal enterprise known as the Bush junta breathed a sigh of relief."

And.."In Molly's last column, published just this past month, she'd written a phrase that ought to be put on her headstone: "We are the deciders."

Will miss her dearly. She was to journalism what Willie is to the Austin sound, Buddy Holly was to rock and roll, the Alamo to freedom fighters, and The Cowboys to Dallas.

[aoxamaxoa]

Missing Molly Ivins By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 2, 2007 NYT
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, "a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader's record."
I can't claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes, she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it. But her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful accountable.

She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. "Satire ... has historically been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful," she wrote. "When you use satire against powerless people ... it is like kicking a cripple."

Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it's most important to do just that. And the fact that she remembered these truths explains something I haven't seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary prescience on the central political issue of our time.

I've been going through Molly's columns from 2002 and 2003, the period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as Our Leader took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed as "Bush haters" anyone who complained about the absence of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were premature. Here are a few selections:

Nov. 19, 2002: "The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? ... There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this country right now."

Jan. 16, 2003: "I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, 'Horrible three-way civil war?' "

July 14, 2003: "I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I'd rather not see my prediction come true and I don't think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. ... We don't need people with credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers — we need people who know how to fix water and power plants."

Oct. 7, 2003: "Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire. ...

"I've got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I've had a bet out that I hoped I'd lose."

So Molly Ivins — who didn't mingle with the great and famous, didn't have sources high in the administration, and never claimed special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those credentials do?

With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought the obviously cooked case for war — or found their own reasons to endorse the invasion. They didn't see the folly of the venture, which was almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit of hindsight. And they took years to realize that everything we were being told about progress in Iraq was a lie.

Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The administration's exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.

Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.

And it's not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002 and 2003 are now making excuses for the "surge." Meanwhile, the same techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to promote war with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.

Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

[aoxamaxoa]

"A God who could take both Molly and her dear friend Ann Richards in the span of a few months must have no sense of humor--or more likely, a very good one, in need of constant stimulation."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070219/molly_ivins

[guido911]

Anyone remember that SNL Hardball skit where Renee Zellweger impersonated Molly Ivins? It was spot on, I thought.

[aoxamaxoa]

http://krugman.page.nytimes.com/?th&emc=th

Paul Dorell, Highland Park, Ill.: Molly Ivins had the benefit of watching Dubya close-up while he was the governor of Texas, which was a solid education in his weaknesses as a leader. When he ran for the presidency, she warned us, but too few listened. Apparently a large number of Americans were unable to recognize that they oughtn't elect someone who reminded them of themselves.

Paul Krugman: What struck me is how different people got to the truth of this administration from very different angles. Molly got it from knowing Shrub in Texas, Ron Suskind got it from deep investigative reporting, I got it, to the extent I did, from the fiscal lies. If there were so many paths to truth, how come so few people found it?


Amen

[mdunn]

sorry,I never heard of her!

[USRufnex]

made it a point while in college a long time ago (god, I'm old)...

read all sortsa stuff, conservative and liberal..... started reading Molly Ivins in Frosty Troy's Oklahoma Observer back in the 80s... Frosty was the featured speaker at my Hale HS graduation...

[aoxamaxoa]

quote:Originally posted by mdunn

sorry,I never heard of her!

This is the best way to get familiar with her!
http://www.texasobserver.org/

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by USRufnex

made it a point while in college a long time ago (god, I'm old)...

read all sortsa stuff, conservative and liberal..... started reading Molly Ivins in Frosty Troy's Oklahoma Observer back in the 80s... Frosty was the featured speaker at my Hale HS graduation...

Frosty was cool! I also followed him from the 80's thru the 90's. Ashamed to say I don't know whether he still publishes. Actually had a couple of my essays published by him.

[RecycleMichael]

Here is the current issue of the paper that Frosty Troy and his wife manage.

http://okobserver.net/

This issue has a great story on Molly Ivins.

[Ed W]

According to the Alternative Tulsa blog, the Oklahoma Observer will have a blog operating soon.

http://alternativetulsa.blogspot.com/index.html

Unfortunately, the Oklahoma Observer site doesn't have an RSS feed yet.