The Irreplaceable Molly Ivins

How many American journalists are writing words like these? (4.00 / 1)

From Molly just two weeks ago (h/t scarecrow):

The president of the United States does not have the sense God gave a duck - so it's up to us. You and me, Bubba.

I don't know why Bush is just standing there like a frozen rabbit, but it's time we found out. The fact is WE have to do something about it. This country is being torn apart by an evil and unnecessary war, and it has to be stopped NOW.

This war is being prosecuted in our names, with our money, with our blood, against our will. Polls consistently show that less than 30 percent of the people want to maintain current troop levels. It is obscene and wrong for the president to go against the people in this fashion. And it's doubly wrong for him to send 20,0000 more soldiers into this hellhole, as he reportedly will announce next week.

What happened to the nation that never tortured? The nation that wasn't supposed to start wars of choice? The nation that respected human rights and life? A nation that from the beginning was against tyranny? Where have we gone? How did we let these people take us there? How did we let them fool us?

It's a monstrous idea to put people in prison and keep them there. Since 1215, civil authorities have been obligated to tell people with what they are charged if they're arrested. This administration has done away with rights first enshrined in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago, and we've let them do it.

This will be a regular feature of mine, like an old-fashioned newspaper campaign. Every column, I'll write about this war until we find some way to end it. STOP IT NOW. BAM! Every day, we will review some factor we should have gotten right. . . .

There are maybe a dozen people in the MSM writing words like these for reputable publications...and NONE of them have Molly's personality.

Dear God, aren't we outnumbered enough here?  Couldn't you have spared her at least until we stopped this horrific war once and for all?  You couldn't have needed her more than we need her now.

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by: Maura @ Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 18:36:13 PM CST

Molly on the horror of Lieberman's defeat (4.00 / 1)

August 15, 2006:

According to none other than our very own Veep Dick Cheney, Lieberman's defeat helps the terrorists. Yes! How can this be, you ask? Well, you know Joe Lieberman has been supporting Bush's war in Iraq, and we are at war with Iraq because Saddam Hussein was allied to al Qaeda and had weapons of mass destruction, see? He wasn't? He didn't? Gee, maybe that's why the Democrats were upset with Lieberman!

Lieberman's unhappy fall in electoral battle touched off a volcano of drivel in the media. Some of it should be written off as the incurable Establishment tendency to defend its own. People who have known Joe Lieberman for 18 years are naturally predisposed in his favor -- always happens. On the other hand, what a bunch of codswallop from people who should know better. They're behaving as though no one had a right to challenge Lieberman, whereas given his record, I can't think of anyone who deserved challenge more.

The pusillanimous punditry announce that these fools in the Democratic Party may make the war in Iraq a major issue! Horrors! I hate to pull the old advantages-of-provincialism trick, but I do think the D.C. press corps and political establishment are painfully out of touch and need to get out into the country more. Indiana, anyone?

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by: Maura @ Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 18:48:06 PM CST

Freakin' Horse! (0.00 / 0)

Freakin' Horse!  You got that right, Maura.  How cool was Molly Ivins!  How radical would we be if she was our Grandma, or Ma!  My Dad, a Texan, thought she was very cool.  ...He wasn't much for racehorses. 

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by: joemustgo @ Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 19:54:30 PM CST

A video clip of Molly (0.00 / 0)

...from a documentary called "The Dildo Diaries." Gives a glimpse into the crazy world of Texas politics.

WARNING: Not suitable for children or republicans to view.

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by: Scarce @ Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 20:11:29 PM CST

Molly Ivins, w Jim Hightower (0.00 / 0)

From 2002. A home video.

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by: Scarce @ Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 05:58:41 AM CST

rest in peace (0.00 / 0)

molly ivins was who i wanted to be when i grew up. god rest her generous soul.

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by: glasskat @ Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 07:26:18 AM CST

Molly Ivins... (4.00 / 1)

was truly the most remarkable woman in political journalism that I followed.  Thank you Maura for all of this information on her, I too have cried my eyes out.  I can't believe Molly and I share the same age and she has left this world way too young!  I have to think of her in her new role, as this nation's Guardian Angel holding a big Texas shovel over our heads as we continue to rebuild our system of democracy!  It's going to take someone with a lot of know how and guts to guard over this country and who better than Molly!

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by: Harriet @ Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 07:26:56 AM CST

Courant: Molly Ivins: A Life of Passion, Wit, & Joy (4.00 / 1)

I first discovered Molly Ivins' work on the Common Dreams website a couple of months after 9/11 and was deeply impressed with her work and often look forward to her columns.

She is one of the few bright spots that regularly appears on the Courant's otherwise mostly disgusting Op-Ed section, which often features the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Lawrence Cohen etc.

Here is her obituary in the Courant:

there was more to Molly Ivins than insightful political commentary packaged in an aw-shucks Southern charm. In the coming days, much will be made of Molly's contributions to the liberal cause, how important she was as an authentic female voice on opinion pages across the country, her passionate and eloquent defense of the poorest and the weakest among us against the corruption of the most powerful, and the joy she took in celebrating the uniqueness of American culture - and all of this is true.

But more than that, Molly Ivins was a woman who loved and cared deeply for the world around her. And her warm and generous spirit was apparent in all her words and deeds.

Molly's work was truly her passion. She would regularly turn down lucrative speaking engagements to give rally-the-troops speeches at liberalism's loneliest outposts. And when she did rub elbows with the highfalutin' well-to-do, the encounter would invariably end up as comedic grist in future columns.

Molly will be sorely missed.

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."--James Madison

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by: sufi @ Thu Feb 01, 2007 at 08:31:37 AM CST