Stand Up Against the Surge
The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war
is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever.
People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they
bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb …
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Iraq Exit is Up to Us
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 …
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Thanks -- No, Seriously
AUSTIN, Texas — It's time to give thanks, and I want to start off
with a great, big thank you for the top American movement
conservatives and all the fun we've had since Election Day. I know I
promised not to gloat after this election was over,…
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Farewell, Rummy
AUSTIN, Texas — There's been so much in print about how Daddy 41's
people are back in the saddle, I was terrified when I saw a photo of
Dan Quayle among the pack. If they've called back Dan Quayle to lend
intellectual heft, we're all dead …
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 Molly
Ivins
Portal
www.WritingResource.org/
contactus@writingresource.org
This lady lays it on the line. It's time for truth in America.
Most Americans oppose Bush, the war in Iraq, torture,
untenable deficits, and tax cuts which only benefit the rich.
Most Americans favor equitable health care, a fair minimum
wage,environmental protections, and fiscal responsibility. Most
Americans
are ready for accountability, fair play, jobs, and justice. We
need a
party with the spine to stand up to these incompetent administrators
and say enough is enough... tmf
"We are the people who run this country," Ms Ivins
said in the column published in the Jan. 14 edition of
the Star-Telegram. "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.
"Raise hell," she continued. "Think of something to
make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops
know we’re for them and are trying to get them out of
there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed
surge."
She ended the piece by endorsing the peace march in
Washington scheduled for Saturday. 01-27 "We need people
in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding,
"Stop it, now!' " she wrote.
More on Molly....
Molly Ivins biography
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 Molly
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I will not support Hillary Clinton for president
January 20, 2006
AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who
run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary
Clinton for president.
Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation.
Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This
is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently
incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and
that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak
out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on
flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.
The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I
spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to
re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and
when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times
when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those
times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that
only the truth can provide relief.
If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to
speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and
find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the
guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who
said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any
clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy --
didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines
who liked to quote poetry.
What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The
majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war
in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The
majority (65 percent) of the American people want
single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes
to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American
people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority
of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's
tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The
majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by
cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending
or raising taxes.
The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever
it takes" to protect the environment. The majority
(87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers
and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the
center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining
elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway
("First, you have to win elections"). Can't you even read
the damn polls?
Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who
writes, "There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic
Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy
the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those
who are attempting to prepare the party for successful
elections in 2006 and 2008."
This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
emboldened by "a string of bad new from the Middle East ...
into calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those
pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary
Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.
Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership.
Look at this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to
the lies they continue to dump on us daily.
You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad
Republican machine you have no idea what people are
thinking. I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to
lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got
enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up
on them entirely.
Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for
Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this -- that is the
only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as
everyone else who's ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo
stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace
redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes,
the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or
let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.
Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully
card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War
brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went
around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds
were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking
German shepherds. The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism
for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and
explain what loving your country really means. That, or you
could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did.
Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war
in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless
"string of bad news."
Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win
is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't
get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT
2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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