The late great Molly Ivins said this in her penultimate column in the Star-Telegram (dated 1/7/07):
The president of the United States does not have the sense that God gave a duck. 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 increase U.S. troop levels in this hellhole by up to 20,000, as he reportedly will soon announce.
And this in her very last column dated 1/14/07:
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.
Raise hell. 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.
If I had been able to go to the march for peace rally in DC on January 27th, I would have, believe you me. I have had it with this imperial presidency and his band of merry thugs tearing down the constitution and sending men and women to die in a conflict that never, ever should have been started. I am furious. And feel so helpless to stop things. I read and read and read some more so that I can get a handle on what is going on but the more I try to wrap my head around it, the more angry I get. All these lives lost, lives ruined, and for what?
Yes, justice will come to all those who have had a hand in this, however small. And I love that we are continuing to put pressure on the elected democrats who need to do MORE to bring us back to sanity. What will it take, I wonder?
Edited to add this from a really sharp poster on Table Talk:
On the other hand, we elect a moronic bully with the mean little eyes of a greedy warthog into the Presidency, so that he can stand there and tell us that he’s in charge and he knows what’s best and he’s the decider. Because if he is all these things, we can sit back and not do the work that is needed to maintain a republic. We’re not accountable! And our President has asked that we not hold him accountable, either, and so we all hold each other’s non-accountable hands and merrily skip into the first circle of hell.
Please keep sending love and light to our congress, the men and woman in the military and those affected in whatever way by this conflict. These are very dark days, indeed, for our country.
We lost a strong voice and it makes me very sad.
Molly will be really missed. May her wise words live on.