In Memory of Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins was one of the great voices of humane progressivism. She died yesterday at the age of 62. (See HuffPo's article here.) She was always insightful, always funny, always right on the money, and always terrific in her writing. She mocked George Bush and his friends more effectively than almost anyone I can think of. What a contrast she was to the wretched, vicious harpy who calls herself Ann Coulter. It is inconceivable to imagine Molly having joked about wishing her opponents dead or spitting out accusations of treason against those who disagreed with her. That wasn't her style at all. She was an intellectual and spiritual universe away from someone like Coulter, and she had more class in her little finger than Coulter has in her entire anorexic body. She was the best, and we'll miss her.

And courtesy of The Chicago Tribune, here's her last column. Excerpt:

This Iraq 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. This administration has done away with rights first enshrined in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago, and we've let them do it.

God bless you, Molly. You genuinely spoke truth to power.