<p><a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4516780.html[/url]”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4516780.html</a>
Molly Ivins succumbs to breast cancer.</p>
<p>Hers is a voice I’ll really miss.</p>
<p>Yeah, I am really bummed… now there won’t be anything fun left to read.</p>
<p>A real loss. The talking head shows should have sought her opinions much more often than they did, but then again they probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up with her.</p>
<p>I felt stricken when I heard this last night…what a voice, and person, for the world to lose.</p>
<p>Heres more on Molly</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7113087[/url]”>Treasuring the Wit and Wisdom of Molly Ivins : NPR;
<p>[Bush</a> mourns his toughest critic.](<a href=“http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/02/bush_mourns_his.html]Bush”>http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/02/bush_mourns_his.html)</p>
<p>Whatever I think about Bush- I do think he has a sense of humor and I think he will actually miss her.</p>
<p>I was so sad to hear this yesterday. She was straight-talking, gutsy and funny as hell–RIP Molly.</p>
<p>My heart’s broken. Molly Ivins and Ann Richards were two of my most beloved personal heroes. There’s no one who can replace their wit.</p>
<p>I am listening right now to the Terry Gross interview with Ms. Ivins. Two great women. Sigh</p>
<p>And o breast cancer, which just makes me mad</p>
<p>So sad. I loved her columns.</p>
<p>Breast cancer is so cruel.</p>
<p>I grew to disagree with her opinions, but I always thought Molly Ivins was a wonderful writer.</p>
<p>I’ve read a couple of her books and many of her columns, and I consider her a national treasure. It’s very depressing that she is dead at 62. </p>
<p>Bush was certainly gracious in his comments, given that she was one of his most effective critics. I read somewhere once that they were schoolmates in middle school, but I can’t remember where, and I have no idea whether it’s true or not.</p>
<p>I guese, I was the only fan in Houston.</p>
<p>Satire from the UK</p>
<p>*Political opponent and favorite target, President George W. Bush, said the following about Ivins: “Well, she’s dead now, so she can’t be insultin’ me no more, not that it offended me or nothin’, cuz she’s got her God given right to do that, less’n it interferes with the Patriot Act.”</p>
<p>“Molly used to call me the Shrub. I still don’t get it, but sometimes we don’t understand our nicknames. She wrote two books about me, but I never read 'em cuz the only pictures was on the cover.”</p>
<p>“I told Dick Cheney he outta take her huntin’ some time when he was usin’ my ranch in Crawford, but he never did. Now it’s too late, but we all miss some opportunities cuz we don’t grab 'em by the ■■■■■■■.”</p>
<p>“Molly used to write a column in the newspapers. I never read it cuz it was on the editorial page and I don’t understand those comics too much. They say she wrote real nice, though, even if she didn’t say much good about me and all.”</p>
<p>“Molly liked to make fun and poke at the Republican folks in Texas. We didn’t mind too much cuz we knowed she had a big heart; it was almost as big as her butt (Laura told me I shouldn’t say that, but I think it’s funny). We got ourselves even and just didn’t invite her to none of our cookouts or nothin’.”</p>
<p>“I guess some folk’s will miss her. I hope they put something good in her spot in the newspaper. Maybe they can bring back Peanuts or something.”</p>
<p>Services for Ms. Ivins are pending. The Bush family has not been invited to the funeral.*</p>
<p>While the news of anyone succumbing to cancer is horrible, it does not change the fact that Molly Ivins was not on everyone’s favorite list. Comparing her to Ann Richards is an insult to the former governor of Texas.</p>
<p>what an odd comment xiggi
for one- Molly Ivins and Ann Richards weren’t being compared to one another- although they did have many similarities and were friends</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0915-29.htm[/url]”>http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0915-29.htm</a></p>
<p>However what Hanna * said was * that Ivins and Richards were two beloved personal heroes. Surely you aren’t quibbling with that?</p>
<p>ublished on Friday, September 15, 2006 by Truthdig
Remembering Ann Richards
by Molly Ivins</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas</p>
<p>ublished on Friday, September 15, 2006 by Truthdig
Remembering Ann Richards
by Molly Ivins</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas—She was so generous with her responses to other people. If you told Ann Richards something really funny, she wouldn’t just smile or laugh, she would stop and break up completely. She taught us all so much—she was a great campfire cook. Her wit was a constant delight. One night on the river on a canoe trip, while we all listened to the next rapid, which sounded like certain death, Ann drawled, “It sounds like every whore in El Paso just flushed her john.”</p>
<p>She knew how to deal with teenage egos: Instead of pointing out to a kid who was pouring charcoal lighter on a live fire that he was idiot, Ann said, “Honey, if you keep doing that, the fire is going to climb right back up to that can in your hand and explode and give you horrible injuries, and it will just ruin my entire weekend.”</p>
<p>She knew what it was like to have four young children and to be so tired you cried while folding the laundry. She knew and valued Wise Women like Virginia Whitten and Helen Hadley.</p>
<p>At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin’ and greetin’ at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock’s personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sum***** in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, ‘Bob, my boy, how are you?”</p>
<p>Bullock said, “Judge, I’d like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer.”</p>
<p>The judge peered up at me and said, “How yew, little lady?”</p>
<p>Bullock, “And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department.” Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie’s palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. “And who is this lovely lady?”</p>
<p>Ann beamed and replied, “I am Mrs. Miles.”</p>
<p>One of the most moving memories I have of Ann is her sitting in a circle with a group of prisoners. Ann and Bullock had started a rehab program in prisons, the single most effective thing that can be done to cut recidivism (George W. Bush later destroyed the program). The governor of Texas looked at the cons and said, “My name is Ann, and I am an alcoholic.”</p>
<p>She devoted untold hours to helping other alcoholics, and anyone who ever heard her speak at an AA convention knows how close laughter and tears can be.</p>
<p>I have known two politicians who completely reformed the bureaucracies they were elected to head. Bob Bullock did it by kicking ass at the comptroller’s until hell wouldn’t have it. Fear was his m.o. Ann Richards did it by working hard to gain the trust of the employees and then listening to what they told her. No one knows what’s wrong with a bureaucracy better than the bureaucrats who work in it.</p>
<p>The 1990 race for governor was one of the craziest I ever saw, with Ann representing “New Texas.”</p>
<p>Republican nominee Claytie Williams was a perfect foil, down to his boots, making comments that could be construed as racist and sexist. Ann was the candidate of everybody else, especially for women. She represented all of us who have lived with and learned to handle good ol’ boys, and she did it with laughter. The spirit of the crowd that set off from the Congress Avenue Bridge up to the Capitol the day of Ann’s inauguration was so full of spirit and joy. I remember watching San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros that day with tears running down his cheeks because Chicanos were finally included.</p>
<p>Ann got handed a stinking mess: Damn near every state function was under court order. The prisons were so crowded, dangerous convicts were being let loose. She had a long, grinding four years and wound up fixing all of it. She always said you could get a lot done in politics if you didn’t need to take credit.</p>
<p>But she disappointed many of her fans because she was so busy fixing what was broken, she never got to change much. The ‘94 election was a God, gays and guns deal. Annie had told the legislature that if they passed a right-to-carry law, she would veto it. They did, and she did. At the last minute, the NRA launched a big campaign to convince the governor that we Texas women would feel ever so much safer if we could just carry guns in our purses.</p>
<p>Said Annie, “Well, you know that I am not a sexist, but there is not a woman in this state who could find a gun in her handbag.”</p>
<p>“what an odd comment xiggi
for one- Molly Ivins and Ann Richards weren’t being compared to one another- although they did have many similarities and were friends However what Hanna said was that Ivins and Richards were two beloved personal heroes. Surely you aren’t quibbling with that?”</p>
<p>EK, I am not about to tell you how to interpret what you read. Please return the favor. In the same vein, I won’t write about the differences between an icon and an iconoclast nor about the differences between classy individuals and spiteful and cheap loudmouths.</p>
<p>And for the record, people who live in these necks of the woods understand why a line such as “I remember watching San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros that day with tears running down his cheeks because Chicanos were finally included.” speak volumes about the late Molly Ivins. Go figure!</p>
<p>xiggi your rudeness is quite unastounding, it was quite predictable, actually</p>
<p>I admired both women, in different ways, they both are powerful, smart, funny, and tough</p>
<p>They had similar quailities. I thought Eleanor R and Mrs. Kennedy were wonderful women, each had their own style, etc, but were very different</p>
<p>Can not a person admire two people at the same time?</p>
<p>If you want to insult Ms. Ivins, which you just did, it is your right, but to say that a person can’t admire two different women in the same breath is just odd</p>