WOW! Check out Mike Webb re: Molly Ivins being censored!

[PSPS]

http://710kiro.com/

I had no idea that her absolutely cutting remarks against Bush and his corruption in her latest column had been excised from her column in many newspapers!

Worth a listen.

Here's part of what newspaper editors excised from her 9/1 syndicated column:

"Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two -- going back to when George W. was still governor of Texas -- that the trouble with the guy is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance. It bores him, he's not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.

We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal government with people like himself. And what you get when you put people in charge of government who don't believe in government and who are not interested in running it well is ... what happened after Hurricane Katrina.

Many a time in the past six years I have bit my tongue so I wouldn't annoy people with the always obnoxious observation, "I told you so." But, dammit it all to hell, I did tell you, and I've been telling you since 1994, and I am so sick of this man and everything he represents -- all the sleazy, smug, self-righteous graft and corruption and "Christian" moralizing and cynicism and tax cuts for all his smug, rich buddies.

Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."

[Skink]

1. The Texas Observer has gone national. Check your local Barnes and N.

Ask for it. Ordering magazies is easy.:evilgrin:

[wellstone_democrat]

2. But Molly also repeatedly said in the 2000 election season

that Bush* was neither stupid nor mean-spirited. I find that still to be bizarre---repeatedly he's proved to be a bastard in public and not too bright either. He doesn't even have good street smarts---someone else (Rove) always bails him out by shaping PR or, earlier, by giving him another job.

Sleazy, smug? that isn't part of the nexus of mean-spiritedness? Molly has a big to answer for in the failure to tell all she knew about bush* quite a while ago.

[melody]

5. he's a sociopath

He can turn on charm whenever he's around people he needs to con. His underlings, he can abuse as he likes.

[warrens]

25. The only difference between him and Bundy

Is that Bundy did his killing personally. Georgie likes to have others do the dirty work for him.

[punpirate]

11. I think you'll find...

... with a careful examination of her columns, she doesn't ever say that Bush is worth a flip at the task of governance. The issue of her trying for some accuracy about Bush's stupidity and his mean-spiritedness refer to her knowledge of him from several decades prior.

She, along with Lou Dubose, have been watching the man for many, many years and have never said that his ideas were noteworthy, nor have they said that he would make either a good governor or a good president.

You seem to think that some attempt at accuracy on her part is an ideological failing.

I think not. I've been reading her remarks on Bush quite steadily for many years and find nothing at all which intends to excuse anything Bush has done. She's wanted to separate the incidental and irrelevant from the actual, as she's experienced it.

She's never given Bush a pass on what he's actually done. That's what counts. She's defined his actions as clearly as anyone--and she has been doing exactly what she says in the column--advising people that Bush wasn't either a suitable governor or would be a suitable president.

There's no hypocrisy in saying that Bush, contrary to conventional wisdom, is not stupid, while at the same time saying he's unfit for governance, no matter what the public thinks of his intelligence.

Cheers.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. she says he is not dumb. Well, he is not dumb.

No truly dumb person could have gotten where he has gotten. He may be criminally negligent, wrong-headed, stubborn, abusive, ineffectual, and dishonest, but dumb is not a good description.

Molly has written a lot about this guy, and when I first read her, I thought she was picking on him. Now I know that I was spun, and spun badly and she was right after all.

[freesqueeze]

20. I agree ...

INCURIOUS is a more accurate description.

He's the grown up version of the intellectually lazy kid that just can't be persuaded to apply himself.

If he would have just had a more firm-handed nanny when he grew up...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. one that didn't steal the silver spoons.

yeah, nannies - I wonder what Babs Bush said about all the poor families' nannies who never made it to the Superdome?

[Mend]

14. Molly said, "you would have to work at it to dislike this man"

He was presented more as a bumbler than the anti-christ. And extremely lucky, "if you tried to hang him, the rope would break". And she did praise his educational policies. This was in"Shrub" printed in Sept. 2000. I was astounded and frightened at the time that she didn't really warn America, that everything she wrote was cloaked in "amusing" language. I remember it well.

[ms liberty]

19. I read "Shrub" too, and I remember it a little differently...

I remember her commentary on his educational policies not as praise, but more critical. If I'm correct, she said all of the postive things were actually initiated by Anne Richards, but * then took credit for them. I also remember her saying the jury was still out on the private school vouchers - in the original publishing of "Shrub". Then, in an updated version that came out after the '00 election debacle, she talked about how bad they were. Now, I could be wrong, I love Molly Ivins and I read her a lot, so I could be getting mixed up on which commentary and when. One of the things I love the most about her is her "amusing" language. Humor can be a wonderful way to get your point across without screaming, or having a heart attack or stroke! Molly is one of the best humorists ever. I'm a bit prejudiced here tho, I'm a southern woman too, and I grew up in a home where having a sense of humor was the only way to survive and maintain relative sanity. I understand laughing at the awful.
I do disagree that she didn't warn America. When she was able to get on TV or radio she did, she did with her book(s), she did with her columns. But we didn't know in 2000 that 9/11 would happen. We didn't know that he would turn from being a failing-from-the-start one-term freak show into a megalomaniacal fascist theocrat with a war god complex and a cowed, submissive Congress. None of us knew that * thinks he's the star of his own Hollywood western complete with soundtrack, special effects and extras. Without 9/11, he would never have become who he is today, he would never have been as disasterous as he has proven to be. The pre 9/11 America would never have let him get away with some of the things he's done. So I don't criticize Molly for not being hard enough on *, it's easy to look back now and wonder why we weren't warned about this cretinous fool. But if anyone had told America in 9/2000 that * would do some of the criminal things he actually has done, I doubt very many people would have believed them.

[krkaufman]

24. The book was called "Shrub" for cripes sake...

... and it was a litany of Bush failures. How much more warning did people need? Did Nostradamus have to warn us?

[krkaufman]

22. Molly has NOTHING for which to apologize.

Of all Americans, Molly did more than any to warn Americans of Bush's lack of qualifications. The fact that most didn't listen is not to be blamed on Molly.

Quibbling over whether Molly perfectly captured Bush's personality traits -- such as "stupid" or "mean-spirited" -- is beside the point. Molly laid out the facts of this guy's Arabian Horse Association credentials, but an insufficient number of people heard her or took her warnings seriously. They allowed themselves to be swayed by the news media themes and Republican propaganda.

[walldude]

26. She told everything she needed to in her books

it's not her fault nobody listened. She has been screaming about Bush since his Texas Governor days. She is one of our best allies.

[Cha]

28. I guess we know him better..bush is

very stupid and way mean spirited.."Where's Bianca?" Went to Arizona and CAlifornia for de riguer photo ops while New Orleans Sunk..if that's not Mean and Stupid..I don't know what is.

[charlie]

3. Yup

One reason never to use the Star Telegram to read her columns online. Go with Creators Syndicate instead.

[paineinthearse]

4. I don't see this story at that link

...and I certainly don't see the source of the claim that the passage has been "excised from her column in many newspapers!".

:shrug:

[charlie]

7. Compare

the last two paragraphs:

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?next=2&ColumnsName=miv

with the Chicago Trib's:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509150092sep15,1,3603154.story

Star Telegram yanked the column entirely (column date was 9/13, between 9/11 and 9/18)

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/molly_ivins

[paineinthearse]

10. I believe you, but I just don't see the info at the original link....nt

This would not be the first time the Chicago Trib censored a column. Do an advanced search from about 1 year ago in GDP or GEN under my name. My memory is a bit hazy, but it would be interesting to find a predecessor.

[ladylibertee]

15. I saw that....They can do that?...Thats not cool.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Yes!

She hits the nail on the head! I was watching the rerun of Bill Maher's show last night and there was some republican guy on there and he was saying how he hated social programs. WTF?! You don't want to help people?!! Ugh! And of course people who are like Bush turn around and claim "look at me! I'm sooo Christian!" but yet they ignore when Jesus said to help the meek and poor etc. *sigh* Howard Dean pointed out once on Jon Stewart's show that in the Bible it mentions the word "poor" 3,000 times. By that notion what do you think Christ cares more about? Helping the poor or gay people? Priorities people! I also think a lot of people need to go back to US government class and learn what the government is for. It's not a theocracy!

[kath]

8. Is a newspaper allowed to edit a syndicated column? Or is it supposed to

be printed in toto?

[ConsAreLiars]

9. Property rights always trump free speech.

It is the duty of those who own the media be be sure that nothing they print is against their class interest. That is what happened here. I assume you approve.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. The newspaper pays for it

It can do what it wishes with it. Same goes for anything it uses from the wire services. (Alteration of photos other than cropping and resizing is a big no-no, though.)

[flamin lib]

18. That's why the call them "Editors" . . . nt

[donheld]

12. Working for change has it right but they say it's Sept 13 column

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19604

[chat_noir]

16. bugmenot

dfw login:

[e-mail]
itsfree1

[yurbud]

23. I'm divided on this--LA Times doesn't even carry Molly

So diluted would be better than Ivinsless

[Hidden Stillness]

27. Not the First Time, Won't be the Last

Every now and then there are threads on this website claiming that there is no media censorship of Democrats, and that they do not get their message out only because they are so "lame," etc. Even the proof that the media lies about and slants everything until it is unrecognizable is denied. I hope something like this--and it is typical that they cut parts of columns, then claim it was for "space" considerations--will finally answer all of this. They censor; it isn't that tricky.