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" 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 ~ We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, Stop it, now " : Molly Ivins last written words / Jan. 14 edition of the Star-Telegram.

I will miss Molly Ivins, who died yesterday at 62 yrs old from cancer. She was not afraid of any pompous self important politician and relished taking them to task in her own inimitable fashion. John Nichols, The Nation, captures the essence of Ivins ~ " Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy," she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

This indepth article in the November/December 2003 Issue of Mother Jones entitled THE UNCOMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE is not only still timely but displays Ivins at her flamboyant best as she interprets why George Bush " is genuinely disconnected from the impact of his decisions on people ."

Ivins, who grew up in Texas with Bush, rationally offers and explains that " Bush is just another upper-class white boy trying to prove he's tough ~ and this is a man in such serious denial it would be pathetic if it weren't damaging so many lives." A must read !

Allen L Roland
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/02/01.html

THE UNCOMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE

" It's not that he's mean. It's just that when it comes to seeing how his policies affect people, George W. Bush doesn't have a clue."

By Molly Ivins

November/December 2003 Issue

MOTHER JONES

In order to understand why George W. Bush doesn't get it, you have to take several strands of common Texas attitude, then add an impressive degree of class-based obliviousness. What you end up with is a guy who sees himself as a perfectly nice fellow -- and who is genuinely disconnected from the impact of his decisions on people.

On the few occasions when Bush does directly encounter the down-and-out, he seems to empathize. But then, in what is becoming a recurring, almost nightmare-type scenario, the minute he visits some constructive program and praises it (AmeriCorps, the Boys and Girls Club, job training), he turns around and cuts the budget for it.

It's the kiss of death if the president comes to praise your program. During the presidential debate in Boston in 2000, Bush said, "First and foremost, we've got to make sure we fully fund LIHEAP [the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program], which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in the East, pay their high fuel bills." He then sliced $300 million out of that sucker, even as people were dying of hypothermia, or, to put it bluntly, freezing to death.

Sometimes he even cuts your program before he comes to praise it. In August 2002, Bush held a photo op with the Quecreek coal miners, the nine men whose rescue had thrilled the country. By then he had already cut the coal-safety budget at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which engineered the rescue, by 6 percent, and had named a coal-industry executive to run the agency.

The Reverend Jim Wallis, leader of Call to Renewal, a network of churches that fight poverty, told the New York Times that shortly after his election, Bush had said to him, "I don't understand how poor people think," and had described himself as a "white Republican guy who doesn't get it, but I'd like to."

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http://www.allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website more...)

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