Molly Ivins: The twilight zone of wonderland

[Raster]

The twilight zone of wonderland
When things get this weird, one metaphor just isn't enough

AUSTIN --- Alice, we're in the Twilight Zone of Wonderland. Whee! John Kerry is disrespectful of our allies! Donald Rumsfeld thinks an election in three-fourths of Iraq is good enough. The No. 1 best seller in our nation is an untrue, vicious and ugly attack on a genuine, bona fide, certified war hero. Despite everything you have seen, read or heard about Iraq, all is tickety-boo over there, and anyone who says different is helping the terrorists.

More than a year after "Mission Accomplished," we have still not restored water or electricity in Iraq back to Saddam Hussein's pitiful standards. The electricity is out between four and 14 hours a day in Baghdad, there is no potable water because of pipe breaks and contamination, the garbage is uncollected, and sewage runs in the streets. A year after Congress voted to spend $18.4 billion reconstructing Iraq, only $1 billion has been spent, and most of that has gone to overhead, contractors' profits, security service, insurance and property losses. The jobs have gone largely either to Americans or other foreigners in Iraq, with little benefit to the Iraqis.

This information is not partisan -- it comes from Sen. Dick Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John McCain of Arizona, all respected Republicans. Military leaders on the ground all think we need more troops in there.

Now this is grim, but not necessarily fatal. What is fatal is ignoring the reality and doing nothing to stop the hemorrhaging. We can't win a war by pretending it's going well when it's not. To further suggest that pointing out that it is not going well somehow endangers the troops or encourages the enemy is despicable. The troops and the enemy know how it's going. They're there.

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http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17763
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My fave: "To further suggest that pointing out that it is not going well somehow endangers the troops or encourages the enemy is despicable. The troops and the enemy know how it's going. They're there." Goddess Bless Molly.

[stellanoir]

1. She's wonderful

Thanks for posting. Why the media ignored her and Hightower's warnings about *, 4 years ago, we can't even begin to surmise.

sarcasm/ off

[Raster]

2. I lived in Texas just as gee-dumbya started against Ann Richards.

Ann and Molly are dear friends, and it tortured her to listen and read the horrid, untrue things written about Ann. Molly is a national treasure. Bless her heart.

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Thanks for covering JD

I got busy today and missed my appointment with Miss Molly. Tell her I said hi next time you see her (I am a big fan, as you can probably tell).

[Raster]

5. I know you are Dudley, my pleasure. Molly ROCKS!!!

[RainDog]

4. the Scumbag Veterans book isn't legitimately #1 bestseller

if you look at the NYTimes bestseller list, they put a dagger beside books that are bumped onto the list by block purchases from some group, rather than books that are purchased via bookstore orders based upon estimates of customer requests or actually walk-in purchases.

Most of the right wing screed books get on the best seller list in this way, based upon my unscientific observation while compiling this list for a store every week for the last few years.

O'Reilly's books have legimately made the best seller list, fwiw.

Ann Coulter's have not. She blames the vast liberal...whoever she wants to blame for this fact. The fact that she's full of shit never seems to cross her weak mind.

Jim Hightower's book, when it was in hardback, was the only liberal book I saw that had a dagger in the last few years.

Nickel and Dimed has had an AMAZING run on the NYTimes best seller list over the last few years.

[Demit]

6. I loved Barbara Ehrenreich's column those weeks she subbed for Tom

Freidman. I GOTTA get Nickel and Dimed!