Strange Peaches This Election

Molly Ivins is one damn smart woman. Check out bookTV's coverage of the
Book Expo 2003 for Molly Ivins, Bill O'Reilly, and Al Franken all
sharing the stage. The ensuing feud between O'Reilly and Franken (Al has
a pic of bill on the front of his book calling him a liar! heh.) is
priceless and has been heard round the world... well for booktv it's
pretty exciting anyway. :)

booktv expo coverage here:
http://www.booktv.org/misc/BookExpo_053103.asp <---- A MUST SEE!
Hillarity ensues!
scroll down until you see the part of the expo with bill, molly, and al
and click Play Clip or something
(warning RealVideo required i believe)

-fj

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18300

Strange Peaches This Election
*By Molly Ivins, AlterNet <http://www.alternet.org>*
April 1, 2004

AUSTIN, Texas – Strange peaches. All of us out here in the boonies
should be aware this is a truly weird political year. For one thing,
nobody has ever seen this much money involved. What can $200 million do
in a political race, answered, we presume, by at least $100 million by
the Democrats? No one knows.

And now brace yourselves for the really bad news. All this money,
intensity and advertising are not going to be spread out across 50
states. There are only 14 to 19 states considered "in play" in this
election, not either solidly red or blue, Republican or Democrat. What
that means is that all this money is going to hit relatively few
citizens like a tidal wave.

Most of us, in most of the states, will barely be aware there is a
presidential election going on – we're out of this loop, team. Nobody
will be talking to us. Because we're not "in play," this election is not
about us. For reasons established by supposedly skilful polling, none of
us even gets to be part of this election. We're taken for granted.

Meanwhile, our fellow citizens in these 19 states are about to be
subject to brainwashing unlike anything ever known. Poor honeys, they
are going to be subject to a barrage of mind-bending garbage. By the
time it's over, nobody will feel much like voting for either candidate.
If I were living in any of those states (Arizona, Arkansas, Florida,
Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,
Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin) I'd feel like hibernating for
the next seven months. Failing that, y'all will just have to turn into
some of the best citizens ever – now /is/ the time for all good men (and
women) to come to the aid of their country. It's your responsibility to
get your information from several sources, to see past the spin, to
doubt everything that comes in ad form – holy cow.

For the rest of us, if we want to be involved, the best we can do is
call and help to inform folks we know in the 19 states that matter.
(Personally, I believe few of us are capable of discussing politics with
our blood kin, and it's best to stick to friends.)

The race is already bizarre beyond belief. Richard Clarke is now under
ferocious attack for stating both the obvious and the already known. Of
course, the Bush administration was on automatic pilot before 9-11.
Donald Rumsfeld was actually on Capitol Hill on Sept. 9, threatening a
veto of a $600 million diversion from star wars to counter-terrorism.
John Ashcroft was trying to slash funding to the Justice Department‚s
anti-terrorism budget.

Important it may have been, but urgent it was not. Nor is it any secret
that the administration used 9-11 from the git-go to do what it had
always wanted to – go after Saddam Hussein. And again, the understanding
that the war in Iraq has actually hurt the war on terrorism does not
come as a blinding revelation. We're mired in an unfolding catastrophe
over there, and it has sucked resources out of the efforts to track down
terrorists.

Then, penalties for pointing out the obvious in Washington seem to be
quite steep. Condoleezza Rice apparently does not know the meaning of
the worked "scurrilous." Sen. Bill Frist accused Clarke of perjury, and
then took it back. Frist also denounced Clarke's apology to the 9-11
families, calling it "theatrical" – meaning, one assumes, fake – and
then had the gall to claim it was not Clarke's "place" to apologize on
behalf of the government. Since no one else had done so in two and half
years, most of us were relieved to find that somebody in the
administration had a sense of responsibility.

For those who are bored by "history" like pre-9-11 and would prefer to
know what is being done to prevent terrorist attacks /now/, last week's
Time magazine is a must-read. Among other things, it features one of the
funniest photographs I've ever seen, of a Wyoming fire department in
their haz-mat suits, bought by Homeland Security in case terrorists
decide to strike at the vital center of Casper. According to Time, $61
per citizen is being spent in Wyoming, compared to $14 per citizen in
California; Alaska got $58 per citizen, and New York got less than $25.

/Molly Ivins is a nationally syndicated columnist./

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