Ivins is better than Franklin

[Tricky]

Ivins is better than Franken

Edited to say:
Of course I meant Franken. Dam dis board where you can't correct or delete thread titles!

If you're looking for a left-leaning political book that is funny, in an enraging sort of way, try Molly Ivins' new book, Bushwhacked: Live in George W. Bush's America. Oh Molly is funny as hell, but her book is not just satire. It is a real, git down, wrasslin' match with the conservatives, and nobody does it better than the redoubtable Ms. Ivins.

A few exerpts:

“Bush has a chemical-dependency problem, but it’s not cocaine. It’s Monsanto, Dow, and Union Carbide. They wrote the checks that put him in the Texas governor’s mansion....Bush had two voluntary emissions-control programs here in Texas. One involved polluting industries. The other was directed at adolescent males, who were encouraged to ‘try abstinence.’ Only 3 of our 8,645 most obnoxiously polluting refineries actually volunteered to cut back on their toxic emissions. Numbers on teenage boys are not yet in.”

“The Republicans win elections in the ‘red states’ in the center of the country, where cattle and chickens are produced and slaughtered. Democrats win their elections in the ‘blue states’ on the coasts. Republicans use the USDA to pay off their contributors in the red states. The result of that crude electoral calculus is laissez-faire food-safety policy whenever a Republican is in the White House. (If you must eat while the Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, and the judiciary, you might want to consider becoming a vegetarian about now.)”

Keith Moerer who reviewed her book says:

Ivins is no distanced observer. She’s clearly incensed by Bush’s policies, but her reporting is so detailed and writing so witty that even those who come to the book undecided about Bush will likely be outraged by the time they finish it.

I have not read it yet myself, but I'm buying it tonight.