November 27, 2007
Miss Molly's Final Word
Tuesday, November 27
BookPeople (603 N. Lamar)
Free, Starts at 7pm
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Fiery Austin columnist Molly Ivins was once described to us as "equal parts sugar, spice, piss, and vinegar" by friend and fellow yellow-dog-democrat Bob Mann. To this day we still can't think of a better way to describe her. Her death last January left a deafening silence — gone was the insightful, passionate political commentary, packaged in her trademark humor and Texas charm.
Ivins' column, appearing in nearly 400 papers, made her famous, but her books were where she shined brightest. She had published ten of them before breast cancer cut her life short, but even that didn't keep her from having the last word: published posthumously, Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights, was completed with the assistance of her longtime collaborator, co-author, and fellow Austinite Lou Dubose. The book is a completion of their trilogy of sorts that started with Shrub and Bushwacked.
Bill of Wrongs is a laundry list of the ills inflicted on our rights by George W. Bush and those whom Dubose and Ivins called his "enablers" — think the Patriot Act, the death of Habeas Corpus, illegal wiretapping, torture, religious extremism, intelligent design, outrageous hypocrisy and incompetence, war in Iraq, and so on. These days, it's all too familiar territory when you flip through the news channels, unfold the paper, or consume your daily News Bits, but Ivins and Dubose don't treat it with the dull ham-handedness we've come to expect from so many media outlets. Filled with devastating humor and razor-sharp commentary, Bill of Wrongs makes for a truly compelling read.
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