Cherokee Sage Woman

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Texas Observer Managing Editor David Pasztor says syndicated newspaper columnist Molly Ivins has died.
~~~~

She made me laugh, cry & muse at her dry wit & exceptional wisdom.
Rest in peace, dear friend. The Texas legislature will never forget the puns & 'outings'.
You did good girl. And you left big shoes to fill.

God speed, & Give 'em Hell!

http://www.alternet.org/stories/47484/

More.. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/47496/
some great 'Molly' quotes..

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/molly_ivins.htm

This one shocked me, coming froma right-wing mag..
Molly crossed all lines & barriers, bless her.


Breaking from NewsMax.com
Breast Cancer Steals Molly IvinsBy Susan Estrich

Molly Ivins was a gem. In a world where women's voices are still rare, hers could not be ignored. She wasn't good at what she did, she was great. I didn't always agree with her, on Hillary for instance, but I always read her. She had a unique way of seeing the world and putting it into words that made a Molly Ivins column totally recognizable and often unforgettable. She was passionate and inspirational, and now that passion and inspiration is gone. Stolen by breast cancer. Another one lost. When will this end? According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), things are getting better. Death rates from cancer in this country (as opposed to the rest of the world) are down, albeit barely. In 2007, NCI predicts 178,480 women and 2,030 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer; 40,460 women and 450 men will die of it. Molly Ivins was one of the 41,000 we will lose.It may be better, but it is hardly good enough. It still feels like an epidemic, a war in which all you can do is try to duck the bullets. One of my closest friends had her double mastectomy last week. The first reports from the pathologist are not good. Don't worry, I tell her, I'm good at going to chemo. I've been taking good friends for years. I make jokes, tell stories, befriend nurses. I am not afraid. I am terrified. Thirty-five years ago, 75 percent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer survived for five years; today, nearly 90 percent do. That's because of both earlier detection and improved treatment. But the number of women who are having regular mammograms is actually going down, not up. According to the latest data from the American Cancer Society, the percentage of women 40 and older who reported having a mammogram in the past two years was 76.4 percent in 2000, but had dropped to 74.6 percent by 2005. "Although a 1.8 percent decline in mammography screening from 2000 to 2005 may not seem like much, it means that in 2005 about 1.5 million fewer women took advantage of getting this proven lifesaving test," says Len Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. That means thousands of women with cancer don't know it and aren't being treated. I click every day for free mammograms: http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites. I go every year for my own and hold my breath. If only that were enough. My friend had mammograms religiously every 12 months. But her cancer is stage III. How can that be? It is. Five-year survival rates have improved, but five years isn't enough when you're in your 50s or 60s, let alone your 30s and 40s, when breast cancer tends to be most aggressive. The five-year survival rate for stage III breast cancer ranges from 54-67 percent. The overall 15-year survival rate for all breast cancer is only 57 percent. As of August 2005, the American Cancer Society was funding 188 research projects related to breast cancer, totaling more than $103.8 million. Most of these projects, they say, extend over several years. That is supposed to sound like a lot. To me, it doesn't. The war in Iraq has cost us $350 billion so far. The total budget for all National Cancer Institute research for this year is under 2 percent of that. The NCI's annual budget for breast cancer research is barely $600 million. We talk about a war on cancer, but the truth is we're not really fighting one. The war we're fighting is a losing one in Iraq, not a winning one against cancer. How wrong can we be? The loss of 3,000 Americans over the course of the war in Iraq is unacceptable, but losing 41,000 every year to breast cancer is beyond intolerable. President Bush, whom Molly memorably called "Shrub," was gracious about her death. But I can't help but believe he could have prevented it, that we could have, if only we got our priorities straight. How long will it take, how many more will we lose before we do? Enough is enough. Just a few weeks ago, writing in the face of death, Molly urged every American to do their part to stop the war in Iraq. "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. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'" We also need to start a new war, against the cancers that take our best from us. And this one, we need to win.

Army Investigating Video Alleging More Iraq Prison Abuses
January 30, 2007 12:11 PM

The U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division has begun an investigation into this video, which was first posted on IraqSlogger last week.
The clip, originally linked via a now defunct account on YouTube, purports to show a former guard from Abu Ghraib talking about torture techniques employed at the American-run prison. The man also recounts the gang rape of a female teenage detainee, in which one guard "pimped" the girl to others for $50 each. As he recalls, "I think at the end of the day he'd made like 500 bucks before she hung herself."

Good article!

http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2007/01/bob-herbert-more-than-antiwar.html

I can't wait to see KKKarl Rove goose-stepped outta there!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16832257/site/newsweek/

However, sadly.. my prayers are going out for our Molly.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070126/ap_on_re_us/ivins_cancer

http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top%5Ften/index/php/20070124.phtml

I have to admit, Nancy did have a hair in her eye.. but good grief, is Cheney a non-blinking alien, or what?

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003537212

and

http://www.alternet.org/stories/47179/

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/47143

Now whose the 'decider'??

Art Buchwald. The humor columnist died Wednesday at the age of 81 and managed to be as memorable in death as he was in life--thanks to a New York Times video obituary in which he proclaims, "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died." He also published a final column, written last February with the instructions that it should not be released until his death. The Washington Post memorializes him, writing that "[H]e brought to daily commentary a touch of wit, a gentle kind of humor and a brave willingness to launch himself occasionally into flights of utter absurdity that produced some of his best moments." And the Baltimore Sun recalls that Dean Acheson once referred to Buchwald as "the greatest satirist in English since Pope and Swift." (NPR has sound clips of Buchwald on All Things Considered, as well as a final interview with him last June.)

RIP, Artie..

Come join the Bushit team, & become a hero!

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/46922/

Check out the stars w/o the paint.
I feel better already!

http://www.tmz.com/photos/no-makeup/139802/

Breaking news today..

WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon has completed a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be imprisoned or executed using hearsay evidence and coerced testimony.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/18/america/NA-GEN-US-Detainees-Trials.php

.. this monkey!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_fe_st/chimp_spree

Since $$ is our golden calf.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/16/national/main2360303.shtml

We have been whoreing war tools since time immortal. We are the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. Talk about your axis of evil.. That R US!

I've ever had the pleasure of hearing!

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011206A.shtml

Suzanne says it well:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-nossel/bushs-10-fallacies-on-ir_b_38364.html

But David says it better:
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/index/php/20070109.phtml

Someone stop this fool!

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/v-echo/story/487372p-410266c.html

Sadly, there may be 20,000 more stories just like it, after the dick-tator speaks tonight.
How much blood does it take to satisfy this man?
Can Halliburton & pals not find enough work locally? Our kids are dying, so that they can prosper in warzones around the world. Unbelievably shameful!

Not a whole lot going on in smallville, USA.. and I probably like that more than not.
We were expecting some snow as of last night, but it hasn't happened. Hey, I got a new pair of snowboots for Christmas, & I wanna wear them! Damn global warming, anyway.

The 'phantom floor men' are still MIA. So looks like we'll be re-doing our own floors. Thanks Century 21.. you're really astute businessmen & women. Shitheels.
All our bedrm furniture is in the living room. There's something oddly disconcerting about changing underwear in the parlor. It just jangles against my southern upbringing of doing all those risque things in the privacy of your boudoir w/ the curtains closed tight. (Yes, some Victorian penchant there too)

Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookseller & buy 'Eat, Pray, Love'.. best book I've read in a year. Oh to live that experience of 4 months in Italy, 4 months in India, 4 months in Indonesia.
Eating ones way thru Italian fare, Praying to obtain balance in an Indian ashram, & finding Love in Bali.. wowee. If I had the funds, I'd buy everyone a copy!

I've started a new exercise regime via dvd & a 'flexbar' thingie. So far, it's fun & holds my attention. We'll see if that continues over the next say.. 72 hrs. (The average lifespan of a diet & exercise plan). It's interesting to take new perspective on my ever-morphing body plane. I find I rather like the enlarged curves of my butt & thighs.. & discovering calves that I never had before. It's just the waistline, tummy & lower back that have me ticked off. So I'll work on those areas & not obsess on the total pkg. I have to forego that silliness that says I have to be a size 4 again, simply because I was 6 yrs ago. My main goal is not to outgrow my current wardrobe.

The puppies are growing so fast. I don't have enough lap to hold them both while I type now. Tessa finds it easier to curl around my feet, while Mojito takes over the lap territory. It's funny watching the morning 'feeding' circus. The cats have their bowls in one section of the kitchen, while the pups have another. But after 2 minutes, the rotation begins & everyone is sampling everyone else's bowl. Not unlike watching the roving nibblers on the cruise buffet lines.

I do hope that this is a good Tuesday for everyone. I'm going to go finish this book..

And others just a big fat dawg.
Today is somewhere in between.. ;o)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/03/tech/main2329178.shtml

Exxon? Lying & cheating? Cheney-baby, say it aint so.

On a happier possibility...
What if? The new Democratic congress convened today & actually grew a couple.. and presented some changes in our world??
What if? Murtha's investigative committee on Iraq.. led back to the lil weasel that started the whole thing, & Impeachment charges were filed?
What if? Robert Murdoch developed a conscience & imploded FOX news??

Yes, there's always a silver-lining out there among the methane saturated clouds.
There has to be more than hot global poo.

Meanwhile my house still looks like downtown Kabul, while the case of the missing floor-workers deepens. Week 1 & they're still 'vanished', & are 'Without a Trace'. I will be looking for their mugs on the backs of milk cartons.
Good times, good times.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43189


And let's have a moment of silence for the demise of what OU thought was going to be a title winning year. Damn you, Cinderella team Boise State! Why'd you have to be so mean?? And tough? And talented? And just so darned cute, in your little orange & blues. We wuz robbed.

Is this a Monday to anyone else but me?
I didn't watch much of the Neverending Funeral on TV.. but I did catch some of Tom Brokaw's eulogy. That man still rocks.. & should be behind the desk on CBS. (shoo Katie..shoo)

Here's a sobering thought. My little sister who was 7 yrs old at my first wedding, is now asking me questions about menopause. What was that 500 mph streak that just went by? Ohhhhhhh... it was Life.

The pups have picked up a new weapon in their arsenal of beating up on each other; as they fight, they'll 'whine' so piteously that the other one will stop, to see if it has indeed inflicted this kind of pain. Then the whiner will go for the jugular, mentally yelling 'Psyche!' to the duped one. They both have it down to a perfection.. reminds me of fights w/ my little sister. Only she always beat the socks off me, so my whine was for real. I learned to cry loud, & early.. to avoid an ass-kicking.

It's a slow news day here on rocky top. If I'm not careful, I may end up w/ time to exercise.. egads.

3000 lives later.. let us not forget their faces.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB1.html