[lit-ideas] Re: It's still the same old story...
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 11:37:54 EDT
Mike, don't leave us! You're one of the sane voices around! Think Bill
Moyers!
Molly Ivins TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006, AND THEREAFTER
REALITY-BASED CANDIDATE
AUSTIN, Texas -- Dear desperate Democrats,
Here's what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as a
stroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the
entire
spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the only public
figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity
just by being there.
The poor man who is currently our president has reached such a point of
befuddlement that he thinks stem cell research is the same as taking human
lives,
but that 40,000 dead Iraqi civilians are progress toward democracy.
Bill Moyers has been grappling with how to fit moral issues to political
issues ever since he left Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and went
to
work for Lyndon Johnson in the teeth of the Vietnam War. Moyers worked for
years in television, seriously addressing the most difficult issues of our
day.
He has studied all different kinds of religions and different approaches to
spirituality. He's no Holy Joe, but he is a serious man. He opens minds -- he
doesn't scare people. He includes people in, not out. And he sees through
the dark search for a temporary political advantage to the clear ground of the
Founders. He listens and he respects others.
Do I think Bill Moyers can win the presidency? No, that seems like a very
long shot to me. The nomination? No, that seems like a very long shot to me.
Then why run him? Think, imagine, if seven or eight other Democratic
candidates, all beautifully coiffed and triangulated and carefully coached to
say
nothing that will offend anyone, stand on stage with Bill Moyers in front of
cameras for a national debate â what would happen? Bill Moyers would win,
would
walk away with it, just because he doesn't triangulate or calculate or trim
or try to straddle the issues. Bill Moyers doesn't have to endorse a
constitutional amendment against flag burning or whatever wedge issue du jour
Republicans have come up with. He is not afraid of being called "unpatriotic."
And
besides, he is a wise and a kind man who knows how to talk on TV.
It won't take much money -- file for him in a couple of early primaries and
just get him into the debates. Think about the potential Democratic
candidates. Every single one of them needs SPINE, needs political courage.
What Moyers
can do is not only show them what it looks like and indeed what it is, but
also how people respond to it. I'm damned if I want to go through another
presidential primary with everyone trying to figure out who has the best
chance
to win instead of who's right. I want to vote for somebody who's good and
brave and who should win.
One time in the Johnson years, LBJ called on Moyers to say the blessing at a
dinner. "SPEAK UP, Bill," Lyndon roared. "I can't hear you." Moyers replied,
"I wasn't speaking to you, sir." That's the point of a run by Moyers: He
doesn't change to whom he is speaking just because some president is yelling
at
him.
To let Moyers know what you think of this idea, write him at PO Box 309,
Bernardsville, NJ, 07924.
COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
Until later.... Ev
========Original Message========
Subj: [lit-ideas] It's still the same old story... Date: 8/9/06 9:46:05
A.M. Central Daylight Time From: _atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent
on:
CABINET OKAYS DECISION TO EXPAND GROUND OPERATION IN LEBANON (Haaretz)
MK Yishai: Expanded IDF ground offensive in Lebanon expected to take 30 days
(AP)
******
OK, folks, it looks like Israel has decided to re-occupy southern Lebanon
again. I don't think I can take 20 years of Stan and Omar screaming epithets
at each other or of Lawrence's lamentations against Islamo-Leftists who won't
let the U.S. nuke 2/3 of the world so he can feel manly.
I'm going on vacation until this is all over. See you in 20 years.
Mike Geary
Memphis
i
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