What would Molly Say?

[BillyJack]

Hard to believe Molly Ivins has been gone for four years. Any time I get a hankerin' for some common sense mixed with sass, I crack open one of her books or Google one of her columns. She does a progressive soul good. Yesterday I decided to see what she wrote about labor unions. This is her most-frequently-cited quote:

In early 1996, she picked up the trail of the democracy-busting Koch Brothers, and gave 'em a little free publicity:

Another major Dole backer is Koch Industries ($245,000), now the country's second-largest family-owned industry, and the Koch brothers are among the wealthiest men in the world (estimated worth: $4.7 billion). Among other right-wing groups, the Koches support the libertarian Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy, which should be called Rich Guys for Big Bidness. CSE wants to phase out Medicare completely, and Dole's regulatory reform bill---the one that would effectively repeal most of our health, safety and environmental regulations---is straight out of the CSE playbook.

And in 1998, she wrote about California Prop. 226, whose purpose sounds awfully familiar 13 years later:

The plan is simple: If the initiative passes, unions will have to get written permission from each member every year to use union dues for political activity. What's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing, as long as corporations are also required to get written permission from each shareholder every year before the corporation can use any money for any political activity. But this proposition is aimed only at unions. It would cost the unions millions of dollars and untold amounts of time to get these annual permission slips, and that, of course, is the whole point: to weaken the political power of unions, which are already outspent by business. Just what the country needs, complete domination of politics by corporations and the only organizations that speak for American workers shut out entirely.

It's a column worth reading in full because it gives you a sense of just how long union-busting has been on the conservative radar. (Fortunately Prop. 226 failed.)

Complete Article:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/02/951556/-Cheers-and-Jeers:-Wednesday

Link to Molly Ivins original piece, "This Anti-Union Bill Takes the Cake":
http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/this-anti-union-bill-takes-the-cake.html

[GoCubsGo]

1. She'd say, "I told you so."

Only, she'd do it in a far more witty and charming way than I ever could.

[stillrockin]

2. Love and miss ya, Molly . . .

[Hotler]

3. k&r n/t