Includes bibliographical references and index.

Throughout her long career of "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted," the cause closest to Molly Ivins's heart was protecting the freedoms we all value. Sadly, today we're living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a president who calls himself "The Decider." Ivins got the idea for this book while touring America to speak out in defense of free speech. In her travels Ivins met ordinary people going to extraordinary measures to safeguard our liberties, and she intended this book to be a joyous celebration of those heroes. But during the Bush years, the project's focus changed as Ivins observed how dissent in the defense of liberties was characterized as treason by the Bush administration and its enablers.--From publisher description.