Michael King

If you, as a voter, think you’re facing a grim campaign season, consider for a moment that it could be much worse: you could be an Austin lobbyist. You would not only be expected to smile and kiss Rick Perry’s … Read More

This special, forty-page issue is one of two the Observer devotes each year (summer and winter) to what is now defined in cyber-slang as “treeware,” or “dead tree editions”: those cheaply produced, highly portable, energy efficient, user- and eyesight-friendly, completely … Read More

The Hunting of the President: The Ten-year Campaign to Destroy Hillary and Bill Clinton This is the most disgustingly fascinating political book I’ve ever read. As the subtitle indicates, it is the anatomy of a would-be political murder. I can’t … Read More

Mollie’s Job: A Story of Life and Work On the Global Assembly Line Readers of the Observer’s June 9 excerpt of Bill Adler’s Mollie’s Job (Chapter Thirteen: “On the Border, By the Sea”) will be familiar with the book’s attention … Read More

A persistent refrain at last month’s state Republican Convention was that the Gore campaign is giving Texas a bum rap. “If you listen to Mr. Gore,” Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry told G.O.P. delegates, “[Texas] is a hotbed of Third World … Read More

One unofficial theme of the 2000 Texas State Republican Convention, June 14 through 17, was Think Positive, and the virus was contagious enough that one could catch it standing in the concession line. A genial, rotund delegate from Williamson County … Read More

Croupier Written by Paul Mayersberg The anthropologists say that our concept of “coolness” originates in Africa, presumably among young black men accustomed by centuries of human culture to look upon the world with splendid indifference, the way the sun shines … Read More

Canadian filmmaker Ron Mann’s excellent new documentary, Grass, traces the absurd history of the national campaign to stamp out marijuana use, a century-long exercise in official hysteria and futility. Using reams of exhaustively researched period material, Mann recounts a highly … Read More

With apologies to Elvis Costello, in Texas walking on water abundantly qualifies a miracle man. Our friend and colleague Louis Dubose has been walking on water at the Observer for more than a dozen years, simultaneously keeping several balls dancing … Read More