- The Bi-Partisan Bust by Joe Conason, Salon
- Vengeance: It's Part Of Justice by Joshua Micah Marshall, New York Post
- An Agenda For Victory by Michael Kinsley, Slate
- Pat Robertson: His Liberia Deal by Colbert I. King, Washington Post
- They're Rich, They're Spoiled, They're Supporting Terrorists by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
- Orwell's Example by Gene Lyons, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Also, there was a recent article in Salon entitled "Bin Laden As Lex Luthor" in which writer Gale Holland attempted to view the world's new real super-villain as cut from the same mold as Superman's arch-nemesis. I don't really endorse the analogy (and told her that when she interviewed me for the piece) but, hey. I'll link to any piece that quotes me.
By the way: As I mentioned recently here, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has begun charging for on-line access, which means I can't read my favorite political columnist, Gene Lyons, at least for free. Fortunately, a thriving e-mail network has erupted so someone sends it to me each week…and the website, www.bartcop.com has started posting it regularly. Lyons' column appears Wednesday mornings so it'll probably turn up on Bartcop later that day.
I have no political observations this week. I'm battling a deadline and, even if I weren't, I think I'd be avoiding the news. From what I can tell, we're well into the category of Lotsa Scary Stuff, and the reporters have so much time to fill, they're making it sound like more of a crisis than it is, inflating by hours the six minutes of actual news they have to offer. And the White House may be launching the ground war just in time, insofar as keeping domestic support up and running. If they can't announce some sort of major "win" soon — i.e., we've arrested some major terrorist, bio or otherwise, or killed someone close to Bin Laden — the patience of certain right-wingers will be exhausted. We are long since past the stage where they'd be screaming about incompetence and possible impeachments, were they getting the same level of results from President Gore.