history

McCain Demands Justice For Long-Dead Boxer

Pareene · 04/01/09 11:13AM

Senator McCain has his inconsistent and deeply personal conceptions of "honor" and "justice," which means that occasionally he fights for completely symbolic things that we nonetheless approve of wholeheartedly, like this. Free Jack Johnson! McCain is a huge boxing fan, of course, and he's teaming up with Peter King and Ken Burns today to urge President Obama to pardon Johnson for his 1913 violation of the Mann Act.

90 More Geniuses For You to Blame

Pareene · 03/30/09 04:10PM

Ten years ago, Congress repealed this archaic and useless little law called Glass-Steagal, because Larry Summers wanted a cushy gig at Citigroup.

Iraq War Turns Six

Pareene · 03/20/09 12:28PM

Happy Sixth Anniversary of the War in Iraq! Sort of! The war began on March 20, 2003, Baghdad time, so we're totally not late. Let's look back at the lies!

Happy Birthday, Time Warner. Enjoy It.

Hamilton Nolan · 03/04/09 04:16PM

Do you know what today is? It's the 20th anniversary of Time Warner. The massive merger that created the media behemoth happened on March 4, 1989. Time Warner was the future! And now?

In Which Tonya Harding Is Still Around, And Mad at Barack Obama

Pareene · 03/04/09 02:33PM

Ms. Harding is one of the saddest scandal celebrities of the miserable Clinton era, which is saying something, and despite the fact that her name has been a punchline for fifteen years, she still is all "I didn't come here to make friends you don't know me" about a passing jokey reference to the time she had a rival skater kneecapped.

Bobby Jindal's Goofy, Sing-Songy Lies

Pareene · 02/27/09 04:08PM

Jindal lied about a dead hero too, so it's extra fun! Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish organized volunteers during Katrina to rescue residents trapped on rooftops. This was supposedly against some of that damned bureaucratic red tape or something, and in Jindal's telling he marched into Lee's office and said if the rowboats didn't go out NOW they could just arrest the governor, or something. Well, this was a lie, because Jindal wasn't even in Jefferson Parish when the flood waters were that high. His office admitted that the story was bullshit, then tried to cover for Bobby by claiming that they meant that the dramatic phone conversation happened days later.