Author: Eric Randall

Insane Clown Posse Won't Take FBI Gang Designation Lying Down

Associated Press

Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, the hip hop duo that makes up Insane Clown Posse is pretty unhappy with the FBI for labeling their fan-base, known as Juggalos, as a "loosely-organized hybrid gang," so unhappy that they're suing.

By Eric Randall

Jun 21, 2012

David Duke Endorses Former Black Panther: 'I'll Take the Anti-Zionist Any Day'

Former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke released a video announcing his endorsement of Charles Barron, an affirmative action supporting African-American who is running for Brooklyn's 8th Congressional district, and the conflicting priorities ole' Duke faced are just mind-boggling.

Comments | 5,647 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 21, 2012

Obama Needs Another Commerce Secretary: Bryson Resigns

President Obama's commerce secretary John Bryson ha finally resigned after being cited for a felony hit-and-run following two car crashes in L.A. last week, and the hex on Obama's too-numerous picks for commerce secretary wins again.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 21, 2012

Chris Christie and Bruce Springsteen: A Marriage on the Rocks

The Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg opens his delightful piece on his trip to a Bruce Springsteen concert with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie by noting that Christie "would marry [Springsteen] if he were gay and if gay people were allowed to marry in the state he governs," but the rest of the piece indicates they'd have a pretty rocky union.

Comments | 3,510 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 21, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Thursday Columns

Jeff Leach on eating dirt, David Ignatius on diplomacy and drones, Ezra Klein on covering presidential 'gaffes', Juliette Kayyem on immigration reform, and Gail Collins on privatization.

Comments | 1,222 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 21, 2012

Pulled Out of a Hole, The American Prospect Digs In

The American Prospect faces a challenge: how to shift their business model so supporters don't have to bail them out with another $1.2 million but maintain their identity as a wonky, liberal, policy focused magazine.

Comments | 517 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 20, 2012

CBS's 'Dancing on the Stars' Parody Sounds Kind of Realistic

Here's some petty little showbiz news for you: CBS is annoyed that a judge will allow ABC to air a new show called Glass House that the Tiffany network thinks is too similar to its long-running Big Brother, so they've written a tongue-in-cheek press release about their new show Dancing On the Stars.

Comments | 600 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 20, 2012

The American Prospect Lives for Now

Liberal policy magazine The American Prospect has raised enough money to survive another year after a launching a frantic fundraising drive at the end of April to cover its operating gap, editor Kit Rachlis told the Huffington Post Wednesday.

Comments | 345 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 20, 2012

Now Obama Is Delaying Immigration Enforcement Against Same-Sex Couples

News that the Justice Department is delaying cases involving married same-sex couples in anticipation of the repeal of Defense of Marriage Act -- coming just after the President's decision to stop deporting young illegal immigrants -- makes "stalling while awaiting some other branch of the federal government" seem like the hot immigration policy strategy of the week.

Comments | 2,039 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 20, 2012

Spatwatch

Jack Abramoff Wants His Name Back from Democrats

Jack Abramoff's tiff with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over ownership of JackAbramoff.com is at this moment the most heated spat in the fierce but, let's be honest, pretty frivolous brave new world of political domain name wars.

Comments | 563 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 20, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Wednesday Columns

Hillary Clinton on trade with Russia, Tim Wu on free speech for computers, Noah Feldman on Egypt's looming crisis, Chen Guangcheng on his nephew's detainment, and Peter Orszag on compulsory voting.

Comments | 1,415 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

Secret Service May Have Partied Hard on Martha's Vineyard

Fox News has a long, entertaining investigation alleging that members of the Secret Service have "partied like rock stars" while on detail with President Obama on Martha's Vineyard, suggesting that the bad behavior first revealed in the Colombia prostitution scandal wasn't unprecedented.

Comments | 1,562 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

Harry Reid Doesn't Want to Answer Clown Questions Either, Bro

According to the tweets of several reporters present, Reid responded to a question from Roll Call's Stephen T. Dennis about Sen. Mitch McConnell and the DREAM Act with, "I don't want to answer that question. That's a clown question, bro." 

Comments | 893 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

Stat of the Day

New Yorkers Will Live Three Years Longer Than the Rest of Us

The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff noted Tuesday that New Yorkers can expect to live longer than the rest of America, and a look at the data she used from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reveals just how much longer: about three years.

Comments | 2,019 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

The Case Against the Case Against the Boringness of Rob Portman

There's a persuasive case to be made that Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, widely touted as a potential vice presidential pick for Mitt Romney, isn't as boring as everyone says, but he's never going to shake the label and he probably shouldn't want to, either.

Comments | 1,552 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Tuesday Columns

Alex Brill and James Glassman on the G-20, Joe Nocera on city finances, Jeffrey Goldberg on Romney's Jewish standard, Sara Khorshid on Egypt's military council, and Joanna Weiss on George Bush and Game of Thrones.

Comments | 1,019 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 19, 2012

MSNBC's in Trouble for Selectively Editing Romney's Wawa Moment

Outlets from New York to Politico are pointing out that a MSNBC clip that went viral on Monday showing Romney enthsiastically describe a sandwich-ordering machine at the Pennsylvania convenience store Wawa edited out the broader (though questionable) point he made about government inefficiency.

Comments | 20,614 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 18, 2012

Roger Clemens Found Not Guilty of Perjury

Years after he actually testified to Congress, a jury has found Roger Clemens not guilty of six counts of perjury for lying to them about using steroids and growth hormones when he testified at the Capitol in 2008.

Comments | 345 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 18, 2012

Romney Just Can't Win Talking About Convenience Stores

Mitt Romney is being mocked for waxing on with boyish wonderment about a touchscreen that allowed him to order a sandwich in a Wawa, a Pennsylvania-based convenience chain, which just goes to show that whether he's knocking them or talking them up, he just can't win when discussing America's convenience stores.

Comments | 3,847 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 18, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Monday Columns

Adam Gopnik on the Olympics, Fred Hiatt on campaign finance, L. Gordon Crovitz on the UN and the Internet, Albert Hunt on the Obama campaign, and Alan MacDonald on Africa's water supply.

Comments | 2,510 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 15, 2012

Comment of the Day

'I Agree That This Incident Should Not Be Fodder for Jokes'

One commenter has seconded our plea for a little more decorum in discussing Lindsay Lohan following the breaking non-news that the actress was a wee bit tired today.

Comments | 8,013 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 15, 2012

ABC Is Prepared for Niagara Falls Tightrope Triumph/Tragedy

Nik Wallenda, an aerialist and member of the Flying Wallendas family, is slated to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls Friday night on ABC's 20/20, and whatever happens, the network is very prepared.

Comments | 3,225 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 15, 2012

A Chinese Dissident's Suicide That Many Don't Think Was Suicide

The Chinese government is having a difficult time convincing people that a Tiananmen Square dissident who, after 21 years of imprisonment, was left blind, mostly, deaf, and unable to hold a spoon to his mouth would be dexterous enough to make a noose out of bandages and hang himself.

Comments | 345 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 15, 2012

President Obama's Heckled Address on Immigration Policy

President Obama spoke from the Rose Garden about his new executive order, a DREAM Act-like policy that grants work permits to many young immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, and it was punctuated with a mildly dramatic exchange between the president and a reporter.

Comments | 2,461 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 15, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Friday Columns

Dana Milbank on Obama's Ohio speech, Peggy Noonan on national security leaks, John Cassidy on Obama's reelection strategy, Nikos Konstandaras on Greece's election, and Alicia Shepard on the Nixon tapes. 

Comments | 2,597 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

The RNC Liked a DNCer's Attack Site So Much They Stole It

The Republican National Committee apparently liked one former Democratic National Committee staffer's clever microsite knocking Republican then-candidate Tim Pawlenty so much, they decided to just, uh, repurpose it.

Comments | 3,423 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

Paul Krugman Continues His One-Man War on Estonia

We were entertained by the President of Estonia's somewhat overwrought reaction last week to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's mild estimation of Estonia's economic recovery, but now it just seems like Krugman is baiting the excitable Toomas Hendrik IIves.

Comments | 1,648 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

What Keeps The New York Times Curse-Free? Editors' Moms

New York Times National Editor Sam Sifton gave media blogger Jim Romenesko a fun insight into the paper of record's long-standing and ever-shifting policies regarding when and how to use profanity.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

Shimon Peres Is Crushing on Mark Zuckerberg

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg posted the first part of his sit-down with former Israeli President Shimon Peres, and got him to expound a bit on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, or as Goldberg irreverently describes him, "the person who may be [Peres's] favorite Jew in the world."

Comments | 446 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

The Bad Luck of Exposing Your Lucky Underwear

Let's count the fun ironies in this story about Nicklas Bendtner, a soccer player for Denmark who's in trouble for pulling down his pants while celebrating a goal during a Euro 2012 match against Portugal.

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 14, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Thursday Columns

Nicholas Kristof on Iran, George Will on school elections, Joan Vennochi on Scott Brown's pact, Ezra Klein on a new start-up, and Steve Kornacki on Obama and Bush

Comments | 1,553 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

Comment of the Day

'Being a Parent Involves Being an Adult'

Our post on keeping kids safe on Facebook inspired some interesting discussions on parenting in the comments.

Comments | 1,379 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

The Red Solo Cup's Viral Hold on America

Not that we needed another piece of evidence for the cultural hegemony of the red Solo cup, but the internet gave us one anyway Wednesday when a clever blog post about the meaning of the ridges on the iconic college party cup took the Internet by storm.

Comments | 6,156 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

A New 'Self-Aiming Bullet' Sounds Like a Drone for Snipers

Your frightening tech news of the day comes from The Economist, which reports that weapons designers are developing a "self-aiming bullet."

Comments | 4,285 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

The Latest Way Texas Decides Elections: Dice Rolling

Here's a new entry in our apparently on-going examination of our favorite Texas election law: A city council race in Webster, Texas was decided by the roll of a dice.

Comments

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

Entire Issue of New York Magazine Might Become a TV Show

We've heard of single stories getting the Hollywood treatment, but this is unusual: An entire issue of New York Magazine devoted to scandals in the city, has been optioned for a possible television series by Sony Pictures Television, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Comments | 1,519 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

Cliché Watch

Bush vs. Gore: The Election We're Doomed to Think About Repeating

In every election to follow 2000 the Bush-Gore cliffhanger, pundits have wondered, could the most dramatic presidential election in living memory happen again (and thus throw us into another month of rapt pundit-watching on cable TV)? Spoiler alert: Yes! But it probably won't!

Comments | 1,648 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 13, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Wednesday Columns

Maureen Dowd on the Sandusky trial, Nathaniel Frank on gay parenting, John Dickerson on Jeb Bush, Richard Arenberg on the filibuster, and David Mason on Mormonism.

Comments | 2,520 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

Comment of the Day

'I No Longer Watch American TV'

The Atlantic Wire's Richard Lawson put forward several theories Tuesday for the American television watcher's recent fit of anglophilia, but none of them were quite so bluntly stated as the theory of our featured commenter, HFgm: British TV is better.

Comments | 805 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

The Newsweek Cover That Wasn't: Obama in a Hoodie

Newsweek has been making a name for itself with a string of newly salacious cover images, but not all the provocative ideas end up in print, as editor Tina Brown explained in a video on Newsweek's Tumblr.

Comments | 1,057 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

Would President Romney Take a Performance Bonus?

Mitt Romney declined to say Tuesday whether he would waive his salary as president as he did in Massachusetts as governor, but he did offer up hints at another tweak to the chief executive's pay: performance bonuses.

Comments | 520 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

Photos of Miami Face-Biting Victim Should End 'Zombie Apocalypse' Meme

The hospital hosting Ronald Poppo, the homeless man whose face was chewed up by a drug-addled man, released some (very graphic) photos and details documenting his recovery, and now we can look forward to the end of the not terribly funny "zombie apocalypse" meme.

Comments | 9,152 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

Joe Scarborough Is a Ron Paul Protest Voter

MSNBC host and Mika Brzezinski hair stylist Joe Scarborough wrote a column for Politico describing his easy decision to vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (in which Ron Paul isn't really competing).

Comments | 1,360 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 12, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Tuesday Columns

Katrina vanden Heuvel on administration leakers, Joe Nocera on Europe's crisis management, Ramesh Ponnuru on Wisconsin, Frank Bruni on the 2012 race, and Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers on the death penalty.

Comments | 517 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 6, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Wednesday Columns

Michael Tomasky on Walker's win, Scot Lehigh on filibuster reform, Garrett Epps on the Prop. 8 ruling, Christopher Fettweis on the Afghan withdrawal, and Mark Bittman on the soda ban

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

Illinois Defunds Torture Commission Just After It Finds Torture Problems

On Tuesday the commission set up to investigate a Chicago police torture scandal dating to the 1970s finally made its first recommendations on what cases to bring to court, but yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reports, the Illinois legislature defunded the entire project.

Comments | 1,722 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

Michelle Obama Will Be Sitting Out Mayor Bloomberg's War on Soda

Obesity Warrior Michelle Obama came out in support of Mayor Bloomberg's controversial ban on the sale of high volume sugary drinks, but she hedged it about as much as one can.

Comments | 517 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

Senate Republicans Block the Paycheck Fairness Act

The Paycheck Fairness Act, supported by Democrats, failed to get the 60 votes it needed to get past a Republican block in the Senate, in what the A.P. is calling "a choreographed showdown."

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

What's a Lax Bro? Don't Ask a Lax Bro

Boston Globe reporter Jenifer McKim's oddly scientific article on "lax bros" is (intentionally?) funny because she strikes the tone of an enthused but non-native anthropologist, something of a Crocodile Dundee observing a rare beast.

Comments | 2,368 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

How to Celebrate Ferris Bueller's Day Off Day

How could we possibly be expected to handle work on a day like this? If The Atlantic Wire had its way, we wouldn't, for we've long advocated June 5 become officially designated Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Comments | 4,216 Views

By Eric Randall

Jun 5, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Tuesday Columns

Margaret Carlson on the Wisconsin recall, Rowena Xiaoqing He on Tiananmen, Ezra Klein on the Keynesian case for Romney, Alan Watson on the Queen's influence, and Jay Pasachoff on Venus's transit.

Comments | 517 Views

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