Donald Trump in 2000: “I Support the Ban on Assault Weapons”

Favorite Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has campaigned as an ardent advocate of expanding gun rights, but in the past he called for banning assault weapons and a longer waiting period for gun purchases. Trump’s new gun plan calls for a national right to concealed carry and criticizes “opponents of gun rights” for coming “up…

The U.S. Intervention in Libya Was Such a Smashing Success That a Sequel Is Coming

Favorite The immediate aftermath of the NATO bombing of Libya was a time of high gloating. Just as Iraq War advocates pointed to the capture and killing of Saddam Hussein as proof that their war was a success, Libya war advocates pointed to the capture and brutal killing of Muammar el-Qaddafi as proof of their vindication. War advocates…

Supreme Court Gives New Hope to Juvenile Lifers, But Will States Deliver?

Favorite ON THE NIGHT before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling Monday in Montgomery v. Louisiana, giving new hope for release to prisoners serving life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles, Sister Alison McCrary received a collect call from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. It came from a man she had met during…

Almost 12 Years After Calling a Reporter, DOJ Whistleblower Slapped With Ethics Charges

Favorite The D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel — the legal body responsible for overseeing the D.C. Bar’s professional rules — has filed ethics charges against Thomas Tamm, the former Justice Department lawyer who contacted the New York Times about President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program in 2004. The office’s charging papers, which were released Tuesday and first reported by…

Ha Ha: Hillary Clinton’s Top Financial Supporter Now Controls “The Onion”

Favorite Onion staffers may think twice before they produce more stories like Hillary Clinton Tries To Woo Voters By Rescinding Candidacy, Hillary Clinton To Nation: ‘Do Not Fuck This Up For Me,’ Hillary Clinton: The Merciless, Unrelenting March To The Presidency, or the signed Hillary Clinton editorial titled I’m Weighing Whether Or Not I Want To Go Through The Hell Of…

Hillary Clinton Doing Finance Industry Fundraiser Just Before Iowa

Favorite (UPDATE: The Hillary Clinton campaign has postponed a New York City fundraiser scheduled for Thursday until Feb. 16, according to Marisa Faltelson, New York finance co-director at Hillary for America. This story, previously headlined “Hillary Clinton Doing Back-to-Back Finance Industry Fundraisers Just Before Iowa,” has been updated to reflect the postponement.) Despite being dogged with…

U.S. Air Force Veteran, Smeared as “an ISIS Fighter,” Just Returned to the U.S.

Favorite Saadiq Long, the Muslim U.S. Air Force veteran who was secretly placed on the no-fly list in 2012 and then smeared by a fabricated news report last December claiming he was arrested in Turkey “as a member of an ISIS cell,” left Turkey last week and has now returned to the U.S. The U.S. government,…

Daniel Holtzclaw and the Limits of “Community Policing”

Favorite AT THE SENTENCING last week of Daniel Holtzclaw — the 29-year-old former Oklahoma City police officer convicted on 18 counts of rape and sexual assault of African-American women in the neighborhood he was assigned to patrol — District Attorney David Prater told the media: “I think people need to realize that this is not a law…

Anti-Corruption Crusader Zephyr Teachout Running for Congress 

Favorite Anti-corruption activist and law professor Zephyr Teachout announced this morning that she will be running for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent New York’s 19th congressional district. Teachout is best known for her insurgent primary challenge to incumbent New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. She outperformed expectations, winning 33 percent of the vote in…

Watch Bill Clinton Defend Bernie Sanders’ Health Care Plan (in 2009)

Favorite Former president Bill Clinton joined his wife and daughter in assailing Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care plan last week, saying that it would lead to “overcharging and inflation.” But in 2009, he defended the single-payer approach, in which the government pays for everyone’s health care. During an appearance on CNN, host Sanjay Gupta asked the…