Salon.com > Rolling Stone

Taibbi: “Three strikes” laws are cruel and unusual

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:30:00 +0000

In the April issue of Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi eviscerates California's tough-on-crime "three strikes" rule, which sees thousands of individuals -- largely poor and black -- held in state penitentiaries for decades over minor offenses, like stealing a pair of socks worth $2.50. Taibbi explains that by the late '90s, 24 states and the federal government had some kind of "three strikes" law, with California's iteration the harshest of all.

In his feature, that is well worth reading in full, Taibbi writes:

Jon Hamm: Quit joking about my junk!

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:10:00 +0000

Jon Hamm is tired of stories about Jon Hamm's Hamm. In a preview of next month's Rolling Stone profile, the "Mad Men" actor addresses the undue attention that his penis has received from the media. "Most of it's tongue-in-cheek," he told contributing editor Josh Eells. "But it is a little rude. It just speaks to a broader freedom that people feel like they have - a prurience."

The "prurient" media has enjoyed speculating the size of Hamm's penis for several years, egged on by the knowledge that the actor often goes commando under seemingly clingy pants. But after a particularly revealing photo of Hamm and girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt walking down Madison Avenue went viral last year, Hamm's distinctive bulge became a full-fledged Internet meme. In response to the photo, a "Mad Men" insider told the Huffington Post: “He doesn’t know this, but we used to have to airbrush it out of pics sometimes," adding, “Jon is a big boy but sometimes it can be distracting.”

Taibbi: HSBC got away with murder

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:00:00 +0000

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi takes the Justice Department to task over settling with HSBC late last year in the "largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever."

"The HSBC case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associatedwith Wall Street," he writes, "In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway."

The lengthy post details how the bank again and again flouted cease-and-desist orders from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to cut ties with Islamist militant groups and drug trafficking operations in Mexico. For years, the OCC did not more than the "take deep breath, strap on its big-boy pants and . . . issue a second cease-and-desist order!"

Taibbi notes why the eventual criminal investigation ended with a fine (of "$1.9 billion, or about five weeks' profit") and not any jail time or fines for individuals involved:

Obama gift-wraps the SEC

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:59:00 +0000

If you pay attention to the upcoming Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearings for President Obama's nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, you probably will not hear the term "regulatory capture" (aka the catch-all term for industries controlling the parts of government that are supposed to be independently regulating them). Yes, it's certainly possible that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will echo her previous criticism of the phenomenon (as she absolutely should), but by and large, the concept probably will not take center stage, even though White is the personification of that problem (more on that in a moment). That's because with so many committee lawmakers on bankrolled by major financial institutions, the committee itself has become a shining example of how regulatory capture works.

Rihanna announces she’s officially back with Chris Brown

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:37:00 +0000

In February 2009, Chris Brown beat his then-girlfriend Rihanna bloody before the Grammy Awards. The intervening four years have seen the pair record saucy duets and pose for stagy paparazzi pictures -- and any person with eyes might have assumed they were back together, even if it didn't quite make sense.

Now, the "Diamonds" singer has confirmed that the pair are together in a manner more direct and dramatic than a million cryptic tweets -- on the cover of Rolling Stone. "When you add up the pieces from the outside," said Rihanna, "it's not the cutest puzzle in the world. You see us walking somewhere, driving somewhere, in the studio, in the club, and you think you know."

McChrystal regrets magazine flap was career-killer

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:35:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he was "completely surprised" by the uproar that followed publication of a Rolling Stone article featuring derogatory comments attributed to his staff about the Obama administration.

The controversial comments amounted to a career-killer for McChrystal, who was U.S. commander in Afghanistan at that time the article appeared in 2010.

McChrystal, in an interview broadcast Monday on "CBS This Morning," tells correspondent David Martin he was shocked that there was so much trouble over the comments in the article, saying he never thought he would see his loyalty and respect drawn into question after more than 30 years in the service.

McChrystal, whose resignation was accepted by President Barack Obama, is promoting his new book entitled "My Share of the Task."

Petraeus scandal: Idolatry pure and simple

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:32:00 +0000

The result [of Broadwell's book] is a work of fan fiction so fawning that not even Max Boot – a Petraeus buddy and Pentagon sock puppet – could bring himself to rave about it, grouching in The Wall Street Journal about All In’s “lack of independent perspective” and the authors’ tendency to skirt conflict. (Boot, the hackiest of the neocon hacks, is now an advisor to Mitt Romney.)

from The Legend of David Petraeus by Michael Hastings. Rolling Stone – 1/31/12

Rolling Stone’s Michael Hastings, clearly no fan of either David Petraeus or Paula Broadwell, wrote the passage above in a critique of her biography of the General back in January. The affair having started in late 2011, is it possible in the line about the biographer as “skirting conflict” that Hastings sensed more going on?