Palin (she's gone from "unqualified" to "Goddamn frightening" in the space of a week) have been formally nominated by the GOP, let's take a look back at previous Republican conventions. more ›

Now that former controlling shareholder of the Sun-Times Lord Black of Crossharbour is in jail for fraud and obstruction of justice, it seems he has discovered valuable ways to spend his time. The jailed media magnate is currently writing a memoir, The Fight of My Life, slated for an October release. The book will pick up where his last memoir, A Life In Progress (1993), left off. more ›

One day after Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson stopped by Chicago for a fundraiser, Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani visited Chicago for a fundraiser. Conventional wisdom holds that Giuliani is the man to beat for the GOP nomination, but Fred Thompson has his supporters too. "I think he has a homespun quality that is appealing.... [H]e comes across as a guy that is very comfortable in his own skin and I think he has a... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the... more ›

Calling the sentence imposed on Lewis "Scooter" Libby "harsh" and "excessive," George W. Bush commuted the 30-month sentence on Monday. Not quite the full pardon that some conservatives wanted — he still has to pay a quarter million dollar fine and serve 2 years probation for lying under oath — it certainly left Bush open to criticism, from both sides of the congressional aisle. “He was indicted by a grand jury and convicted beyond the... more ›

As much as Chicagoist loves to rail against the corruption and graft that plagues our fair city, occasionally our obsession with back-room deals and hereditary peerage takes a back seat to more mundane fascinations. With this in mind, today we bring you this interesting tidbit: Barack Obama is a smoker! We stumbled across Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Michael Currie Schaffer's meditation on what makes a candidate more real, a person more than a media hack's... more ›

A favorite theory of many JFK assassination buffs is that the mob, led by Chicago boss Sam Giancana (pictured right), ordered a hit on the president as payback for double-crossing them after they helped him win the 1960 presidential election. When Kennedy won Illinois, many Richard Nixon supporters claimed that then-Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine in Chicago had fixed the city election, thus helping Kennedy carry the state. But others, most notably investigative reporter... more ›

Some around the Chicagoist offices today have been a little mopey today, what with the rather anti-climatic revelation that Deep Throat is none other than ... more ›