Subject: Michael Mooney

• Lantana-Based White Rights Group Says It's Not Racist, Really; It's Just Lookin' Out for Whitey

  The American Association of White Americans is using the election of the first black president to tell the country a few things about its American organization of Americans. In America. In two open letters addressed to the "Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Senate Wash, DC," the Lantana-based association declares that it has "no affiliation with the Arian [sic] Brotherhood or "White Supremist" [sic] groups or organizations." Then again, it sure sounds like there might be some overlap, consi

  December 4, 2008

• Plaxico Burress: Happiness Is a Warm Gun -- And Warm Weather

  Hey, South Florida, I know a six-foot-five, 230-pound troubled wide receiver who needs a hug. Come on. By South Florida troublemaker standards, Plaxico Burress is a pussycat. Can we keep him? Huh, can we? There aren't too many places with open arms for the big guy these days. On top of the felony charges -- and possible prison term -- he's facing in New York, over the past three years, Burress has had arrest warrants or restraining orders issued in his name in both Penns

  December 5, 2008

• Dolphins Fans Don't Suck Either

  The people who love the Dolphins are having a pretty good year, too. At least if you judge by the recent totals in fan voting for this year's NFL Pro Bowl. Four, that's right, FOUR Miami Dolphins are in first place in their respective positions in on-line fan balloting. This compared to zero, that's right, ZERO this time last year. All vote totals are current as of this week: Leading AFC running backs is Ronnie Brown, who has received 393,265 votes. Joey Porter has received 240,238 votes. Jake

  December 5, 2008

• Because A Regular Wedding Wouldn't Be Uncomfortable Enough

  Love is a beautiful thing, especially when it happens 180 feet above a casino parking lot. As if the issue of marriage weren't contentious enough in Florida with all the votes, rulings and appeals, now a straight couple from Boca Raton has decided to flaunt their legal ability to wed in the classiest way possible: strapped into harnesses, suspended over a 24-hour Indian casino. They probably didn't use the expression "taking the plunge." Note that in the Sun-Sentinel story, the report

  December 8, 2008

• For South Florida Man, Tony Romo's Choke Job Worth $1 Million

  There are a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers fans in South Florida. But none love the boys in black and gold as much as a 31-year-old North Miami Beach man who's a package handler at UPS. Or by now, probably, an ex-package handler. Thanks to the Steelers' late rally over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Samuel Louis-Charles won $1 million in ESPN's Streak for Cash contest. ESPN promised the million to the first person to pick 25 consecutive winners in its free internet challenge. Playing as "Bigsam1122,"

  December 9, 2008

• Nobody Knocks Out Glen Johnson, Unless Comedy's Involved

  In this week's print edition of The Juice, I wrote about Glen Johnson, a veteran South Florida boxer who's spent most of his 15-year career facing off against the biggest names in the sport. Because he's not punching police officers, barking at a judge, or telling anyone he wants to eat their children, Johnson has spent most of his career in the shadows--despite giving Roy Jones Jr. the worst knockout of his career. In this extra footage from New Times videographer Jacob Katel, Johnson is k

  December 10, 2008

• '80s Icon Will Be Immortal As Long As the Former Greg White Is Alive

  Yeah Juicians, Teen Wolf is the best thing to ever happen in American cinema. That's a given. And apparently, when Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Greg White legally changed his name to Stylez G. White as a tribute to the buddy character in the 1985 Michael J. Fox Rupert "Stiles" Stilinski vehicle Yesterday afternoon, Jerry Levine, the actor who played the original Stiles told ESPN's First Take that he thought the name change is "the greatest thing I ever heard. It's fantastic. It's my privil

  December 18, 2008

• What Is Wrong With This Picture?

   If there was a rash of Dolphins-related suicides around 10:45 p.m. last night, one local TV station certainly won't be reporting on it. That's because Channel 7, WSVN, hates the Miami Dolphins and doesn't care if the team's fans kill themselves. Or maybe some intern just made a horrible mistake. Either way, not long after the Dolphins finished off the greatest single-season turn around of all time, and beat the Jets in what was essentially a regular-season playoff game, WSVN reversed th

  December 29, 2008

• Florida Home to Fresh-Squeezed... Handguns?

  A study published last month by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group lead by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says that not only do lax gun laws lead to more murders, higher crime rates, and more law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, guns from those states are used more often in out-of-state murders. And as you may have guessed (assuming you were not shot while reading the first paragraph), Florida is at the top of the list of states where the most "crime guns" originat

  January 6, 2009

• Tip to Cops Investigating Money Laundering: Do Not Launder Money

  You will get caught. From the "Really Coulda Seen This Coming" South Florida crime files, we have 32-year-old Fort Lauderdale detective Jorge Reyes, who was assigned to a special task force aimed at breaking up money-laundering rings. Such a job is vital to bringing down all sorts of criminal enterprises, especially organized crime. That is, if the police officer assigned to investigate the money laundering is not laundering money himself, as Reyes has been accused of doing. His dirty deeds af

  January 7, 2009

• Rudy Giuliani Will Be on Time for His Inauguration Jan. 20

  On the New Times newsroom's Wall o' Deviance, beneath photographs of long-gone staffers cavorting with strippers, you will find the red-white-and-blue 2008 calendar of Rudy Giuliani, which he modestly called "Countdown to Victory." The calendar warns of a slow march toward a dystopian American future in which 9/11 replaces Christmas as the nation's great holiday and Rudy is the baby in the manger. In February 2008, Borders bookstore charged New Times staff writer Michael J. Mooney, exactly 50 ce

  January 8, 2009

• Tonight: Live Blogging from the BCS National Championship Game

  If you happen to have an extra grand or so to blow on a football game, you probably won't need to come here for my bitter blog posts, live from the BCS Championship. But if you live in the same country as the rest of us non-yacht owners, you can get everything you need right here. A bit of background: I graduated from one of the few schools that probably deserves a spot in this game more than at least one of the two participants. So forgive me if I accidentally (and often) refer to the teams as

  January 8, 2009

• Gators Binge, Purge, Intend to Repeat

  For an encore, Tim Tebow will rescue a kitten from the top floor of a burning skyscraper.Judging by the large number of blue and orange-adorned ticket holders puking in the parking lot, it was great to be a Gator last night. The Super Bowl of college football featured jets and fireworks and gazillions of reporters (including me, blogging live) and tickets going for thousands of dollars, all in the name of crowning the most arbitrarily chosen champion in all of sports. Let us bask in it, after th

  January 9, 2009

• Letters from the Issue of June 4, 2009

  June 4, 2009

• Green Eggs and Dolphin Ham

  November 8, 2007

• Letters for December 6-12, 2007

  December 6, 2007

• Letters for January 24-30, 2008

  January 24, 2008

• Letters for January 31-February 6, 2008

  January 31, 2008

• Big Wind in Boca

  The Party Was Over Before It Began

  January 31, 2008

• Letters for February 14-20, 2008

  February 14, 2008

• Letters for February 28-March 5, 2008

  February 28, 2008

• Letters for March 13-19, 2008

  March 13, 2008

• Letters for March 20-26, 2008

  March 20, 2008

• Letters for April 3-9, 2008

  April 3, 2008

• Letters for April 10-16, 2008

  April 10, 2008

• Letters for April 17-23, 2008

  April 17, 2008

• Feelin' the Freak

  That Redline Frame of Mind 

  May 22, 2008

• Finally... Florida

  A rogue state meets presidential candidates who pine for its fickle heart

  May 29, 2008

• Letters for July 17-23, 2008

  July 17, 2008

• Letters for October 23-29, 2008

  October 23, 2008

• Barack Obama wins -- and So Does South Florida

  November 6, 2008

• John Holland's Swan Song

  -- John Holland this morning gives us a fairly in-depth look at Mutual Benefits' Colombian drug cartel connections. My favorite line: "The court records don't make clear whether Mutual Benefits was an active participant in the money laundering or a pawn."  Joel Steinger is nobody's pawn. He's a pawnmaker. He's a lifetime boiler room man with ties to Meyer Lansky and Al Malnik. Don't think for a minute he didn't know what was going on. Here's more on the Colombian connec

  March 11, 2009

• O'Reilly Errand Boy Chases Bloggers Now

  Amanda Terkel is the winner in the Blogger-Baiting-O'Reilly Sweepstakes, and she didn't even seem to try. The Think Progress blogger wrote this post after it was announced that Fox News idiot charmer Bill O'Reilly would be the guest speaker at a fundraiser in Manalapan for the It Happened to Alexa Foundation, which helps rape victims.Terkel merely pointed out that O'Reilly was a curious and controversial choice, considering past remarks he's made about Jennifer Moore, the 18-year-old who was rap

  March 23, 2009

• Letters From the Issue of April 9, 2009

  April 9, 2009

• Letters From the Issue of February 5, 2009

  February 5, 2009

• Letters from the issue of January 1, 2009

  January 1, 2009

• Letters for October 30 - November 5, 2008

  October 30, 2008

• Letters for October 2-8, 2008

  October 2, 2008

• Letters for August 14-20, 2008

  August 14, 2008

• Letters for June 12-18, 2008

  June 12, 2008

• It's the Sauce, Stupid!

  Hurricane takes the wing world by storm

  December 27, 2007

• Teabag Gags And Other Important Democratic Functions

  All this talk on the news about the right-wing "teabagging" protests is cracking me up. In fact I'm starting to think that the evil liberal media talked the national frustrati into taking on that moniker for their movement as a juvenile prank. (Locally, our own Michael Mooney mixed it up with these folks yesterday). For those not educated in the nasty arts, the definition of "teabagging" can be found here. And the double entrendres on cable news shows not named Fox have 

  April 16, 2009

• And Now a "Fair and Balanced" a Report From Yesterday's Tea Party

  Flickr user: Sweet CarouselHey, remember that delightful Coral Springs lady who took a shine to Sarah Palin, launched a blog for her, and -- perhaps because this was so patently absurd -- received some media coverage for it? And then some media coverage about that media coverage? Well, you won't believe this, but she was at the tea party thing yesterday. If that shocked you, then you'll be flabbergasted to know she pronounced it a "huge success." A bit of hyperbole, that. Success = a bunch of si

  April 16, 2009

• Letters From the Issue of April 23, 2009

  April 23, 2009

• Letters From the Issue of June 18, 2009

  June 18, 2009

• Letters from the Issue of July 2, 2009

  July 2, 2009

• Happy Canada Day, Leslie Nielsen! (I'm NOT Stalking You)

  photo by Alan Light The man, the legend. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in South Florida a Happy Canada Day! Especially to South Florida's most famous Canadian, Leslie Nielsen. I love Canadian-Americans. And my all-time favorite living Canadian-American celebrity has got to be Fort Lauderdale resident, Leslie Nielsen. (Sorry, Shania Twain, Rick Moranis, William Shatner, Jim Carrey, and Scott Abbott and Chris Haney--inventors of Trivial Pursuit.) Of course you alr

  July 1, 2009

• Letters from the Issue of October 1, 2009

  October 1, 2009

• Seeing Capitalism: A Love Story with a Real-Life Capitalist

  ​Near the beginning of Michael Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, the filmmaker calls upon Wallace Shawn, an actor/writer friend of his, to explain our economic system in terms he could explain, presumably because Shawn is one of the more knowledgeable people Moore knows when it comes to that subject. With that in mind, I invited a real-life, flesh and blood, Ron Paul-supporting, Glenn Beck-watching, tea party-attending capitalist (who happens to be a well-paid financial c

  October 3, 2009