Posts filed under “Best Of: Matt”
Going to War, Unarmed
Comparing the baseless smear campaign waged against John Kerry in 2004 to the endless series of sex allegations against Bill Clinton in 1992 provides an interesting lesson in American politics. The ease with which preposterous allegations stuck to an uncontroversial candidate like Kerry was as surprising as the difficulty involved with pinning anything onto the [...]
Fear and Division
I went to sleep on September 10th, 2001 with a massive headache. I had what I thought were problems. I turned off my cell phone, but not the ringer on the land line, and told my girlfriend that I’d be skipping my usual early morning calls to Europe in favor of some extra sleep. A [...]
A Battle Already Lost
There’s nothing noble about defeatism, and a search through our archives would find exactly none. Hearing Democratic Senators say things like “You are going to be confirmed, and everybody knows that” (Senator John Kerry) and “…before I get to my formal remarks, you no doubt will be confirmed” (Senator Barbara Boxer) during Condoleezza Rice‘s confirmation [...]
Articles of Faith
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to watch the San Francisco Gay Pride parade with two gay couples I’ve had the good fortune to know for almost my whole seven years in the Bay Area. It wasn’t difficult to understand what everyone was celebrating: San Francisco has long been one of the most gay-friendly cities [...]
“‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ Was a Number One Jam…
…damn if I say it you can slap me right here.” – Public Enemy – “Fight the Power“ In early 2002, after budget surpluses turned into deficits in the wake of 9/11, many called on President Bush to delay the massive tax cuts passed a year earlier. Bush dismissed any delay out of hand: There’s [...]
Advocating vs. Regulating
If seeing things that most people around you don’t see can make for a lonely existence, there was no lonelier time than the run up to the 2000 election. Eight years of peace, prosperity, and increasing civil liberties contributed to a kind of apathy, compounded by Ralph Nader‘s constant refrain equating George W. Bush and [...]
Deep Throat or Just Giving Head?
I wanted to make a few points before W. Mark Felt aka “Deep Throat” shuffled off to meet God in the great parking garage in the sky. In the wake of Felt’s admission that he was the man known as “Deep Throat,” it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for the Washington Post. The [...]
I Said I Wouldn’t Release the Records Before I Said I Would Release Them
In the wake (and damn if it didn’t feel like a funeral) of the 2004 election, we made a conscious decision to not engage in a round of Kerry bashing for the sake of Kerry bashing. He took the high road and lost to a man who, at least tacitly, allowed his campaign to leave [...]
The Opposite of Tolerance
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy At some point between the Stonewall riots in 1969 and Ellen‘s coming out in 1997, gay rights achieved a grudging critical mass. With the country ruled by the code of politically correct [...]
Ultimate Failure, Ultimate Reward – UPDATE
**Originally posted December 15, 2004. ——————————————————————————————————— Update: It’s happening again: Two U.S. Army analysts whose work was cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq have received job performance awards for the past three years, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. [...] Ahead of the U.S. attack on Iraq, the analysts concluded it [...]