Disqus - Latest Comments for peterfeld

Re: think locally act globally — Weiner for Mayor campaign releases first poster.

peterfeld — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 13:45:02 -0000

sorry for the delayed response, yes it is his pic that he accidentally tweeted in 2011.

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/34570155006

peterfeld — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:02:19 -0000

Hmmm I see that reply, but the pic is on an official page and the caption says it was taken today. https://www.facebook.com/ph...

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/34506426988

peterfeld — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:50:39 -0000

I found it here but it doesn't indicate the original source. https://twitter.com/mattmfm...

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/30852179207

peterfeld — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 01:03:32 -0000

No, this came from the Twitter (not mine) linked, it is a popular Democratic satire Twitter. I'll post your comment in my text as an update but this has been reblogged all over.

Re: The #NBCFail Scale: How Bad is the Network’s Olympic Coverage, Really?

peterfeld — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:51:33 -0000

Cutting to a commercial as the Sex Pistols tribute was starting: 1000 on the fail scale.

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/24682641306

peterfeld — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:16:28 -0000

There is enough simplism to go around - I was using the slogan making the point that restricting a corporation's right to market in a way that's harmful to public health isn't the same thing as restricting an individual's right to drink soda. Because indeed you can buy two 16 oz containers. That's the whole point.

You aren't losing your rights, just getting a nudge. An intrepid sugar lover like yourself won't be stopped but a kid who would otherwise buy a huge portion now gets a smaller one and will probably consume less sugar. The corporation is having its marketing restricted, but that happens all the time.

Re: Dogged Times Op-Ed Columnist Gail Collins Will Not Let ‘Crate Gate’ Drop

peterfeld — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:36:43 -0000

And I think it's awful if she drops it for the general election, just when we need it most - if he's nominated, of course.

Re: Runnin' Scared - Jen Doll - TLC Sting Operation Proves Cabbies Still Don't Want to Go to Brooklyn

peterfeld — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:34:00 -0000

Maybe fares to Brooklyn and other boroughs should reflect the economic reality that the driver is not going to get a return fare, and will have to drive the equivalent of a $20 or $30 ride back to Manhattan for free, instead of expecting cab-drivers to subsidize the cheaper cost of living in the outer boroughs? (And effectively having Manhattanite cab-riders subsidize the cost of cab service to the outer boroughs?) Why is this all so difficult?

Re: Exclusive: Obama in 2006: I ‘stole’ book title ‘Audacity of Hope’ from Rev. Wright, ‘my pastor’ [VIDEO]

peterfeld — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:48:37 -0000

Wright is abominable but it's interesting you would take this quote as evidence of "stench." Just read it. Wright is a flawed messenger and you might think the same of Obama, but just read the actual words, think about why you would label them with "stench" -- and think about cynicism.

"easiest thing in the world is to find refuge in cynicism because there’s so much good reason as you look around to feel dispirited. You open up the newspapers, you watch the news, there’s war, there’s poverty, there’s ignorance, there’s conflict, there’s famine, there’s strife, and so it’s natural for many of us to at some point say to ourselves, you know what, not much is going to change[...] the hard thing to do, the thing that requires risk, the thing that requires a sense of boldness, audacity, is to hope, to recognize that somehow the world as it is is not the world as it has to be; that it’s possible for us to recognize a stake in each other and to have mutual responsibility for each other and maybe not make a perfect world but to make it better for the next generation.”

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

peterfeld — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:56:44 -0000

No, you get me wrong. My expectations weren't that he should deliver the liberal agenda - I actually enjoy that he enrages his primary supporters - but that he deliver on economic recovery. He would have had to build consensus for a bigger and better-targeted stimulus (direct aid to states, not adopting the other side's premises about the urgency of dealing with debt, not weighted toward tax cuts in hopes of GOP votes that never came) instead of conceding the GOP's premises regarding debt; etc. Instead, he let the stimulus be squelched, turned his attention to a health care bill that will probably get thrown out next year, the economy has languished, and he has been rhetorically ineffectual (see any of his 2010 speeches).

I could care less if he fulfills the left's agenda and particularly the reform agenda that Conor and Lessig are complaining about above. (If he'd gone for reform as his signature goal, which I worried he'd do, we'd be even worse off now.) I'm just saying his problem is not that he lost the libs and dashed their sky-high hopes - it's that he's lost non-ideological Americans worried about their jobs. Despite this I expect him to win - a failed president can be reelected (Bush), though second terms never improve on the first - he will get his act together politically (already seems to be, his low ratings are a lagging indicator) and create a sense that things are on a upswing (or will be) and the GOP candidates are all disastrous - Romney included. So, no I am not defeatist about the election (though if the economy collapses badly, he will lose), just disgusted that Obama squandered his opportunities to focus like a laser beam on the economy, and let us stagnate while he turned his superior intellect onto loftier pursuits. He's done a great job in the war on terror, it has to be said.

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

peterfeld — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:48:34 -0000

I actually don't disagree with it. It's correct, just not enlightening. By which I mean: we knew it all at the time. And: is it relevant? You can go back to any president and find their critics.

Of course liberals didn't like many things about Clinton (though they came around quickly during impeachment); Jimmy Carter was a disaster in terms of performance as well as his betrayal of the "liberal agenda." He didn't lose because the Kennedy challenge split the Dems -- he lost (with a pathetic 41% of the vote) because of the "misery index" and the hostage crisis. Hubert Humphrey was a vice president running as the continuation of LBJ's failed administration. Even if you go back to FDR, he screwed up in his second term with austerity and reignited the Depression -- of course people were angry at him. Still, he was reelected -- as was Clinton -- and those two presidencies are considered successful today because ultimately they delivered leadership. (JFK likely would have won as well in 1964.)

The point is: are/were these presidents sabotaged by liberals who defected, as Chait argues, or did they do themselves in through poor performance? I object to the myth that liberals are always dissatisfied and should just buck up and support failure because the alternative is worse, which is what Chait's historical review is supposed to prove. Well, okay then, I am prepared to support failure; Obama is a failed president and I will vote for him. I don't want Romney or Gingrich. But Obama's problem is not abandonment by liberals (look at his high approval ratings among Dems and liberals), it's the judgment by non-ideological voters that he has failed to deliver.

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

peterfeld — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:50:18 -0000

I don't want to defend Chait's essay - his Adam Moss-driven premise that liberals are abandoning Obama is wrong from the outset, his historical recitation of angst over past Democratic presidents is rote, and he ignores that most of the complaints about Obama are performance-driven, not ideological (i.e., no jobs). But this essay, and the Lessig quotes, are even more wrong-headed.

Obama’s presidency was doomed by this very promise to “change Washington.” It's never changing, get over it. His repeated mantras about "we won't solve our problems until we change our politics" caused me to tear my hair out back then. Raising false expectations that politics can change was one of the cruelest and most cynical elements of his 2008 campaign. I consider Lessig a visionary and admire him, but on this, he was gullible, along with Obama's whole army of primary supporters. A campaign about "changing politics" is fine-tuned to appeal to political junkies (i.e., the small minority of Americans that takes part in primaries); average people (who don't look to politics for elevation or entertainment) care more about food on their table - which is where Obama failed - than about the niceties of our political culture, compromise, "making history," etc.

The comparison to Hillary is a little off - yes, she would have sat down with the lobbyists and dug in to the dirty business of getting things done the way they actually get done in Washington. But unlike Obama, she would have done it wholeheartedly, and effectively. We might have gotten a bigger 2009 stimulus (she has no illusions about preemptive compromise) and be in a completely different situation today regarding employment.

Re: Poll: Obamaâs Job Approval Still Underwater - Alex Roarty - NationalJournal.com

peterfeld — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:17:35 -0000

Oy will you please learn a little polling before you write and publish these stories?

A drop-off from 47% to 42% is not "notable" when you consider a) the sampled populations being compared are different (college whites intercepted after actually voting in 2008 vs. c0llege whites surveyed now, many of whom are non-voters; likewise Hispanics), b) the methodologies are different (in-person survey on paper vs. surveyed by phone), c) the surveys were conducted by different polling organizations, d) the margin of error for the subsample of college whites in the current survey is probably very wide and e) it's different questions - "did you vote for Obama" then vs. job approval now. Assuming you had comparable numbers (same methodology, same sampling, same polling organization, same job-approval question), it would be foregone that Obama declined among many groups if he declined overall. The key question would be has he declined more among some than others - e.g., has he held up with some groups while dropping further among others? If he goes down (say) 10 points overall it does not add insight to say he's gone down ten points across the board with independents, with Democrats, with college and non-college voters, etc. But you don't have comparable sets of numbers here.

Re: State Republicans Wake Up With Election Night Hangover

peterfeld — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:39:44 -0000

And let's not forget Philipstown (Putnam County), where Dems swept a Roger Ailes-backed Republican slate.
http://www.philipstown.info...

Re: Katie Roiphe Critiques Emily Gould-Era Gawker

peterfeld — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:35:16 -0000

You say "righteously indignant but comically defeated, sighing in unison with an audience that believed nothing was as it seemed and nothing would ever really change" as though there's something wrong with it.

Re: Ralph Nader Wants Mike Bloomberg to Run for President

peterfeld — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:59:12 -0000

That last part is not actually true. Nader received almost 98,000 votes in Florida. Some of those people would have stayed home or not voted for Gore, but it's reasonable to assume Gore would have picked up at least 600 votes more than Bush out of that group. If Nader had not been on the ballot, we never would have had George W. Bush.

Re: Scorecard: Romney KO’s Perry in Republican Debate

peterfeld — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:52:25 -0000

The conclusion assumes verdicts from Beltway debate reviewers are dispositive, and omits the $17 million Perry has raised so far that will buy him other ways to reach voters.

Re: Scorecard: Romney KO’s Perry in Republican Debate

peterfeld — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:50:52 -0000

Your conclusion would

Re: Betabeat Reviews: The Terrifying, Awesome New Facebook Timeline

peterfeld — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:51:33 -0000

Ugh.

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/10482217415

peterfeld — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:53:51 -0000

Well, I think it's bad because Facebook is a fundamentally untrustworthy company that routinely abuses the massive amount of personal data it finds ever-new ways to collect. And because it always guides people to converse publicly (by always making that the default path of least resistance, since it's in their interest) when private and thoughtful messages would be much more appreciated.

Yes it's totally expectable on their part, that's why I call them out at every turn, combat Facebook boosterism, and spend ever less time on their site.

Re: Quinn Denounces Turner’s Mosque Ad: ‘Let’s Have Some Things in Our Lives Be Sacred’

peterfeld — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:38:38 -0000

Turner is a fucking moron. This is his first ad? Aside from the noxious racism and despicable Islamophobia, does he seriously think this is a voting issue for anyone? He's going to get creamed, embarrassing himself, Ed Knoch, and anyone else who considers this a competitive race. Anyone who sides against the mosque (or who wants to "compromise" by moving it) has failed one of the simplest moral tests the past year has to offer. And the mosque is a done deal, there is no local or Federal authority that can block it. Suck it, haters.

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/5126083758

peterfeld — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:36:47 -0000

Sorry, just teasing my spammer. Though you wouldn't be my most trusted source on where it's safe to travel :)

Re: Giuliani Sees Obama’s Weakness: The Middle East

peterfeld — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:54:25 -0000

What planet is Rudy on that he thinks a president would be defeated over anything related to foreign policy? Other than starting a war that goes badly.

Re: New Poll Shows That Americans Hate Everyone:

peterfeld — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:29:56 -0000

See but I'd rather blow off the wars, cancel the tax cuts and keep Social Security and Medicare. You're right though that it isn't enough, and it is antiquated. We need better health care reform (maybe more like Hillary's old plan) that genuinely controls costs, and that will bring Medicare and other social programs (as well as business costs) more in line with revenues.

Re: New Poll Shows That Americans Hate Everyone:

peterfeld — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:16:38 -0000

Zach you're great but how is that even logic? Suppose the Tea Party wanted $200 b in cuts, then would Obama's win be even bigger? Boehner and the Tea Party win because they've got Obama and co. to concede their point about the need to cut discretionary spending - needless, economy-crippling cuts which could have been avoided if we hadn't had the massive tax giveaway of December (for which I blame Obama as much as the Republicans). None of them can say they're serious about the debt if they supported the 2001 cuts, the 2010 extension, or the Iraq war for that matter.

Disqus - Latest Comments for peterfeld

Re: think locally act globally — Weiner for Mayor campaign releases first poster.

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/34570155006

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/34506426988

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/30852179207

Re: The #NBCFail Scale: How Bad is the Network’s Olympic Coverage, Really?

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/24682641306

Re: Dogged Times Op-Ed Columnist Gail Collins Will Not Let ‘Crate Gate’ Drop

Re: Runnin' Scared - Jen Doll - TLC Sting Operation Proves Cabbies Still Don't Want to Go to Brooklyn

Re: Exclusive: Obama in 2006: I ‘stole’ book title ‘Audacity of Hope’ from Rev. Wright, ‘my pastor’ [VIDEO]

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

Re: Liberal Obama Critics Are Judging Him Against His Own Words - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic

Re: Poll: Obamaâs Job Approval Still Underwater - Alex Roarty - NationalJournal.com

Re: State Republicans Wake Up With Election Night Hangover

Re: Katie Roiphe Critiques Emily Gould-Era Gawker

Re: Ralph Nader Wants Mike Bloomberg to Run for President

Re: Scorecard: Romney KO’s Perry in Republican Debate

Re: Scorecard: Romney KO’s Perry in Republican Debate

Re: Betabeat Reviews: The Terrifying, Awesome New Facebook Timeline

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/10482217415

Re: Quinn Denounces Turner’s Mosque Ad: ‘Let’s Have Some Things in Our Lives Be Sacred’

Re: http://peterfeld.tumblr.com/post/5126083758

Re: Giuliani Sees Obama’s Weakness: The Middle East

Re: New Poll Shows That Americans Hate Everyone:

Re: New Poll Shows That Americans Hate Everyone:

Re: Poll: Obamaâs Job Approval Still Underwater - Alex Roarty - NationalJournal.com