Disqus - Latest Comments for bradfarris

Re: Why the press likes Obama again (Scripting News)

bradfarris — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:13:28 -0000

It's pretty clear that Wright simply doesn't know how to play politics, or isn't interested in playing. When Obama made his speech last month, he was responding to the right wing and to the Clinton campaign, who were calling for him to hurt Wright and to sever their relationship. Obama tried to hurt Wright just a little bit, to do Wright a favor by not throwing him all the way under the bus. Because Wright isn't a politician, he misunderstood Obama's move, and struck back at him with his insinuation that Obama was being disingenuous, that he didn't really mean what he had said in his speech. With Bill Moyers, Wright made some tenuous advances on the idea, and got no pushback. Further, he got some pretty good press around that interview. By the time his Press Club appearance came around, he was feeling very confident and went a little overboard. At that point, Obama really didn't have any choice but to do what the right wing had been howling for. He threw Wright completely under the bus, and the rest, as they say, is history. I have to say that I hope Wright will let it be, and that he won't escalate the situation again, but I'm not overly confident.

Re: What if I lived in Germany (Scripting News)

bradfarris — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:47:26 -0000

This guy is smiply not the demon that the Republics and the Clintonites are trying to make him out to be. As we learn more, it becomes more and more clear that this is little more than a standard Rovian smear campaign, which may in the end be effective but which will nonetheless be despicable, underhanded, hateful, and (more and more) essentially Republican.

Unfortunately, what sometimes gets lost in the chatter is that some enemies of Obama are trying to make an argument through subtext that Obama himself is a racist.

"How can you sit thr ough this for 20 years without being affected by it?" Sound familiar? I know I've heard that question asked by a large number of people, including people who I think should know better. What's the logical extension of this line of thinking? That Obama must be an anti-American racist because he has heard this person talking like this, that the fact that he isn't *overtly* racist and anti-American must mean that he is hiding something, that he must be some sort of "Manchurian Candidate," and that his election will mean the end of our nation's existence.

C'mon, man. Let's hope that most Americans are smarter than the Republics and the anti-Obama partisan Democrats give us credit for. If not, we're in the kind of danger that they want us to believe we are.

Thanks, Dave, for the thoughtful post. The more wie think about this stuff, the more obvious it will become that this is just more of the cr*p that washed-up, incompetent politicians do when whey have nothing real to offer.

Re: Interview with George Lakoff (Scripting News)

amyloo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:26:06 -0000

Yes, I hope we'll see more. Really fascinating. It was necessary to lay down the theoretical basis. Now let's hear more about how the "do tank" can execute on the think tank ideas.

Re: Interview with George Lakoff (Scripting News)

bradfarris — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:22:00 -0000

Great interview, Dave. Professor Lakoff has a profound ability to make complicated concepts understandable. I really enjoyed hearing his explanation of the strict-father and nurturing-parent models, and hearing him talk about what things work well with respect to both the primary and the general elections. Overall, the interview left me hungry for more, and I'm hoping that perhaps you might be able to create some kind of ongoing series. I think that Lakoff could provide a great deal of inspiration and understanding to those of us who discuss politics everyday online and offline. It seems like you've begun to lay a foundation - I hope that you'll be able to continue to build on it. Thanks.

Re: Super Delegates Have No Place In A Democracy

bradfarris — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:30:28 -0000

Democrats are faced with 2 "rules" issues in this primary. Enforcement (or non-enforcement) of each of them favors one or the other candidate. Party members will likely accept a decision which is consisrtent wrt both issues. If superdelegates are compelled to vote with their states (in cintravention of the "rules" established before the election), then it'll be hard to make a case for excluding Michigan and Florida delegates. After all, if you're going to bend the rules in one instance, why not in the other?

I agree with those who prefer to wait a bit. The night is young. Let's wait until we're sure the system is broke before we set about fixing it. We set up the rules before the game started, let's just see how things play out. It's Republics who are known for not trusting the system (e.g. torture anyway, don't let suspected terrorists participate in the criminal justice system, etc.), not Democrats. Let's stick to the high road, and leave the low road to others.

Re: Barack Obama's Technology Proposals

bradfarris — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:41:24 -0000

Obama seems to have a pretty good understanding of technology issues, one which goes beyond what we're used to among presidential figures. One gets the idea that there's no reason to expect Obama to proudly proclaim at some point in the future "I learned to use the Google today."

Re: Tumblweed Tech

bradfarris — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:37:16 -0000

Of course, everybody knows fast food is unhealthy. I didn't realize that there was such a dramatic variation between restaurants in the nutritional makeup of some of this stuff, though.

Re: Tumblweed Tech

bradfarris — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:34:49 -0000

They require your email address (as a result of which you'll undoubtedly receive spam), but other than that it's a good free weapon in the fight against spyware.