Bad Catholic II : Convocation

I let work keep me away for too long, now I really need to step it up. I am hopelessly fascinated by the drama; being a Catholic is much similar to being a non-practicing Jewish person; having been raised in it, I may agree with much of the outside criticism, but at some point the non-Catholics take it too far and I have to say "wait a minute..." 

What Kind of a Nut Buys a Phone Bank During the Great Recession, pt.2

I've spent the last 4 days in the phone bank, listening to my callers actually conducting my calls. It is a very humbling experience. Like hearing a recording of your voice, I occasionally cringe and think "Wow! I wrote that?" In general, for questionnaire writing, some tips -- since all of you seem to think Survey Monkey and its ilk mean you've got the chops --

Messaging to African-American Communities About LGBT Equality

Whew.  This report has been a long-time in coming, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that producing it has cost me at least one of my nine catty lives...at the same time, it's the rare project for me wherein I really learned a lot of things that I did not know before, and I feel we broke new ground because there is so little in-depth research in the area.

Free Speech for People

Subtitle "SCOTUS = SCum" Actually, I think Dems and progressives need to stop wringing their hands and moaning about public financing, and accept the Supreme Court's Jan 21st ruling that corporations are entitled to spend unlimited funds in our elections for what it is: a great gift tossed right in our laps in our time of need, and a fabulous wedge issue for 2010, 2012, and possibly beyond.

December is for Cynics

It is hard for me to decide what was the most cynical abuse of a news story for political opportunism this week:  do I choose the national story of Republicans wailing that the failed Christmas Underpants Bomber was the President’s fault because he refuses to use the phrase “war on terror” every day, or should I choose my local tiny-town story of potheads linking a violent rape to police preoccupation with chasing around potheads?

Splitting Hairs

So, the Washington Post prominently displays its top article on A1 today about a poll of Republicans and Republican leaners . 4 pages of charts, graphs and puffery about the Direction of the GOP, but NOWHERE can I find the most important piece of data – in their random sample, how many people self-identified as Republicans?