Monthly Archives: September 2008

(Community Matters) The Annual Out & Equal Summit underway in Austin. Major sponsors include Dell, Deloitte, HP, Accenture, Citi and many others. Hundreds of reps from Fortune 500 companies and others gathering in Austin to discuss equality in the workplace, best practices and to network.

Equality Texas’ Paul Scott & hubby, Scott Simons, hosted a reception tonight welcoming some attendees and introducing Tony Broaddus of the Equality Federation. Nice gathering and good conversations. Equality Federation also an important organization.

(Community Matters) If I’m reading Nate Silver correctly, the increased sampling of Republicans in this week’s polls may be simply the tally of those polled rather than a deliberate weighting. Certainly would be the case with Gallup and SurveyUSA which do not force the samples. Rasmussen weighs samples for party id according to a three week average.

More disturbing is imagining that average 9-ish point increase in sample would be a bounce or a shift from convention.

(Community Matters) Obama’s education plan is informed by his real experience overseeing a $150 million philanthropic investment in Chicago schools.

Expanding early childhood education, supporting charter schools, closing failing schools and focus on teacher quality, these are some of the quite well-informed positions Barack is promoting in his education policy initiatives.

(Community Matters) Hosted dinner and a reading of Michael Mitchell’s two plays, Highway Home and Them, which ABPorter.org is producing at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Nov/December. Award-winning Katie Pearl is directing. Natalie George is the production manager. Yvonne Boudreaux has joined us as set and costume designer. And, a terrific cast: Jude Hickey, Gina Houston, Garry Peters and Douglas Taylor.

(Community Matters) Regret that I missed the opening of Sante Ventures offices yesterday evening. I have to send something today in celebration of their milestone. Kudos to managing directors Kevin Lalande, Doug French and Joe Cunningham – super duper group of guys.

Sante: a new venture capital firm with deep healthcare investment experience. Our founding premise is simple: we partner with exceptional entrepreneurs and executives to build uncommonly valuable healthcare companies. In addition to capital, we provide healthcare domain expertise, an extensive network of contacts and singular industry focus. Santé invests exclusively in early-stage medical technology, healthcare services and healthcare IT companies.

(Community Matters) Nate told us to anticipate even more bounce today, but nothing like the 20 point lead in North Carolina. He caution that it’s probably an outlier, yet still, even if it is 10pts. Polls also showing some negative movement in New Jersey. Perhaps NC not in play after all but other battleground states remain. posting here

(Community Matters) This article explains the up to 9pt shift in polling methodology over the last week which is likely to account for a big swing in the polls (on top of the GOP convention bounce

Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz is highly skeptical of the new Gallup, USA Today and CBS polls. About the latter, which showed a statistically insignificant two point lead for McCain, Abramowitz said: “One reason for the dramatic difference between the two recent CBS polls is that the two samples differed fairly dramatically in terms of partisan composition. The first sample was 35.2% Democratic, 26.2 percent Republicans, and 38.6 percent independent. The second sample was 34.9% Democratic, 31.1% Republican, and 34.0% independent. That’s a change from a 9 point Democratic advantage to a 3.8 point Democratic advantage. That alone would probably explain about half of the difference in candidate preferences between the two [CBS] polls.” full article here

(Community Matters) Good gosh. They spend entire days and nights at stations. Who the heck cares if they watch porn? In fact, I move that council pass a resolution specifically exempting any personnel required to serve overnight on standby at city facilities from internet policies and procedures – requiring, of course that they abide by all state & federal laws. AAS story Watch, someone’s going to try to outlaw masturbation in the dorms next.

(Community Matters) So typically Bush-style Republican: talk about fiscal stewardship, take meaningless actions (such as opposing the bridge to no where only after its funding has been cut) and then personally feed at the trough. The Washington Post is now reporting how Palin and her family billed Alaskans for 312 days, (i.e., collecting the per diem intended to reimburse for lodging and meals while traveling on state business) while they were home in Wasilla. The governor’s husband and daughters charged Alaska $44,000 for their personal travel. story here

(Community Matters) I’d received this email via internet many times but hadn’t posted b/c no independent confirmation it was from a real neighbor. Now, several sources have verified its authenticity. Thanks Stephen Walls for sending the latest.

(Community Matters) Michael Mitchell and I were walking up S. Congress last night looking for a place to have dinner and talked about the parking lot just south of the Congress Avenue Baptist Church. Today, AAS reports on the boutique hotel being developed. Very cool for S. Congress. San Jose stays booked.

(Community Matters) Gotta love it