Are we going down the tubes, or can we use the tubes to save us from ourselves? When I'm not distracted by the latest news, that's what I'm trying to think about these days. Here are some unfinished thoughts on the topic...

Five people I have spoken to in the last two days, including a House member who sits on the SSA appropriations committee, who are all intimately involved with trying to persuade the Social Security Administration to delay it's "routine maintenance" have all gotten different explanations. From the "this is just our regular time for doing maintenance and it isn't partisan", to "it's the only three day weekend in the fall when our folks are available to do it", to the most draconian, "if we don't do it the entire system will crash". But don't take it from me, feel free to email the Congressional liaison at SSA, kenneth.a.mannella AT ssa DOT gov and ask him yourself!

By Nancy Scola and Allison Fine

We know. It sounds ridiculous at first. But it might not be as crazy as you think. For far too long, the job of election protection has fallen largely to lawyers schooled in election law. But there's an opportunity before us right now and through Election Day for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of citizens to identify and rectify voting problems in real time. Enter Twitter.

Can a loosely-organized Facebook group best the biggest name progressive blogs when it comes to fundraising? That's the question that longtime online organizer Jon Pincus is asking; Ever since Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate, we're heard a lot about the role that the Catholic vote will play in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. But when it comes to who Catholics might cast a ballot for, Church officials and advocates aren't letting the campaigns dictate to them -- or be the only ones using social media to persuade voters; The Obama campaign has kept its powder dry on the so-called Keating Five scandal -- until now; and a good deal more.