OK, hiatus over. One of the main reasons for taking a break was that politics was making me nuts, and I wanted to step back and find a way to cope. I didn't have time to cover all the political issues I felt were important, nor even time to do justice to the most urgent of those issues. Being unable to provide comprehensive coverage made me freeze up (again). I still don't have time to cover everything, but no one who wants to be politically well informed is going to rely on me as a news source anyway. For the most part, I'm just going to point to the most pressing issues, or the ones that press my particular hot buttons, and leave it at that. For everything else, see my blogroll. I chose the "primarily political" links with great care, and I really do think that between them they provide more comprehensive coverage than any mainstream news source, and I guarantee that they provide better analysis.

The other thing I'm going to start doing is passing on the various petitions and letters I sign. I'm on a bunch of mailing lists, all of which pretty regularly send me information about current issues and links to web pages where you can take some kind of action -- sign a petition, send a letter, and so on. Without exception, they also ask me to "tell a friend" (or five friends, or everyone I know, or whatever). It's clear that such networking is a powerful tool for political and charitable organizations. I'm not going to sign anyone up for these lists, which is of course what happens when you "just use this handy web form" to send emails -- but I will post the links here. I don't kid myself that I'm doing much by responding to these prompts, but I'm doing something, and that's better than nothing. Right?

(Oh, and I'll bribe the spousal unit to fix that thing with the spurious links too, but don't hold your breath 'cos she's plenty busy.)