You used to be able to come here to DU [View All]

and gets all kind of weird, random information nuggets about politics and world news, lots of cool little facts and opinions that gave you an expanded perspective on just about anything and everything that mattered. If any interesting articles had been published lately, you get to read a preview, get a link to the whole thing with a fun list of commentaries from like minded people.

it practically made watching the news redundant. Being a member made you feel like a well-informed, plugged-in human being.

But a lot these cool things are missing right now, being drowned out by a din of repetitious noise that has very little to do with anything other than sheer negativity, ugliness and reproach. It's useless to me. I mean, you can only hit the outrage button so many times until you wear people down and start sounding like a robot, not to mention turning them off from your cause . I've had enough of listening to people trying to attract bees with vinegar, let's try some honey for once and see how that works.

This country has a whole laundry list of fucked up things going on that need to be changed. I'm not ready to jump down someone's throat because their list of priorities is ordered a little different from mine, but right now it seems like the only thing that a lot of people want to do right now - shred each other apart arguing semantics, labeling and dehumanizing those who don't share in their hyperbole.

Right now, I -and I'm sure a few others- want to talk about the economic stimulus package Obama's working on, I want to talk about how much of that stimulus will be used to create American-made cars that out-pace the Prius for MPG. I want to talk about what kind of investments will be made in wind and solar, what kind of tax breaks will people get for buying green products or using green sources of energy and whether CA will get Federal funding for a high speed electric train between Sacramento and LA. How are we going to reform immigration? What are we going to do about these Mormon offshoot cults that are setting up child molestation factories in the rocky mt. states? What are we going to do about the millions of people being kicked out of their home? When are we going to rebuild New Orleans? What are we going to do to combat urban sprawl which causes wasteful use of gasoline and destroys valuable farmland? Can we start talking about scrapping the Federal Reserve and having the Government print money directly as opposed through a private entity that charges interest and inflates the national debt? Constitution amendments to limit the rights of Corporations when their actions negatively effect their communities. What about health care? Getting the cost of prescription drugs down for seniors, funding the VA, what are the details so far for the withdrawal from Iraq? What are we doing to calm down tensions between India and Pakistan? Should we back off of our current alliance with Pakistan? What are we doing in Afghanistan? are we just going to fight? -or modernize their mining industry to undercut the poppy trade? convincing the AG to investigate war crimes anyone? The Republican's just got caught red handed murdering a whistle-blower with a plane crash -and none of us are talking about it. WTF?

So please do PM all your friends to flame my post within 30 seconds of it being posted, I would be a little bit let down if you didn't. I look forward to wearing your reproach as a mantle of honor.