I don't know how many of you are pro sports fans.  And, admittedly, this is far from the key issue any of us are facing right now.  But it is still an issue that should be discussed--especially if you want to know how you tax dollars are being spent.

Seattle's Rep McDermott endorses Obama today!

So add another superdelegate to the Obama list.  The news was announced on the Seattle PI just a few minutes ago:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/...

How many of you have ever read Democratic Left the magazine of the Democratic Socialists of America ?  If you haven't, you are missing a vital part of the spectrum of diverse views that go to make up this great Democratic Party.  The history of the  Democratic Party will reveal many significant contributions from DSA .  The founding editor of Democratic Left was Michael Harrington (1928-1989).  My diary Michael Harrington: An American Socialist who influenced the democratic party was well recieved here and had a significant impact.  As we struggle with a situation that seems to have created a consensus for change, the question of what we want that change to be will be a central topic for some time to come.  It is worth having a good source of information to counter the misleading approach the corporate media throw at us without ceasing.  Look below to see what Democratic Left has to offer you.

The major Seattle papers suffer from "split personality" - or "Part A/Part B disorder".

The Seattle Times often has excellent Part A features covering the environment and Iraq. It was the Times where flag-draped US military coffins were first shown. On the other hand, its Part B sucks - particularly in election times, when its estate-tax-obsessed owners impose a pro-Republican endorsement line.

What about the Seattle P-I? According to its editorial pages, it is a model of progressivism - the perfect paper for a city that has recently become a major competitor for the title "progressive capital U.S.A.". But Part A? Too often, the front page serves as a hidden ad for business interest, most notably the real-estate lobby.

And sometimes, P-I's editors just go to sleep and let the night people paste in whatever tripe AP sends their way. As, for example, in today's page A4, featuring an "analysis piece" on Rev. Wright by... none other than our sweet Nedra Pickler.

I think the P-I should get an earful from its progressive base over this. Contact details below the fold.

This isn't much of a diary as it is a public service announcement.

It is illegal to park a Hummer overnight in Seattle.

Seattle has a city ordinance declaring it illegal to park any vehicle over 80 inches in width between the hours of midnight and 6am, unless in a manufacturing or industrial area.  H2 Hummers are actually 81 and a half inches wide.  See this site for more details.

To report parking violations in the city of Seattle, call 206-625-5011.

I'm not a scientist or even a person who is thoroughly informed about the political aspects of global warming, but I hope to invite informed commentary from people who are more learned than myself.

It's April 8 in Seattle. The sky is partly sunny, but it's only 46 degrees outside. We haven't really had a warm day yet this year.

This is bizarre. I remember busting out t-shirts for walks outside in March. It just isn't happening this year, and this summer is shaping up to be another one of the cool summers like we had last year. Last year, it seemed there were only four or five days that were truly describable as "hot."

What is up with this? Can someone enlighten me as to the effects of global warming with regard to cooling things down?

Something's happening; I'm just not sure what it is.

This might be an odd thing to post at daily kos, but I think to myself it isn't quite fully off topic.  It does involve a certain level of politics, while also showing the power of the grassroots and netroots.

Major League Soccer is expanding to Seattle.  The ownership is made up of Joe Roth (Hollywood Producer), Paul Allen (yeah, that one), Adrian Hannauer (local soccer supporter) and Drew Carey.  Drew has some things that might not make him popular here at dKos, but in this case he ONLY joined the ownership because they agreed with him to attempt to bring Democracy to American sports.

This effort would be an echo of what has been done with the Barcelona club in Spain.  The most notable element is that the fans can vote on the President of the Club.  But Seattle's first test is coming up, quite simply - the name vote.

I am a professor and head of journalism at the University of Washington, and on Thursday, Feb. 28, a dozen undergraduate students and I will travel to Texas to cover the presidential campaigns and March 4 primary and caucuses. We'll be based in Austin, and will be on the move to places like San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, heck maybe even Corpus Christi. We'll be writing for our website, seattlepoliticore.org, huffingtonpost, and a number of traditional news outlets around the Northwest. Our website is read by a large number of Northwest youth -- and some kossacks, thanks!

So, here's the thing: we want your input. We are looking for ideas -- anything you think the traditional media are missing or not giving adequate attention.

Obama and Clinton supporters: this is your chance to drive some of the media conversation about the Texas campaigns and dynamics. Fire away. And please recommend this diary so a large number of readers get a chance to feed us suggestions.  

More info below.

"I've wanted to do this since Bobby Kennedy...'' "I haven't been this excited since John F. Kennedy..." These are just a few of the exhilarated statements I've heard (while writing for SeattlePoliticore.org) from multiple caucus participants in both Idaho and Washington these past few weeks. There is only one word I can think of to truly sum-up this election year, and the privilege of getting to cover it: momentous.

This weekend, our family may have discovered inadvertently and first-hand another reason why caucuses are a bad idea in the 21st century.

If you're just flipping through, here is the bottom line: since the Washington caucuses took place on Saturday at 1 PM and the official time window for signing up was only a half-hour , we had to drag our 3 kids with us to the caucus location - a nearby elementary school. The older ones played outside, but the two-year-old stuck with us.

By the time we managed to get out of there, he had spent over half an hour in a hall crowded with hundreds of people. Not only did our toddler miss his nap, but that night he came down with a cold or (I still hope not) flu.

I hope this helps serve as warning to people going to primaries and caucuses in the remaining states, and as another incentive to eliminate this outdated mode of voting.

More details about flu season and the particular caucus we attended, below the flap.

This is how a team of 16 students at the University of Washington saw Democratic and Republican caucuses around King County today.  King County includes heavily-blue Seattle and the purple Eastside of Lake Washington, which includes Microsoft-dominated Redmond.

We liveblogged the Seattle-area caucuses at seattlepoliticore.org. I'm the students' prof and head of journalism at the UW. The site's content is part journalism, part pundit, part political-newbies. Altogether, the site presents these caucuses through youthful eyes.

Along the way we learned something important about the Obama and Clinton campaigns. We didn't set out to learn this -- but the campaigns taught us loud and clear.

Cross-posted at MyDD.

I just got back from the caucus in my legislative district here in Seattle.  

Some notes: first time I've caucused.  I'm originally from New Hampshire where, as most here know, they hold primaries.

We all met in an elementary school and divided up into precincts.  Turnout as we will hear more today was huge.

One thing I liked was that you get to meet your neighbors and talk about why you support your candidate.  It truly is democracy in action (though other ways are too).  To show up, it is clear you want to participate and care about your candidate (if you have one) and the process.

continues...

 I was elected a delegate!  Which I'm SOOOO excited about...but now info on the votes below.  Obama gets 4 delegates and Clinton 1.

Update:  Just to be clear, I'm a legislative district and county delegate...not a state or national delegate...at least not yet.  I'm SOOOO hoping. ;)

I just returned from my caucus in Seattle, and our precinct followed the following:

1st round
Voters = 77
Obama = 58
Clinton = 10
Richardson = 1...yea, I don't get it either
Undecided = 8

more below...

We can use this as an open thread as well... for people to report in their precinct numbers.

I travel around a lot for work -- I'm a native of Oregon, lived in Nevada last year, and moved here to Seattle last November.  Today I walked the 2 blocks to my local precinct to go caucus for my candidate.  I left my house at 12:45 because I wanted to get there a little early as I had to register to vote in Washington.  My local precinct holds its caucus in this apartment building here on Capital Hill (on "Republican Street" -- no kidding!), and boy was I shocked to see the line of fellow Democrats going out the door, across the alley and down the street TO THE NEXT BLOCK, all waiting their turn to sign in and begin the caucus process.

It all started Thursday night...Barack Obama is coming to town. Okay, so is Hillary. He's speaking a a rally Friday afternoon. Yeah, well Hillary's speaking on Thursday night. It'll be at Key Arena, estimated crowd at least 17,000. Well, okay...now that beats the heck out of Hillary's crowd of 5,000.
Pictures from hope rally

On Saturday in Seattle, thousands who have never done anything political will attend Democratic Party caucuses to register a vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Other newbies will attend Republican caucuses -- though there may only 10 or so such folks in blue-as-blue-comes Seattle.

On Saturday in Seattle the majority of the state's 97 Democratic Party presidential delegates will be awarded.

On Saturday in Seattle we'll see if Obama or Clinton gain the momentum coming out of Super Tuesday.

On Saturday in Seattle 16 20-something University of Washington students will be at the caucuses and will chronicle the events.  We'll be online and we hope you'll join us at least part of the day.

Well, here it is.  I'm going into no-man's land.  Good thing I'm a woman.  

I was hard-core Gore.  All he did was win a few paltry prizes (snark).  I gave my love to Edwards, but he had no stone.  Wait, that was the cherry I gave my love.  Edwards had no delegates.  Ok, he obviously had some.  But not enough.

So....decisions, decisions.  

I just returned from Senator Obama’s rally in Seattle and it was packed!  Seattle’s Key Arena can hold 17,000 people.  It was reported that there were 18,000 people there with 3,000+ people outside!  In contrast the Clinton rally had 5,000 people.  In other words there was a 4 to 1 difference.  Add to this the fact that the rally was held during the day where Clinton’s was held at night....more below.

Great slideshow from seattlepi.com thanks to aj4runner from the comments