Thanks to the efforts of Brian Moran and numerous other progressive bloggers in our state, today saw the public rollout of the new iteration of
WashBlog as a Scoop-powered, dKos-inspired blog-community for Washington State. We have a new header -- indicative of the full sweep of the state -- and a new format.
Though the content will concentrate largely on issues of importance to Washington and Washingtonians, we welcome all readers and participants. Like any good Scoop blog, we'll require usernames in order to write diaries and comments. Hurry on down to get yours while the UIDs are low-low-low!
Like dKos,
WashBlog leads off with a group of front-pagers. Brian
profiles them on the WashBlog front page, but they deserve mention here as well. Several are Kossacks, of course.
- switzerblog diaries here, works multiple jobs, practices progressive activism across the state and in his own Legislative District. Not bad for a guy who always invites us call him an idiot in his diary polls.
- noemie maxwell writes with depth and intellect, is a leading light in South King County's 47th LD, and works long and hard to shape Washington's environmental future.
- young Jesse Nelson leads the Sustainability Project at the Institute for Washington's Future, is a grad student at UW's Evans School of Public Affairs, and also blogs at PolitiConduit.
- Arthur Ruger, union shop steward, online publisher, Vietnam vet, MFSO activist, and blogger, lives in the rainswept loggers' paradise of Pacific County.
- Jimmy lives in the Tri-Cities, in the heart of Doc Hastings's district. He insists that he's not the only blue person in that red part of the state, and if the quality of his work at McCranium is any indication, he just might get a little more correct about that every day.
- And of course, Brian, founder of WashBlog and shepherd of its transformation into a community. He lives north of King County, where he's active in the 21st LD, created a reality-based, truthful website that helped remove a nutcase from the Snohomish County Council, and works to build a bridge connecting labor and environmentalists in a progressive coalition.
We see a solid future for WashBlog as a place for dialogue on issues that resonate across the state of Washington, as well as into our neighboring states of Oregon and Idaho. And maybe into British Columbia as well. We're interested in national issues too, but WashBlog will always try to view them through the prism of the shared experience of life in Washington State.
Please stop in to see us at WashBlog as we build ourselves a community we can be proud of. Who knows ... you might need to head over to WashBlog for the latest thoughts from, say, Kossacks like mcjoan or SusanHu, or such bloggers as Jesus' General or David Neiwert -- Washingtonians all...