Firedoglake is an online news site featuring political reporting and blogs including Emptywheel, TBogg, Christy Hardin Smith, Laura Flanders, Spencer Ackerman (Attackerman), the Oxdown Gazette and La Figa.   The FDL Book Salon also features online discussion with book authors every Saturday and Sunday at 5pm ET.

 

FDL in the news:

 

NYT:   For Brigade of Liberal Bloggers, the Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder  -- February 15, 2007

 

Salon:   FireDogLake's Libby reporting forces a reevaluation of blogs -- February 15, 2007

 

Pressthink:  They're Not in Your Club but They Are in Your League: Firedoglake at the Libby Trial -- March 9, 2007

 

NYT:  For New Journalists, All Bets, but Not Mikes, Are Off -- June 8, 2008

 

Huffington Post:  Jane Hamsher and Jerome Corsi Go Head To Head -- October 7, 2008

 

Contributors

Attaturk: In 1949, I decided to wrestle professionally, starting my career in Texas. In my debut, I defeated Abe Kashey, with former World Heavyweight boxing Champion Jack Dempsey as the referee. In 1950, I captured the NWA Junior Heavyweight title. In 1953, I won the Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship. I became one of the most well-known stars in wrestling during the golden age of television, thanks to my exposure on the Dumont Network, where I wowed audiences with my technical prowess. I was rumored to be one of the highest paid wrestlers during the 1950s, reportedly earning a hundred thousand dollars a year. My specialty was "the Sleeper Hold" and the founding of modern, secular, Turkey. Oops, sorry, that's the biography of Verne Gagne with a touch of Mustafa Kemal. I'm just an average moron.

Bevw, is Beverly Wright, the FireDogLake Book Salon Editor.  She is a retired federal law enforcement officer, and Telecommunications and Security Electronics Program Manager for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, DOJ, after 32 years in the federal government.  She lives in the DC metro area. Email: BevJWright@gmail.com.

Blue Texan has been an observer of right-wing politics since 2006, when he founded Instaputz. An FDL contributor since 2007, his writings have also been published at Unclaimed Territory and AlterNet. He can be reached at bluetexanmail@gmail.com.

Bmaz is an attorney in Phoenix, Arizona practicing criminal defense, civil rights and civil trial law.  He is a graduate of Arizona State University, both undergraduate and School of Law, and covers legal and political issues for FireDogLake and sister site Emptywheel.  Bmaz is a fan of sports, music, automobiles and margaritas and can be reached at bmaz22@gmail.com.

Christina Siun O'Connell writes on conflict zones for Firedoglake with a focus on Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In her professional life, she was an early specialist on online communications and worked in publishing and media relations before directing the development of the first corporate social responsibility news service. She currently advises multinational organizations on sustainability and climate change management and communications.

Egregious, known in real life as Susan McIntosh, writes on social and economic issues and has worked backstage for Firedoglake since attending the Libby trial in early 2007. Lesser accomplishments include a Harvard MBA, being the mother of 3 Democrats, founding a charity to support heart surgery in Russia, working at Mass. General Hospital, and performing at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. Email: egregiousfdl@gmail.com.

Elliott plunged into FireDogLake during the Libby trial and has been swimming around the Lake from cove to cove ever since (3rd on the right from the left).  She compiles Sunday Talking Heads and puts up assorted Oxdown Diaries, some of which are just for so.  A collector of information, and well just about anything else, Ellie Elliott currently resides in Reading, Pennsylvania, with her stuff and 74 cats; oh all right, not really 74, just 3--plus 1 woebegone dog.  She can be reached at 634-5789 or EllieElliott@gmail.com. 

Emptywheel is Marcy Wheeler. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA Leak Case, and proprietor of the eponymous Emptywheel blog. She is best known for her liveblogging and her weedy analyses of boring government documents on subjects including warrantless wiretapping and political corruption. More recently, she has used her automotive consulting background to cover the auto bailout. She has a PhD from University of Michigan and a BA from Amherst College. She lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

Eureka Springs spent many years in recruitment and personnel placement for many of the worlds largest companies in San Francisco's financial district.  While working in the film and video industry, he studied photography at City College of San Francisco.  Later he founded an international export fashion business and opened successful retail clothing stores in several states. Today, he is trying to beat the economic crisis by paying off his mortgage before the ripe old age of 45, and by supporting the progressive movement backstage at FireDogLake. He shares his lifelong love of new music as a host of FDL Late Late Nights. 

Kirk James Murphy, M.D. is a board certified psychiatrist and medical educator who completed formal fellowship training in consultation-liaison and trauma psychiatry as well as undergoing advanced training in human sexuality, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, and cognitive behavioral therapy.  After many years providing care to organ transplant patients and oncology patients in a renowned Los Angeles academic medical center he moved to the Bay Area, trading less challenging work for far lovlier surroundings.  For over a dozen years he's participated in and provided medical support for non-violent eco-protection efforts including those of EarthFirst!, the Ruckus Society, and many forest protection campaigns. This work enabled him to identify the pattern of neurotoxic symptoms in civilians exposed to chemical weapons during the 1999 Seattle WTO protests.  His greatest activist success so far was his successful effort to ensure the precautionary principle was the framework for the LA Unified School District's pesticide reform plan, thus ensuring the principle's wide adoption in other jurisdictions.  He writes for FireDogLake on food safety, environmental, and human rights issues.

Lisa Derrick writes La Figa for FireDogLake and hostesses FDL Movie Nights. She attended, in theory, UC Berkeley and Loyola Marymount University, but spent more time in punk rock clubs than class, eventually matriculating to autodidactic studies in lots of weird useless pop culturey stuff. She has worked in bookstores, at record labels, on film sets, in nightclubs and as a freelance writer, as well as writing for and editing Grammy and Sacred History magazines. Her hobbies are religion, history, arcane feminine arts and crafts, and re-runs of Beverly Hills 90210. Film noir, American melodrama, vintage jewelry and ice cream make her really happy. She can be reached at lalisa.derrick93@gmail.com.

Masaccio has a law degree from Indiana University and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He began his career as a corporate and securities lawyer. He then worked in consumer protection and securities law for several years before becoming the securities commissioner of his home state. He has practiced business and bankruptcy law for the past 25 years. Beginning with an expensive and slightly frightening experience with Small Martingale as a young man, he has had an opportunity to see, investigate, sue and prosecute a wide variety of fraud cases, including check-kiting, critter contracts, churning, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, and stock market manipulation. This background is helpful in his work for FDL, which focuses on explaining the financial industry of today. He can be reached at masaccio68@gmail.com

Peterr is an ordained Lutheran pastor in the Kansas City area, with a BA in math and economics from a nice secular Big Ten university to go with his Master of Divinity and PhD in religion. He has been writing at FireDogLake since mid-2006 on matters of religion and politics, international events, sexuality and politics, language and public speaking, government accountability, and other topics that catch his attention. Email: peterr.fdl@gmail.com.

Phoenix Woman lives in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and has done so all her life. She has zero off-internet professional accomplishments to speak of and is thus embarrassed to be around her fellow FDLers.  She did, however, manage to cobble together enough social skills to find a mate and has been with said mate for over a quarter of a century.  Her hobbies are container gardening, reading, bicycling, and disputation--not necessarily in that order.  She can be reached at womanphoenix@yahoo.com.

Based in Massachusetts, Scarecrow works on electricity issues and translates for a group of economists.  Before that he spent a couple decades as an attorney and policy advisor for a state energy agency with a focus on energy efficiency, alternative energy and electricity markets and regulation.  He occasionally writes diaries on public policy issues including economics, energy, heath care reform and the rule of law.  You can reach him at scarecrowjohn@gmail.com.

Spencer Ackerman writes the Attackerman blog for FireDogLake, which focuses on national security and punk rock. Ackerman is the national security reporter for The Washington Independent, a nonprofit online news service, and has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. A former staff reporter for Talking Points Memo and The New Republic, his work has appeared in the Atlantic, the Nation, Slate, Salon, the American Prospect, Men's Journal and other publications. A Brooklyn native, he graduated from Rutgers University in 2002 with a BA in philosophy. Email: sackerman@washingtonindependent.com.

Suzanne, known in real life as Suzanne Buck, is co-host of the Late Late Nite FireDogLake music and classic cartoon posts.  Suzanne retired from the Fremont (California) Police Department after 24 years working in both a sworn and non-sworn capacity, including Patrol and Crimes Against Persons.  She currently lives on the North Oregon Coast where she enjoys writing at her own blog, TwoTonGreenBlog and working backstage at FireDogLake.  Email: ten67x@gmail.com.

TBogg, unlike all of the other contributors at FireDogLake, never completed college. Actually, he barely attended. But never mind that, TBogg writes about whatever he wants at the FDL affiliate site coincidentally called TBogg. Weird, hunh? He lives in San Diego with his wife and his dogs who are all much more popular than him. He can be reached at tblogg@hotmail.com. No fatties.

San Francisco-based Teddy Partridge blogs about LGBT issues, media irresponsibility, and obstructionist Democrats for FireDogLake. A graduate of Williams College, Teddy is a state-certified AIDS outreach trainer, was once a strategic planner for a Fortune 100 company, and now develops grant strategies for non-profits.  He likes photographing flowers in Golden Gate Park.  You can reach Teddy by emailing teddypartridge@gmail.com.

Thers is Andrew J. Haggerty. He works as a community college English professor in upstate New York. He has a PhD from the University of Miami; academically, he has published on Jane Austen, Harper Lee, Irish literary and cultural history, and censorship. For FDL, as on his personal blog, Whiskey Fire, he specializes in detailed analyses of contemporary conservative discourse, especially online.

TobyWollin, like many others here at the Lake, was pulled in by the watery sirens when she typed “Libby Trial” into a search engine and has not been able to escape since. Author of the seminal, but unpublished work on alternative sewage systems (“So, You Want A Composting Toilet”), Toby’s claims to fame are curiosity, a willingness to wrestle livestock to the ground, and her breezy but sensible writing style when dealing with topics on household economics, politics and the social scene. Many of her writings are also published at her blog, Kitchen Counter Economics. She and the various animals in residence at any time can be found at Chez Siberia on the Susquehanna in Upstate New York or at htwollin@gmail.com.

Watertiger, who often goes by the forgettable alias "Danielle Mazur," is one of the wiseasses responsible for FireDogLake's Late Nite snark/rant sessions, and can sometimes be prodded to cough up additional witty bon mots during the day, if asked politely (or bribed).  A New York City native and hopeless Jets fan, she is a graduate of Barnard College and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, but retired from the practice of law in order to regain her humanity. Besides her top secret day job with the NSA and overseeing her blog Dependable Renegade, she is also a comedy writer for Shoot The Messenger Productions.  She can be reached at watertiger10@yahoo.com.