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, also known as Bev Wright, Firedoglake Book Salon Editor. Everything interests me, not enough time in a day…I am a retired federal law enforcement office from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, DOJ, after 32 years in the federal government. I have traveled the US and overseas, lived in houses, RV’s and Sailboats, grew up working on cars as a kid, then, electronics and construction, ending up a Program Manger in Security Electronics and Telecommunications, with a top secret clearance for 30 years. The whole time I probably had several books within reach. After two years of retirement and video games, and Hosting Drinking Liberally, FDL found me. I enjoy the Book Salons, the challenges of scheduling the authors and hosts, but mostly, the interaction between our readers and the authors. Our readers are fantastic. I live 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.

Cynthia Kouril is a former Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York under several different U.S. Attorneys, former counsel to the Inspector General for the N.Y.C. Department of Environmental Protection [where she investigated threats to the New York City water supply and other environmental crimes, as well as public corruption and fraud against the government], former Examining Attorney at the N.Y.C. Department of Investigation and former Capital Construction Counsel at New York City Parks and Recreation. She is now in private practice with a colleague whom she met while at the USA Attorney’s Office. Ms. Kouril is a member of the Steering Committee, National Committeewoman and Regional Coordinator for the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, a member of the Program Committee of the Federal Bar Council and an alumna of the Election Law Committee at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She was NYS election day in-state litigation counsel for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Most important of all, she is a mom.

David Dayen is the reporter for FDL News Desk, the breaking news and information site at Firedoglake. He has been blogging since 2004 at his own site D-Day (d-day.blogspot.com), as well as contributing to the nationally recognized Digby’s Hullabaloo and the California progressive political site Calitics. His work has appeared in the LA Times, the Washington Post and Capitol Weekly, and he has been a guest on NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America. He has a BA from the University of Michigan, and prior to blogging was a TV/film producer and editor for a decade, and performed stand-up comedy in clubs and colleges across the country. With all these multiple careers, he hopes to one day find something he’s good at.

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 three 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 serves as weekend editor, compiles Sunday Talking Heads, and puts up assorted diaries at The Seminal, some of which are just for so. She can be reached at EllieElliott@gmail.com.

Eureka Springs spent many years in recruitment and personnel placement for many of the world’s 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, and can be reached at eurekaspringer@gmail.com.

Jonathan Walker is a graduate from Welseyan University and is currently living in Washington DC. He started ‘The Walker Report’ a blog about politics and public policy with a strong focus on the issue of health care. Walker is currently working full time for Firedoglake writing on the FDL action page.

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 lovelier surroundings. For over a dozen years he’s participated in and provided medical support for non-violent eco-protection efforts including 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 in 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.

Lowell Feld founded and edited Raising Kaine, one of the largest state-based progressive political blogs in the country, and now runs Blue Virginia. In early 2006, Feld co-founded the Draft James Webb movement, gathering 1,000 signatures and $40,000 in pledges for a Webb candidacy in just a few weeks. In July 2006, Feld joined the Webb for Senate campaign as its netroots coordinator, helping to raise more than $4 million online (out of about $8 million total). In 2008, Feld consulted for the South Dakota Democratic Party and the Judy Feder for Congress campaign. He is co-author – with Nate Wilcox – of the book, “Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Progressive Bloggers and Online Activists is Changing American Politics.” In addition, Feld has 17+ years of experience in world oil markets as an analyst and team leader with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Marcy Wheeler writes as “emptywheel” at Firedoglake, and is best known for her groundbreaking live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial and her weedy analysis of Bush’s torture memos. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, which served as a primer of the CIA leak case. She has also worked to hold the Bush Administration accountable for its illegal warrantless wiretapping. Wheeler has a PhD from the University of Michigan and has spoken on blogging and politics at Amherst College, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Claremont McKenna, Princeton, and Duke Law School. In April 2009 she was awarded the 2009 Hillman Prize for Blog Journalism.

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.

Scarecrow has worked for several years with economists/consultants working on energy and electricity policy issues. Before that he spent two decades as an attorney and policy adviser for a state energy agency with a focus on energy efficiency, alternative energy and electricity markets and regulation. He now writes on public policy issues including economics, energy, heath care reform, media 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 is a host of Late Late Night FDL music and cartoon posts in addition to spending most evenings behind the FDL backstage curtain flipping levers. She used to be a practicing heterosexual but now it appears that she is just a consultant. Avid reader since teaching herself how to read when four. Navy brat and first born so she is always thinking of the consequences. Double Irish so she usually got caught. Turned her misspent youth around and became that scary thing in your rear view mirror. She retired from the Fremont (California) Police Department after 24 years of sworn and non-sworn duties, including Patrol and the Crimes Against Persons Unit. Currently living on the North Oregon Coast with Token, cutest dog in the world (9 lb category), where she enjoys taking non-crime scene photographs, 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, huh? 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.

Teddy Partridge blogs about LGBT issues, media irresponsibility, obstructionist Democrats, and California elections for Firedoglake from San Francisco. 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 to photograph flowers in Golden Gate Park. You can reach Teddy by emailing teddypartridge@gmail.com.

Thers is Andrew J. Haggerty. 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 crusades against the lack of civility in our national discourse, something that really pisses him off.

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 completely forgettable alias “Danielle Mazur,” is one of the smartasses responsible for Firedoglake’s Late Night snark/rant sessions, and can sometimes be prodded to cough up additional witty bon mots during the day, if asked politely (or bribed generously). A New York City native and hopeless Jets fan, she is also a recovering attorney who retired from the practice of law in order to regain her humanity. Besides toiling away at her utterly fascinating day job and overseeing her completely forgettable blog, Dependable Renegade, she is also a comedy writer for Shoot The Messenger Productions. She can be reached at watertiger10@yahoo.com.