“We trust you are all reading AMERICAblog” – Rolling Stone
AMERICAblog is a journal of news and opinion about US politics, both domestic and foreign, from a progressive point of view. Follow AMERICAblog on Twitter at @americablog and @americabloggay.
AMERICAblog was created by John Aravosis, a former writer for the Economist with a joint law degree/masters in foreign service from Georgetown and over twenty years experience working in national politics in Washington, DC. At AMERICAblog, we don’t just link to the news, we give you an insider’s look at what’s important and why.
AMERICAblog launched on April 24, 2004, and quickly became one of the most influential political blogs in the United States, with monthly traffic of 1 million page views and 300,000 unique readers (Google Analytics). The AMERICAblog family of sites now includes AMERICAblog Gay (2009) and AMERICAblog Elections (2011), and has been recognized as a “top website” by PC Magazine, a top ten liberal political blog by Personal Democracy Forum, and PeekScore recognized John Aravosis as one of the “top ten liberal bloggers.”
In addition to expert analysis of the day’s news, AMERICAblog has broken a number of high-profile stories, including:
* BP photoshops fake photo of oil spill crisis command center to make it look busy.
* Conservative White House reporter Jeff Gannon exposed as male prostitute.
* AMERICAblog just bought General Wesley Clark’s cell phone records for $89.95. (AMERICAblog’s reporting was responsible for “pretexting” finally being outlawed in this country.)
* Mormons secretly baptize Obama’s deceased mother.
* Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children.
OUR STAFF
JOHN ARAVOSIS – EDITOR
John Aravosis is a Washington, DC-based writer and political consultant, specializing in using the Internet for politics. He is the editor-in-chief of AMERICAblog, AMERICAblog Gay, and AMERICAblog Elections.
John has a degree in rhetoric from the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana), a diploma from the University of Paris (Sorbonne), and a joint law degree and masters in foreign service from Georgetown University. John’s writing experience includes working as a stringer for both the Economist and RADAR, and having been published in the New Republic and New York Daily News, among others. Washingtonian magazine’s annual “50 Best Journalists” issue named John one of “journalism’s rising stars, those likely to have a major impact in coming years.” John has also been honored as one of the “Out 100,” and by the Advocate as one of the fifty “most powerful gay men and women in America.”
| Profile of John in Le Parisien |
John’s policy experience includes working as a legislative attorney in the United States Senate, a consultant at the World Bank, and a children’s right’s advocate at the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1997, John launched his own political Internet consulting firm, with clients ranging from governments (US Department of State, HHS, CDC, the city of Barcelona, the Social Democratic Party of Sweden) to non-profits (ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NEA, AFSCME). John continues consulting to this day.
| John talks 2012 on CNN |
John is also a frequent TV pundit, and has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, ABC News, Nightline, CNN’s Reliable Sources, MSNBC and more. John is also regularly quoted in American and foreign media. John speaks five languages (has worked and done interviews in French, Spanish and Italian), and has visited or worked in 29 countries, including conducting lectures and training about the Internet and politics in France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Morocco, Indonesia and Cote d’Ivoire.
Follow John on Twitter @aravosis and Facebook.
CHRISTOPHER RYAN – DEPUTY EDITOR
“Chris in Paris” is an American living in Paris, France. He is Deputy Editor of AMERICAblog. Chris graduated from Ohio State with a BA in History and Political Science.
He has offered consulting services to US and Israeli software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Chris is currently launching a new cloud-based startup for the Microsoft market.
Chris dropped everything (courtesy of the bubble bursting) and suited up a backpack with his wife for a year to visit the world in 2002-2003, where he discovered that living on the cheap was easy and fun, traveling across Southeast Asia, Japan, Central America and southern Africa. Between work and fun, Chris has traveled across six continents and over 46 countries and still dreams of seeing the mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. Chris’ focus on AMERICAblog is writing about Wall Street, the economy, and foreign affairs.
GAIUS PUBLIUS – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Gaius Publius is a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States. Gaius has written in a variety of genres and styles. He’s published short stories and poetry, books on education & technology, and is currently working on two book-length projects, including one novel.
In addition to writing, Gaius has been a professional educator and currently manages a small publishing consultancy. He holds a Bachelors degree in Great Books with a side concentration in physics and math, and a Masters in English and Communication.
Gaius is an occasional guest on progressive media shows, such as Ring of Fire Radio and Virtually Speaking.
Follow Gaius on Twitter: @gaius_publius.
WRITERS
Naomi Seligman has built her career on transforming start-up advocacy organizations into powerhouses of opinion and social change. She has played a pivotal role in ending the careers of some of the most corrupt members of Congress, exposing front groups and the corporate interests behind them and systematically rooting out misinformation in the media.
Naomi launched and directed the communications operations of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Media Matters for America. Naomi has taken on the most aggressive conservatives of our time. She was a scourge of the gun lobby, exposing deceptive industry tactics through her undercover work at NRA conventions and gun shows; confronted Bill O’Reilly face-to-face; and was instrumental in persuading MSNBC to drop Frank Luntz as a campaign commentator for the 2004 elections.
Naomi is a commentator on national media, including, CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, The Wall Street Journal, and the AP. Naomi is a partner with the Truman National Security Network and has worked extensively on Capitol Hill. She is President of Seligman Consulting in Santa Monica, CA.
Jon Green is a junior Political Science major and Public Policy concentrator at Kenyon College. He is also the co-editor in chief of the Kenyon Observer, the school’s student-run political journal. Jon worked as a field organizer for Tom Perriello in 2010 and recently returned to AMERICAblog from the Obama campaign, where he was a Deputy Regional Field Director based in Hampton, Virginia. He writes on a variety of topics but pays particularly close attention to elections, political psychology and the use of social media.
Gabe Ortíz is a San Francisco-based writer. He has contributed to the Mission’s bilingual newspaper “El Tecolote,” and the political blogs AMERICAblog, AMERICAblog Gay, and Veracity Stew. He’s also a Stevie Nicks lover and shameless catlady. Follow him on Twitter: @Tusk81.
Matt Browner-Hamlin is a blogger & political strategist based in Washington, DC. He has written about US politics since 2004. He worked as Deputy Internet Director for Chris Dodd’s presidential campaign, Internet Director for Mark Begich’s US Senate campaign in Alaska, and Deputy New Media Director for the Service Employees International Union. He first did online outreach work with Ned Lamont’s primary challenge to Joe Lieberman in Connecticut in 2006.
Chris Andoe is an Oakland based writer and seasoned activist. After meeting John Aravosis at a Chicago “StopDrLaura.com” protest in 2000, Chris was inspired to organize his own major demonstrations in St. Louis, which drew national attention. Since then, his activism has revolved around LGBT, affordable housing, and mass transit issues. Most recently, he made headlines when publicly objecting to the amorphous hacker group Anonymous’ decision to publish nude photos of a Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesperson, saying “Puritanical shame-based tactics have no place in the capital of sexual liberation”. Always in the fray, Andoe’s been interviewed by NPR, CBS, and has been quoted from CNN to The St. Louis Post Dispatch. He’s a regular contributor to AMERICAblog and covers the West Coast for the Vital Voice.
Nick Seaver blogs on civil rights and equality issues for the gay community at both www.LeaveittoSeaver.com and AMERICAblog Gay. Born and raised in Maine, he moved to Washington, DC for college, where he studied political communication. He has lived in the District since. He began writing extensively on gay rights during the ballot initiative in Maine that overturned a bill that legalized same-sex marriage. He writes about a variety of issues, ranging from marriage equality to issues facing LGBT youth, while occasionally covering broader political issues.