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I launched AMERICAblog in early 2004 because I’d had enough of George Bush and his lies.

I wanted to use my writing and political skills to make a difference in politics at the national level.

I believe we have.

And with your help, we will continue to make a difference.

I’d already been living in Washington for nearly twenty years when I started AMERICAblog.

At that point, I’d worked in national politics as a lawyer in the US Senate, an online organizer at the Children’s Defense Fund, and through my own political Internet consulting with clients ranging from AFSCME to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.  I’d also studied writing in college, and had written professionally as a stringer for the Economist, and wanted to do something new, and put to use all of the political and communication skills I’d developed over the years.

So I created AMERICAblog.

Our First Big Story

Our first big story came within a year of launch when we exposed the truth about right-wing “journalist” Jeff Gannon.  That’s around the time I started working full-time on AMERICAblog, and relying on it as my sole source of income.

A year later, AMERICAblog started a nationwide discussion about cell phone “pretexting” when we used a Web site to buy the phone records of former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark for only $89. As a result of our actions, the Congress passed legislation banning pretexting, and President Bush signed it into law.

Possibly our biggest traffic day occurred when we discovered that BP was photoshopping pictures of its command center during the Gulf oil spill.  The story made its way around the world as a half-million people came to AMERICAblog in one day in order to learn the truth about BP’s deception.

Making a Difference on LGBT Rights

AMERICAblog has also been particularly influential in the national debate on gay civil rights.

In early 2009, we launched a sister site, AMERICAblog Gay, in order to better focus on the advance, or lack thereof, of LGBT civil rights under the Obama administration.  Possibly our biggest story on the gay site was the discovery of an administration brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) with language so offensive it could have been written by George Bush himself.

In part due to our dogged work on DOMA – including our incessant argument, in the face of naysayers, that the President did not have to legally defend DOMA in court – President Obama finally stopped defending the anti-gay law.

AMERICAblog Gay also had a lead role in the marriage equality debate.

It was AMERICAblog Gay’s Joe Sudbay who interviewed President Obama in the White House in October of 2010, and elicited the now famous “evolving” reply from the President.  Joe is credited with helping President Obama begin his evolution on this topic.

From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

And kudos to the blogger who helped spark Obama’s evolution on gay marriage: I’ve been meaning to note this for a couple days, but Americablog’s Joe Sudbay has earned himself a place in the history of this debate. He was the blogger who asked Obama about gay marriage in October of 2010, prompting this now-infamous quote: “attitudes evolve, including mine.”

AMERICAblog Gay is also credited with helping to ensure the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by keeping pressure on the Obama administration and Congress, both publicly and behind the scenes, throughout the process.

Outside the legislative realm, AMERICAblog Gay has made its mark by keeping companies like Ford, Microsoft and AT&T and Comcast honest.

I created AMERICAblog in order to make a difference on progressive issues, and I believe we have.  But we need your help to continue the battle.

Please Support Our Work

AMERICAblog is my full-time job, and has been for nearly seven years now.  As successful as we’ve been, we’ve lived on a shoestring budget paid for by advertising and reader donations.

In the wake of the economic collapse, advertising dollars dried up.  In 2009, we quite literally earned only 25% of the income we made the year before the recession/depression.  And while the economy and advertising have improved to a degree, we are still not earning anywhere near the income we made before the collapse, and to this day, we’re still not breaking even.  Instead, we’ve relied on my dwindling savings to keep AMERICAblog afloat in order to continue our important work.

This is why AMERICAblog and I need your help.

AMERICAblog is here to stay.  But I need your help to make it thrive, and to build the AMERICAblog community into something even larger and more effective.

Won’t you please make a financial contribution to AMERICAblog and help support independent, progressive, activist media?

I truly believe that we have been a unique force for good in national and local politics these past eight years, and with your hel, we will continue to empower progressives, and make a difference in Washington, DC and beyond.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

JOHN ARAVOSIS
Founder & Editor
AMERICAblog