You may notice a slight difference in the lede of this post from a lot of the postings I’ve done this past year. Since the Firedoglake Membership Program began last Match, I have started most of my diaries here at MyFDL with the following:

Author’s Note: Please take a few minutes and Join the Firedoglake Membership Program today. FDL provides the tools that help me and others extend our reach with our rants, so we need to support FDL when we can.

I’m not real sure why I have done this other than I believe in Firedoglake and what Jane Hamsher ‘s team is doing and have ever since I first discovered FDL back during the Libby Trial days.

When the Membership program first began, I made phone calls to welcome folks to their new Firedoglake Membership. Many of the folks I called when the Membership Program began were individuals whose nom de blogs I had seen in the comments across multiple FDL posts. There were many more folks who joined FDL who had never commented at all but had lurked and enjoyed the original reporting and snark and activism of Firedoglake.

During this first year of the Firedoglake Membership Program, we have seen members only webinars with guests such as Alan Grayson or Michael Moore, just to name two. You might have seen the news reports that came out of the Michael Moore visit because he proposed Matt Damon as a candidate for president!

Even more important has been the creation of Occupy Supply as support for the various #Occupy Wall Street and other local efforts across the country. Hearing the reports from the local Member Liaisons at the twice weekly webinars and reading the diaries they post at MyFDL has re-newed my hope that we can effect the change needed. As Brian Sonenstein said in his diary yesterday:

But financial support alone would not have made Occupy Supply what it’s become. Our extensive network of member-volunteers providing intimate ground support across the country is what has made Occupy Supply an important fixture of the movement. These passionate, devoted members have taken up the important and often difficult role in the movement of caretaker, source of moral support and sometimes even mediator. They do so much more than just deliver supplies; they attend GA’s, march, protest, do maintenance work, speak with the protesters about their problems and concerns, provide a hot shower, warm bed or hearty meal when Occupiers needed a break, help fight eviction, do outreach to the community, etc.

Of course, FDL members have supported and taken part in many other FDL/Member actions besides Occupy/Supply, including actions in Congress, audit the Fed, Just Say Now, and protests involving Bradley Manning and opposing threats to Social Security and other vital programs.

For as little as $5 a month or $45 a year, you can join the Firedoglake Membership and help support the activism. At this time last year, none of us had any inklings of how the Membership and the state of activism in the US and around the world would evolve. Join with others as we start Year 2 of this particular journey.  And for all the folks who have already joined, my most heartfelt thanks for your continuing support for what Jane has established here.

The reporting of David Dayen at FDL News and Kevin Gosztola at The Dissenter, the snark of Tbogg (A somewhat popular blogger), Pam Spaulding and Pam’s House Blend, Lisa Derrick and LaFiga, Just Say Now, and Book Salons are available to us because of FDL Members underpinning everything. If you think about all the information available at FDL and all the activism supported by FDL, it is truly amazing that only $45 a year can help to support all of this.

Occupy Rochester Pic 11 from Sandy F

Picture courtesy of Occupy Rochester Member Liaison Sandy F.