Snoskred – Life in the Country

Some of you would know that I’ve been involved with AKMuckraker and The Mudflats since September, 2008. We’ve been through a lot in the past few years, many stressful situations which we have worked through together as well as the rest of The Mudflats Admin & Moderation team. I consider her to be a good friend.

AKMuckraker (Jeanne Devon) and her good friends Ken Morris and Frank Bailey (A former aide to Governor Palin) have collaborated together on a book. It was released yesterday in the USA.

Also released yesterday were several “tweets” from Rebecca Mansour, a current aide of Sarah Palin.

What a top aide to Sarah Palin really thinks about Mitt Romney, Bristol Palin, Erick Erickson and more

Though whether she is still an aide remains to be seen – Palin has a habit of throwing people under the bus for much less than Mansour is guilty of.

During the time I have worked with AKMuckraker, there have been times when she has shared confidences with me. Never in a million years would I think to share those with anyone else, not even the admin & mod team, without her express permission. Certainly not with someone I’ve never met whether or not I trusted them.

When someone tells me something and tells me to keep it in the vault, with me, it is LOCKED IN THAT DARNED VAULT and it isn’t coming out until that person tells me otherwise.

Mansour betrayed Sarah and her family, and thoroughly deserves to be thrown under the bus. When someone trusts you and allows you to be a part of their “inner circle” you have a responsibility to keep your mouth firmly zipped.

Even worse – if this is what she was saying to someone she never met, what the heck is she saying to people she knows?

Apparently the person who was tweeting with her had 122 tweets from her which he was willing to sell. The people he ended up giving them to (nobody would buy them) have not shared all of them but you can view the ones they did share here and here.

My personal favourites with the irony in bold –

19:23:35: Listen: I tell you things I wouldn’t tell anyone tho I have press hounding me for the info I tell you. I trust you even tho I’ve never met u

19:28:55: Nothing we can do when someone behaves stupidly.

Ain’t that the truth!

Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue” is set to be released this week. She’s going on Oprah, and doing Barbara Walters, and travelling around the country in a bus, which if you think about it, is quite insane for someone who just wants to be left alone by the media.

Some of the pages from her book have been released – Wonkette has a few. I am not sure if this book is one long run on sentence with full stops in there only because the editor insisted on putting them in there or what the heck is going on with it, but the truth is this book seems like comedy gold. Fingers crossed William Shatner will do a reading of it.

So while The Mudflats will be going a bit craizy this week, I will let you in on a little secret. Below you will find the location I’ll be going to in my head when things just get a bit too nutty.

This has been a very long day for me. As we head towards hour 32 of being awake keeping a close eye on The Mudflats, things are starting to get a little blurry.

I generally know it is time to get to bed when I begin to hallucinate spiders and scream out loud, Carrie-Bradshaw-esque, before realising there is nothing actually there – and we passed that time of day about 10 hours ago. Caffeine was the answer for a short time, but soon sleep will be the only solution.

What I don’t think people understand about AKMuckraker and The Mudflats.. what makes someone like me want to stay up so many hours, keeping an eye on things? And it isn’t just me, it is a genuine phalanx of people.

There’s my trusty fellow Admins – admin, AKMuckraker, Charcoal Sniper P, Deep Blue, ForumAdministrator, Sephy, ServerGuy, TRConnie – in alphabetical order. There’s the mods – Aeroentropy, Alex, BigSlick, Cassie Jeep Pike Palin, daMamma, Erin, Forty Watt, Irishgirl, Jaime from Wasilla, Jamie, Julia O, Kiterea, Lani formerly Bash Budweiser, Memphis, NY, Rubo, Sirenoftitan – also in alphabetical order.

We have skype chats running 24/7 and as a result, these people are now some of my closest friends. We exchange links, talk about our family and friends, share the highs and support each other through the lows of life. It isn’t an easy thing to learn to be a moderator. There are technical things you need to know. To begin with you are never quite sure if you are doing the right thing, but you learn, and you grow confident.

Sure, there are times when things get stressful – when we have to ban someone from the forums, when we have trolls posting bizarre things and calling us names, when spammers arrive, when the server has issues – and because of that, we have grown stronger as a group, and stronger individually.

When people have been in trouble financially, we’ve ponied up. We’ve donated. We’ve organised wood for one of the mods who wasn’t sure how they would heat their house through a tough winter. We’ve mailed things to each other as a surprise. And just the other day one of the mods who we’d helped out said – now I am back on my feet, and I want to pay it forward. Who needs help?

I can’t imagine life without these people. I do not know what I did before I met them. And just think, we all have Sarah Palin to thank for it!

So I wanted to thank everyone who wrote an article today about The Mudflats – and I wanted to let the bloggers who wrote these posts know, there is a lot more to what you see on the surface.

You can be a part of it. Join the forums, get chatting, propose a mudstock meeting near you. Everyone is welcome. You might even be asked to join the Mod team, at some point! If that happens, it would be like winning the lottery, to be allowed to know these wonderful , amazing, brilliant people.

I’ve got a bunch of links to posts written in the last couple of days below, which I’d love people to click on if they have a chance. Thanks everyone for writing about The Mudflats – AKMuckraker, the Forum team, Forum members, and all the readers of The Mudflats blog appreciate it.

We’ve taken The Mudflats Blog and Forumsoffline to do some work on the server – it will be back online tomorrow. In the meantime you can read the following linkage. Enjoy!

Famed Anonymous Anti-Palin Blogger ‘Outed’ by Lawmaker <-- this one is a must read.
AK state rep Doogan outs Mudflats!
Outing Mudflats: The Dirty Martini Philosophy
Mike Doogan Outs Mudflats in Challenge to Outdo Eddie Burke as 2009 Anchorage Slimeball of the Year
My friend Mudflats…not a KKK Member, Mr. Doogan
You know the difference between Rep Mike Doogan and Mt. Redoubt? One is a sulphur spewing ash-hole and the other is just a volcano. UPDATED!
A Sad Day- Mudflats is Changed Forever
Doogan broke a federal law by outing Mudflats
Did Rep. Mike Doogan Misuse Legislative Resources?
Epic Fail Mike Doogan
In support of MUDFLATS and anonymous bloggers everywhere…Mike Doogan is a Grinch
Mike Doogan, you are a Public Ass
Mudflats Exposed (Updated)
Why Mike Doogan sucks
Freedom to Blog?
A. Nony Mouse
Time to Unite
Thanks Rep. Mike Doogan
Alaska State Representative Outs Anonymous Blogger
Shame on Alaska Rep. Mike Doogan
Politician Stalks Blogger – Rep. Mike Doogan Outs AKMuckraker
Government Official Reveals ID of Anonymous Blogger
So Long, Mudflats
The Right to Privacy – Bloggers and Privacy
It May As Well Be Rape, Sir
Mike Doogan Ousts AKMuckraker
Dorkwad State Legislator Outs Blogger Who Dared Pick On Him
Rep. Doogan’s main accomplishment for this session–OUTING MUDFLATS!
Rep Mike Doogan (D-AK) exposes the true identity of Mudflats blogger
Alaska Lawmaker Violates Privacy of Famed Anonymous Blogger
Shut up or we’ll tell the goons where you live
Blogger’s identity outed by AK politician – Updated
Outing AKMuckraker
Mike Doogan responds to free speech by outing popular anonymous blogger
Mudflats Blogger Outed by a Tool named Doogan
Open Letter to Alaskan Rep Mike Doogan
Eldridge and Barbie Dolls vs. Doogan and Mudflats: Because Nice Matters
The Outing of a Blogger: Social Transparency or Violation?
Open Letter to AKMuckraker
The Internet can be a creepy place
Rep.Mike Doogan Just exposed himself: Going after Blogger Mudflats
AKM is our Friend, and we will NOT be Distracted
we can assure you that skippy is a male
Mike Doogan v. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
Yup. Still Mad. Mike Doogan is an Asshole.
Political activist? Who, me?
Outing AKMuckraker