If you’re from Alaska, State Rep. Doogan wants you to call his office.
Find his official website here. Doogan apparently does not realize that the list of anonymous shouters with “hoods and torches” includes three founders of the United States of America.
Comrade Stuck
What a compete ass Mr. Doogan is. Something that seems to be endemic among Alaskan politicians, apparently from either party. I don’t regularly read Mudflats, but their work on Palin was essential reading during the election, in order to fully understand Sarah Serendipity and her special blend of Wassila wingnuttery.
JL
Doogan sounds like an angry old man. Wasilla is a small town and outing the author of the site could be quite uncomfortable not only for her but for her family. It was her choice to remain anonymous.
BDeevDad
Someone needs to give his Pulitzer back.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
I would like to trade Alaska for South Korea. The Koreans are industrious and hardworking people and have great food.
I see no reason to have a state in the United States continue to be basically an oil reserve and a haven for misanthropes who don’t want to pay taxes, who take the benefits of statehood and talk about seceding from the union at the same time.
Also, why do we need a state that is a giant deepfreeze, a mosquito sanctuary, and is dark for half the year?
Fuck Alaska, cut it loose. Let them try being their own country and let’s see how they do.
Corner Stone
Well, I’m outraged. The question is will he run for reelection, and if so, are his constituents sufficiently outraged as well?
Comrade Darkness
Goes to show how crazed and immature these guys in power are about their power. The "threat" from one lone constituent speaking their mind was enough to send them into brownshirt mode.
I like Mudflat’s point that if the politicians would just do their f*cking jobs their wouldn’t be the need for random bloggers to point out what idiots they are and the problem would be solved. Too much to hope for.
Library Grape
WTF is wrong with Alaska? Here’s is the email I just sent him:
Dear Rep. Doogan,
While reading the news today, I was shocked to find out that you took it upon yourself to reveal the identity of the anonymous blogger behind Mudflats. Are you capable of understanding how damaging your actions may have been?
You chose to run for public office and expose your family to the harsh light of the public sphere. The woman that writes Mudflats did not make that choice. She is a private person with a passion for commenting on current affairs in Alaska.
She chose, for reasons you probably know nothing about, to remain anonymous. Certain founders of our country wrote the Federalist Papers anonymously, to avoid the threat of reprisal.
Maybe the woman who writes Mudflats has a boss who would fire her for her views.
Maybe she has an abusive boyfriend who would beat her for her views.
Did you know any of this when you took her privacy and threw it in the garbage? Of course not.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Library Grape
By the way, if you want to really express your outrage, you should write an email to the Democrats with the real power, the Minority Leader and Minority Whip. There email addresses are [email protected],
[email protected] .
Here’s the email I sent:
Dear Minority Leader Kerttula and Minority Whip Guttenberg,
You may or may not be aware of this but a fellow member of the Democratic Caucus, Rep. Mike Doogan, has taken it upon himself to trample upon the privacy of a citizen of Alaska. Rep. Doogan recently unilaterally and maliciously revealed the identity of a anonymous female blogger who writes the site Mudflats. Rep. Doogan’s actions were reprehensible and will involuntarily expose this poor woman and her family to the harsh light of the public media spotlight.
Please find below my email to Rep. Doogan complaining about his deplorable actions. I hope that you will take this matter under advisement and consider how poorly these actions by Rep. Doogan tarnish the image of the Democratic Party in Alaska.
If you want to really spread the word, you should email the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics. Their emails are [email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] .
Here’s the email I sent:
Dear Reps. Coghill and Gardner and Sens. Stevens and Wagoner,
You may or may not be aware of this but a member of the Alaska House of Representatives, Rep. Mike Doogan, has taken it upon himself to trample upon the privacy of a citizen of Alaska. Rep. Doogan recently unilaterally and maliciously revealed the identity of an anonymous female blogger who writes the blog Mudflats. Rep. Doogan’s actions were reprehensible and will involuntarily expose this poor woman and her family to the harsh light of the public media spotlight.
Please find below my email to Rep. Doogan complaining about his deplorable actions. As members of the Alaska legislature’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, I hope that you will take this matter under advisement and consider how poorly these actions by Rep. Doogan tarnish the image of the Alaska legislature.
Ricky Bobby
I just sent an email as well.
Told the fucker that his opponent in his next election will be receiving my financial support whoever he or she may be in response to his cowardly act. The sad thing is this dumbass STILL probably thinks he was doing the right thing.
I’m a swiggin’ the Haterade this morning, lemmee tell you.
Hmm, maybe time to start a blog myself.
Betsy
This made me so angry. He apparently responded to one early email with "So you subscribe to the theory that someone can make relentless attacks on a public figure while hiding her identity? Defend that position if you can."
As I wrote to him, in fact, unless you’ve been slandered or threatened, there is absolutely no moral or legal problem with anonymity. Does he claim she’s done either?
@Library Grape:
Thanks for the suggestions. I will take them.
Library Grape
@Betsy: Exactly right as to the slander, etc. If the Mudflats writer were doing bad things, then there would be a legal reason (civil or criminal) to find out her identity. But no, this is a woman who cares enough about her state to blog about it and she gets rewarded by a state legislator bringing the jackbooted heel of harassment and intimidation upon her. I can imagine that Alaska is not generally a friendly place for Democrats, especially in small towns. I am worried for the real-world implications of this on her and her family. I hope she’s ok.
zirconium
He’s a card carrying member of the Politburo.
Pooh
Doogan is such a douche. The funny thing is, Mudflat’s identity hasn’t exactly been the most closely guarded secret ever.
I somehow ended up at a journalist party hear in Anchorage last night, and this is all anyone was talking about. I know now exactly how Doogan learned this information, and couldn’t care less…
Batocchio
@Pooh:
It may not have been a big secret, and yes, Doogan is a douche, but I think his behavior goes beyond that. Doogan is an elected official who was spending time trying to figure this out, and his e-mail to the blogger and his announcement smack of intimidation and retribution. It’s bad enough when O’Reilly does this crap, but Doogan is supposed to represent his constituents, not go after average citizens when they criticize him.
southern
Doogan is nothing more than a steaming PoS. What a vindictive bastard you have to be to do something like this.
Guess he looked at things differently when he was a journalist. How easy we forget!.
Mike in DC
The problem here is that Doogan is an elected official and he used his position (or at least, the newsletter he sends to his constituents) to harass a private citizen who had the temerity to say something critical of him in the public square. It was a rotten thing to do. While there may not be any grounds to sue him, he certainly did make it clear that he doesn’t like to be criticized either directly through email or in a blog. I figure he’s going to see a lot more criticism over the next week or two. Funny how unintended consequences work that way…
Library Grape
New facebook group set up to call out Doogan: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=8422&post=47108&uid=82564017994#/group.php?sid=0&gid=82564017994
Chasm
I sent an email too, but I pointed to Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin as anonymous forefathers.
skippy
and it also, if i read my brief summations right, includes the supreme court. from mcintyre v. ohio elections commission (1995):
Jukesgrrl
Several writers here appear to be under the impression that AK Muckraker, the primary author of the Mudflats blog, is being persecuted by a Republican. In fact, the legislator who maliciously outed her (using his state-funded constituent newsletter, no less) is a Democrat.
Rep. Doogan, who made his living as a newspaper reporter/columnist before running for public office, appears to be under the impression that AKM’s criticism of some of his recent votes, because it was done anonymously, is not protected by our American rights to free speech.
They certainly do have interesting ideas up there in Alaska. Even the so-called Democrats.
akredneck
DOOGAN CRITICISIZED????
How can you criticize the idiot…..He has never done anything!
incontrolados
What I don’t get, and I am sure won’t be discussed here, why is it sucha surprize to her readers that she is a female.
Perhaps this has been addressed in other places that I don’t check, but why such a surprise that a competent writer is female?
incontrolados
John Cole, as a communication prof, you should look at this, at the very least.
Unless you have made all my comments pie.
Just a thought.
Deb
Just as an FYI for those of you who have not read the mudflats before, AKM never "attacked" Doogan. She published some rude e-mail responses that he sent to his constituents who had raised some concerns with him. Then she commented that he might consider a bit of netiquette in responding to voters. Obviously he didn’t take kindly to her advice.
Curtis
Wow! All this bile because one backstabbing democrat outed another. I’m shocked! It seems to me that it’s only progressives who behave in this manner. It seems to be the progressive way though as witnessed by the shameful hacking of Palin’s email account during the campaign, tsk, tsk. Where was your outrage back then?