Blogger Rachel Kramer Bussel reports that blogger Jackson West, formerly of Valleywag, has surfaced at Lifehacker, where a nice recent post is Maximize your influence in the election.

I asked West what it was like to go from Valleywag to Lifehacker — both Gawker Media properties — and he wrote back that he was impressed at “how smart the site and its readers are.” He added that he hoped soon to report on the G1 “Google phone” and on audio, video and image editing. “And it’s only a matter of time before I drop in a reference to the Church of Bob Dobbs.”

Meanwhile fellow Valleywag castoff Nicholas Carlson has landed at Silicon Alley Insider.

Think the economic meltdown can’t touch your high tech job? Valleywag announced today they are laying off three staffers, cutting writers’ “page view bonus,” and taking other steps in anticipation of lost advertising.

The layoffs affected two of my favorite bloggers, Jackson West and Melissa Gira Grant, as well as associate editor Nicholas Carlson (no offense to Carlson, but I’ve followed West’s and Grant’s posts for a long time). Here’s hoping they all find good homes.