Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, June 13, 2008

FISA fight back on the frontburner

By Libby



I swear this battle will never end. Apparently our Congresslizards think they can sneak in telecom immunity over the summer while everyone is distracted by vacations and worrying about the economy. Thankfully, FDL is on the job and assembles the latest pertinent information in case you need to get up to speed. And of course, Glenn Greenwald has the talking points on the couple of tiny tweaks to FISA that are the only part that truly needs fixing.



For those who have following along the whole time, you know what to do. Let them know you're still watching and care about the outcome. Contact your Senators and Congresspeople and tell them again, that telecom immunity and basket warrants are not acceptable. As Christy said, "[T]here are only a couple of minor tweaks required to fix the few real, honest issues under the law -- we expect members of Congress to do their jobs. Ask yours to do just that -- and nothing more -- until after the election."



I remind you, if we don't defeat telecom immunity, we've lost our best chance to uncover the true extent of the Bush regime's criminality. We've made it this far, let's see it through to the end.



Update: Dan at Pruning Shears in an excellent post suggests we contact Obama and ask him to show leadership on not only FISA, but also ask him to challenge Bush on the SOFA with Iraq. Read his post for the talking points and then contact Obama at either his campaign site or at his Senate office. I expect the latter would be the better avenue to get his attention on these issues.



Posted by at
Labels:

7 comments:

  1. DanJune 13, 2008 at 7:00 AM

    Hi Libby. It also might be helpful to contact Senator Obama; he could show some leadership if so inclined.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LibbyJune 13, 2008 at 7:14 AM

    Good point Dan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DanJune 13, 2008 at 7:24 AM

    Thanks Libby!

    ReplyDelete
  4. KatJune 13, 2008 at 7:33 AM

    Apparently our Congresslizards think they can sneak in telecom immunity over the summer while everyone is distracted by vacations...
    ...Because our Congresslizards have yet to notice that they and their corporate cronies are the only people who can still afford to take vacations.
    Unfortunately for them - and fortunately for us - this summer, we're all going to be stuck in exactly the same place we are right now -- sitting in front of our computers, fuming about them and their shenanigans.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LibbyJune 13, 2008 at 7:40 AM

    YW Dan. I'm hopelessly remiss in linking to you more often.
    Good point Kat. This will be the summer of our discontent.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RAMJune 13, 2008 at 10:00 AM

    Since I�m a constituent of Obama�s, I e-mailed him about this on Wednesday. It always takes weeks to get a reply, but hopefully they�ll at least read it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LibbyJune 13, 2008 at 1:25 PM

    Thanks RAM. It especially helps when it comes from a constituent.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)