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.


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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Looks like a unity pony to me

By Libby



I already have posts at Art Of The Possible and Detroit News about last night's convention speeches, so I won't repeat the points here. Suffice it to say that I thought the Democrats did good. As Ron already pointed out, Bill Clinton rocked, Kerry came through with a surprisingly strong showing and I'd add all the speakers did a good job of tying McCain to Bush and failed neo-conservative policies.



But Karen Tumulty may be on to something here. This was my one gripe about the speeches too.

But Democrats might find it would be more effective if they explained why they're so disappointed with their friend John McCain. How did this great guy they admire so much became a candidate whose positions appall them? It wasn't a fluke, it wasn't like he had a personality transplant. And the answer would seem to fit perfectly into a powerful Democratic narrative. John McCain changed because that's what he had to do to win the Republican nomination. That's what the reigning conservative ideology and interests demanded of him.

They do need better framing if they're going to use such a soft touch in going after McCain. As Tumulty notes, "Their current version leaves open the possibility that this good, decent man could revert to his old self--and that's not something Democrats want undecided voters to believe." Amen to that.



Meanwhile, the high point of the evening for me was watching the elite media meltdown as their fake narratives were slowly destroyed. For a while there, I didn't think Tweety was going to make it.



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