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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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Zardari - The Taliban Are Winning

By Cernig



Asif Ali Zardari, Paistan's "Mr Ten per cent" political leader who now aspires to be president, is taking a leaf out of Musharraf's playbook and playing the West for all it is worth.

"It is an insurgency", he said, "and an ideological war. It is our country and we will defend it.The world is losing the war. I think at the moment they (the Taleban) definitely have the upper hand. The issue, which is not just a bad case scenario as far as Pakistan is concerned or as Afghanistan is concerned but it is going to be spreading further. The whole world is going to be affected by it."

That the Taliban are winning might even be true but Zardari is simply trying to set himself up as Musharraf's successor by promising much the same things Mushie did - a strongman ally, an ideological war and a hefty dose of fearmongering. He's got even less chance of doing something about it than Mushie did, all things considered, and given his corrupt past likely even less interest in doing so. But currently he's the only one who wants the job of being Pakistani president.



(Mushie, by contrast, is looking to get even richer with a series of lecture tours which could make him as wealthy as a Clinton. Being a former dictator is nice work if you can survive to get it.)



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4 comments:

  1. aeAugust 24, 2008 at 8:57 AM

    he's not prime minister. gilani is.
    agreed that he's using musharraf tactic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CernigAugust 24, 2008 at 9:05 AM

    You're right, ae. I keep forgetting because Zardari is the de facto PM. I'll fix it.
    Regards, C

    ReplyDelete
  3. aeAugust 24, 2008 at 9:38 AM

    just to put zardari's comment in context.
    "French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who rushed to Afghanistan after the French attack, warned Thursday that "terrorism is winning.""
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/24/taliban-turns-lethal-101_n_120977.html
    Pakistan is f*cked.

    ReplyDelete
  4. emptyAugust 24, 2008 at 2:11 PM

    My totally unscientific reading is that Zardari is looking to last out a half year or maybe a year in which he can extract as much loot as possible. Back in June there was a rather depressing story about the ending of zero capital gains tax in Pakistan which got shelved after some well heeled industrialists met with "the leadership" of the PPP. I am afraid ae is right.

    ReplyDelete

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