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.
In the 2008 over 41% of the worlds military spending was by the United States. Over 600 billion dollars - less than one half of the ten year bill for health care that the Republicans and some Democrats are complaining about. And is this money being spent to defend the people of the United States? The answer is no - it is being used to defend the interests of multi-national corporations. The invasion an attempted occupation of Iraq is the best and most recent example. If the meeting notes of the Cheney Energy task force ever see the light of day we will have proof that the Iraq war was all about oil and the interests of the major oil companies. It was also about a permanent military presence to control that dwindling resource. Needless to say we lost that war - just the latest of many such losses. Just the latest waste of lives and treasure. Of course it wasn't a waste for the defense contractors. For them war is a cash cow enabling them to pick trillions of dollars from the pockets of middle class Americans.
The election of a Democratic president who promised change and a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress has changed nothing. The oligarchs of the military industrial complex are still firmly in charge along with their allies in banking and on Wall Street. There is a word for a system of government where the oligarchs of business and finance run the country - it's called fascism.
Great, compelling video. Hearing Ike in his own voice is far more moving than reading the same words. Whatever happened to the Grand Old Party who put Ike up for president? We find money for the military but can't scrape up enough for health care. Something very wrong with that picture. On a different note, I caught the end of an NPR story this morning that mentioned that Medicare rates which vary from region to region are heavily influenced by whose districts they are in. It seems medicare rates are in the "pork" category. I never heard this before but it stands to reason. Well, not really "reason"...it's in that category of "stupid but not surprising." The story ended with words to the effect that it's the same old thing; taxing comes easy but controlling spending is hard.
Well, the US spends around $50 billion a year on healthcare alone. Personnel costs alone for the 2009 budget are $129 billion and that doesn't even included legacy costs in the VA. So if we only had a light infantry force our defense budget would still probably be 3 times China. Obviously there is more at work than evil corporations. I'm surprised anyone still believes that the war in Iraq was begun in order to benefit oil companies, or that it was for "military control" of that "dwindling" resource, oil. How you can continue to assert such claims as if they were obvious facts would be an interesting argument to hear.
Great, compelling video. Hearing Ike in his own voice is far more moving than reading the same words.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the Grand Old Party who put Ike up for president?
We find money for the military but can't scrape up enough for health care. Something very wrong with that picture.
On a different note, I caught the end of an NPR story this morning that mentioned that Medicare rates which vary from region to region are heavily influenced by whose districts they are in. It seems medicare rates are in the "pork" category. I never heard this before but it stands to reason. Well, not really "reason"...it's in that category of "stupid but not surprising." The story ended with words to the effect that it's the same old thing; taxing comes easy but controlling spending is hard.
Well, the US spends around $50 billion a year on healthcare alone. Personnel costs alone for the 2009 budget are $129 billion and that doesn't even included legacy costs in the VA. So if we only had a light infantry force our defense budget would still probably be 3 times China. Obviously there is more at work than evil corporations.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised anyone still believes that the war in Iraq was begun in order to benefit oil companies, or that it was for "military control" of that "dwindling" resource, oil. How you can continue to assert such claims as if they were obvious facts would be an interesting argument to hear.