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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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Specter's Pivot

By Fester:


Senator Specter is being pushed by the threat of a credible primary to be a generic Democrat.  He is making the right rumbles on healthcare, and he is pushing the refomed EFCA.  I think these steps may be enough to secure his organizational left flank and keep Rep. Sestak as a credible stalking horse. 


From May:



I think Specter's best defense is to find a 80% compromise for the EFCA which gets union neutrality in the primary and that will be a positive result from a primary challenge


Dropping card check but keeping the rest of the anti-intimidation provisions in the bill is still a big win for labor.  Here is Nathan Newman's take on the revised bill that will have Specter's fingerprints on it:



 Let's rename the bill, the "Prevention of Illegal Firings Act" (PIFA) and it's still important labor law reform.  The New York Times story David referred to cited a proposed compromise, where majority signup provisions would be dropped, but elections would be held within five days, employees could not be forced into mandatory meetings, and unions could campaign on company property during the election period.



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