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.


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

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Police Want Israel's Lieberman Charged On Bribery, Money Laundering

By Steve Hynd


After questioning Israel's foreign minister for two straight days, police have recommended to the country's state attorney that he be indicted on charges including bribery, money laundering, obstruction of justice and witness harassment.



Mr Lieberman, who heads the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu, the third largest party in Israel's parliament, is suspected of establishing a string of companies as front of laundering millions of dollars for the profit of himself and business associates.


Police officials also suspect Mr Lieberman and his colleagues tried to illegally obstruct their investigation by changing the names of companies they had established in neighbouring Cyprus.


Mr Lieberman has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said he believed the investigations to be politically motivated.


"The stronger I get the more the police persecute me," he was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.


Yeah, that's what they all say, Avigdor.


Scratch a rich and powerful conservative, find a criminal. But maybe after he's thrown in the clink Netan-yahoo might find someone who isn't an outright bigot to be the public face of Israel abroad.



Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

2 comments:

  1. geoffAugust 2, 2009 at 9:30 AM

    Amazing, I saw the item on the CBCs rolling news scowl. I like his defense which itself sort of stinks - i.e. the police are dirty and want to bring me down 'cause I'm powerful and like Sharon his kid is also implicated.
    As a quick aside the Taliban seem to be getting quite skilled in their attacks. The latest on us - 2 killed this yesterday - was the result of 2 blasts. The first one got the boys out of their vehicles the second killed them.
    It was actually a double-strike that caused the dual loss, also a strategy employed by the opposition � striking a target, then hitting again in a secondary explosion or attacking the crippled vehicle.


    ReplyDelete
  2. hidflectAugust 2, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    Netenyahu's scheme works out exactly as planned. He's a conniving SOB who knew Lieberman was untenable but also knew he could stick him in to placate the Foaming Right, not having to worry that he'd be there long. Lieberman is a buffoon and his criminally prosecutable past was already widely known news. It was just a matter of months. But don't think that for a minute that Netanyahu doesn't share or even hold less extremist views than Lieberman. He just knows that to get 100% control of "greater Israel" and exile the Palestinians he'll have to proceed more cautiously than loud-mouth Lieberman.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)