Newshoggers Archive: 3 for 6

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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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

3 for 6

By Dave Anderson:

There were six races that I was paying attention to last night. I thought Democrats or liberals would win the Maine gay marriage referendum, win on civil unions in Washington State and hold onto CA-10 by a decent margin. I expected losses in NY-23, and a blow-out in Virginia and a squeaker of a loss in New Jersey.

Whoops....

I still went 3 for 6 with wins in Washington and California. However the disappointing surprise of the night is Maine. The numbers were looking good, the turnout model was looking good and then the results came in. Another couple of points and the bigots lose (and yes, I use that language intentionally and fully stand behind it.) The schradenfreude surprise was NY-23. I did not expect to see Owens win, and begin the nationalization of the Kansas Republican Party where the moderate wing of the party ran the hell away from the talk-radio bible thumpers and Birchers into the arms of the Democratic Party. That is a probable model for the next couple of years now as the positive feedback loop begins to eat into GOP friendly districts:

The internal dynamics will produce leadership elections of hard liners
and bomb throwers for a couple of cycles, marginalizing the party
nationally and further increasing the institutional power of resource
extraction, social and political reactionaries within their own caucus.
The Democrats don't have to do much for this short to intermediate term
mechanism to play out; run non-corrupt candidates in the Northeast,
resist the urge for meaningless and toothless compromise for
compromise's sake (compromise when there is a good idea to grab of
course)

I still went 3 for 6 on preferred policy/political outcomes, but I really would trade NY-23 for Maine any day of the week.

Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

3 for 6

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