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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Monday, November 2, 2009

Wingnut Welfare drying up?

By Dave Anderson:

The Wingnut welfare system is falling apart as there are too many wingnuts of the non-teabagger variety. The most notable example was former President Bush reduced to speaking at a Motivation conference last week. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can only blame his bad memory for the lack of high prestige teaching gigs or law firm offers after his term in office ended. No one of any prestige and cash is willing to fork over money to disgraced members of the Bush Administration if they are tainted by more than one major scandal or constitutional moment.

This lack of wingnut welfare or at least wingnut welfare with any prestige and value as a future jumping off point has trickled its way to Pittsburgh. Former US Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, Mary Beth Buchanan recently resigned with nothing solid lined-up. This is unusual. There are rumors of her running for Congress against Jason Altimre (D-PA) in PA-4, but those are just rumors at this time. Normally, the former US Attorney for the region is welcomed back into the public-private sector elite. Fred Theiman, the region's US Attorney from 1993-1997 is currently the head of the Buhl Foundation and sits on half the power boards in the region. That is not too unusual.

The Pittsburgh Comet is passing along reasonably solid rumors that the Pittsburgh Republican establishment and more particularly, its Republican leaning law firms made it clear that there would be no work available for Ms. Buchanan. And Ms. Buchanan was just a three bit player in the US Attorney firing scandal. Wingnut Welfare seems to be drying up.

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