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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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Keeping the Spotlight on Afghanistan Tonight: Rethink Afghanistan's Live Facebook Event

By Derrick Crowe

The State of the Union talking points
distributed by the White House this morning seem to indicate that the
president will only briefly discuss Afghanistan tonight, but we are
working hard to keep the spotlight on the Afghanistan war. Tonight,
join us for a State of the Union watch party streamed live on Rethink Afghanistan's Facebook page.


Rethink Afghanistan's Facebook campaign around the State of the
Union address is really heating up. We've already been the focus of two
big write-ups on techPresident and Mashable. Here's what techPresident had to say:


But chattering on Twitter, or live-blogging it, which
more than 2000 sites and organizations are apparently promising to
do!--is hardly the only or best way to use a live event for online
organizing. See, for example, what "Rethink Afghanistan," a project of
the Brave New Foundation, is doing tonight around the State of the
Union, via its staffer Derrick Crowe, writing on OpenLeft:


...


Note how Rethink Afghanistan is using multiple layers of engagement.
Its strategists understand that people have many choices for watching
SOTU--all equally good--but the opportunity to share the experience
with other like-minded activists can add extra value to the experience.
They're also planning to add value to the speech video by adding a
chyron with a running tally of the cost of the war throughout the
speech, and with liveblogging by the group's founder, Robert Greenwald.
Finally, they're hoping they can get their activists to generate some
live feedback in a highly visible place, the White House's Facebook
page.


Check out the Mashable
piece for a full description of what we've been up to over the past few
days on Facebook and how it ties in to tonight's event. Here's a
rundown of the agenda for tonight:



  • Rethink Afghanistan's fan page will have a live stream of a part of Rethink Afghanistan (The Cost of War) prior to the speech at 8:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. Pacific.

  • Then, we'll carry a live stream of the State of the Union address.

  • Brave New Foundation's Robert Greenwald will be there for the
    conversation, and I'll provide commentary and links to
    Afghanistan-related information.

  • After the speech, our whole mob will head over to the White House's
    Facebook page to share our thoughts on his Afghanistan comments.


Please join us tonight starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. Pacific on Rethink Afghanistan's Facebook fan page. Let's keep the focus tonight on ending the war in Afghanistan. Hope to see you there.



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