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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Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Best Opinion Is None At All

Commentary By Ron Beasley




Rand Paul got into trouble early on when he let his positions be known.  Well it would appear that he learned his lesson  and/or got some new advisers because it appears that now he has no opinions at all.



On McCrystal:

RN: Do you agree with the president's decision to accept Gen. Stanley
McChrystal's resignation?



PAUL: Ultimately it is the prerogative of the president to decide who
his generals are. My first thought was, going back to the historic
controversy between Truman and MacArthur, but the thing is I'm not sure
I'd call this insubordination, but he had a public disagreement and I
think -- I don't think anybody questions that it's the prerogative of
president, whether it's a small or big disagreement, to decide who
generals are at the top level. I haven't read all his comments nothing
specific to say.





On BP:

RN: You've started to take heat for your approach to the BP escrow
fund. Do you support the fund, the way it's set up?



PAUL: Well, I don't think there are many people who don't believe in
any regulations, myself included, and even my dad -- I don't think
you'll hear him say he doesn't believe in any regulation. But I'm not
sure I have the answer to that, sincerely. I think everyone in the
country wants BP to pay for the clean-up, myself concluded. I've never
had any argument with that -- it's amazing how you say things and they
get blown into things you didn't say! I'm not even sure I can talk to
some people anymore because they take things out of context.



RN: But do you support the set-up of the fund? Do you oppose
regulating offshore drilling?



PAUL: There should be some regulations, but I want to do it in a
rational, reasonable way, and ask: Did they obey the regulations? Do we
not have enough regulation, and do we need two blow-out preventers from
now on? These are the things scientists and inventors should tell us.
Should we be drilling at that level? There are a lot of issues, but we
shouldn't react in an emotional way and say no more drilling. I see some
of that emotionalism happening because the president feels trapped --
his advisers say you've got to be tough, you've got to have tough
language. I'm not sure that's a rational way to handle this.



RN: To finish up, though: Do you oppose the fund? I'm not going to
trap you and ask whether or not it was a "shakedown," but do you think
it's legal and legitimate?



PAUL: I was listening to some people on the Hill today, and they were
looking for the justification for setting it up. I don't know what the
legal justification is -- I'm not an expert in whether Congress has to
give you authority or the president has authority to do it. Those issues
take research and time, and I'm not going to make an off-the-cuff
response.





Notice he never answered any of the questions - dance moves that would make Fred Astaire look like an amateur.  Yes, Rand Paul is now just another politician.

Cross posted at The Moderate Voice.



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