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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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Wild Card - The Egyptian Military

Commentary By Ron Beasley


One part of the unfolding story of Egypt that has been largely ignored by the press is that the top guns from the Egyptian Military were in Washington for a previously scheduled meeting  when the hostilities began. Why is this important?  I'm sure that the original agenda was altered when the Egyptian people started their mass demonstrations.  We won't know for years if ever what was discussed but we can make a few guesses.


I'm sure that what the US would like to see now are cosmetic changes that would make stabilization possible.  It's fairly obvious that at a minimum those changes would have to include the departure of Hosni Mubarak.  Would that be enough?  Possibly - that seems to be what the demonstrators are demanding most off all.  The military appears to be in charge and they could facilitate that departure - voluntary or not.  Apparently Mubarak's family have already left along with some of Egypt's other elites.


The cosmetic changes would be a short term fix and free elections will have to be held perhaps before the scheduled October date.  That of course could create a whole set of new problems as Democracy in the Middle East is likely to produce an anti-Israel Islamic government.  But Washington is always found of pushing problems down the road.


I don't really know anymore than you do so consider this a brain fart.



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