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.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Boogeyman Is Dead

By BJ Bjornson


Just a brief couple of thoughts on what will probably be the main story for the next couple of days, Osama bin Laden has been killed. The analysis will have to wait for better details on where, when, and how, but for the most part, I doubt this will really make much of a impact to anything, anywhere. I mean, when was the last time there was any real serious discussion regarding the threat the man posed? I can�t even remember the last time the guy issued an audio tape, let alone made any real impact on world events.


Watching CNN try and hype this announcement as being some major milestone is leaving me dumbfounded. I won�t argue that its a big deal, in the sense that bin Laden was a worthy target to be found and eliminated, but the organization he started has long been a spent force, used more as an excuse and all-purpose label than an actual effective organization.


The real story will be on what happens to U.S. relations with Pakistan given his presence living high near Islamabad, and what effect it will have on ongoing operations in Afghanistan. Politically speaking, bin Laden�s death offers an opportunity to realign priorities. Whether or not that opportunity is seized or ignored will be what I am watching for in the next few weeks.



Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

1 comment:

  1. Ikhwan KimMay 3, 2011 at 3:18 AM

    Nice piece
    FP ran an informative post on Bin Laden by Russ Wellen on 'Bin Laden: If Ever We Wanted to Bring 'Em Back Alive' http://www.fpif.org/blog/bin_laden_if_ever_we_wanted_to_bring_em_back_alive
    Ikhwan Kim FPIF Focal Point
    comment by Ikhwan Kim

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)