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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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Last Night in Tahrir

By John Ballard


[Followup -- Last night I pout up a video and overnite it went "private." Sorry about that.]


?Follow AlAhram on line.     [And last night this was the link where I found the video. Looks like it's also a dud.]


?CNN coverage


Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and pellets early Wednesday to break up a demonstration by relatives of those killed in Egypt's revolution.


But despite the efforts of police, demonstrators maintained their positions in Cairo's Tahrir Square, growing their numbers to 2,000.


Clashes between protesters and authorities left at least 26 officers injured, according to Alla Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.


T1larg.tahrir.square.29.gi.afp[1] "Thugs carrying swords and weapons infiltrated the protesters and attacked the Ministry of Interior with Molotov cocktails and rocks," Mahmoud said. "Nine people were arrested and we are dealing with the situation accordingly."


The Ministry of Health also announced that 14 protesters had been seriously injured and admitted to hospitals.


A makeshift clinic was established in a nearby mosque where dozens of people were treated for minor wounds and fatigue from inhaling tear gas. Many people were seen bleeding from their heads and had suffered bullet wounds to the chest and face.


Several thousand protesters chanted against Gen. Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces. The council has been running the country since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down on February 11.


Ambulances streamed out of the square in the aftermath, transporting protesters to hospitals, while others were treated on the scene. Noor Noor the son of presidential candidate Ayman Noor was seen bleeding with a serious injury on his upper eye and was later transferred to the hospital.


Police used tear gas on demonstrators well into Wednesday morning and fired on several men seen carrying swords and Molotov cocktails on side streets. A huge cloud of black smoke was seen smoldering close to the Ministry of Interior where protesters burned dozens of tires.


The protesters blocked the entrances to the square as calls were made on the internet for more people to join the cause.


The Imam of the nearby Omar Makram Mosque called via loud speaker for police to stop attacking the protesters, saying Tahrir Square belonged to "the revolutionaries." He also urged the demonstrators to go home.


The human rights group Amnesty Amnesty International has estimated at least 840 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded during the 18-day revolution that began in late January. The military-led government that took over when Mubarak resigned has been prosecuting several former officials accused of ordering security forces to fire on protesters.


A police officer accused of killing 20 protesters during a January 28 demonstration has been sentenced to death. Former Interior Minister Habib El Adly has been sentenced to 12 years for corruption charges but still awaits the verdict for the charge of killing protesters.


Mubarak is scheduled to face the Cairo Criminal Court in August on charges of corruption and deaths of protestors.


Egypt's military rulers have set parliamentary elections for September. Protests have continued in the months since Mubarak's ouster as Egyptians have demanded speedier reforms and economic improvements.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This is a good report, even though their guy Ben Wedeman, is in Libya.


?Some of the best information is coming from Andie Carvin, the NPR man on the scene.  Thus far this morning NPR is not headlining events in Egypt. Too many other stories in the mix (Kabul Intercontinental Hotel attack,  forest fires, domestic politics, etc.). And at this point events in Cairo are still building. If those in charge behind the scenes are smart they will call off their attack dogs and at least listen to what the young people have to say. As long as they feel the need to break up pavement to have rocks to throw, they need go be heard and heeded.   �For those under 21, this is your ballot.�


Paving stones and rocks notwithstanding, the underlying impulses of the Arab Spring continue to be largely non-violent.  This picture is symbolically powerful.


  Tahrir




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