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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Friday, October 14, 2011

OWS -- 8 Rules

By John Ballard


Here they are... the Eight Rules for a movement without rules, led ny No One and making decisions by Concensus.
Getting into a hivemind is not easy, but I'm trying.
Cynthia Boaz put these into writing.
Here's a link to the hashtag.


Dr. Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science at Sonoma State University, where her areas of expertise include quality of democracy, nonviolent struggle, civil resistance, and political communication and media, and an affiliated scholar at the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace International Master in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. She is also an analyst and consultant on nonviolent action. She is Vice President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence and on the board of Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation. Dr. Boaz is also a contributing writer and adviser to Truthout.org, a contributor to Waging Nonviolence, and former associate editor of Peace and Change Journal.



  1. Nonviolent discipline, no matter what. Zero tolerance for any violence whatsoever, including verbal.

  2. Unity of message & across orgs and people. There should be a consistent message & demands coming out & activists shld know it & share it.

  3. There must be a long-term and coherent strategy, not just tactics and actions (no matter how clever) that are not connected in some way.

  4. Security forces/police should be seen as potential recruits to movement, not as adversaries. Ultimately they are accountable to the ppl.

  5. Keep larger audience (national and international) in mind when framing the message. The goal is to win ppl over, not to alienate.

  6. Defensive strategies never win. Don�t respond to verbal attacks or hostile propaganda by using the language of the opponent. Reframe.

  7. Claim victory whenever possible. It�s important for morale and enthusiasm. Keep anger/rage in check with humor and solidarity actions.
    [She was right on with her answer, but she used all 140 characters. We trimmed the principles down so people could RT them, and we thought number seven was a compound thought, so we split it into the last two of the eight rules.]

  8. Keep anger in check /w solidarity actions & humor.


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Looks right to me. Let's hope they/we can remember them when the chips are down. A mnemonic is needed.



 


Talking heads?
We got talking heads?
Yeah. It's called fighting fire with fire.


And besides, I like Olberman better now without the tie.



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