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, December 2, 2011

Clown Show On Speed

Commentary By Ron Beasley


Istockphoto_1033798-clown-car-2Just when you thought the Republican primary couldn't get any more ridiculous it did.  How do you say clown show? This is how - Trump to Moderate Republican Debate.



It�s officially a reality television Republican primary now.


Donald Trump is pairing up with Newsmax, the conservative magazine and news Web site, to moderate a presidential debate in Des Moines on Dec. 27.


�Our readers and the grass roots really love Trump,� said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media. �They may not agree with him on everything, but they don�t see him as owned by the Washington establishment, the media establishment.�


Mr. Trump�s role in the debate, which will be broadcast on the cable network Ion Television, is sure to be one of the more memorable moments in a primary season that has already delivered its fair share of circus-like spectacle.



Fortunately for the Republicans very few people will see this debate.  As Doug Mataconis  says:



To the extent that the 2012 Presidential campaign wasn�t already a farce, it will become one on December 27th



In an earlier post Doug points out that the Republican party has become a joke internationally.



Scott Horton passes along an excerpt from an article in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel [link is in German] regarding the race for the Republican nomination:


�Africa is a country. The Taliban rule in Libya. Muslims are terrorists. Immigrants are mostly criminals, Occupy Wall Street protesters are always dirty. And women who claim to have been sexually molested should kindly keep quiet.�


 


Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign. For months it has coiled through the country like a traveling circus, from debate to debate, from scandal to scandal, contesting the mightiest office in the world � and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them� These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States.


 


They lie, deceive, scuffle and speak every manner of idiocy. And they expose a political, economic, geographic and historical ignorance compared to which George W. Bush sounds like a scholar. Even the party�s boosters are horrified by the spectacle�



Yes the very same party that talks about Obama's "apology" tour is making the US look like a country of fools who should not be taken seriously.



2 comments:

  1. Keep belittling and mocking Republicans. It feels good. It makes us Democrats feel superior, intelligent and noble. It equates to chest beating, which we thought was unseemly when George Bush did it.
    Meanwhile, the only thing the Democrats seem to have to offer going forward is "we're not Republicans" or tax cuts, spending cuts and deficit reduction which translates to "we're Republicans."

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  2. Listen, I'm pretty pessimistic about Americans' collective intelligence. But even they must see that the GOP is moving further and further into La-La Land. I hope?

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