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, February 3, 2012

Komen Damage Control

Commentary By Ron Beasley


Komen for the Cure has apparently reversed their decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood.



Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.



It may be too little too late as the PP brouhaha has resulted in people looking at other aspects of the organization.  The documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc.  opening today won't help.



Update


Komen caved. Or did it?  Greg Sargent says not really.



The question now is what its announcement actually means.


I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants � a demand he said would be �unfair� to impose on Komen. He also said the job of the group�s controversial director, Nancy Brinker, is safe, as far as the board is concerned.


As some were quick to point out, the statement put out by Komen doesn�t really clarify whether Planned Parenthood will actually continue to get money from the group. The original rationale for barring Planned Parenthood was that it was under investigation (a witch-hunt probe undertaken by GOP Rep Cliff Stearns). Komen said today that the group would �amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.�



Update II


Good take down of Komen here. Komen no longer owns pink



In fact, the way the foundation goes about fighting breast cancer has made pink a dirty color. There�s even a documentary, �Pink Ribbons Inc.,� that takes the giant nonprofit and its corporate style to task.


Komen�s apparently politically driven decision to stop providing grants for breast cancer prevention services to Planned Parenthood may well spell the end of the �pink-washing.�


That�s what Breast Cancer Action has been calling it for years in its �Think Before You Pink� campaign. That group advocates for research into the root causes of breast cancer, not just the treatment-oriented research and screening message advocated by Komen.



Update III


This from my partner John:




3 comments:

  1. The Komenies will defund Planned Parenthood by refusing to renew grants, one at a time, until they have quietly gotten to where they want to be: Zero funding.
    http://snipurl.com/2219qwr

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  2. I think you're right about this being too little, too late. The {pink} veil has been pulled back to expose some pretty ugly practices for those of us who hadn't paid that close of attention to the organization before, and more seems to come up out of the woodwork every time I look. Very much off my radar for any giving in the future.
    Not to mention that their change regarding "criminal, not political" investigations still doesn't seem to have affected Penn State's grant.

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