A Blog of Fire and Ice
For the League’s fantasy aficionados (and Erik, who I know loves this stuff): Alyssa Rosenberg is blogging George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice. Here’s her latest entry.
by Will · July 15, 2010
For the League’s fantasy aficionados (and Erik, who I know loves this stuff): Alyssa Rosenberg is blogging George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice. Here’s her latest entry.
Tags: booksfantasyGeorge R. R. Martin
Will
Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.
February 16, 2015
July 16, 2015
December 31, 2012
From CNN:
Comment →In the end, four people were shot dead at the intersection in Miramar, authorities said, including two robbery suspects, a bystander, and hostage UPS driver Frank Ordonez -- a man who relatives say had been substituting for a colleague who had called out from work that day.
The slain robbers and hijackers were Lamar Alexander, 41, and Ronnie Jerome Hill, 41, both of Miami-Dade County, the FBI said. Authorities haven't released the name of the bystander who was killed.
Numerous questions about the chase and its finale remain, including who shot Ordonez and the bystander.
[caption id="attachment_322423" align="aligncenter" width="709"] Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain][/caption]
The House Judiciary Committee will be kicking off their portion of the impeachment inquiry, with coverage and live stream you can watch here:
The House Judiciary Committee is taking the reins of the impeachment inquiry, holding its first hearing with testimony on the constitutional grounds for impeachment.
The committee, which will be responsible for drafting potential articles of impeachment, is hearing from four constitutional law experts: Noah Feldman, Pamela Karlan, Michael Gerhardt and Jonathan Turley, who is also a CBS News legal analyst.
What say you? The commentareum is raring to go on this topic, join in.
Comment →[caption id="attachment_323188" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
Senator Kamala Harris' once promising campaign for the Democratic nomination for president has ended.
To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 3, 2019
But I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.https://t.co/92Hk7DHHbR
Comment →Harris told aides of her intentions in an all-staff call. A person familiar with the call said she sounded distraught. While Harris had qualified for the December debate in her home state, she was running dangerously low on cash — lacking the resources to air TV ads in Iowa — and her staff was gripped by long-running internal turmoil.
Story Continued BelowStill, the news came as a shock to some of her biggest supporters. Just as Harris was announcing the news internally, a super PAC had cleared more than $1 million in TV ads in Iowa to boost her struggling campaign. The ad, which argued she was the best-equipped candidate to take on Trump, was canceled.
“Eleven months ago at the launch of our campaign in Oakland I told you all: ‘I am not perfect.' But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity. I will speak the truth. And that’s what I have tried to do every day of this campaign. So here’s the truth today,” Harris wrote in a note to supporters. “I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life. My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue ."
Harris, who spent Thanksgiving in Iowa with family, took a deep look at the campaign’s resources over the holiday and decided she did not have a path to the nomination. A Harris campaign aide said the expected impeachment trial in January further complicated the situation.
She made the decision Monday after discussions with her family and senior aides. Harris will travel to the early states this week to thank staff and supporters for their dedication to the campaign.
[caption id="attachment_323152" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
No, not Katie Hill, who made a good run at the biggest scandal in the Cali delegation but fell short to Duncan Hunter. The still Representative of CA-50 will reportedly change his "not guilty" plea Tuesday in court.
The change of plea, if entered and accepted by the judge, also would close the complicated appeal that Hunter filed earlier this year. In an unusual move, the East County congressman appealed his prosecution in July to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal even before his trial opened.
Hunter, who will turn 43 on Saturday, and his wife were charged in August 2018 with 60 criminal counts related to their use of Hunter’s campaign contributions and each faced decades in prison if convicted on all charges.
Both pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were arraigned.
Margaret Hunter, 44, changed her plea in June to guilty to a single count of conspiracy and agreed to testify against her husband. She faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in April, but is likely to serve substantially less time.
The couple has three children.
According to the indictment, the Hunters relied for years on campaign contributions to pay routine family expenses such as dental bills, home repairs and fast-food meals. They also used the donations to pay for exotic vacations, private-school tuition, video games and plane tickets for Margaret’s mother to travel to and from Poland.
The Hunters used more than $500 in campaign funds to fly the family’s pet rabbit, Eggburt, across the country with them, Margaret Hunter admitted in her plea agreement.
The initial indictment also alluded to several unnamed “individuals” who appeared to have more than professional relationships with Duncan Hunter.
Earlier this year, as the congressman continued to deny his guilt and prosecutors disclosed more of their evidence in public court filings, it became clear that Hunter had extramarital affairs with at least five different women over many years -- and paid for them with campaign funds.
Though never identified publicly, three of the women were noted to be lobbyists and two others were reported to be congressional staffers.
Hunter is still in Congress but has been stripped of all committee assignments and is not being endorsed or supported by the Republican Party, drawing strong candidates looking to take his seat.
Comment →[caption id="attachment_322780" align="aligncenter" width="750"] AG William Barr meets with DOJ officials. Photo by The United States Department of Justice [Public domain][/caption]
Attorney General William Barr said he initially had his own suspicions about financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death while behind bars at one of the most secure jails in America but came to conclude that his suicide was the result of “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said his concerns were prompted by the numerous irregularities at the New York jail where Epstein was being held. But he said after the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general continued to investigate, he realized there were a “series” of mistakes made that gave Epstein the chance to take his own life.
“I can understand people who immediately, whose minds went to sort of the worst-case scenario because it was a perfect storm of screw-ups,” Barr told the AP as he flew to Montana for an event.
Barr’s comments come days after two correctional officers who were responsible for guarding the wealthy financier when he died were charged with falsifying prison records. Officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas are accused of sleeping and browsing the internet — shopping for furniture and motorcycles — instead of watching Epstein, who was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.
Epstein took his own life in August while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s.
His suicide cast a spotlight on the federal Bureau of Prisons, which has been plagued by chronic staffing shortages and outbreaks of violence. The indictment unsealed this week against the officers shows a damning glimpse of safety lapses inside a high-security unit
This will, of course, have precisely zero effect in settling down those pesky "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself!" feelings many folks have.
Comment →Andrew Donaldson // 36 Comments
Not the Bi-Partisan Impeachment They Were Looking For
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Beyond December 7th: A Pearl Harbor Remembrance
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Saturday Morning Gaming: Gaming As A Service
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The Days of Christmas Tree Preparation
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Not the Bi-Partisan Impeachment They Were Looking For
December 6, 2019
Devin Nunes and the Very Delicate Feelings
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Weekend Plans Post: Entering the Holiday Apocalypse
December 6, 2019
I’m Dreaming of a Bike Christmas
December 5, 2019
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Chik-Fil-A: Why Can’t a Chicken Sandwich Just Be a Chicken Sandwich?
November 20, 2019
Pete Buttigieg Tops Latest Iowa Polling
November 12, 2019
Public Impeachment Hearings Begin
November 13, 2019
December 2, 2019
November 18, 2019
November 26, 2019
Obligatory Impeachment Hearings Something or Other
December 4, 2019
I’m Dreaming of a Bike Christmas
December 5, 2019
I've heard of feeling like a million bucks, but a billion just sounds greedy.
I wish I could read her others but I can’t seem to sift them out of her general blog.
I wish Martin would get the books moving out. I’m starting to fear that we’re going to be dealing with another goddamn Robert Jordan here.Report
@North, I am not a Jordanphile but I hang with a handful and they point out that the most recent book was frickin’ awesome. One even went so far as to say that it’s the best book since, like, number 8 or something.
This is not a personal endorsement (haven’t read it or any of them) but in the process of bugging my “wheelie” buds, they pretty much universally sang the praises of the last book and how it started tying off storylines.
For what that’s worth.Report
@Jaybird, Jaybird, what I mean by “Another Jordan” is that you have an author with an awesome world and fascinating story who produces a book every two years or so and then eventually dies before finishing the series. The last book, for instance, was written by his replacement working off his notes. I loved Jordan’s books (though his characters interaction with women always made me a little annoyed) but the man produced books very very slowly.Report
@North, Another Jordan fan. I got sucked into those, way back when. I rather liked the poly aspects.Report
@Cascadian, Hi Cas,
Oh no, I didn’t even blink at the polygamous aspects. What bothered me was hard to put my finger on. I think it may have been the three main characters (Rand, Matt and Perrin) attitudes towards women that rubbed me the wrong way. I wouldn’t even think of suggesting that it was the author’s bias; he wrote strongly from the point of view of wonderful women characters. I think it may have just been his conscious choice of attitude for those characters that bothered me.
And yes I was sucked in a few years ago. I was one of the lucky ones; I was able to read up to like 2 books ago before I ran out. Some of my co-fans had been waiting book to book since book one. I couldn’t imagine!Report
I’m way past fearing that we’ve got another Robert Jordan; I’m quite confident that our best-case scenario is to get A Dance with Dragons and nothing else, with nothing else at all a more probably outcome. That’s why I’m paying more attention to how Patrick Rothfuss’s next book is coming, since I think there’s a chance that he won’t break my heart.Report
@Don Zeko, /wristReport
@North, Yeah, sorry for being such a downer dude, but I can’t help. I can feel it in my bones; he’s going to pull a Jordan on us.Report
@Don Zeko, Well let’s hope not.Report
One of the more interesting shifts that’s happened in my lifetime has been wider acceptance of porn on the left. There have always been more libertarian liberals who were okay with porn, of course- does anyone remember the 1990s free-speech, anti-PC magazine Gauntlet, for instance? But when I was about 19, most of the people I knew personally on the left were pretty strongly opposed to pornography, and there were a handful of “pro-porn feminists”- such as Susie Bright, who took a lot of flak. I remember being frequently called “the libertarian” among friends on the left for having no real problem with smut. People might remember the documentary “Not a Love Story” for instance- I went to a screening of that in which socially conservative Catholics and radical feminists came together in their belief that smut was akin to Nazi race propaganda and I was basically very isolated there.
Nowadays, however, I hear criticisms of porn so rarely on the left that the chapter in Empire of Illusion about the evils of pornography came as a bit of a surprise. People say that porn has “gone mainstream”, but I wonder if criticism of pornography hasn’t just become more taboo. Of course, we can discuss that when we get to the book!Report
@Rufus, Oh, wrong thread! Whoops!Report