The complaint, which was filed on June 14 and leaked to the press yesterday, shows he was charged with “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person,” which are both felonies under the Espionage Act.

As highlighted previously, Snowden is the eighth person who leaked information to be charged under the Espionage Act under President Barack Obama. The previous seven are: Shamai Leibowitz, Thomas Drake, Stephen Kim, Jeffrey Sterling, Pfc. Bradley Manning, John Kiriakou and James Hitselberger.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

I find it equally natural to speak of ‘Mr. Showmanship’ Liberace as if he were another person.

— Wladziu “Lee” Valentino Liberace
THE STORIES LIBERACE TOLD ABOUT HIMSELF were nothing like the one Steven Soderbergh told in HBO’s biopic Behind The Candelabra. The new film, which focuses on the relationship between the flamboyant piano-playing entertainer (Michael Douglas) and his lover and companion of five years, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), is based on Thorson’s 1988 memoir of the same name. The film adaptation, like the book, is an intimate look at a same-sex relationship, chronicling Liberace’s courtship of the much-younger Thorson, Thorson’s ensuing tenure as Liberace’s live-in lover and right-hand man, and the messy breakup in the early 80’s that resulted in a “palimony” lawsuit and much tabloid fodder before Liberace died of AIDS in February 1987. Thorson wrote his book in the wake of the ex-couple’s long, acrimonious legal battle, and his portrait of Liberace is both tender and unsparing. It reveals details of the aging entertainer’s personal life — his face lifts and penis implant, his appetite for pornography and his AIDS — that Liberace, who was famously obsessed with hiding his sexuality and his cosmetic enhancements, had been determined to keep secret. Thorson’s story is, in other words, a tell-all about an entertainer who was determined to go to the grave telling nothing.

Continue Reading...

For a first look at the best news stories and documentaries from around the world, please take a moment to subscribe to The I Files, a totally free and carefully curated news source. We pore over hundreds of hours of videos so you don’t have to and highlight the best stories you might have missed. We don’t mind – it’s what we do.

Incidentally, The I Files editorial team totally shares the snacks whenever we play Monopoly, unlike some people we know.

“Park Avenue: Money, power and the American dream,” Alex Gibney for the “Why Poverty?” series

“Some rich people are just dicks.”

Continue Reading...

"It's a new Heritage and it's one that's not standing by the principles of Ronald Reagan," he told Salon Thursday. "I'm puzzled why they came out with this study and I'm more puzzled why they seem to be against immigration."

The foundation's new report, which estimates that immigration reform will cost taxpayers $6 trillion, has touched off a civil war on the right.

"If Jack Kemp were alive today there's no question where he would stand, and he probably wouldn't even be afraid to use the word 'amnesty,'" Pines said of the late congressman who helped developed supply-side economics and mentored Paul Ryan.

Continue Reading...

How seriously should Americans take Issa’s hearing and claims?

For almost four years, I worked in close proximity to him, first on the Democratic staff of the Oversight Committee (when he was ranking member) and then as legislative director for a senior member of the committee, when he was chairman. Here’s what I learned: If Darrell Issa says something – based on the record, his statements and my personal observations of him up-close – there is a strong likelihood it will be baseless and easily disproven.

Continue Reading...

This is the second proxy Reagan endorsement for gay marriage to come from Davis in recent weeks. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this month, Davis said that her father would have supported marriage equality because he explained to her as a child that “some men are born wanting to love another man," and counted a lesbian couple among his closest family friends. Davis also cited Reagan's opposition to a ballot measure that would have barred gays and lesbians from working in public schools during his time as governor of California as more gay marriage credentialing.

When asked if her mother supported gay marriage, Davis responded "she does," adding that her mother likely agreed with her about the Gipper's stance on equal marriage:

Continue Reading...

But a new report from Goldman Sachs economists puts the Obama decision in an even harsher light. The federal deficit is coming down rapidly on its own. In a piece entitled, “The Rapidly Shrinking Federal Deficit,” Goldman notes that the deficit averaged 4.5 percent of GDP in the first calendar quarter, compared to 10.1 percent in fiscal year 2009. The reasons are faster economic growth, higher taxes, and reduced government spending.

Continue Reading...

This bizarre repetition of presidential history was the subject of Rachel Maddow's MSNBC interview last night of President Obama's top political consigliere David Axelrod. The discussion was significant for how Axelrod tried to avoid answering why, when it comes to Social Security, President Obama is now positioning himself to the right of Ronald Reagan. He is doing this by invoking deficits and debt as the reason to propose cutting Social Security, even though that program that has almost nothing to do with the national deficit and debt.

Continue Reading...

As the coverage of Margaret Thatcher's death this week reminds us, the 1980s still define us in so many ways. The National Geographic Channel poll, timed to the Sunday premiere of the channel's three-night "The '80s: The Decade That Made Us," is chock-full of revealing findings about why exactly that is.

Continue Reading...

She was at heart a populist taking on the Conservative party’s old guard, who disdainfully referred to her as “That Woman.” The disdain was mutual. She referred to them as “the not so grand grandees.” As Thatcher later said, “It didn’t matter what they called me as long as I got the job done. I mean, to me they were ‘Those Grandees.’ They just don’t know what life is like. They haven’t been through it. And eventually if they didn’t help our cause, they had to go. But it didn’t bother me too much that they were patronizing like that. Frankly, the people, who are the true gentlemen, deal with others for what they are, not who their father was. Let’s face it: Maybe it took ‘That Woman’ to get things done, and the real reason why they said it was because they knew they just hadn’t got it within them to see things through.”

As she continues:

Continue Reading...

The administration, said 2nd Circuit District Judge Edward Korman, acted in "bad faith" -- a phrase that arises again and again in the stinging decision. And Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius acted in a fashion that "was politically motivated, scientifically unjustified, and contrary to agency precedent."

Continue Reading...

Well, Reagan's daughter Patti Davis has a theory about where her dad would have stood on gay rights and same-sex marriage.

In an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, Davis pointed to her father's belief in limited government, his Hollywood history and a lesbian couple -- Davis' "aunt and aunt" -- who were close family friends as reasons Reagan would have backed marriage equality: "I grew up in this era where your parents’ friends were all called aunt and uncle. And then I had an aunt and an aunt. We saw them on holidays and other times. We never talked about it, but I just understood that they were a couple."

Continue Reading...

In a CNN interview discussing the plan, NRA official Asa Hutchinson claimed he is "open to expanding background checks," but the Huffington Post notes "he stopped far short of endorsing the type of universal background checks for all gun sales that have been proposed" in major legislation before the U.S. Senate.

All of this points to five key questions at the heart of today's increasingly bizarre gun debate - and their not-so-satisfying answers:

1. Why does the NRA oppose the universal background check policy it once championed?

Continue Reading...

While not unexpected, it’s an absolutely baffling, incredible position, noteworthy even when held by an admittedly slim plurality of the public. Considering the enormous damage the Republican brand has taken recently, it’s significant that voters still reflexively assume conservatives are “better at” or more “serious about” the economy than liberals. (At the same time, voters reflexively assume that liberals care more about “people like me.”)

Still, the notion that our economy would be healthier if it were managed by Republicans — who advocate implementing a ludicrous, crippling austerity package that falls disproportionately on the shoulders of the poor and middle class — the damning evidence notwithstanding, is left completely unexamined everywhere, the focus falling instead on the poll finding that showed bipartisan distaste for Republican intransigence.

Continue Reading...

And yet, despite its dubious origins, the party's new approach is a striking statement regarding the political power — and numbers — of lower-income people in this country: Rather than dismiss, slur or divide poorer Americans (as in prior elections), Republicans have now made the political calculation that they've no choice but to talk directly to them and win their votes.

Continue Reading...

At any rate, forget all that: the new fantasy candidate for conservatives is Dr. Benjamin Carson, a neonatal surgeon, with no political experience, who achieved the status of dream presidential nominee by virtue of giving a good speech at the conservative conference CPAC last week. By late Thursday afternoon, he was explaining to CNN's Jake Tapper the circumstances under which he'd consider a bid for the White House in 2016.

Continue Reading...

It’s a myth.

But expect to see plenty of it. It was a widely circulated myth during the last cycle, and the nomination of Mitt Romney will surely entrench the myth even more. But still, it’s a myth.

Of course it is true that parties – all parties – are most likely to nominate a candidate who enters the fight as the clear leader. But if “next in line” is more than just a trite statement that strong candidates usually do well, then it doesn’t help to predict anything.

Continue Reading...

And that doesn't even start to describe the merchandise that's available here: T-shirts, beer cozies, aprons, bumper stickers, and pins emblazoned with images of Ronald Reagan or messages like "I <3 Hyek." Even Optimus Prime makes a cameo.

Here's your guide to the best of the best CPAC weirdness (click on pictures for bigger images):

Apparel for freedom: Eberle & Associates, a GOP-affiliated direct mail firm, is handing out free tees with messages like, “Keep Calm and Fight Socialsim” in the style of the British WWII poster, and “Viva la Reagan Revolution” in the style of Che Guevara. All you have to do is tweet the hashtag “#fightsocialism” or like them on Facebook. Another booth offers “customized apparel for fraternities, sororities, and honor groups” (groups that tend to lean right), while another offers patriotic-themed clothing — all made in America, of course. And Marco Rubio’s PAC is selling $25 water bottles (get it?).

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...