Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315063043?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
8 great Stepparenting tips - Blending Blog - Blended Family Gifts
A few months ago I asked this question on my Facebook page: what?s the best piece of advice you would give to a new stepparent? The answers I got apply to experienced stepparents as well.
Here are some of them:
?Have patience. Lots and lots of patience.? (amen!)
?If the stepchild is a teen you probably aren?t going to do anything right & a lot of the child?s hurt & anger is going to be directed at you. Let love guide your decisions but don?t bend over backwards. Expect respect and nothing else. And know that they will soon grow out of it. ? ( my favorite)
?Try to go with the flow where appropriate and where possible!? (couldn?t agree more)
?Don?t worry about the other home or the other parent. Focus on what YOU do in YOUR home. Don?t talk about the other parent. Don?t compare yourself or what you do in your home to how the other parent does it to the kids. The kids KNOW the difference. They don?t need you pointing it out.? (yup, that should be a daily reminder)
?Don?t try to be perfect and don?t feel bad if negative feelings like jealousy arise. Simply look for help. It?s part of the process.? (my answer)
?Don?t loose who you are, be YOU and be a great YOU! ? (indeed!)
?Before you walk in..understand the family dynamic in regards to support/custody and access?..set down ground rules including the role each parent will play in enforcing these expectations. ? (very, very wise answer) ??Don?t take things too personally?it?s not always about you. ? by Stepville, another great page on FB
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Would love to hear your own tips. Feel free to share them in the comments section below.
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photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
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Source: http://blog.blendedfamilygifts.com/8-great-stepparenting-tips/
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Great news: half our senators skipped out on a briefing about NSA snooping so they could get home so
Great news: half our senators skipped out on a briefing about NSA snooping so they could get home sooner!
Source: http://gizmodo.com/great-news-half-our-senators-skipped-out-on-a-briefing-513602953
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99% Mud
All Critics (144) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (2)
For at least three-quarters of the way, this is a fine film, and one that kids and parents could see together.
There is an enchanted-fairy-tale aspect to Mud, but its bright, calm surface only barely disguises a strong, churning undercurrent.
A modern fairy tale, steeped in the sleepy Mississippi lore of Twain and similar American writers, and with a heart as big as the river is wide.
Nichols has a strong feeling for the tactility of natural elements-water, wood, terrain, weather.
Nichols takes his time with the story, dwelling on how the boy is shaped by the killer's tragic sense of romance, yet the suspense holds.
"Mud" isn't just a movie. It's the firm confirmation of a career.
In its energy and nuance, Mud seems like the kind of film Hollywood would've made in the Seventies, and would've continued to do if not for the advent of market-conscious filmmaking.
More than a mere tribute to Twain and Dickens: this has all the makings of a modern classic.
An extremely sophisticated and progressive examination on how adolescent masculinity is defined by often-contradictory cultural attitudes towards femininity.
Mud is as beautiful to watch as it is to listen to, and feel kinship to, whether you're from the South or just Southern at heart.
In Jeff Nichols, America has a champion of the religious and working class. With the schism between the right and left in the U.S. growing ever larger... his ascent couldn't have come at a better time.
This is a film with a great naturalistic style and captivating performances and which does just about everything right.
Jeff Nichols writes characters with depth, nurtures strong performances form his cast and allows the screenplay's backwater setting to effectively create tone and texture.
This is American cinema at its very best as Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me.The two boys are terrific and McConaughey is sensational as Mud, dazzlingly frazzled as the hunted and haunted man on the run.
Up till just past the three-quarter mark, Mud is one heck of a nifty psychological fable.
The Southern-fried drama "Mud" is an electrifying example of what happens when you merge a crackerjack yarn with a very specific setting, and then pour on the heat with riveting performances.
McConaughey and Sheridan 's acting skills, as well as those of the entire supporting cast, make this movie better than it ought to be.
It gets under our skin because Nichols gives us time to come to know Mud's island like the places we knew as children.
As Mud might say, it's a hell of a thing.
The boys are so skillfully played that Mud also plays like cinema verite. Nichols' fluid camerawork suggests a documentary-style approach. That helps these young lads transform into flesh-and-blood characters who get our attention and support.
Sheridan, who played the Terrence Malick surrogate in The Tree Of Life, is terrific at conveying adolescent confusion with tiny squints and frowns, and McConaughey plays off him masterfully.
Carefully crafting films that fly just below the political radar, director-writer Jeff Nichols is slowly, but surely, reweaving the fabric of the American dream.
It's totally worth it to pay good money to see a good, little film nestled between theaters showing 'Iron Man 3' and 'The Great Gatsby.' (Complete Content Details for Parents also available)
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mud_2012/
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Thursday, June 13, 2013
Samsung officially announces Galaxy S4 Zoom with 16MP camera, 10x optical zoom
Coming in just after a Russian site managed to review the device, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom. Combining a fully featured Android 4.2.2 Galaxy phone (basically a Galaxy S4 Mini) with a 16MP point-and-shoot, it brings a 10x optical zoom lens to bear -- the first phone to do so. On the phone side, it sports a 4.3-inch qHD display, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD slot) and a 1.9MP front facing camera. The camera includes optical image stabilization and a Xenon flash, along with a special "Zoom Ring." That ring surrounds the camera, and when twisted (even while on a call) it can launch in-call photo sharing, or go straight to other camera modes. Extra software features are also on hand to advantage of the combo device's capabilities including Photo Suggest that shows great pics taken by others in the area, Smart Mode auto settings and more.
President and CEO JK Shin is pleased by the union, calling it "truly the best of both worlds, without compromise," for people who want to capture high quality images and share them, but don't want to carry two devices. We're told it will arrive in the UK this summer but have not been able to confirm a pricetag, while its early Russian reviewers mentioned a July release and local pricing of around $618, converted. Intrigued, horrified, or just want to compare it to Nokia's latest efforts? A press release, pictures and detailed spec sheet await you below.
Update: Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S4 Zoom will come to the US too, at some point in Q3 this year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Mobile, Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/HzLkQFy7Drc/
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Every Mom's Computer Keyboard Looks Like This
Moms are at the absolute best. They brought you into the world, they raised you, they loved you, they took care of you, they Mom'd you. In fact, what they're not the best at is a very short list. Actually, it's just one thing: Computers. No matter how easy it is to use a computer, Moms will always find a way to freeze the screen and/or forward cute e-mails.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Bill to revamp military justice faces uphill fight
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Ambitious legislation to stanch the growing number of sexual assaults in the armed forces by overhauling the military justice system faces an uncertain future due to vigorous objections from senior Defense Department leaders and key members of Congress who are concerned the proposed changes go too far.
The bill crafted by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., cleared an important hurdle Tuesday when the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee that she chairs approved the measure. But the legislation must get through the full committee and its chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., has signaled his intent to offer an alternative that would mute the most aggressive reforms in Gillibrand's bill.
Gillibrand's legislation would remove commanders from the process of deciding whether serious crimes, including sexual misconduct cases, go to trial. That judgment would rest instead with seasoned trial lawyers who have prosecutorial experience and hold the rank of colonel or above. Her bill would take away a commander's authority to convene a court-martial. That responsibility would be given to new and separate offices outside the victim's chain of command.
But Levin and other lawmakers, echoing fears voiced by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believe that cutting commanders out of the legal process would undermine their ability to enforce good order and discipline within the ranks.
"Commanders ought to have and use the tools that are the most effective in terms of changing climate and affecting the behavior of people in their units, and that's to have available to them the power to send to a court-martial," Levin said Monday.
The Armed Services Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to vote on the provisions that will be included in a sweeping defense policy bill for the 2014 fiscal year that Oct. 1.
Levin's alternative, which has bipartisan support, would require a review by an individual higher in the chain of command if a commander decides not to prosecute a sexual assault case. It would make it a crime to retaliate against victims who report a sexual assault and relieve commanders of their responsibilities if they do not create a climate receptive for victims who report crimes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the personnel subcommittee's top Republican, said commanders shouldn't be sidelined from sexual assault cases. He and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., both voted against Gillibrand's legislation, which the panel passed by voice vote.
"I don't think you quite resolve a problem in the military without the chain of command buying into it and being held more accountable," Graham said.
But frustration over the Defense Department's' failure so far to change the military's male-dominated culture and eradicate sexual assaults is driving support for substantive changes.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday at a separate hearing that Congress is considering stripping the military of its authority to prosecute sexual assault cases and shifting the responsibility to state prosecutors.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the status quo is unacceptable.
Leahy said that while the proposal is controversial, it would send a message to commanders that doing "things as they've always been done is not acceptable."
Hagel assured Leahy that changes will be made to deal with sexual assaults in the services and specifically mentioned a specially appointed panel that would be meeting in two weeks to consider reforms.
"There are going to have to be changes made. There will be changes made," Hagel said. "But as we make those changes and work with the Congress on this, we need to be as sure as we can be that the consequences that will come from whatever decisions made by the Congress to make those kinds of adjustments that we need to make ? and you know I agree with that in many ways ? that they're thoughtful."
The Pentagon estimated in a recent report that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, up from an estimated 19,000 assaults in 2011, based on an anonymous survey of military personnel. While the number of sexual assaults that members of the military actually reported rose 6 percent to 3,374 in 2012, thousands of victims were still unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs aimed at curbing the crimes, the report said.
By week's end, the House is scheduled to vote on its version of a defense policy bill that would take away the power of military commanders to overturn convictions in rape and assault cases.
The change was initially recommended in April by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and is backed by Dempsey, the service chiefs and many members of Congress.
The House legislation also would require that anyone found guilty of rape, sexual assault, forcible sodomy or an attempt to commit any of those offenses receive a punishment that includes a dismissal from military service or a dishonorable discharge.
The House legislation eliminates the five-year statute of limitations on trial by court-martial for sexual assault and sexual assault of a child. It also establishes the authority for military legal counsel to provide legal assistance to victims of sex-related offenses and requires enhanced training for all military and civilian attorneys involved in sex-related cases.
Gillibrand's legislation also includes provisions from other sexual assault prevention bills. It requires all the military branches to provide any victims with a special military lawyer who would assist them throughout the process, a measure first offered by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
It also has a measure crafted by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, requiring that substantiated sex-related offenses be noted in the personnel records of the offenders.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bill-revamp-military-justice-faces-uphill-fight-204936021.html
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Congress briefed on US surveillance programs
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Dogged by fear and confusion about sweeping spy programs, intelligence officials sought to convince House lawmakers in an unusual briefing Tuesday that the government's years-long collection of phone records and Internet usage is necessary for protecting Americans ? and does not trample on their privacy rights.
But the country's main civil liberties organization wasn't buying it, filing the most significant lawsuit against the massive phone record collection program so far. The American Civil Liberties Union and its New York chapter sued the federal government Tuesday in New York, asking a court to demand that the Obama administration end the program and purge the records it has collected.
The ACLU is claiming standing as a customer of Verizon, which was identified last week as the phone company the government had ordered to turn over daily records of calls made by all its customers.
The parade of FBI and intelligence officials who briefed the entire House on Tuesday was the latest attempt to soothe outrage over National Security Agency programs which collect billions of Americans' phone and Internet records. Since they were revealed last week, the programs have spurred distrust in the Obama administration from across the globe.
Several key lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, refocused the furor Tuesday on the elusive 29-year-old former intelligence contractor who is claiming responsibility for revealing the surveillance programs to two newspapers. Boehner joined others in calling Edward Snowden a "traitor."
But attempts to defend the NSA systems by a leading Republican senator who supports them highlighted how confusingly intricate the programs are ? even to the lawmakers who follow the issue closely.
Explaining the programs to reporters, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees, initially described how the NSA uses pattern analysis of millions of phone calls from the United States, even if those numbers have no known connection to terrorism. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has vigorously maintained that there are strict limits on the programs to prevent intruding on Americans' privacy, and senior officials quickly denied Graham's description.
Graham later said he misspoke and that Clapper was right: The phone records are only accessed if there is a known connection to terrorism.
House lawmakers had more questions and, in many cases, more concerns about the level of surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies Tuesday after FBI, Justice and other intelligence officials briefed them on the two NSA programs.
"Really it's a debate between public safety, how far we go with public safety and protecting us from terrorist attacks versus how far we go on the other side," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "Congress needs to debate this issue."
He said his panel and the Judiciary Committee would examine what has happened and see whether there are recommendations for the future.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., like many members, said he was unaware of the scope of the data collection.
"I did not know 1 billion records a day were coming under the control of the federal executive branch," Sherman said.
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said there was a lot of heated discussion and that, "Congress didn't feel like they were informed."
Cohen conceded many lawmakers had failed to attend classified briefings in previous years where they could have learned more. "I think Congress has really found itself a little bit asleep at the wheel," he said.
One of the Senate's staunchest critics of the surveillance programs put Clapper in the crosshairs, accusing him of not being truthful in March when he asked during a Senate hearing whether the NSA collects any data on millions of Americans. Clapper said it did not. Officials generally do not discuss classified information in public settings, reserving discussion on top-secret programs for closed sessions with lawmakers where they will not be revealed to adversaries.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he had been dissatisfied with the NSA's answers to his questions and had given Clapper a day's advance notice prior to the hearing to prepare an answer. Not fully believing Clapper's public denial of the program, Wyden said he asked Clapper privately afterward whether he wanted to stick with a firm 'no' to the question.
On Tuesday, Wyden revealed his efforts to get Clapper to tell him about the program and called for hearings to discuss the programs. He was also among a group of senators who introduced legislation to force the government to declassify opinions of a secret court that authorizes the surveillance.
"The American people have the right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership to the questions asked by their representatives," Wyden said.
Clapper's spokesman did not comment on Wyden's statement. But in an interview with NBC News earlier this week, Clapper said he "responded in what I thought was the most truthful or least most untruthful manner, by saying, 'No,'" because the program was classified.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will be briefed on the programs again Thursday.
Congressional leaders and intelligence committee members have been routinely briefed about the spy programs, officials said, and Capitol Hill has at least twice renewed laws approving them. But the disclosure of their sheer scope stunned some lawmakers, shocked foreign allies from nations with strict privacy protections and emboldened civil liberties advocates who long have accused the government of being too invasive in the name of national security.
On the heels of new polls showing a majority of Americans support some aspects of the spy programs, lawmakers defended the daily surveillance of billions of phone and Internet records that they said have helped make the U.S. safer in the years after the 9/11 attacks. A poll by The Washington Post and the Pew Research Center conducted over the weekend found Americans generally prioritize the government's need to investigate terrorist threats over the need to protect personal privacy.
But a CBS News poll conducted June 9-10 showed that while most approve of government collection of phone records of Americans suspected of terrorist activity and Internet activities of foreigners, a majority disapproved of federal agencies collecting the phone records of ordinary Americans. Thirty percent agreed with the government's assessment that the revelation of the programs would hurt the U.S.' ability to prevent future terrorist attacks, while 57 percent said it would have no impact.
Instead, ire focused on Snowden, the CIA employee-turned-NSA contractor who admitted in an online interview that he exposed the programs in an attempt to safeguard American privacy rights from government snooping.
"He's a traitor," Boehner said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk," Boehner said. "It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it's a giant violation of the law."
His comments echoed a growing chorus in Congress condemning Snowden's actions.
"This is treason," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said late Monday.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also chimed in Monday, calling the disclosure "an act of treason," and that Snowden should be prosecuted.
Only one American ? fugitive al-Qaida propaganda chief Adam Gadahn ? has been charged with treason since the World War II era. A law enforcement official said prosecutors were building a case against Snowden on Tuesday and had not decided what charges would be brought against him.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because there is no final decision on the charges. But it's unlikely that Snowden would be charged with treason, which carries the death penalty as a punishment, and therefore could complicate extradition from foreign countries.
Snowden, who was formally fired Tuesday from his job with government contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, was last seen in Hong Kong. In a video interview with The Guardian newspaper, Snowden admitted to revealing the two classified NSA programs. U.S. officials have said Snowden would have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to handle the classified material, and at the least could be prosecuted for violating it.
Snowden's exact whereabouts were unknown Tuesday.
___
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Donna Cassata, Frederic Frommer, Alan Fram, Andrew Miga and Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/congress-briefed-us-surveillance-programs-231454070.html
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Pa. girl who took on donor rules gets adult lungs
FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, center, celebrates the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with her father, Fran, left, and mother, Janet. The 10-year-old suburban Philadelphia girl received a lung transplant there Wednesday, June 12, 2013, her family said. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)
FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, center, celebrates the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with her father, Fran, left, and mother, Janet. The 10-year-old suburban Philadelphia girl received a lung transplant there Wednesday, June 12, 2013, her family said. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)
FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, left, lies in her hospital bed next to adopted sister Ella on the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Murnaghen, whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how donated lungs are allocated was getting a transplant Wednesday, June 12, 2013, at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, her family said. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how organs are allocated was getting a double-lung transplant Wednesday after a match with an adult donor was made.
Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, was receiving her new lungs Wednesday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, family spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said. Murnaghan's relatives were "beyond excited" about the development but were "keeping in mind that someone had to lose a family member and they're very aware of that and very appreciative," Garrity said.
No other details about the donor are known, including whether they came through the regular donor system or through public appeals.
Murnaghan's health was deteriorating when a judge intervened last week, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors.
"Some people would look at this and say it's evidence that if you get a PR campaign, a congressman and federal judge to pay attention, you're going to have far greater access to a transplant, but I don't think that's true," said ethicist Arthur Caplan of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York of the Murnaghans' public stance.
The Newtown Square, Pa., family received word about the donor lungs Tuesday night, Garrity said. The surgery began just after 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and was expected to take at least six hours, she said.
Murnaghan's mother, Janet, said in a Facebook post that the family was "overwhelmed with emotions" and thanked all her supporters.
"Today is the start of Sarah's new beginning and new life!" she wrote, adding that the donor's family "has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding."
During double lung transplants, surgeons must open up the patient's chest. Complications can include rejection of the new lung and infection.
Murnaghan's family and the family of another cystic fibrosis patient at the same hospital challenged existing transplant policy that made children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available or be offered lungs donated by adults only after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered. They said pediatric lungs are rarely donated.
On June 5, federal Judge Michael Baylson in Philadelphia ruled that Murnaghan and 11-year-old Javier Acosta of New York City should be eligible for adult lungs.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network says 31 children under age 11 are on the waiting list for a lung transplant.
The network added Murnaghan to the adult waiting list after Baylson's ruling. Her transplant came just two days before a hearing was scheduled on the family's request for a broader injunction.
Critics warned there could be a downside to having judges intervene in the organ transplant system's established procedures. Lung transplants are difficult procedures and some say child patients tend to have more trouble with them than adults.
The national organization that manages organ transplants this week resisted making emergency rule changes for children under 12 who are waiting on lungs but created a special appeal and review system to hear such cases.
Caplan said Murnaghan's family "did have a legitimate complaint" about the rule that limited her access to adult lungs.
"When the transplant community met, they didn't want to change that rule without really thinking carefully about it," he said. The appeals process that was established this week was "built on evidence, not on influence."
He added: "In general, the road to a transplant is still to let the system decide who will do best with scarce, lifesaving organs. And it's important that people understand that money, visibility, being photogenic ... are factors that have to be kept to a minimum if we're going to get the best use out of the scarce supply of donated cadaver organs."
___
AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter reported from New York
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Sony PlayStation 4 price: $399
Sony has finally revealed release information about its PlayStation 4 console: that it plays used, lent or rented games with no restrictions and its price: $399. That translates to 399 euros, and £349 where applicable, or if you missed it, $100, 100 euros and £70 less than what Microsoft just announced for the Xbox One. There's no specific release date or month yet, just "this holiday season" in the US and Europe. The official spec list confirms that for four bills, you get the system, a controller, USB, HDMI and power cables -- but no PlayStation 4 Eye.
So tell us, has this made your decision any easier? Pre-orders are open now.
Follow our liveblog for all of the latest news from E3 2013.
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8GeTEt1NQ9c/
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Victims of Saddam-era gas attack seek French probe
PARIS (AP) ? Twenty victims of Saddam Hussein's 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja are demanding a French judicial investigation of the companies that supplied the materials.
Halabja marked the deadliest chemical weapons attack against civilians. Saddam suspected the non-Arab Kurds of siding with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. Up to 5,000 people died in the March 1988 attack.
Gavriel Mairone, a lawyer for the group, says the victims continue to suffer health problems and are demanding that the companies that knowingly supplied Saddam with the raw materials and equipment needed for chemical weapons take responsibility. Among other things, the victims want a health clinic and advanced medical care, he said.
Mairone said he expects to file additional cases in Germany, the U.S., Holland and potentially elsewhere.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/victims-saddam-era-gas-attack-seek-french-probe-122846366.html
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Monday, June 10, 2013
NSA contractor risks steep jail time for data leak
This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence programs after he asked the newspaper to do so on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Guardian)
This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence programs after he asked the newspaper to do so on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Guardian)
A sign stands outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md., Thursday, June 6, 2013. The Obama administration on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats." (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Glenn Greenwald, a reporter of The Guardian, speaks to reporters at his hotel in Hong Kong Monday, June 10, 2013. Greenwald reported a 29-year-old contractor who claims to have worked at the National Security Agency and the CIA allowed himself to be revealed Sunday as the source of disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, risking prosecution by the U.S. government. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The man who gave classified documents to reporters, making public two sweeping U.S. surveillance programs and touching off a national debate on privacy versus security, has revealed his own identity. He risked decades in jail for the disclosures ? if the U.S. can extradite him from Hong Kong where he has taken refuge.
Edward Snowden, 29, who says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity Sunday.
Both papers have published a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs. One gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records while searching for possible links to known terrorist targets abroad, and the second allows the government to tap into nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all Internet usage to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
The revelations have reopened the post-Sept. 11 debate about individual privacy concerns versus heightened measures to protect the U.S. against terrorist attacks. The NSA has asked the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the leaks. Government lawyers are now "in the initial stages of an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access," said Nanda Chitre, Justice Department spokeswoman.
President Barack Obama said the programs are authorized by Congress and subject to strict supervision of a secret court, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says they do not target U.S. citizens.
But Snowden claims the programs are open to abuse.
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere," Snowden said in a video on the Guardian's website. "I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
Some lawmakers have expressed similar concerns about the wide reach of the surveillance.
"I expect the government to protect my privacy. It feels like that isn't what's been happening," said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Again, there's a line, but to me, the scale of it and the fact the law was being secretly interpreted has long concerned me," he said Sunday on CNN, adding that at the same time, he abhors leaks.
Senate intelligence committee chairman, Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California, contends the surveillance does not infringe on U.S. citizens' privacy, and that it helped disrupt a 2009 plot to bomb New York City's subways and played a role in the case against an American who scouted targets in Mumbai, India, before a deadly terrorist attack there in 2008. Feinstein spoke on ABC's "This Week."
Clapper has decried the revelation of the intelligence-gathering programs as reckless and said it has done "huge, grave damage."
The spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence Shawn Turner said intelligence officials are "currently reviewing the damage that has been done by these recent disclosures."
The disclosures come as the White House deals with managing fallout from revelations that it secretly seized telephone records of journalists at The Associated Press and Fox News.
Snowden says he was a former technical assistant for the CIA and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, which released a statement Sunday confirming he had been a contractor with them in Hawaii for less than three months, and promising to work with investigators.
Snowden could face many years in prison for releasing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong, according to Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistleblowers.
Hong Kong, though part of China, is partly autonomous and has a Western-style legal system that is a legacy from the territory's past as a British colony. A U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty has worked smoothly in the past. Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the U.S. in 2003, for example.
But the treaty comes with important exceptions. Key provisions allow a request to be rejected if it is deemed to be politically motivated or that the suspect would not receive a fair trial. Beijing may also block an extradition of Chinese nationals from Hong Kong for national security reasons.
"The government could subject him to a 10 or 20 year penalty for each count," with each document leaked considered a separate charge, Zaid said.
Snowden told the Guardian newspaper he believes the government could try to charge him with treason under the Espionage Act, but Zaid said that would require the government to prove he had intent to betray the United States, whereas he publicly made it clear he did this to spur debate.
"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," Snowden told the Guardian.
The government could also make an argument that the NSA leaks have aided the enemy ? as military prosecutors have claimed against Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, who faces life in prison under military law if convicted for releasing a trove of classified documents through the Wikileaks website.
"They could say the revelation of the (NSA) programs could instruct people to change tactics," Zaid said. That could add more potential jail time to the punishment.
Snowden told the Post he was not going to hide.
"Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest," he said in the interview published Sunday. Snowden said he would "ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy."
Snowden told The Guardian he lacked a high school diploma and served in the U.S. Army until he was discharged because of an injury, and later worked as a security guard with the NSA at a covert facility at the University of Maryland.
He later went to work for the CIA as an information technology employee and by 2007 was stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, where he had access to classified documents.
During that time, he considered going public about the nation's secretive programs but told the newspaper he decided against it, because he did not want to put anyone in danger and he hoped Obama's election would curtail some of the clandestine programs.
He said he was disappointed that Obama did not rein in the surveillance programs.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told The Guardian. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
Snowden left the CIA in 2009. He said he spent the last four years at the NSA, briefly as a contractor with consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton and, before that, Dell.
The Guardian reported that Snowden was working in an NSA office in Hawaii when he copied the last of the documents he planned to disclose and told supervisors that he needed to be away for a few weeks to receive treatment for epilepsy.
He left for Hong Kong on May 20 and has remained there since, according to the newspaper. Snowden is quoted as saying he chose that city because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed it was among the spots on the globe that could and would resist the dictates of the U.S. government.
"I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets," Snowden told The Guardian.
___
Follow Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier or at http://bigstory.ap.org/tags/kimberly-dozier
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
90% My Brother The Devil
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (4)
A story of brothers that's both tough and tender.
"My Brother the Devil" is a promising debut that marks El Hosaini as a filmmaker to watch, but one still very much in the developmental stages.
For at least part of its length, "My Brother the Devil" brings refreshing changes to a genre badly in need of them.
Nuances of faith, politics and sexual identity enrich what initially presents as a classic good son-bad son tale, and although the film's melting-pot patois is occasionally too dense to decipher, we get the gist.
El Hosaini fights the conventions of the brotherly gangster melodrama, but the conventions win.
It's far superior to what usually comes out of the British slums in the genre of gangland thrillers.
Ultimately feels a little flat, but there's promise that the director will carry on to stronger work, with several scenes here delivering exceptional grace and texture that all but guarantees a bright cinematic future.
Sally El Hosaini shows a deft hand in her story telling and direction belying her inexperience behind the camera.
When a both a dog and friend of Rashid's are killed in a violent gang encounter, El Hosaini frames both of their lifeless bodies on the street in a powerful image that tells of two innocents both bred to fight.
[El Hosaini] has a devil of a time getting a handle on this complicated story.
Familiar youth crime/coming-of-age framework, novel setting and focus group.
El Housani's freshman effort is certainly visually accomplished, but there's precious little meat on its bones.
Highly recommended. (Writer-director) El Hosaini handles the various volatile relationships within the film with intelligence and sensitivity.
An engrossing debut from director Sally El Hosaini, My Brother the Devil is as authentic, emotionally complex and powerfully acted as any film you'll see this year.
Unsure performances and some decades-old gangster-film stereotypes hamper this acute, beautifully shot portrait of Egyptian teenagers fighting to survive in a rough London neighborhood.
With My Brother the Devil, writer-director Sally El Hosaini tells a story both operatic in its implications and quotidian in its sensory, day-to-day details.
It's refreshing to see a new generation reinterpret the classics. James Cagney would be proud.
There probably aren't too many Welsh-Egyptian writer-directors like newcomer Sally El Hosaini. But she's clearly representative of a new kind of diversity in modern Britain. And one which bodes well for its filmmaking future.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_brother_the_devil_2012/
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Once Upon A Time::Storybrooke
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This is about the tv show Once Upon A Time but how we want it to be. Find Love, Faith, Hope, and danger in this rp that we all love
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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.First post: ? 1 post ? Page 1 of 1
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Happening now: Selling plants to help pets via ... - West Seattle Blog
May 18, 2013 at 3:20 pm | In Gardening, How to help, West Seattle news | 5 Comments 
At the time of last year?s Furry Faces Foundation plant sale, F3 leader and plant-raiser Teri Ensley?s house still had damage to fix from a fire a few months earlier. Now ? as the 2013 plant sale begins ? Teri is back in her house after rehab and repairs by Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor), work she is so proud of that she?s even incorporated Ventana?s name into the plant sale:
The shelving holding plants on the south side of Teri?s house is dubbed ?Ventana Terrace? now, signage and all. Today is the first of four days of the sale ? till 4 pm, then again tomorrow 10 am-4 pm, and the weekend of June 1-2, 3809 46th SW. It all started with more than 1,000 plants on ?Ventana Terrace? and in the front yard, including herbs, perennials, annuals, vegetables, more ? and the F3 ?Tag Your Pet? campaign is happening there; read about it all in this WSB Forums post.
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Source: http://westseattleblog.com/2013/05/happening-now-selling-plants-to-help-pets-via-furry-faces
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Saturday, May 18, 2013
Modular Beach Pavilions Are Replacing the Ones Hurricane Sandy Ruined
It's been seven months since Hurricane Sandy ravaged New York City-area beaches, decimating facilities like lifeguard stations and changing rooms, and it's been a race against the clock to get the beaches back in shape for the summer season. As part of the rebuilding effort, Garrison Architects were tapped to create 37 modular beach pavilions to replace the ones that were washed away?and starting next week, they'll be popping up at destinations like Rockaway Beach and Coney Island.
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