When the wealthy nations of the world meet as the G8 or in any other gathering, it's interesting to imagine what they would do if they followed the golden rule, valued grandchildren, disliked unnecessary suffering, or wished to outgrow ancient forms of barbarism, or any combination of those.

The United States alone is perfectly capable, if it chooses, of enacting a global marshall plan, or -- better -- a global rescue plan. Every year the United States spends, through various governmental departments, roughly $1.2 trillion on war and war preparations. Every year the United States foregoes well over $1 trillion in taxes that billionaires and centimillionaires and corporations should be paying.

If we understand that out-of-control military spending is making us less safe, rather than more -- just as Eisenhower warned and so many current experts agree -- it is clear that reducing military spending is a critical end in itself. If we add to that the understanding that military spending hurts, rather than helping, economic well-being, the imperative to reduce it is that much clearer.

During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together {SECT} I worked to promote community organizing in Cleveland, Ohio {Slavic Village} to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner. Crime Watch is defined as "a neighborhood surveillance program or group in which residents keep watch over one another's houses, patrol the streets, etc., in an attempt to prevent crime." {source: dictionary.com} The key word here is "group" not "individual."

To the best of my knowledge no one belonging to SECT ever took it upon themselves to patrol the streets alone. That would have been a very dangerous proposition considering the type of riff raff we encountered when patrolling as a group. In fact most crime watch activities were conducted out of sight {and hence out of harms way} due to the requirements of what makes for successful crime watch techniques. This involved substantial training and certification and direct contact with police and various community groups. It was never about getting into your car and driving alone down the street while communicating to a police

Google might be a little too cozy with the White House and federal legislators, but over in Europe the internet giant is facing pressure from multiple governments to change its now infamous modus operandi or face sanctions across the European Union. The grievances, from states including France, Spain and the UK, now mounting against Google, range from privacy concerns to accusations of large scale tax evasion.

Unlike Anglo-American efforts to spy on each other's citizens through the controversial PRISM program recently uncovered by Booz Allen whistleblower Edward Snowden, France is less tolerant towards invasions of its citizens' privacy by unscrupulous multinationals. The French government, currently run by Parti Socialiste's leader President Francois Hollande, has warned Google that it has three months to tighten up its privacy policy before internet regulators CNIL push through with sanctions. CNIL have stated that Google must update its privacy literature by making it clearer which data is being stored and for how long. It must also request users' permission to store cookies on their devices and set reasonable limits on data storage.

Edward Snowden is the 29 year-old whistleblower who recently leaked the vast surveillance capabilities of US spy agencies, exposing to the public just how much the government is spying on American citizens. Within days, Senator Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused Snowden of committing treason.

Join us to tell Senator Feinstein: Truthtelling is NOT treason, and the American people deserve privacy and government transparency!

Sign the petition

To: Senator Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee

Treason? You think Edward Snowden committed an act of treason by revealing that the U.S. Government is unlawfully spying on Americans citizens who have no connection whatsoever to terrorism?

Senator Feinstein, what Edward Snowden did was not treason. It was a tremendous public service at the expense of his own career, his own future. What the NSA has been doing, with your support, is un-American.

Political language, while crucial to our general understanding of public institutions and policies, is both useful and dangerous. Barack Obama, to take a rather inexpensive example, has paradoxically resembled a socialist and a fascist at different times throughout his Presidency in the eyes of some disgruntled voters. The political Right has even managed to transfigure the term ‘liberal’ into a curse word over the years. More worrying than a slimy campaign slogan here and there, however, is the pressing reality that media outlets are employing political language to inform the American people. Case in point, Iran’s Presidential election.

Hassan Rouhani won 50.7% of about 36 million votes in Iran, and will assume the Presidency come early August. Astonishingly, almost every mainstream media outlet has characterized Rouhani as a ‘moderate,’ despite a track record that speaks much to the contrary. The New York Times headline which reads, ‘Iran Moderate Wins Presidency by a Large Margin,’ is thus grossly misleading at best. Any fair-minded analysis of Hassan Rouhani’s upbringing and political career will fail to staple the term ‘moderate’ to his politics.