Author: diggerdan

The Guardian – by Morris Davis

“Honesty is the best policy” and “cheaters never win” are among the best known sayings of all times, but are they true? Reality shows that society’s reverence for these principles is betrayed by the fact that, all too often, it is the liars and cheaters we reward.

Jonah Lehrer was a bestselling author and a respected journalist until the summer of 2012 when the former Rhodes scholar and neuroscientist was shown to have engaged in a pattern of plagiarism and dishonesty. By early fall, the man who was once heralded as a prodigy had resigned from his post at the New Yorker, was reportedly terminated at Wired magazine, and the sale of his book Imagine was suspended. Continue reading “Is honesty the best policy? Look at the evidence”

Fox News – by Todd Starnes

A Texas high school student has filed a federal lawsuit against her school and her teachers after she was punished for refusing to salute and recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance.

The Thomas More Law Center filed the suit on behalf of Brenda Brinsdon alleging the McAllen Independent School District violated the 15-year-old girl’s constitutional rights when she was forced to recite the Mexican pledge and sing the Mexican national anthem. Continue reading “American Student Punished for Refusing to Recite Mexican Pledge”

Common Dreams – by Public Citizen

WASHINGTON – February 25 – Was a $100,000 inaugural contribution linked to a utility’s newfound optimism about receiving an $8.3 billion federal loan guarantee?

We need more information to answer that question, but it sure seems fishy.

A Southern Co. executive told an audience at a Washington, D.C., conference last week that he is “newly optimistic” about receiving an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to build new nuclear reactors at a Georgia plant. The executive vice president of nuclear development, Joseph Miller, said he thinks the company can seal the deal by mid-year. Continue reading “Suspicious Timing: Inaugural Contribution Linked to $8.3 Billion Nuclear Loan Guarantee?”

Common Dreams – by Craig Brown, staff writer

Six aging, single-walled underground storage tanks are leaking radioactive waste, threatening groundwater below the Hanford nuclear site, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee announced on Friday afternoon.

Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation work around a a tank farm where highly radioactive waste is stored underground near Richland, Wash. Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the hemisphere’s most contaminated nuclear dump are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 (AP Photo/Shannon Dininny)The seeping waste adds to decades of soil contamination caused by leaking storage tanks at Hanford in the past and threatens to further taint groundwater below the Columbia River, officials said. Continue reading “Now Six – Not One – Hanford Tanks Leaking Radioactive Waste”

The Guardian – by Ed Pilkington

On Saturday Bradley Manning will mark his 1,000th day imprisoned without trial. In the course of those thousand days, from the moment he was formally put into pre-trial confinement on 19 May 2010 on suspicion of being the source of the WikiLeaks disclosures, Manning has been on a long and eventful journey.

It has taken him from the desert of Iraq, where he was arrested at a military operating base outside Baghdad, to a prison tent in Kuwait. From there he endured his infamous harsh treatment at Quantico Marine basein Virginia, and for the last 14 months he has attended a series of pre-trial hearings at Fort Meade in Maryland, the latest of which begins next week. Continue reading “Bradley Manning: 1,000 Days in Detention and Secrecy Still Reigns”

Information Clearinghouse – by Jacob G. Hornberger

Article 2, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice for matters arising out of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Continue reading “Why Isn’t the Murder of an American Boy an Impeachable Offense?”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

Community activists in Washington, DC on Tuesday took the opportunity of a morning Q&A breakfast with the nation’s premiere ‘deficit scolds‘—former Republican senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson and establishment Democrat Erskine Bowles—to declare that the pair’s recommended policies unfairly punish the sick, the elderly and working people in the name of a ‘deficit reduction’ plan backed by the nation’s wealthiest beneficiaries and corporate elite. Continue reading “‘Some Cuts Don’t Heal!’ Simpson-Bowles Face Protest for Attack on Medicare, Social Security”

Common Dreams – by George Kimbrell and Debbie Barker

On Tuesday, attorneys for the largest agrochemical corporation in the world, Monsanto, will present arguments before the Supreme Court asserting the company’s rights to the generations of seeds that naturally reproduce from its genetically modified strains. Bowman vs. Monsanto Co. will be decided based on the court’s interpretation of a complex web of seed A farmer holds Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean seeds. (Photo: Dan Gill / AP)and plant patent law, but the case also reflects something much more basic: Should anyone, or any corporation, control a product of life? Continue reading “Monsanto, the Court and the Seeds of Dissent”

Information Clearing House – by Robert Frank

February 17, 2013 “CNBC” —  The good old days for the wealthy are now back.

A survey from Northern Trust found that three quarters of millionaires surveyed said they are better off, or as well off, as they were in 2007 — the peak for both wealth and sheer numbers of America’s millionaires. Most cited improved investment returns as their reason for feeling better off.

That confidence may soon start translating into hiring. Eighty percent of wealthy business owners say they plan to recruit more workers or keep their staff levels stable over the next 18 to 24 months. One in five plan to make capital investments in upgrading computers and other technology over the same period. Continue reading “Millionaires Say They’re Better Off Than in 2007”