Daily Rotten Archives January 8, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 Federal court system operating in total secrecy South Florida Sun-Sentinel | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in "04 "A secret docketing system hiding some sensitive Miami federal court cases from public view has been exposed and is being challenged in two higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. 'We don't have secret justice in this country,' said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Washington-based journalists watchdog group is asking the appellate courts to open up two Miami federal cases it says were litigated in secret... 'This is a dangerous precedent. The media and the public should be alarmed that people can be sent to prison without anyone even knowing they had a case.'" Read article... Show-and-tell goes horribly wrong Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Submitted by: Vlad "Dr. Michael Horowitz was headlining a fifth-grade science lesson on the human body. His prop was a human cadaver arm, which he opened to show its nerves and other parts. At least one child vomited; five children left the classroom feeling ill. Another child fainted almost immediately. The experience angered some Fairview parents, kept school board member Shirley Wiley's phone ringing yesterday and had school officials scrambling with damage control much of the day... Horowitz appeared surprised by the complaints yesterday and said that he has visited the school in previous years bearing cadaver eyes, ears and a brain." Read article... 400 WMD hunters pulled out of Iraq Financial Times | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in "04 "The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government officials. The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March. A separate military team that specializes in disposing of chemical and biological weapons remains part of the 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group, which has been searching Iraq for more that seven months at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. But that team is 'still waiting for something to dispose of,' said a survey group member." Read article... Powell grasping at straws CNN | Submitted by: Carneby Liggle "Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday defended the Bush administration's position that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction programs and defended his speech on the matter to the United Nations last February. 'This game is still unfolding,' he told reporters... The secretary of state also said that his presentation to the United Nations last year made it clear that 'we had seen some links and connections' between Iraq and terror groups 'over time.' 'I have not seen smoking gun concrete evidence about the connection, but I think the possibility of some connections did exist [The possibility existed?!] and was prudent to consider them at the time that we did.'" Read article... Saddam's right-hand man reported dies in custody Al Bawaba | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in '04 "Unofficial Iraqi sources told Al Bawaba Wednesday that Abed Hamoud al-Tikriti, presidential secretary of former leader Saddam Hussein, died two days ago while in US custody. Iraqi security officials contacted by Al Bawaba declined to comment on the report, but have not denied it either... Upon his capture, the US authorities claimed Abed Hamoud possessed vital information about Iraq's alleged WMD. Since his detention, reports in the Arabic press have claimed he was tortured by US investigators to pressure him to provide information on weapons development programs." Read article... State police dispatched over software purchase The Register | Submitted by: anyone other than Bush in '04 "A mother's enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight Simulator for her ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her home from a state trooper. Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the enquiry at a Staples store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of hysteria, during the Salem witch trials. So alarmed was the Staples clerk at the prospect of the ten year old learning to fly, that he informed the police... A few days later, Olearcek was alarmed to discover a state trooper flashing a torch into to her home through a sliding glass door at 8:30 pm on a rainy night. Olearcek is a regular Staples customer and schools her son at home. The Staples manager simply explained that staff were obeying advice. Shortly before Christmas, the FBI issued a terror alert to beware of drivers with maps, or reference books." Read article... Prom night argument eventually leads to murder laweekly.com | Submitted by: Grendelicious "For her senior prom, the most exciting night of her life, Kelly Bullwinkle, just 17 at the time, decided on a knee-length red dress to complement her shoulder-length red hair. Bullwinkle’s date was an older woman - her best friend Kinzie Noordman, then 19... An argument broke out when Bullwinkle and Noordman, who had bragged about being on heroin and coke that evening, wanted [Damien Guerrero] to do coke with them. Friends say he turned them down because [Elody Romero] didn't want him to do it. The girls had words... that argument, according to friends and police reports, was one of a series of spiraling events that climaxed with Guerrero and Noordman luring Bullwinkle to a remote citrus grove and then shooting her twice in the head." Read article... Man mildly scalded with hot fudge post-trib.com | Submitted by: Because You Touch Yourself at Night "Julia Byrd Spearman, 52, of the 500 block of North County Road 50W in Center Township was taken to Porter County Jail on Tuesday afternoon on charges of domestic battery and interference with reporting a crime... She first told police the man grabbed a pot of fudge off the stove and threw it on himself and then said he was going to call 911 and she would go to jail... While she initially denied throwing the fudge, while she was being booked at the county jail, she told the officer she had fibbed to him." [Did she actually use the word "fibbed"?] Read article... Call center jobs beginning to leave India Asia Times | Submitted by: Liddell "India's much touted English-speaking back office soldiers who man the 24-hour call centers of multinationals round the world have taken some flak in the recent past. The problem is that they certainly do not speak their English the way Americans do, and even the British English with which they are much more familiar tends to take on a unique flavor... England is full of jokes about operators in India who master Scots or Midlands accents, but falter over small physical details. Kate, a doctor based in England, recently on a visit to India, told this correspondent that grappling with rail inquiries in the United Kingdom can be quite hazardous as often the information is incorrect as the person at the other end just does not understand the query." Read article... IMF freaked out over America's hugeass deficit Guardian | Submitted by: Liddell "The International Monetary Fund last night warned that the gaping US budget deficit, ballooning trade imbalance and falling dollar were posing a serious threat to the health of the global economy. It sounded the alarm in a critical report on US fiscal policy, which rounds on the Bush administration's crowd-pleasing tax cuts last year. The US is facing a record-breaking budget deficit, expected to exceed $400bn this year and the IMF urged Washington to get its house in order by raising taxes and cutting spending. Debt is expected to reach 40% of the US economy, which the report described as 'an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country' that would push up global interest rates and slow growth." Read article...