Daily Rotten Archives January 30, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 Fidel Castro certain that Bush is trying to kill him Sarasota Herald-Tribune | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Cuban President Fidel Castro accused President Bush on Friday of plotting with Miami exiles to kill him as part of his administration's hardening policies against the communist island. The Cuban leader didn't back up his accusations with details... 'We know that Mr. Bush has committed himself to the mafia ... to assassinate me,' the Cuban president said, using the term commonly employed here to describe anti-Castro Cuban Americans... 'I can die a natural death or I can die a planned death,' Castro said. 'It really doesn't matter to me how I die, but I will surely die fighting.'" Read article... and This article... In Kansas, 1 raped boy is worth 13 raped girls Lawrence Journal-World | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The Kansas Court of Appeals today again upheld the 17-year prison sentence of Matthew Limon, who was sentenced for engaging in homosexual sex with a minor. Under state law, if Limon had engaged in sex with an underage girl, he would have faced a maximum sentence of one year and three months in prison... Limon was 18 years old when he was convicted in 2000 of having oral sex with a 14-year-old boy at a private group home for people with developmental disabilities in Paola." Read article... Aum Shinrikyo chemist sentenced to death BBC | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Japanese chemist who oversaw the development of nerve gas used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway has been sentenced to death. Masami Tsuchiya, 39, became the 11th member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attack to be sentenced to death. Prosecutors said he was the second most important person behind the attack, after the cult's leader Shoko Asahara... He was accused of heading the cult's drive to develop chemical weapons including VX, mustard and sarin gases... Sarin was used in the March 1995 attack, which killed 12 people and left 5,000 people injured. Tsuchiya also produced sarin gas for a July 1994 attack on a residential area in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto which killed seven people and injured 144 others." Read article... Convicted sex slaver blames the booze San Antonio Express-News | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The ringleader of a sex slavery and human trafficking operation whose participants raped women and forced them to work against their will was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison today. Juan Carlos Soto, 26, of Nueva Italia, Michoacán, Mexico, had pleaded guilty to charges of involuntary servitude and human trafficking offenses... Before Federal District Judge Randy Crane handed down his sentence, Soto blamed the influence of drugs and alcohol and repented... Authorities charged that Soto smuggled 121 people through the McAllen/Edinburg corridor. In addition, Soto admitted to holding by force four women, ages 19, 19, 22 and 40 that he and others in his ring raped and beat them repeatedly... Authorities were tipped off about the human trafficking ring when two of the women were released by their captors after being stripped and thrown in a canal." Read article... Journalist claims Michael Jackson molests boys CBS | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Maureen Orth, special correspondent for Vanity Fair, has been reporting on Michael Jackson since sexual-abuse charges first surfaced about him in 1993... she told co-anchor Harry Smith that Jackson 'calls white wine "Jesus juice" and red wine "Jesus blood"' and that he drinks the beverages out of soda cans... In the latest allegations of this 13-year-old cancer boy, he and his brother were both alleged to have been given wine by Jackson, also showed pornography - naked girls on the Internet - and given antihistamine,' Orth says. 'The sister supposedly given sleeping pills… because, as Michael told the boys, girls are tattletales.'" Read article... R. Kelly regrets digital mementos E! | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "R. Kelly is fighting to keep a couple of his candid-camera moments out of court. While he awaits trial in Chicago on 21 charges of child pornography stemming from a widely circulated sex tape, the embattled R&B star's lawyers in his other kiddie porn case are petitioning a Florida judge to suppress a dozen digital nude photos of Kelly with an unidentified teen girl... Kelly's attorney, Ron Toward, told the judge that the pictures - the supposed smoking gun in the Florida case - should be tossed out as evidence on a technicality. Toward claims Polk County police did not have the proper search warrant." Read article... Transsexual sues athletic club Oregonian | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Portland transsexual has filed a lawsuit accusing the owners of a Gresham athletic club of discrimination by ordering her to leave the club after she changed in the women's locker room. The suit was filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court by transgender activist Lori Buckwalter. It seeks $1 million in noneconomic damages from the Cascade Athletic Club and Mark and Frank Eisenzimmer... as she exited the women's locker room Dec. 15, the suit claims, the Eisenzimmers accosted her. Mark Eisenzimmer told her he thought she was a man and told her not to use the women's room any more, then ordered her out of the club." Read article... BBC staffers protest WMD whitewash Scotsman | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "[Journalist Andrew Gilligan] whose infamous report sparked the row between the BBC and the Government, last night followed chairman Gavyn Davies and director-general Greg Dyke in quitting. But in doing so he also accused Lord Hutton of inflicting a 'grave injustice' on the BBC... Several thousand BBC staff echoed his sentiments in a full page advert in today’s Daily Telegraph newspaper which lamented Mr Dyke’s resignation... Last night Mr Gilligan admitted he had made mistakes, but insisted most of his story was right and the Government had 'sexed up' its dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction - a charge which the Government was cleared of by Lord Hutton." Read article... and This article... Russia still practicing nuclear attacks on America Washington Post | Submitted by: accidentprone "Russia's nuclear forces reportedly are preparing their largest maneuvers in two decades, an exercise involving the test-firing of missiles and flights by dozens of bombers in a massive simulation of an all-out nuclear war... Kommersant said the maneuvers would involve Tu-160 strategic bombers test-firing cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic. Analysts describe such an exercise as an imitation of a nuclear attack on the United States... Putin has repeatedly pledged to rebuild Russia's military might and restore pride to the demoralized service. When he ran for his first term in 2000, he flew as a second pilot in a fighter jet and later donned naval officer's garb on a visit to a nuclear submarine - images that played well with many voters who are nostalgic for Soviet global power and military prestige." Read article... Congressman all things to all people, including terrorists Orange County Weekly | Submitted by: juanholmes "Congressman Dana Rohrabacher tells voters he's adamantly pro-life, but he accepted contributions from one of the nation’s most prolific abortion doctors. He describes himself as a fearless political warrior, but he avoided military service in Vietnam. He calls opponents weak on national defense, but he quietly lobbied the Clinton administration to ease export controls that allowed the People's Republic of China to receive sensitive U.S. missile technology... But those inconsistencies aren't as troubling as Rohrabacher's mysterious relationship with three men arrested or under federal investigation for suspected ties to Osama bin Laden's worldwide terrorist network." Read article... Bush too pussy to personally threaten anti-Patriot Act veto CNN | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The Bush administration issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation introduced in Congress that would scale back key parts of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act. In a letter to Senate leaders, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the changes contemplated by the Security and Freedom Ensured Act, or SAFE, would 'undermine our ongoing campaign to detect and prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks.' If the bill reaches President Bush's desk in its current form, Ashcroft said, 'the president's senior advisers will recommend that it be vetoed.'" [So according to the FBI, Congress is running the risk that White House advisers will "recommend" a veto. Is this the lamest threat of all time?] Read article... Electronic voting systems not getting any less crappy Baltimore Sun | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Results tallied by Maryland's 16,000 new electronic voting machines can be trusted in their first statewide test during the March 2 presidential primary, but only with some added security measures, a state official and a consultant told legislators yesterday... the review found that it is possible to vote multiple times, break into machines and disrupt results or get voters to select the wrong candidates. It's also possible to dial in to election headquarters and alter results or wipe out all of them... 'You're more secure buying a book from Amazon.com than you are uploading your results to the Diebold server,' Wertheimer told the House panel." Read article... and This article...