Daily Rotten Archives February 3, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 Men exploded by DIY hyperbaric chamber South Africa Sunday Times | Submitted by: Amos Quito "A retired surgeon and his brother died in a freak accident when a homemade oxygen chamber exploded in the backyard of a Polokwane house - blasting the remains of one of them more than 10m away. The blast ripped open the steel wall of the cylinder, which was between 10cm and 15cm thick, and shattered neighbours' windows... Dr Paul Eloff, 76, was undergoing treatment for poor blood circulation inside the pressurised chamber when it exploded on Friday afternoon... A witness, Marieta Herselman, said police cordoned off a large area around the house. 'The remains were taken away in plastic bags. It was horrific. It was like scraping leaves together in your garden and putting them in plastic bags.'" Read article... Ex-slaughterhouse worker alleges mad cow coverup New York Times | Submitted by: wdon "On Dec. 9, at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., [Dave Louthan] killed the only mad cow found in the United States... Contrary to reports from the federal Department of Agriculture, he asserts that the cow he killed was not too sick to walk. And it was caught not by routine surveillance, he says, but by 'a fluke': he killed it outdoors because he feared it would trample other cows lying prostrate in its trailer, and the plant's testing program called for sampling cows killed outside only. 'Mad cows aren't downers,' he said. 'They're up and they're crazy.' The Agriculture Department disputes his account. Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a food safety official, faxed copies of the Dec. 9 inspector's report saying the cow was 'sternal,' or down on its chest. Mr. Louthan said he believed the government changed the report on Dec. 23, during the panic at Vern's when a positive test was found." Read article... British WMD analyst tells Blair to put up or shut up Independent UK | Submitted by: Katie "As Mr Blair yesterday set up an inquiry into intelligence failures before the war, Brian Jones, the former leading expert on WMD in the Ministry of Defence, declared that Downing Street's dossier, a key plank in convincing the public of the case for war, was 'misleading' about Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological capability... 'In my view, the expert intelligence analysts of the DIS were overruled in the preparation of the dossier back in September 2002, resulting in a presentation that was misleading about Iraq's capabilities.' He calls on the Prime Minister to publish the intelligence behind the Government's claims that Iraq was actively producing chemical weapons and could launch an attack within 45 minutes of an order to do so. He is 'extremely doubtful' that anyone with chemical and biological weapons expertise had seen the raw intelligence reports and if they were made public, it would prove just how right he and his colleagues were to be concerned about the claims." Read article... Bush-appointed panel to decide whether to investigate Bush San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: dianalily "White House officials said Monday that the commission being created to investigate intelligence shortcomings will decide for itself if it will examine a highly charged political issue: whether President Bush and other senior administration officials exaggerated the evidence that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of illicit weapons... On Monday, Democratic leaders in Congress sent a letter to Bush urging that the scope of the inquiry include 'the collection, analysis, dissemination and use by policymakers of intelligence on Iraq.' The Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also said that members of the commission should be appointed 'on a bipartisan basis by the congressional leadership' rather than by the President himself." Read article... Man alleges MATRIX records sold to American Express Deseret News | Submitted by: Bonny Fide "Confidential information shared by the state of Utah with the MATRIX super-computer database is supposed to be accessible only to law enforcement officers in their official fight against crime and terrorism. But one Utah resident believes that at least one of the supposedly secret Utah databases - motor vehicle records - has apparently been provided to American Express, which is using it to market American Express Gold cards... MATRIX officials say the allegations are groundless. 'It is highly, highly unlikely,' said Bob Cummings with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, the nonprofit entity that handles the financial aspects of MATRIX. 'I cannot believe and do not believe that data would be supplied to any private entity, given the security controls in place.' ... 'If there has been a violation of (state or federal privacy) law, we need to know,' said DPS spokeswoman Tammy Palmer. 'If what he (Adams) says is true, this absolutely has to be tracked down.' And if the evidence leads to MATRIX? 'It will be shut down. Permanently.'" [Mark those words.] Read article... Republicans mysteriously helping Al Sharpton campaign Village Voice | Submitted by: Graehme de Parke "Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton... Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharpton's pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. He's also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides who've worked for him in prior campaigns. He's even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costs - neither of which he could legally do for the campaign... Sharpton denounced the Voice's inquiries as 'phony liberal paternalism,' insisting that he'd 'talk to anyone I want' and likening his use of Stone to Bill Clinton's reliance on pollster Dick Morris, saying he was 'sick of these racist double standards.'" [How very curious.] Read article... Pharmacist refuses to fill immoral prescription Houston Star-Telegram | Submitted by: Soylent "About 40 people gathered outside an Eckerd store Monday, protesting what they said was a decision to deny a rape victim a prescription for the morning-after pill. A spokesman for the Florida-based company confirmed that Eckerd has taken disciplinary action in response to an incident at the pharmacy. 'Apparently there was a request for a prescription to be filled and the prescription was denied based on a moral or ethical decision made by the pharmacist, and that's not in accordance with our corporate policy,' said Joan Gallagher, the vice president of communications for Largo, Fla.-based Eckerd Corp... Gay Dodson, executive director of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, said state law allows pharmacists to decline filling prescriptions if the medication could harm the patient. 'The law does not say that the pharmacy can decline because of moral ground.'" [And so this guy still has his pharmacist's license why?] Read article... Malawi politician on trial for murder Nation Online (Malawi) | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "There was dead silence in the High Court sitting in Salima on Monday when one of the two bodyguards jointly charged with Dowa East MP Nasser Kara of murdering the MP’s driver, Alex Mbewe, testified that it was Kara who killed the driver in their presence. The bodyguard, second accused Phillip Singo, confirmed what the police testified in court last week that Kara at first attempted to kill Mbewe with termic which he put in his drink twice but later chose to kill him by hitting him with a car... Singo told the court that Kara warned him and his friend never to disclose to anyone what he did by killing his driver, saying whoever would disclose would rot in jail because he was a mafia trained in South Africa." Read article... Priest resigns after faking own kidnapping to visit casino SABC News | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Paul Beyl, the Wonderboom Evangelical Reformed Church minister who allegedly staged his own hijacking and abduction, has resigned from his post... Beyl briefly appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court this morning and is facing charges of perjury after he allegedly lied about being hijacked... A massive manhunt was launched after Beyl's wife reported her husband missing last week. His vehicle was found in Arcadia with a broken rear passenger window on Saturday. Beyl later turned up at Johannesburg Central police station. After intensive questioning he apparently conceded that he was not hijacked. Beyl also allegedly told police that the hijacking incident was a scam and that he had been at Gold Reef City, a Casino south of Johannesburg." Read article... and This article... Taiwanese whores unhappy over legal inequity Taipei Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "In the lead-up to a sex worker festival and rally, members of a women's rights organization joined sex workers yesterday in an appeal to presidential candidates to introduce legislation legalizing the sex industry. Wang Fang-ping, the secretary-general of the Jihjihchun Association, which fights for the rights of licensed prostitutes, laborers and housewives, said presidential candidates should amend Article 80 of the Social Order Law so that neither prostitutes nor their patrons would be punished for engaging in sexual relations. Under the law, Wang said, only those who provide sexual services are punished." Read article... Mother accused of torturing adopted kids WOOD-TV 8 Grand Rapids | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Sandra Parker is accused of torturing her adoptive children. One of those children took the witness stand Monday... For about three hours, Parker's adoptive daughter testified about the treatment she got from the woman she called 'Granny.' ... On the witness stand, she claimed Parker beat her. At one point, the girl said she chipped a tooth on the edge of a toilet bowl. 'How did your tooth get broke on the toilet?' asked assistant Kent County Prosecutor Helen Brinkman. 'Because she was trying to put my head in the toilet,' said the girl." Read article... High school teacher accused of fucking underage student WTLV-TV 12 Jacksonville | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The investigation into Ware County's veteran English teacher, James Kurtz, began Friday... Two days later 56-year-old James Kurtz turned himself into police. The 11 year veteran of Ware County High School is now charged with sexual assault, child molestation, statutory rape and sodomy. The alleged victim is a 15-year-old girl from the school." Read article... Houston cop accused of fucking woman in custody KPRC-TV 2 Houston | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A 10-year veteran Houston Police Department officer faces four felony charges for arresting a woman and then allegedly dropping the charges in exchange for sex... Officer Lance William Elliot, 34, of Alvin, appeared in court Wednesday morning, where he was charged with three counts of improper sexual activity with a person in custody and one count of tampering with a government record... According to the Houston Police Department's internal affairs report, the woman talked with Elliot about how she could be turned loose while in the patrol car. The officer was quoted in the report as saying, 'What's in it for me?' Shortly thereafter, the officer allegedly drove the woman to a secluded spot off North Shepherd and engaged in sexual activity with her three times." Read article... Police dog bites a second black child Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Submitted by: buck_fabies "A police dog cleared two years ago for attacking a child has been suspended indefinitely for biting a teenager during a crime prevention demonstration at a middle school. Councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon complained about the dog in 2002 and has renewed her request that the German shepherd, Dolpho, be retired from the police force or put to sleep... Some have noted that both of the children who have been bitten were black, and they question whether the dog is prone to bite black people... In 2002, town officials ordered a two-month investigation to determine if the German shepherd was singling out blacks while on patrol after the dog escaped from a police vehicle and bit a 9-year-old black boy who was playing nearby." Read article... Drunk attempts to fuck dog, gets mauled News Corporation | Submitted by: likwidx "A Thai man was mauled when he drunkenly tried to rape a dog which fiercely resisted his advances, news reports said yesterday. Police in Samut Prakan province, on Bangkok's southeastern fringes, told the Thai Rath newspaper that Toryip Rawang, 33, had been drinking heavily with friends before Monday's incident... He told police he noticed a brown female stray dog wagging its tail and 'acting sexy' and pulled it into some tall grass by the roadside. But the dog resisted, biting him on his face, chest and arms before he gave up his attempt and tried to stagger home. Under further questioning Toryip admitted to previously raping three dogs while he was under the influence of alcohol." Read article... Clean, fresh-smelling armpits possible carcinogen New Scientist | Submitted by: Piltdown Man "Frequent underarm shaving combined with deodorant use might increase women's chances of getting breast cancer, claims a study based on a survey of over 400 women with breast cancer in the US. It is the first evidence of such a link to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, but it is far from conclusive... The US study, by Chicago doctor Kris McGrath of Northwestern University, does suggest that deodorants or antiperspirants might be linked with breast cancer, but only together with underarm shaving. And it has too many weaknesses to be regarded as definitive." Read article... Cheney now an official risk to Halliburton's fortunes MSNBC | Submitted by: Seattle 90.3 KEXP. http://www.kexp.org. PS FUCK BUSH "Halliburton, the big contracting company that Dick Cheney used to run, is now warning investors that its Cheney connection is what Wall Street calls a 'risk factor.' No, the company's not talking about the multibillion-dollar asbestos liability that it got stuck with thanks to the Cheney-orchestrated takeover of Dresser Industries. Rather, Halliburton says, the Cheney connection has caused 'intense scrutiny' of its operations. 'Since [Cheney's] nomination as vice president,' the company said in a recent SEC filing, 'Halliburton has been and continues to be the focus of allegations, some of which appear to be made for political reasons by political adversaries of the vice president and the current Bush administration. We expect that this focus and these allegations will continue and possibly intensify as the 2004 elections draw nearer.' ... 'Management made the decision to include these statements because of the politically charged environment in which we now operate,' company spokesman Wendy Hall said in an e-mail." Read article...