Daily Rotten Archives February 22, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 Pentagon planning for global warming catastrophe London Observer | Submitted by: lemmiwinks "A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists." Read article... Teacher caught naked with middle school student San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: Razmatazz "A 30-year-old San Francisco schoolteacher faces lewd conduct charges after being caught naked in a car after school with a 14-year-old Luther Burbank Middle School student, authorities said Friday. At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, patrol officers driving in an area of McLaren Park known for drugs and prostitution spotted a car with steamed windows... officers found Nieka Arreola and the unidentified student, who worked as an aide in a classroom at Luther Burbank, undressed in the car. Arreola reportedly told police she was giving the boy a ride home. She was booked on three counts with lewd and lascivious acts on a minor." Read article... and This article... Bush health study screws over minorities New York Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The Bush administration says it improperly altered a report documenting large racial and ethnic disparities in health care, but it will soon publish the full, unexpurgated document... [HHS secretary Tommy Thompson] said that 'some individuals took it upon themselves' to make the report sound more positive than was justified by the data... 'No data or statistics in the report were altered in any way whatsoever,' [Dr. Carolyn Clancy] said. But a close reading of the evolving report shows that some entries in statistical tables were deleted from the final version." Read article... Middle schoolers caught in oral fuckfest WPMI-TV 15 Pensacola | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "6 boys and 2 girls at Workman Middle School in Pensacola have been suspended for 10-days after reportedly being involved in sexual acts during school hours on school grounds. It's alleged all the boys lined up in the boy's bathroom, while the 2 girls went in to perform oral sex on them, while other students served as lookouts... Workman Middle School is for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. It's believed all the students involved are in the 7th grade." Read article... and This article... Iraqi exiles still gots ta get paid Seattle Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The Department of Defense is continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for war. The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National Congress, or INC, led by Ahmad Chalabi... The continuing support for the INC comes amid seven separate investigations into pre-war intelligence that Iraq was hiding illicit weapons and had links to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups." Read article... Residents pissed off at Satanic puppet show WATE-TV 6 Knoxville | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Offensive language, Satanic images, even talk about burning down churches. You'll find it on Knoxville's community television... turn on CTV after midnight and you might find this. A program with puppets that say, 'For now, I want you to take this can of gasoline and I want you to burn down the Methodist church up the street.' Bill Housley stumbled across Satanarchy, a self proclaimed satirical puppet show mocking Satanism, in the middle of the night. 'I thought it was right cute you know when I saw the puppets. And then it didn't take but seconds for the "F" word to come out, you know.' There's also Satanic symbols and talk of sacrificing animals. 'I wish to follow the left-handed path of pure evil and join your Satanic cult,' another puppet says." Read article... Hanford site cleanup risking worker health Lexington Dispatch | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The shuttered silence of the nine nuclear reactors on this 586-square-mile site has been followed by one of the world's largest cleanups, costing $2 billion a year. An army of workers numbering more than 11,000 faces the staggering cleanup task at the Hanford complex in the high desert of southeastern Washington, a project made more daunting with an accelerated timetable that slashed cleanup projections to 35 years from 70... Last June, 12 workers inhaled radioactive gas and two also tested positive for skin contamination when they were working on the 'tank farms,' according to a report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an oversight panel established by Congress... Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan and the ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, complained in a recent letter to Secretary Abraham that 'there has been very little evidence that D.O.E. contractors have made the interest of their workers a foremost concern.' Mr. Dingell added, 'In the past, weapons production took priority over health and safety; currently, accelerated cleanup schedules and reduced cleanup budgets are taking priority.'" Read article... LRA still up to no good BBC | Submitted by: Paine "A rebel attack in northern Uganda has left 192 people dead and many injured, according to witnesses. Carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army, the killings are thought to be the worst in several years. The rebels armed with assault rifles, artillery and rocket-propelled grenades attacked and then set alight a camp for displaced people north of Lira... As the insurgents surrounded the camp, many people ran to their grass huts, and were burned as the insurgents torched their houses... 'I've never seen in my life such a massacre... I saw in one hut alone a whole family members still burning,' a Ugandan priest in Lira told the BBC." Read article... Aum Shinrikyo verdict due Friday Newsday | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "As guru of a doomsday cult, Shoko Asahara looked and sounded the part. Almost blind, his black beard flowing onto his chest, he claimed he could levitate, see into people's past lives and foretell the apocalypse. On Friday, a Japanese court will decide whether he also commanded his disciples to murder, most terrifyingly in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people, sickened thousands and alerted the world to the threat of terrorism by mass slaughter. Asahara faces the gallows if convicted of masterminding the subway deaths and 15 others." Read article... Firefighter of the year admits church arson Coloradoan | Submitted by: Goyra "A volunteer firefighter accused of starting the fire that burned the 123-year-old Virginia Dale Community Church to the ground pleaded guilty Friday to one count of first-degree arson. Austin Gene Mayo, 20, faces four to 12 years in prison and five years mandatory probation... The fire shocked and saddened the community, as did the arrest of Mayo, who was a past Livermore Fire Protection District firefighter of the year... Mayo originally was charged with four counts of first-degree arson for a series of four fires started in the Livermore area Nov. 10-18. In addition to the blaze that burned the church, Mayo admitted to lighting three other fires that burned 150 tons of hay, a grass pasture and the front doors of the Livermore Community Center." Read article... 98 days later, Schwarzenegger wants new job MSNBC | Submitted by: dianalily "Arnold Schwarzenegger, making his Sunday talk show debut as governor on NBC's Meet the Press, said that he and other foreign-born citizens should be eligible to run for the White House... The Austrian-born former bodybuilder, in the capital for his first meeting with fellow governors, said he has not thought about running for president in the future. The Constitution says only natural-born citizens of the United States are eligible for the country’s highest office. The Republican governor said anyone who has been in America more than 20 years - as he has - should 'absolutely' be able to seek the presidency. A constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would make that possible... 'Look at the kind of contribution that people like Henry Kissinger have made.'" [Good example. Just think what other contributions Kissinger could make if only we'd elect him President.] Read article... and This article... Ralph Nader announces 2004 campaign MSNBC | Submitted by: Halifax "Ralph Nader announced on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday he will run again for the presidency... He decided against running under the banner of the Green Party. Nader's candidacy four years ago has been blamed by many Democrats for costing Al Gore the election against Bush... Asked if he was getting into the race to be a spoiler, Nader replied: 'A spoiler is a contemptuous term, as if anybody who dares to challenge the two party system ... is a spoiler, and we've got to fight that.' ... in Florida and New Hampshire, Bush won such narrow victories that had Gore received the bulk of Nader's votes in those states, he would have won the general election." Read article... and This article...