Daily Rotten Archives September 22, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 700 confirmed dead in Haiti San Diego Union-Tribune | Submitted by: stench of death "More than 1,000 people have been declared missing in Haiti. The northern city of Gonaives was the hardest hit in the country – with some 600 dead. Piles of bodies grew in morgues as rescuers found more victims in mud and rubble... Carcasses of pigs, goats and dogs still floated in muddy waters slowly receding from the streets in Gonaives, Haiti's third-largest city with some 250,000 people. No house escaped damage. The homeless sloshed through the streets carrying belongings on their heads, while people in homes that still had roofs tried to dry scavenged clothes. Flies buzzed around bloated corpses piled high at the city's three morgues. The electricity was off, and the stench of death hung over the city." Read article... Feds refuse even to acknowledge no-fly list Sacramento Bee | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that information on an alleged airline security directive will be withheld from a federal appeals court until the court reweighs the department's request to file its brief under seal for a closed-door, judges-only review. The department informed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it will meet its Sept. 29 deadline for filing its brief 'but will not be providing the court with the confidential material that could aid its consideration of this case.' At the center of the controversy is the federal policy that requires air passengers to present government-issued identification before boarding planes... Libertarian Party activist John Gilmore of San Francisco has sued Attorney General John Ashcroft to force disclosure of the regulation. He has not flown since July 4, 2002, when he was twice barred from boarding planes at Oakland International and San Francisco international airports after refusing to show identification. In response, Ashcroft's Justice Department has refused to admit that a regulation even exists, saying that doing so publicly would violate federal law... the Justice Department renewed its appeal for secret court proceedings over what it continued to refer to as the 'alleged security directive.'" Read article... and This... and This... Sheriff dispels corpse rumors KAIT-TV 8 Jonesboro | Submitted by: Bondo Majorca "A Florida sheriff is trying to stop rumors of hidden bodies from Hurricane Ivan. Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby says there are not 'dozens and hundreds of bodies' hidden anywhere. He says it is true that portable morgues are parked behind Sacred Heart Hospital, site of the county's morgue in Pensacola. But he says they're not stacked with corpses." Read article... Elderly allegedly terrorized by boy gang Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Submitted by: Kristen "A disabled 76-year-old woman who lives on a limited income told police a group of juvenile boys broke into her home repeatedly, sexually assaulted her, ransacked her home and stole jewelry and other items, including $4 in cash, according to charges filed Wednesday... In a delinquency petition filed in Children's Court against four youths - two 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old - the woman describes a series of encounters that she said began Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5 and 6, and ended Saturday. At times, she said, the number of youths who entered her home at will numbered as many as six, including a 16 year-old, who tried to rape her... The woman said that she did not call police 'because she was afraid they would take her to the Mental Health Complex, as they had done in the past.'" Read article... and This article... Teen alleges maltreatment Houston Chronicle | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Police and Child Protective Services are investigating a teenager's report of abuse at Houston's Child and Adolescent Development Inc., where she says she was locked naked in an attic isolation room, fed only bread and water and denied sanitary napkins. A 16-year-old girl now living at a foster care facility in Brazoria County said last week that she had witnessed bathroom beatings with metal hangers and other degrading practices while living at the Houston residential treatment center, said the mother of another foster child who is friends with the girl... [Elain Philpott] said the 16-year-old also said some staffers at the Houston facility had forced children to spit in each other's food and sometimes made them urinate or defecate on an object, possibly a cushion." Read article... Naked Yoga Guy scot free San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: Brother Bru Bru "[Charges have been dropped against the Naked Yoga Guy], whose in-the-buff appearances have landed him in court today on charges of dropping his pants in public along the wharf. 'Being naked in San Francisco is not a crime,' explained D.A. spokeswoman Debbie Mesloh, 'unless the gentleman had lewd conduct or was obstructing traffic.' ... [George Monty Davis], a onetime theology student who claims to have a trophy wife, 27-foot yacht and season tickets to the opera, said there was plenty of tourist reaction to the act... At the recent Burning Man celebration in the Nevada desert, a bastion of nudity and free-spirited expression, the Naked Yoga Guy was told by a camp director that going nude was OK, but to keep his clothes on at meals. 'People were freaking out because your (privates) were too close to the buffet,' he said." Read article... Defendant gets 6 months for indelicate remark Stamford Advocate | Submitted by: Crazy Quagga "A New Haven man returned to the Milford courtroom where he mooned the judge and this time he left with more prison time. Three months after dropping his pants in front of Superior Court Judge Patrick Carroll, Richard Brown was back in the courtroom Monday for a plea agreement on a robbery... Brown's outburst in June began when Carroll told him to say 'yes, sir' when addressing the court. 'Sir? Kiss my ass, sir!' Brown shouted, dropping the pants of his two-piece prison jumpsuit as he turned to expose his rear end to the bench." Read article... Wal-Mart to stop selling the Protocols Jewish Telegraphic Agency | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Wal-Mart said it would halt the sale of a quintessential anti-Semitic tract on its Web site. The world's largest retailer will cease sale of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion - a forgery that describes an alleged Jewish plan for world domination... [Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Colella] insists the store’s swift response was due to its customers. 'Based on significant customer feedback regarding the book titled The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, we have made a business decision to remove this book by author Victor E. Marsden from our site.' ... The book, however, was still available on the site as of Wednesday afternoon." Read article... and This article... Swaggart just kidding about murdering gays Baton Rouge Advocate | Submitted by: Big_Heat "Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart said he would choose his words more carefully after an outcry over a recent televised sermon in which he said he would kill a gay man who looked at him 'like that.' 'I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry,' Swaggart said during the Sept. 12 service, in which he decried gay marriage, according to transcripts of numerous Web sites. 'And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,' he said to the applause and laughs of his congregation... Swaggart, whose Jimmy Swaggart Ministries is based in Baton Rouge, said his comments were 'silly' and meant to be a joke. 'I can see how the homosexual community would be offended by that, and I won't say it any more,' he said in a telephone interview." Read article... and This article... Reportedly gay Congressman outed Blue Lemur | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Republican congressman from California who has repeatedly voted against gay rights measures is said to be gay himself... Brad Smith, [Rep. David Dreier's] chief of staff with whom he is said to have lived, is paid an unusually high salary relative to the chief of staffs of other powerful congressmen... The 52-year-old single congressman voted for the Marriage Protection Act in July, a measure that would have stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans the federal government from recognizing gay partnerships. Dreier did not vote on the latest amendment to constitutionally ban gay marriage, and said he was against it. Dreier, a Christian Scientist, also voted for the original Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 and a measure that banned gays from adopting in Washington, D.C... When asked if he was heterosexual on a Sirius Radio interview Aug. 31, Rep. Dreier refused to answer. 'I'm not going to talk about that issue,' Dreier said. 'That's really not what I'm here about.'" Read article... and This... and This... More dirty tricks expected this election Wire Services | Submitted by: Bee "Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts... 'There are individuals and officials who are actively trying to stop people from voting who they think will vote against their party and that nearly always means stopping black people from voting Democratic,' said Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights." Read article... More vulnerabilities in E-Voting system Wired | Submitted by: Moleman "Voting activist Bev Harris and a computer scientist say they found more vulnerabilities in an electronic voting system made by Diebold Election Systems, weaknesses that could allow someone to alter votes... Harris demonstrated the vulnerabilities to officials in the California secretary of state's office several weeks ago and will be showing them to federal legislative staff and journalists Wednesday in Washington, D.C... The vulnerabilities involve the Global Election Management System, or GEMS, software that runs on a county's server and tallies votes after they come in from Diebold touch-screen and optical-scan machines in polling places. The GEMS program generates reports of preliminary and final election results... Harris said it's possible to change the voting summaries without using GEMS by writing a script in Visual Basic... Diebold spokesman David Bear said by phone that no one would risk manipulating votes in an election because it's against the law and carries a heavy penalty." [Which is of course why nobody ever commits capital crimes.] Read article... and This article...