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San Francisco's Alternative Online Dailyhttp://www.beyondchron.org/news/
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http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Swine_Flu_and_the_CIA_6865.html
by Lincoln Cushing‚ Apr. 29‚ 2009
Everyone is terrified about the current outbreak of swine flu. Daily photos of Mexican citizens with medical face masks highlight the enormous danger of a pandemic. The terms “swine flu” and “swine fever” are often used interchangeably, and it appears that medically they are one and the same. What’s scary about this outbreak is the crossover of a virus from animal to human – something supposed to be “rare.” According to Monday's SF Chronicle, swine flu is “a form of influenza type A that typically is very infectious - but not deadly - in pigs and is rarely passed on to humans … The new strain is an unusual combination of viruses that typically infect birds, pigs and humans separately. It's a form of influenza, known as H1N1, that humans have been exposed to before, but never this particular strain.”
Yet few are aware that the United States government, acting through the CIA and anti-communist exile operatives, once was involved in deliberately introducing exactly such a disease into Cuba for the purposes of destabilizing the Cuban economy and encouraging domestic opposition to Fidel Castro.
The story first appeared January 10, 1977 on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. Sourced from Newsday, the headline was “1971 Mystery - CIA Link to Cuban Pig Virus Reported.” Note the assertion that such diseases cannot cross over to humans:
“With at least the tacit backing of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officials, operatives linked to anti-Castro terrorists introduced African swine fever virus into Cuba in 1971.
Six weeks later, an outbreak of the disease forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to prevent a nationwide animal epidemic.
The 1971 outbreak, the first and only time the disease has hit the Western Hemisphere, was labeled the 'most alarming event' of 1971 by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. African swine fever is a highly contagious and usually lethal viral disease that infects only pigs and, unlike swine flu, cannot be transmitted to humans.”
Bay Area journalist and all-around muckraker Warren Hinckle later included this story in his 1981 title The Fish is Red – The Story of the Secret War Against Castro. In it he described this event, one of many by the CIA to undermine Cuba. His account places the incident a year earlier, but the basic event elements remained the same:
“In March 1970 a U.S. intelligence officer passed along a vial of African swine fever virus to a terrorist group. The vial was taken by fishing trawler to Navassa Island, which had been used in the past by the CIA as an advance base, and was smuggled into Cuba, Six weeks later Cuba suffered the first outbreak of the swine fever in the Western Hemisphere; pig herds were decimated, causing a serious shortage of pork, the nation’s dietary staple. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization called it the 'most alarming event' of the year and futilely tried to track down “how the disease had been transmitted.”
So, while it’s appropriate to be concerned about the risks of this outbreak, the United States government should refrain from criticizing the public health practices at our neighbor to the South.
Toyota Greenwashes Fremont Plant Closure
When the wealthy Toyota Corporation decided to close its NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, it offered its 4700 workers none of the severance benefits and priority in re-hiring routinely provided to laid off employees of Ford, General Motors, or Chrysler. Yet there has been little public criticism of Toyota’s callousness, as a media often scornful of American auto companies remained largely silent. The reason for this double standard: Toyota has a great public image due to its “green” cars. Like Whole Foods and Nike, Toyota’s green image allows it to mistreat workers without paying a public relations price. Toyota does not practice the anti-union fanaticism of those other companies, but after securing massive profits from “Cash for Clunkers,” its heartless conduct toward U.S. workers is troubling. [more]->
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Are the tea party protest fading? Health Access staffers and allies have been to many Congressional town halls in the last few weeks. Despite the media narrative, my sense is that after the first week of August, health reform supporters have matched and often outnumbered opponents. In some areas, like the town halls of Rep. Diane Watson or of Rep. Judy Chu, they don't show up with any visible presence at all. The "tea party"activists have called protests against Representative Henry Waxman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and others, yet the number of health reform supporters have outnumbered the opponents by five to one. [more]->
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Remember all the heat Justice Sonia Sotomayor took over her “wise Latina” comment? Events this past week surrounding the discovery of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard have proven the essence of her statement. The Dugard case was cracked by two female Berkeley police officers – one black, one white – at least one of whom is also a mom. What does that have to do with the country’s first Latina Supreme Court Justice? It proves the Justice’s point that we all bring our personal life stories to our work, and that the life experiences of women, of minorities, of parents, can and do affect how well public servants perform. [more]->
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Is there a headline more menacing to liberals, moderates, consumers, small-business owners or free-marketeers than “Banks 'Too Big To Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger, Three Banks Issue Half the Mortgages & 2/3s of Credit Cards – Behemoths Born of the Bailout Reduce Consumer Choice”? Shouldn’t any jumbo, “too big to fail” money center be deemed a peril to western civilization, let alone fair competition?
Is our government, that watchdog against illegal monopolies, stuffing behemoths, like fattened geese, concentrating capital beyond dreams of avarice? Oligarchy, cousin to plutocracy, here we come, except now it’s the historic guardians feeding new Trusts, evoking infamous, lawless consolidations that allowed predatory Robber Barons to command markets. With fewer hands on the money spigot, we desperately need another Teddy Roosevelt the Trustbuster. Don’t hold your breath, not with Obama the Wary in charge. [more]->
 Incoming AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka |
In a further sign of SEIU’s growing estrangement from the labor movement, the San Francisco Labor Council has rejected SEIU’s threat to withdraw 40% of its Council funding unless UNITE HERE Local 2 drops its support for NUHW’s decertification campaign against SEIU’s home health care workers. At an August 21 Executive Board meeting, representatives of several unions took turns castigating SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan for threatening the Council’s funding, while praising Local 2’s historic commitment to worker rights. Although Regan had threatened the “immediate withdrawal” of SEIU’s $17,000 monthly Council contribution during an August 15 meeting with Local 2 officials, he now denied that SEIU had decided to withdraw funding. Instead, he said that he had requested to meet with Local 2 to see how SEIU-UHW could help UNITE HERE in its contract fight against San Francisco’s hotels. Most striking about the meeting was the widespread criticism of SEIU’s bullying tactics, and the strong defense of Local 2’s efforts to help NUHW decertify SEIU’s local home health care workers. [more]->
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In 2002, Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash in the heat of a tough re-election battle. Last week, Ted Kennedy passed away while the nation is mired in the fight for universal health care – which was the “passion” of his life. Paul was George Bush’s most outspoken critic in Congress, and his death generated a mass outpouring of grief that scared the Republican Party. In a disgusting display of rank opportunism, they attacked the Wellstone Memorial Service for being too “partisan.” Now, Kennedy’s death has galvanized progressives to fight for universal health care – and once again, the G.O.P. is terrified. So the right wing has sunk to a new low by making “Wellstone” a profanity – as they complain that a “Wellstone effect” is politicizing Kennedy’s death. It’s a cynical ploy that they hope will turn the public against health care reform, just like their faux outrage at Paul’s funeral gave Republicans a boost on Election Day. It is also deeply hypocritical, considering how they covered Ronald Reagan’s funeral. And as one who had the privilege of knowing Paul Wellstone, it is unbelievably offensive. [more]->
 Mansion of Bishop Richard Malone |
Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine is on a crusade against gay marriage in the northeastern most state in the country. He’s donated $100,000 to help fund a campaign to repeal Maine’s recently enacted gay marriage law. His spokesman, Marc Mutty, is also involved with the effort. In fact, he is on loan from the Diocese.
Malone finds the time and energy to obsess over gay marriage, even though there’s serious trouble in his own backyard. Five churches in his diocese have been forced to close because of deficits and the high cost of maintaining them. Not to mention dwindling Mass attendance. [more]->
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The proposed demolition of the historic North Beach library has ignited a firestorm of protest. Opponents include several powerful neighborhood groups, including Telegraph Hill Dwellers, and a host of preservation and good government associations throughout San Francisco.
The respected architectural historians Carey & Company found the graceful building to be eligible for both the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historic Resources. [more]->
 An example of Hearst "yellow journalism" |
In a shocking display of yellow journalism that would make William Randolph Hearst blush, the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times both slapped on their front pages yesterday a complete non-story in California tax law. Our state is in a fiscal crisis, Republicans refuse to let us pass a single tax increase whatsoever, we don’t tax oil companies for their profits, and the legislature just passed a budget that makes $15 billion in dreadful cuts to education and health care, and $11 billion in reckless borrowing. Yet, both papers are alarmed that – due to a technicality in state law – your taxes may go up another $40 this year. California’s income tax brackets get adjusted annually to account for the Consumer Price Index, and it means this year some incomes will fall into a higher tax bracket. Even the President of the right-wing Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association admitted that it’s not a big story, but the Chronicle and L.A. Times chose to whip up their readers with headlines like “State to Reach Even Further into Taxpayers’ Wallets.” Why exactly are they doing this, and what is their hidden agenda? [more]->
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PHILADELPHIA-Media, police and fans wearing the Eagle green Vick 7 jersey far outnumbered the handful of protesters at convicted dog killer Michael Vick’s first game in an Eagles uniform. Eagle fans cheered Vick during his brief appearance in which he completed one pass during his six plays. Outside the stadium about 20 anti Vick protesters and about 50 Vick supporters held separate gatherings well covered by the army of reporters, photographers and camera crews outside the stadium. [more]->
Aug. 27, 2009 -- School Beat: The New School Year Begins
Aug. 27, 2009 -- The Granddaddy of Toxic Talk Radio is Back
Aug. 26, 2009 -- In Memoriam: Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009
Aug. 26, 2009 -- The New York Times’ Odd Poster Children
Aug. 26, 2009 -- NLRB Rejects SEIU Raid at Delaware North
Aug. 26, 2009 -- "I Heard That": Farewell to Burl Toler, Sr.
Aug. 26, 2009 -- Concerts at the Cadillac: Larry Chinn and Susan Rancourt
Aug. 25, 2009 -- Obama’s Health Care Approach Risks His Base
Aug. 25, 2009 -- Poll Underestimates Newsom’s Troubles
Aug. 25, 2009 -- Obama’s “Cojones Gap,” the Upshot of “Devout Non-ideology”
Aug. 25, 2009 -- Chronicle Misleads Readers on S.F. Budget
MAIN ARTICLE ARCHIVE
Solari
Swine Flu: What I Believe
http://solari.com/blog/?p=3532
I believe one of the goals of the swine flu vaccine is depopulation. Perhaps it is the goal of a swine flu epidemic as well, whether bio-warfare or hype around a flu season.
These days, I keep remembering my sense of urgency leaving the Bush Administration in 1991. We had to do something to turn around the economy and gather real assets behind retirement plans and the social safety net. If not, Americans could find themselves deeply out on a limb. I felt my family and friends were in danger. They did not share my concern. They had a deep faith in the system.
As my efforts to find ways of reengineering government investment in communities failed to win political support, Washington and Wall Street moved forward with a debt bubble and globalization that was horrifying in its implications for humanity.
Overwhelmed by what was happening, I estimated the end result. My simple calculations guessed that we were going to achieve economic sustainability on Earth by depopulating down to a population of approximately 500 million people from our then current global population of 6 billion. I was a portfolio strategist used to looking at numbers from a very high level. Those around me could not fathom how all the different threads I was integrating could lead to such a conclusion. To me, we had to have radical change in how we governed resources or depopulate. It was a mathematical result.
A year later, in 1999, a very capable investment and portfolio strategist asked me if he could come have a private lunch with me in Washington. We sat in a posh restaurant across from the Capitol. He said quietly that he had calculated out where the derivatives and debt bubble combined with globalization were going. The only logical conclusion he could reach was that significant depopulation was going to occur. He said his estimates led to an approximate population of 500 million. I said very quietly, “that’s my estimate too.” I will never forget the look of sadness that crossed his face. I was amazed to find someone else who understood.
It turns out that we were not alone. Sir James Goldsmith had warned of the consequences of GATT in 1994. He described the process under way, involving the loss of land and livelihood for 3 billion people, “…This is the establishment against the rest of society.” Voices were rising around the planet as hardships exploded from global economic warfare and industrialization of agriculture.
As trillions of dollars were shifted out of America by legal and illegal means to reinvest in Asia and emerging markets and to build a global military empire, we left a sovereign nation economic model behind. Finally, the expense and corruption of empire resulted in bailouts of $12-14 trillion, delivering a new financial war chest to the people leading the financial engineering. Now we have exploding unemployment, an exploding federal deficit, an Inspector General for the TARP bailout program predicting that the ultimate bailout cost could rise to $23.7 trillion and a Congressional Budget Director who is concluding that we can no longer afford the social safety net.
That is, unless you change the actuarial assumptions in the budget – like life expectancy. Lowering immune systems and increasing toxicity levels combined with poor food, water and terrorizing stress will help do the trick. Review the history of vaccines rushed into production without proper testing and peer review - it is clear about the potential side effects. In addition, a plague can so frighten and help control people that they will accept the end of their current benefits (and the resulting implications to life expectancy) without objection. And a plague with proper planning can be highly profitable. Whatever the truth of what swine flu and related vaccines are, it can be used as a way to keep control in a situation that is quickly shifting out of control.
In short, an epidemic can be used to offset the inflation of capital with increasing deflation of the value and income of labor and continual demand destruction. It is a great deal of time and money spent on something that will not help build a real economy. The disinformation and control opportunities are profound. They keep the slow burn going. It is the next, meaner face of “the establishment against the rest of society.”
That’s what I believe. I am not an expert. I have no case worth presenting in a court of law. There are hundreds of hours of research on the swine flu and related vaccines that I have not done and I am not going to do. It is just what I believe, listening to the people I respect, and in no small part because if you map out all the financial ecosystems around the issue and people and incentives involved, it seems to me to be the logical conclusion.
Now, if this sounds ludicrous to you, it may be because you do not appreciate how dark the culture has become that is now in charge. Do you have any idea how impossibly frustrating it is to manage a highly centralized system in which the vast majority of people lack any responsibility to ensure that the whole thing works? Everyone wants their free lunch and there are no real markets or democracy to force accountability or a shared intelligence. Force works. Force has increasingly become the way to achieve most everything. Using force is a lot easier that living with rising risk and the costs of subsidizing an aging population.
So the question for you and me is “what do we do?” Are we going to take a vaccine? Are we going to allow our children to be vaccinated? Will we have a choice? How can we organize to make sure that we do? Is self-quarantine a practical option? How would we prepare for it?
What you believe is your responsibility. The time has come to build time into Summer schedules to research options, discuss them with those you trust and make informed decisions about what you believe and what actions you intend to take under a variety of scenarios.
I don’t have the answers yet. Somehow, I believe we can find them together. And while we do, let’s remember to pray for the love of humanity to be rekindled and nourished in each and every heart.
The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in India has concluded.
An experiment conducted in the southern state of Kerala found that a sudden fall in the bee population was caused by towers installed across the state by cellphone companies to increase their network.
The electromagnetic waves emitted by the towers crippled the “navigational skills” of the worker bees that go out to collect nectar from flowers to sustain bee colonies, said Dr. Sainuddin Pattazhy, who conducted the study, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Continue reading Mobile Phone Tower Threat
Now They've Gone and Done It
http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/3464/now-theyve-gone-and-done-it
by: Blue Girl
Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 13:56:36 PM CDT
Someone should have warned the wingnuts not to piss off my Grandma. For the better part of five decades, she has held a special spot of authority in my heart and in my mind. I learned early on not to cross her, and still don't. She may be 98 but you would never know it. Her mind and voice are both clear and sharp, and she is still writing a weekly newspaper column in the local paper back home, and her column, which deals with matters that affect senior citizens is read by everyone with an AARP card in a sparsely populated but fairly wide swath of north Missouri. (The Mirror doesn't have an online edition or I would post a link and prove once and for all that I am a pale imitation.)At first she was amused by the tea-baggers and their manufactured outrage.
Then she was alarmed by them.
And now she's pissed.
And she is not alone.
All over the country senior citizens - the largest voting demographic in primary and midterm elections - are furious about right wing lies and are making their displeasure known.
At high noon on one of the hottest days of the summer, a small group of senior citizens sweated it out in front of state GOP headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., asking the Republican Party to stop using what they called "scare tactics" to turn senior citizens against health care reform. It could be the start of a silver backlash against what some say is a misinformation campaign about health care reform.The members of the Alliance for Retired Americans were angry about a recent column by national GOP chair Michael Steele, who said health care reform would lead to rationing for the elderly and deep cuts to Medicare. Protestor Michael Gravinese says that's not true - and he thinks Steele is trying to frighten seniors like him
"It's pretty blatant and obvious what they're doing," Gravinese says. "And that's not for the good of the country. Let's have a reasoned, honest debate about health care."
A woman who remembers the great depression doesn't like being told that government is never the answer and can't do anything right, anyway. A woman who still buys her electricity and phone services from a rural cooperative doesn't like to be lectured on rugged individualism. A woman who buried friends and family and had entire branches lopped off the family tree thanks to Hitler and fascism doesn't care to have the president she voted for compared to Hitler. A woman who watched her mother march with suffragettes so she and her daughters would have an equal voice at the polls can't manage to muster much understanding for the tyranny of the minority. Then she asked a good question that I'm surprised no one has asked before now. "Isn't that one of the reasons why they said we had to overthrow Saddam Hussein?"
But I only thought she was pissed at the republicans. Her real wrath is for the Democrats who won't stand up and fight. You think I say mean things about Harry Reid and blue dog democrats? You should hear her.
In fact, I have a feeling that if the Democrats don't get their shit together, grow a pair and start fighting back...you just might.
The Bovine
Michael Schmidt talks about the fight over Site 41: “The Right for Water — Eight Days of Personal Resistance”Wednesday, August 19, 2009
I woke up with incredible inner pressure regarding dumpsite 41. A decision on the one year moratorium to stop construction will be coming next Wednesday. For over 20 years I have been following the growing resistance to the insanity to built a dump on the Alliston aquifer, one of the purest waters in the world. Rumors were swirling around that they will try to bring in the first load of garbage before the crucial vote. That itself was enough for me; I had to act to keep the pressure up until the last minute.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
We drove to Tiny Township and around 12 pm I started blocking the main entrance after I talked to the Natives who had set up camp opposite dumpsite 41. Huge gravel trucks, a fuel truck and several service vehicles could not enter dump site 41. OPP negotiators arrived after 20 minutes to convince me to let the work continue until the vote next Wednesday. Nobody trusted anybody anymore. The smell of corruption in regard to this project was too obvious. I stood my ground. After all, it was about the future of our children. On the other side of the road, many resisters showed their support, chanted and thanked me. Keep reading →
August 30, 2009
Organic Pastures’ Mark McAfee on raw milk issues & the Michael Schmidt case
Mark McAfee is not only one of America’s leading exponents of raw milk, he also operates the largest-scale raw milk dairy in the United States and possibly the world. This is an excerpt from a piece recently published by Kimberly Hartke on the Hartke is Online blog, as part of her Michael Schmidt month:
“Consumer’s needs are driving the demand for raw dairy
Organic Pastures' Mark McAfee takes the podium at the International Raw Milk Symposium in Toronto, Jan. 2009
With the advent of the pasteurizer in 1893 (first called the par boiler) far more than bacteria were killed. The pasteurizer killed personal responsibility. The pasteurizer disconnected and marginalized the farmer and made his quality efforts irrelevant. The pasteurizer killed enzymes and good bacteria and nutritional values. The pasteurizer produced a dead partial food out of a once vital alive and complete whole food. The pasteurizer started milk markets toward a 100 year long slow death as more and more people could not drink dead milk and became sick from it.
This was a death marked by dairy lies that covered its own demise and cover stories of its false benefits and a racist blame game against broad categories of people for their innate deficiencies from a pasteurized dairy invented deficiency called “lactose intolerance” or “Lie” (abbreviated and very true in deed). Literally no one has lactose intolerance…instead it is “ pasteurization intolerance” and nearly anyone can drink raw milk just fine. Yet the dairy industry has invented a blame game that tells Asians and blacks and American Indians that they are not white enough to drink milk. That they have a deficiency. This is a false science and a huge dairy lie. It was their dead food product made toxic by their own shelf life extending technologies that was the problem. It was not the consumer’s fault, regardless of race. The pasteurized milk industry has created a racist blame game and this is the very tip of the iceberg….many more lies lay deep in the political and economic game of selling dead food from industrial farms that do not know any of their customers, personally. Keep reading →
http://whatwouldtotowatch.com/2009/09/01/revenge-of-the-eco-docs/
Newark Begins Cutting Water Service Over Late Bills
Newark began shutting off water service on Monday to dozens of customers who were overdue on their bills, sending hapless property owners, bills in hand, to City Hall in hopes of paying at least enough to keep their taps flowing.All afternoon, they climbed to the building’s mezzanine level and filed through a round room with a stained-glass cupola and marble benches. The line led to Room 117, the offices of the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities, where that genteel ambience gave way to fluorescent lights and a gray linoleum floor, then to the equally dreary Room 104, home to the Department of Finance, to complete their transactions.
Some people walked back and forth between the rooms with paperwork or to double-check details. Occasionally, city workers emerged to shout, “Is anybody paying in full?”
Few were. Most were like Sam Gonzalez, 55, of Bloomfield, N.J., who owns a building in Newark with a bodega on the ground floor and apartments above. He is behind $5,112 on the water bill.
“I only have half,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who added that he hoped it would be enough to keep water service in his building. He had brought $2,500 in cash and a cashier’s check. “I don’t have any more than that.”
On Friday, the city announced that it was cracking down on delinquent accounts, beginning with 1,600 of the worst offenders in a first wave on Monday. They are among about 5,000 property owners who, the city says, owe more than $1,000 each. All have been sent warning letters, city officials said.
The mayor’s office would not identify any people or businesses who owed money, and would not provide any details about accounts that were in arrears. The city wanted to be “sensitive to their privacy,” said Esmeralda Diaz Cameron, a spokeswoman for Mayor Cory A. Booker.
Desiree Peterkin Bell, the mayor’s director of communications, said about 125 property owners had their service cut off by day’s end. But she said service would be restored by Monday night for those who had paid their bills.
Mr. Gonzalez blamed the recession and the effects it has had on his tenants for his failure to pay the bill.
“Times are bad, nobody’s working, business is slow,” he said. “Some of my tenants are not working. They’ve been laid off. They’re paying when they can.”
He acknowledged that he had put off paying the bill. “They’ve been lenient,” he said of the city.
April Virhuez-Collins, 54, who said she owed $1,200, said city workers told her to come up with $250.99 by Tuesday to prevent an interruption of her water service.
“If not, they cut it off,” she said. Ms. Virhuez-Collins said she fell behind because she had not earned any income since May, when she left a job with New Jersey Transit after 13 years to take an early-retirement plan.
“I worked all my life for 40 years,” she said. “I never thought I’d have to go through this.”
Fatima Cabrera, 40, was among the final people to make arrangements on their delinquent accounts at the end of the day, paying her bill in full. She said a city worker had driven up to her home earlier and told her, “We’re here to take care of the water.”
Ms. Cabrera, who lives with a son, 16, and daughter, 10, said she pleaded with the worker to give her a break. The worker said he would return Tuesday and expect to see her receipt for the paid water bill, she said.
She added that she planned to stay home from work on Tuesday to show the worker the receipt. She said she fell behind because she had been out of work for a year and had recently started working as a property manager at a building in Newark.
Not everyone was able to keep the water running.
Roshe Dousuah, 27, a fashion designer who moved to Newark from Philadelphia two months ago, stood in front of her building on Governor Street, just a few blocks from City Hall.
“I went to turn the water on and there was no water,” said Ms. Dousuah, who recalled seeing a warning about a week ago on the door. It was addressed to the landlord, who does not live there.
Ms. Dousuah said she hoped that her roommate would know how to locate the landlord. Meanwhile, she planned to look for a place to shower. “I’m really upset. He might not get his rent this month.”A ‘Little Judge’ Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style
Justice Schack, like a handful of state and federal judges, has taken a magnifying glass to the mortgage industry. In the gilded haste of the past decade, bankers handed out millions of mortgages — with terms good, bad and exotically ugly — then repackaged those loans for sale to investors from Connecticut to Singapore. Sloppiness reigned. So many papers have been lost, signatures misplaced and documents dated inaccurately that it is often not clear which bank owns the mortgage.Justice Schack’s take is straightforward, and sends a tremor through some bank suites: If a bank cannot prove ownership, it cannot foreclose.
“If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”
I noted a changed sidebar promo and had an email over the following. Some of my friends are rabid promoters of this browser...and I've kept it as an alternative for years because it is so fast. Google bought it and made it free some years ago : previously it was paid programming; So I'm not too worried about posting this in Blogger!
Opera 10 Launch
Monday, 31. August 2009, 23:00:00
Good news, everyone! Opera 10 is finally here and we're looking for the top Opera 10 promoter in the Opera community.
The contest is easy. Use the affiliate program to spread the word about Opera 10. We've created a special Opera 10 section where we'll keep track of progress for one month (ends October 1st). We'll reward the top promoter with a sweet prize: A brand new Nintendo Wii with 2 games of your choice, huzzah!
Anything is allowed (besides cheating!) and you have to be a My Opera member to participate. Simply grab your affiliate code and have fun with it.
Good luck and may the best win! 
Mmm... Opera Goodies!
There are also three other categories you can participate in. Unfortunately we can't give away a Nintendo Wii here, but we do have some new red Opera hoodies for the best contributions. 
Show us your blog: There are many bloggers on My Opera and we'd like to see what you think about Opera.
Show us your design: This can be anything "pixelated". Have you made a Web site for the purpose of spreading the word about Opera or a stylish button or banner? Then we want to hear from you. 
Most creative ad: Done something crazy or anything viral? Then this category is for you. We want to see blog posts, pictures and even videos about your creative ad.
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