If not for Russia and Iran; Syrians would be FREE and rid of Assad.

The Arab League looks a bit toothless in Syria,” Paul Sullivan, a specialist in Middle East security at Georgetown University in Washington, said in an e-mail. “The Syrian regime has little time left. The clock is ticking. If it were not for Iranian and Russian help, Bashar would have been out already most likely.”
The Syrian government has “exacerbated” the situation by resorting to force, the Arab League said.

Syria said it was surprised by the Arab League decision after agreeing to allow the mission in the country for another month, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported yesterday, citing an unidentified government official.

Assad’s security forces have maintained their efforts to crush demonstrations even after the Cairo-based organization sent observers to Syria on Dec. 26. The monitors aimed at ensuring that Assad followed through on his pledge to withdraw security forces from cities, release political prisoners and allow anti-government demonstrations.

The face of Democracy .... Camila Vallejo of Chile!!!!

The Guardian asked readers to vote for its person of the year. The candidates included household names like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Egyptian techno-revolutionary Wael Ghonim and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. All placed far behind a striking, nose-ringed student from Chile named Camila Vallejo.

Though far from a familiar face in the United States, the 23-year-old Ms. Vallejo has gained rock-star status among the global activist class. Since June she has led regular street marches of up to 200,000 people through Santiago’s broad avenues — the largest demonstrations since the waning days of the Pinochet regime in the late 1980s. Under her leadership, the mobilization, known as the Chilean Winter, has gained nationwide support; one of its slogans, “We are the 90 percent,” referred to its approval rating in late September.

Ms. Vallejo’s charismatic leadership has led commentators to make the obligatory comparisons to other Latin American leftist icons like Subcomandante Marcos and Che Guevara. Yet “Commander Camila,” as her followers call her, has become a personality in her own regard. She skewers senators in prime-time TV debates and stays on message with daytime talk-show hosts hungry for lurid details about her personal life, while her eloquence gives her a preternatural ability to connect with an audience far beyond her left-wing base. 

In perhaps the most poignant set piece in the year of the protester, Ms. Vallejo addressed a dense ring of photographers and reporters in August while kneeling within a peace sign made of spent tear-gas shells, where she calmly mused about how many educational improvements could have been bought with the $100,000 worth of munitions at her feet. 

Ms. Vallejo, like many of her fellow student leaders, is an avowed communist. But while she has publicly commended other regional leftists like Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, she and her generation have little in common with the older left of Fidel Castro or Hugo Chávez. They are less ideological purists than change-seeking pragmatists, even if that means working within the existing political order. 

Still, there’s no question that the movement is upending Chilean society. True, it is centered on a policy question, namely reforming an educational system that disproportionally favors the children of wealthy families. But the earth-shaking Paris protests in 1968 also began with calls for university reform — before spiraling into street battles between radicalized students and truncheon-wielding gendarmes, opposing symbols in the culture war between old and new France. 

The same process is under way in Chile. As the protests increasingly devolve into rock and tear-gas exchanges between students and the police, it’s becoming clear that more than education policy is at stake: a nonviolent social revolution in which disaffected, politically savvy youth are trying to overthrow the mores of an older generation, one they feel is still tainted by the legacy of Pinochet. It is not just about policy reform, but also about changing the underlying timbers of Chilean society. 

It’s no surprise that the movement should be led by someone as charismatic as Ms. Vallejo. Paris 1968 had its celebrity protesters, handsome faces that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets, photogenic young men like Jacques Sauvageot and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Chile has Ms. Vallejo.

Just what you want in a Presidental candidate (Ron Paul)...somemone motivated by "greed more than bigotry"

The controversy over Ron Paul's newsletter business erupted again on Friday -- just days before the Florida primary -- when three former associates of the libertarian presidential candidate contradicted his earlier claims of ignorance about the racist and anti-Semitic material published under his name. Although the Texas Congressman has previously insisted that he had been unaware of the newsletters' racial slurs, his former secretary Renae Hathaway, who still supports his candidacy, said: “It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it." Hathaway told the Washington Post that Paul was a "hands-on boss" who frequently visited the publication's offices despite his busy schedule as a Congressman and practicing physician.

Confirmation of Hathaway's recollections came from Eric Dondero Rittberg, another ex-aide, who told the Post that Paul approved all the final copy in his newsletters during the 1990s, when the racist articles appeared. As other former Paul associates have suggested, Rittberg said that the Congressman's motives involved greed more than bigotry. “The real big money came from some of that racially tinged stuff," Rittberg said, "but he also had to keep his libertarian supporters, and they weren’t at all comfortable with that." According to the Post's analysis, the newsletter business was so profitable that Paul went from personal indebtedness to a net worth of more than $5 million.

20 Percent Rebound = Golden Cross!!!! Yippie I Oh!!!

The S&P 500 has jumped almost 20 percent from its 2011 low in October amid optimism that the U.S. economy will withstand Europe’s debt crisis. The index’s 50-day moving average is 0.2 percent away from exceeding the average price for the prior 200 days. 

The formation, known as a “golden cross,” will occur for the first time since 2010 and is historically a signal that more gains are likely to follow, Birinyi Associates Inc. said. 

The S&P 500 climbed to its highest level since July on Jan. 25 after the Fed extended its commitment to keep interest rates low through at least late 2014 and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled that central bankers haven’t ruled out additional asset purchases.

Chevron criminal charges for oil spill

A Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against Chevron Corp and some of its local managers within weeks, adding the threat of prison sentences to an $11 billion civil lawsuit as punishment for a November offshore oil spill.

The filing in federal court in Campos, Brazil, will likely include a request for criminal indictment of George Buck, chief executive of Chevron's Brazil unit, as well as other staff, three Brazilian government officials involved in the case told Reuters.

Transocean Ltd, whose rig was used in the operation, and some of its employees in Brazil are also expected to be charged, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because the case has not been presented to a judge. It is up to a judge to determine whether to accept the charges and proceed with indictments.

SEC Investigates Bribes paid to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

The SEC launched an investigation to determine whether U.S. financial firms made unlawful payments in connection with obtaining or seeking to obtain investments from sovereign wealth funds – payments which might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA” or “Act”).

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which channels Abu Dhabi’s oil profits into investments – are
large pools of cash that governments draw from their reserves to make investments. The SEC’s investigation, although in an early stage, appears to focus on whether certain U.S.- based banks, hedge funds and private equity firms – either directly or indirectly – made illegal payments to employees or representatives of sovereign wealth funds.

Bahrain: Brutal, Unjust and Clock that is running out...tic tic tic toc

Bahrain must investigate more than a dozen deaths that followed the use of tear gas by security forces, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday after the Gulf kingdom reported that a man had died while in custody.

Protests in Bahrain appear to have picked up recently despite the findings released in November of a government-backed  commission established to investigate abuses by the government and security forces, Mariwan Hama-Saeed of Human Rights Watch says.

"We were expecting (the government) just to ease up on these people, but since this report was published we've seen crackdowns every day," he says.

Reuters reported that Bahrain's Interior Ministry said that a man detained by police over "acts of sabotage" died in the hospital, without elaborating on the cause of death.

According to Amnesty, a Bahraini human rights group has reported at least 13 deaths resulting from the security forces' use of tear gas against peaceful protesters as well as inside people's homes with a rise in such deaths in recent months.

A 20-year-old was seriously injured and hospitalized after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister launched by riot police, the group said. Amnesty went on to document a series of incidents that allegedly showed how tear gas had been used improperly, including against women, children and the elderly.

99% Our Priorities

Equality For All
We're working to make sure that individuals of every gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin aren't pushed to the margins.

Fair and Just Courts
Federal judges and Supreme Court justices -- appointed to lifetime terms -- play a profound role in safeguarding our rights. We're fighting to keep our courts free, fair, and independent.

Fighting the Right
The Radical Right is relentlessly pursuing cultural influence and power at every level of government -- and we're pushing back, exposing and countering their extreme agenda every step of the way.

Freedom of Speech
Democracy is a hollow promise if citizens aren't guaranteed freedom of expression. We're working to protect Americans' right to speak their minds without fear of reprisal.

Religious Liberty
We're fighting to preserve Americans' freedom to worship -- or not -- as they choose, without fear of coercion or government interference.

The Right to Vote
We work to tear down barriers to the ballot box for the elderly, minority communities, and students.

The Opportunity to Succeed
The American Dream is built upon the basis of everyone gets a chance to make it to the top.  Good education, an ability to find employment that is rewarding, challenging and offers the potential for growth, a social safety net, a vision for an America not 10 years but 10 thousand years from now = is what we will fight, get or die trying.

So while you suck that gimlet down your jowly flaccid face at Davos; know you're in our sights 1%...and there are 99% of US(A)!

President Obama wants to "Build the USA to last" which requires a prosperous middle class!!!

The President's themes -- tax fairness, help for homeowners, cracking down on U.S. financial crimes and unfair trade practices in China and investigating the lending practices that preceded the housing crisis -- are those he will be repeating as he campaigns for a second term.


He invoked the teamwork and selflessness of the U.S. armed forces to urge lawmakers toward agreement on changing the tax code for individuals and corporations, promoting energy development and improving job training and education. Still, he is unlikely to get any major legislation through Congress before the November election, which will also decide control of the House and Senate.

54.5 MPG the new USA standard to be issued by the EPA in July....maybe

Greed is the only obstacle to achieving a MPG standard of 54.5.  It’s not your greed or my greed but oil company greed, oil company lobbyists’ greed and their puppet politicians who stand in the way of the right decision.

The EPA has the support of 66.66% of Americans, 19 Auto Manufacturers representing 90% of cars sold in the USA and the United Auto Workers!!!

Not issuing the 545.5 MPG standard will continue and deepen America’s dependence on Foreign Oil, Foreign Refineries.  Continue to finance Dictators, Terrorists, and Human Rights Violations.

The technology exists today to set us on the right path.  A path that will save:

• -          4 Bln barrels of oil

• -          Make $400 bln available to be reinvested into our economy in productive ways

• -          Put $4k in each car buyers pocket

• -          Reduce the many health risks caused by mobile source pollution, e.g.,  Lung Damage, Asthma, Premature Births & Deaths, Heart Disease, Eye/Skin Irritation, Cancer and lost work days which measured 2.8 mln per annum in California alone

I, we, call on the EPA to issue strong final standards in July and ensure any flexibilities in the standards do not dilute our oil savings or pollution reductions.  When testing vehicles to comply with these standards, the agency’s current test procedure over-estimates efficiency by 25%.  It is critical that the agency develops new accurate test procedures.

Man not of the PEOPLE Mitt Romney earned $21.6 mln and paid 13.9% tax less than half the rate a USA middle class family has to pay!!!!

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earned $21.6 million in 2010 and paid 13.9 percent of that amount in income taxes, using the preferential rate on investment income and charitable deductions to pay a smaller share of his earnings than top wage earners typically do.

The former private-equity executive and Massachusetts governor earned more than half of his income from capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, rather than the 35 percent top rate for ordinary income. His campaign publicly released the returns today.

Davos: Where your Economic Dictators go to PARTY!!!!! That means your PARTY leaders dear Republicans; you know the ones who send your kids to die in needless wars...

"At meetings the rest of society is excluded from, this powerful '1 percent' negotiates and decides about the fate of the other 99 percent of this world," says David Roth, "Camp Igloo" organiser and head of the Swiss centre-left's youth wing.

"The economic and financial concentration of power in a small, privileged minority leads to a dictatorship over the rest of us. The motto 'one person, one vote' is no longer valid, but 'one dollar, one vote'. We want to change that."

The USA, Europe, and indeed the World’s rich and famous cheered snow polo in Klosters, Switzerland, while at nearby Davos, host of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, young Swiss socialists protest against the power of political elites in igloos.

The real loser in Saturday’s Republican primary was the One Percent. Plutocrats fuelling up their Gulfstream 650s for the trip to Davos should take note: fellow club members Mitt Romney’s and Newt Gingrich’s path to the presidency may be obstructed by their vast riches. The perception of lopsided wealth creation bothered voters even more and was a bigger impediment than the more carnal sins of rival Newt Gingrich. Turns out the Occupy Wall Street movement is resonating in some unlikely places.

Romney’s trouncing in South Carolina’s primary (28 percent of the vote to Gingrich’s 40 percent) will encourage further attacks on his wealth as the candidates move on to the next battleground state, Florida. Romney is clearly girding for such a fight. In his concession speech on Saturday night, he lambasted former Gingrich. On Sunday, Romney vowed to release his tax returns later this week.

I'm sure most Republicans have a Tax Rate of 15% why otherwise would you support such a party; right Tea Party, etc??? I mean it would be stupid otherwise.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire calling for more taxes on the rich, said Mitt Romney’s U.S. rate of about 15 percent reflects poor laws.

And failings by the candidate for the Republican presidential nomination to see the problem.

The Year of the Black Water Dragon brings a new province to China….Canada!

The value of Western Canadian crude is depressed for two reasons - so much oilsands production was being moved into the U.S. Midwest it forced down prices compared to WTI and the Keystone XL is the Spruce Goose of the 21^st Century splashed down for good. This "double discount" from world prices is costing oil companies and governments in Canada billions annually.

So goes the news for Canadian Natural Gas and shale gas.  On the convention al side FD&A costs more than $12/boe will make you unprofitable for the next decade and not to mention the creeping environmental litigation that will manifest itself as workers exposed to conditions the Canadian government didn’t protect them from produces its generation of early onset cancers and other terminal illnesses.  The forecast for natural gas for the next decade is likely to hold between USD $ 3-4 mmbtu (we’re at about USD $2.54 mmbtu).

Public discord over Drilling's fractured future is mounting an offensive: Growing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) erupted in 2011 with moratoriums now in place in Quebec and jurisdictions around the world. Using high-pressured, chemicallaced water and sand boosted North American gas production so much it's driven prices to uneconomic levels. Calgary's Encana Corp. found itself caught up in the issue late in the year when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency linked fracking to water issues in one Wyoming village.

Enter China's resourcefulness in Canada: China's state oil companies are buying up Canadian oil, natural gas and pipeline assets like never before. It's provided greater impetus for better oil and gas pipeline links to the Pacific Rim. Regulators approved a project by Athabasca Oil Sands Inc., which is controlled by PetroChina, whose $5.4-billion deal with Encana in the Horn River Basin collapsed earlier in the year. In October, Sinopec added to a position in Syncrude Canada, paying $2.2 billion for Daylight Energy. There are billions more invested in companies like OPTI, MEG Energy and Penn West Energy from a variety of firms ultimately accountable to the Beijing government. 

Canadian Bad business ethics will bring forward more of the corrupt to trial shortly: The dollars were bigger when Niko Resources was fined $9.5 million in June for paying bribes to a government official in Bangladesh in 2005, but Alberta Securities Commission's rulings against two Calgary investment firms, Concrete Equities Inc. and Wealthstreet Inc. this fall was signally the fate for many during 2012! The ASC ruled four principals with Concrete Equities "illegitimately" raised nearly $120 million from investors in 2009. One of the four, David Jones, who promoted investments regularly on local TV and radio, was also ruled to have illegally traded securities through Wealthstreet and was levied a $1.5-million penalty. Penalties in the case of Concrete, described by the ASC as "an accident waiting to happen," haven't yet been announced.

Suncor Energy: Two years after creating Canada's biggest oil and gas company with the takeover of Petro-Canada, Suncor Energy found itself caught up in the violence of the Arab Spring more than any other Calgary company. Suncor had to write down $514 million in Libya early in the year given the uprising that brought down dictator Moammar Gadhafi before returning in December just as it pulled out of Syria amid growing violence against the Assad regime. In addition, if the geopolitical challenges weren't enough, CEO Rick George announced his retirement.

TransAlta admitted in November it manipulated electricity prices a year earlier. After approving the Heartland power line, a critical decision is looming on whether to proceed with one or both controversial north-south power lines to be funded by billions of ratepayer dollars.

A lot of strong stories - notably the battle on the board of directors at both Canadian Pacific and grain-handler Viterra Inc. - didn't make the list and will largely play out this year.