US charges eight [former executives] in Siemens foreign bribery case

“The charges relate to a $1bn contract to produce national identity cards in Argentina.
. . .
‘”Today’s indictment alleges a shocking level of deception and corruption,” the Department of Justice said.
. . .
“They were charged with conspiracy to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money-laundering.’

LINK.

Paris bans beggars from most popular shopping and tourist hotspots“French authorities claim no-go zones aim to stop pestering of foreign visitors by ‘delinquents’ run by criminal gangs”

LINK.

PG&E accepts liability for deadly pipeline blast

Borrowers may give up future claims in foreclosure reviews
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/12/13/borrowers-may-give-up-future-claims-in-foreclosure-reviews

OCC Chief Counsel Julie Williams faced down skeptical lawmakers in a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, pledging the consultants were independent and that the reviews would be thorough.

But she also revealed in some instances, they would be final. In some cases, a borrower would not be able to bring future claims against the servicer if he or she takes the payout.

Emanuel: G8 protesters have rights but so do I

No four- or thirteen-letter words were harmed in the writing of this comment.

Vladimir Lenin and Mao Tze-tung, call your offices:

Exporting butlers to China

ENGLISH butlers, synonymous with Reginald Jeeves in the novels of P. G. Wodehouse, are answering more calls from super-rich Chinese and Russian clients as wealth shifts from East to West.

LAPD Mistakes Hyde Park Library Cleanup for ‘Occupy’ Protest, Orders Youth Group to Disperse

“​What should have been a warm ‘n’ fuzzy cleanup of the abandoned Hyde Park Library in South L.A. this morning went awry when responding LAPD officers reportedly mistook the Youth Justice Coalition for a faction of Occupy L.A.
“Given the post-raid tension between cops and occupiers, the case of mistaken identity didn’t bode well for the Inglewood youth group. “Despite the fact that this library has been abandoned since 2004, LAPD is here telling young people they have no right to access…”

“… Tweeted blogger Maegan Ortiz. And she soon added: “Commander Green LAPD is giving young people at abandonded library 30 minutes to leave or be arrested with 5k bail.”‘

LINK.

“A federal judge Tuesday rejected a request to hold the Food and Drug Administration in contempt of court over its policy on the emergency contraceptive Plan B but said he would consider reviewing the government’s refusal to make it easier for girls and women to get the drug.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-seeks-dismissal-of-legal-challenge-to-plan-b/2011/12/12/gIQAR6dyrO_singlePage.html

Italians aren’t going to take this austerity like the domesticated european sheeple.

Letter bombs and bullets mailed to officials have prompted Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti to warn of political violence returning to Italy.

An official with Equitalia, Italy’s tax-collection agency, was wounded in the hand and face by a letter bomb on Dec. 9, a day after Italian anarchists said they tried to target Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann with a similar device. Letters with bullets sent to Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno and Justice Minister Paola Severino were also found this week.

“Threats and intimidations represent strategies of other eras that can’t and mustn’t return,” Monti said in a Dec. 12 statement that recalled the terrorism in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of bombs and bullets dubbed the “Years of Lead” that claimed hundreds of lives.

The tensions come as Monti, a former adviser for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., seeks to push through a 30 billion-euro ($40 billion) austerity program by Christmas before taking steps next year to liberalize the labor market, a flashpoint issue that led Red Brigade terrorists to kill two officials about a decade ago.

I want to point out missing points in this article that are highly misleading:
I don’t know about the last two incidences where the Labor Ministry consultants were hurt but the first two were Deep State sponsored violence. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, Italy suffered terrorism of all political stripes, from the 1980 bombing of Bologna’s railway station by neo-fascists that killed 85 people to the murder of former Premier Aldo Moro in 1978 by Marxist-inspired Red Brigade militants. That group’s most recent victims were Labor Ministry consultants Massimo D’Antona and Marco Biagi, both of whom were working on overhauling the job market when they were gunned down in 1999 and 2002, respectively.

Bologna’s railway station bombing was not conducted to mere neo-fascists, but by P2 members connected to Operation Gladio- NATO’s stay behind secret anti-communist terrorist group supported by the CIA. It was a false flag to promote fear in the population and cause them to cleave to the right wing government and beg for a Security State for protection.

Prime Minister Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and assassination was found to have been conducted by the same group. “Aldo Moro was negotiating the “historic compromise” which would have allowed the Communist Party to enter into government for the first time since the May 1947 expulsion.”

Kabul starts race for Afghan resources
By Robert M Cutler

“MONTREAL – Afghanistan last week began a tender process for exploration and development of precious metal and mineral deposits, according to a press release from the country’s Ministry of Mines. The tenders will close in March, with licenses for exploration and possible development to be awarded in July.

Concerned are the Badakshan project, targeting gold deposits in Badakshan province, in the northeast; the Zarkashan project, focusing on copper and gold in Ghazni province, in the central southeast; and Balkhab and Shaida projects, looking exclusively at copper, the former in the north-central Sar-I-Paul and Balkh provinces, and the latter in western Herat province”

”
At the time of last year’s publicity, the figure of US$1 trillion was prominently mentioned in the press as an estimate of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, and unofficial estimates range up to $3 trillion. By way of contrast, the country’s gross domestic product for 2010 is estimated at slightly of $27 billion”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ML15Df02.html

Now if they could do something about the rest of the francophiles, Paris would be tolerable.

The government wisely stopped printing useless and unnecessary $1 coins

I was very puzzled back in 1998. I had just spent two years in Europe where coins are worth from 0.0something cents to $5 or even $10 (Heh! I once made the error of giving a young Romanian girl what I thought was a 10,000 Lira piece (About a buck) and saw to my horror that it was actually a 10 Franc piece (About $7, I think)! Fortunately, she wasn’t sure what it was that I had given her, so I apologized and switched it out and gave her a 10,000 Lira piece instead, which she recognized and happily accepted) and the US was spending money to advertise the Sacajawea dollar coin. I was like “Why are we spending money to advertise such an obviously useful and necessary thing?!?!?!”
Oh well, I was clearly wrong and Americans didn’t find such a coin useful at all. Still very puzzling when I’m using vending machines and laundromats.

I hate coins of every denomination. Can’t tell what they’re worth without putting on my eyeglasses, wear out your pockets, have to wait impatiently while customer in front of you stumbles around in his pocket or her purse for coins to pay the cashier. $1 paper is much more user friendly than $1 coin. Wish they’d get rid of penny.

Agree about the penny. $1 coins were useful when I was living in Jersey. $3 tolls to cross the bridge. Hard to find that many quarters to toss into the automatic bucket, and you have to stop and pay a person with bills.

David Dayen:

You’re confusing Slovakia with Slovenia!

They’re just as easy to confuse in their native tongues, as they are Slovensko and Slovenija, respectively.

Let’s call the whole thing off lol.

Hahahahahaha! Thnx.

We’ve got several highly used toll roads in the Houston area. Used to get “tokens” for the toll. Not anymore. Gotta pay cash. Toll is $1.50 so you gotta use 6 quarters each time and many times you have to pay three tolls. That means you have to start a trip with 18 quarters. 36 if it’s a roundtrup. THIRY-six!!!!!

One dollar coin and a fity-cent piece would be so much easier but you can’t fine either and now they’re even gonna stop making them. CRAP!

Shock as retreat of Arctic sea ice releases deadly greenhouse gas

“Russian research team astonished after finding ‘fountains’ of methane bubbling to surface”

LINK.

Last time I saw methane bubbling to the surface was at a landfill.

Citgo starts seventh year of heating oil donations to US households

“In operation since 2005 to assist struggling households across the US and to Native Americans, Citgo’s program donated a peak 49 million gallons in 2008-2009 and 26.9 million gallons in 2009-2010. In its first year, Citgo donated 8 million gallons.
. . .
“Last year, [Joe Kennedy of Citizens Energy] said in a statement that “every year, we ask major oil companies and oil-producing nations to help our senior citizens and the poor make it through winter, and only one company, Citgo, and one country, Venezuela, has responded to our appeals.” ‘

LINK.

;-)

So what will that do to the race, if Ron Paul wins in Iowa? Will that make him the anti-Romney candidate? Will he be acceptable to Republicans in the South, so many of whom are militarists?

Oh yeah,

I passed through north Houston a few years back without knowing about such tolls.

Took every coin in the ashtray. I took the back roads home, much nicer drive through the hill country.

Didn’t have that option in Jersey. Note: they only charge toll to get out of state (evey bridge) nothing to enter. I know why.

that is the “worst case” scenario.

that’s the item that results in all of the predictions being far too benign, far too moderate, and reflecting the mildest predictions, in order to get a result, any result.

let’s hope there’s an error.

another outstanding example of being lied to, in several ways, about something very important.

as the great humanitarian, having to make “hard decisions” after much painful consideration CUTS the assistance for the poor.

they probably don’t have much left over for contributions, if they can’t heat their homes.

thankfully so far it’s been a mild winter.

Ron Paul, no problem there.

remember the “Dean Scream”

it’s easy to deal with insignificant annoyances like this one.

Ron Paul says Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional and must end so each state can set up whatever system they want for health care.

I wonder how that will fly in the general.

I was always curious as to why some of those from Slovenia called the area “Slavenia” with a small a sound. Indeed Austro-Hungarian’s Slavonia is now Croatia. Toss in the language Slovenija once being Slovene and the multi-national world I grew up in Chicago comes back to me! :-)

The electron pass system makes coins – and paper – unnecessary for tolls.

I drive Maine to Florida paying many tolls – and never slow down much or roll down the window to pay a toll -

Just a monthly bill and deduction from my checking account for any tolls incurred.

We have that on some roads around here now. I think I could have done that in Jersey, but was on temp. assignment and didn’t want to go through the effort.

The new toll loop around Austin TX is fantastic for avoiding traffic and DFH’s {joke}.

Congress would have to approve any end to Medicare and Medicaid, which I am sure must already have survived challenges in courts.

A President Paul, on the other hand, would have the power all by himself to end wars and to end investigations that violate constitutional rights.