Sunday, February 5, 2017

MILO YIANNOPOULOS BOOK 'Dangerous' SOARS - BUT IS GEORGE SOROS REALLY BUYING UP ALL COPIES TO BURN?

BLOG:

ALL POSTINGS IN SUPPORT OF MILO YIANNOPOULOS HAVE BEEN DELETED PURSUANT TO HIS STATEMENTS SUGGESTING SUPPORT OF OR CONDONING PEDOPHILIA

The fallout continues from remarks made by Milo Yianopoulos last January where he spoke approvingly of sex between grown men and teen boys. Last night, the publisher of Yiannopoulos's book, Simon and Schuster, canceled his book contract whil...

Milo loses book deal as Breitbart employees threaten to walk if he's not fired


The fallout continues from remarks made by Milo Yianopoulos last January where he spoke approvingly of sex between grown men and teen boys. Last night, the publisher of Yiannopoulos's book, Simon and Schuster, canceled his book contract while at least a half a dozen employees at Breitbart are threatening to quit if he isn't fired.
Employees at Breitbart News are reportedly prepared to leave the company if controversial senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos is not fired.

Another senior editor at the publication told WashingtonianMonday that "at least a half dozen" employees are prepared to leave to organization because of remarks  Yiannopoulos made about pedophilia that gained attention this weekend.
“The fact of the matter is that there’s been so many things that have been objectionable about Milo over the last couple of years, quite frankly. This is something far more sinister,” the senior editor said.
“If the company isn’t willing to act, there are at least half a dozen people who are willing to walk out over it.”
Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week, but his invitation to speak was rescinded on Monday.
The decision comes amid controversy over a 2016 video in which Yiannopoulos appears to defend pedophilia. The video clip was posted on YouTube last January, but gained new traction on social media after a conservative blog shared it Sunday.
In the video, Yiannopoulos says relationships between older men and young boys can be beneficial and he flippantly discusses his own sexual assault.
Yiannopoulos denounced claims that he was advocating for pedophilia in a Facebook post Monday.
"I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim,” Yiannopoulos wrote. "I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers. I've outed three of them, in fact -- three more than most of my critics. And I've repeatedly expressed disgust at pedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. My professional record is very clear.”
"But I do understand that these videos, even though some of them are edited deceptively, paint a different picture.
Despite all of this, I have no doubt that Milo will land on his feet and continue plying his trade as a right wing provocateur. And while Simon and Schuster may have dropped him, another publisher will probablly come along, another job offer if he's canned by Breitbart, and lots and lots of invites to speak before audiences that either love him or hate him.
Milo is a bankable commodity and will continue to be so -- that is, until he really steps in it. And that is virtually guaranteed by the nature of his persona and the demands of his celebrity.
Yiannopoulos is already finding it more and more difficult to top "over the top." How many times can he utter controversial comments about race, gender, and religion without having to outdo his own standards to be objectionable? The mob demands new and exciting insults, provocative statements, and inventive ways to troll political opponents. Eventually, going over the top means that Milo will hit a ceiling. And that's when the real fall will occur.
His "explanation" for what he meant in that video from January is disingenuous but probably accurate. He was trying to get a rise out of people and it backfired.
Some day, he'll step so far over the line that he won't be able to jump back. 

Milos Yiannopoulos Kicks George Soros Fascist Ass Out of Dodge City

BLOG:

ALL POSTINGS IN SUPPORT OF MILO YIANNOPOULOS HAVE BEEN DELETED PURSUANT TO HIS STATEMENTS SUGGESTING SUPPORT OF OR CONDONING PEDOPHILIA

The fallout continues from remarks made by Milo Yianopoulos last January where he spoke approvingly of sex between grown men and teen boys. Last night, the publisher of Yiannopoulos's book, Simon and Schuster, canceled his book contract whil...

Milo loses book deal as Breitbart employees threaten to walk if he's not fired


The fallout continues from remarks made by Milo Yianopoulos last January where he spoke approvingly of sex between grown men and teen boys. Last night, the publisher of Yiannopoulos's book, Simon and Schuster, canceled his book contract while at least a half a dozen employees at Breitbart are threatening to quit if he isn't fired.
Employees at Breitbart News are reportedly prepared to leave the company if controversial senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos is not fired.
Another senior editor at the publication told WashingtonianMonday that "at least a half dozen" employees are prepared to leave to organization because of remarks  Yiannopoulos made about pedophilia that gained attention this weekend.
“The fact of the matter is that there’s been so many things that have been objectionable about Milo over the last couple of years, quite frankly. This is something far more sinister,” the senior editor said.
“If the company isn’t willing to act, there are at least half a dozen people who are willing to walk out over it.”
Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week, but his invitation to speak was rescinded on Monday.
The decision comes amid controversy over a 2016 video in which Yiannopoulos appears to defend pedophilia. The video clip was posted on YouTube last January, but gained new traction on social media after a conservative blog shared it Sunday.
In the video, Yiannopoulos says relationships between older men and young boys can be beneficial and he flippantly discusses his own sexual assault.
Yiannopoulos denounced claims that he was advocating for pedophilia in a Facebook post Monday.
 
"I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim,” Yiannopoulos wrote. "I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers. I've outed three of them, in fact -- three more than most of my critics. And I've repeatedly expressed disgust at pedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. My professional record is very clear.”
"But I do understand that these videos, even though some of them are edited deceptively, paint a different picture.
Despite all of this, I have no doubt that Milo will land on his feet and continue plying his trade as a right wing provocateur. And while Simon and Schuster may have dropped him, another publisher will probablly come along, another job offer if he's canned by Breitbart, and lots and lots of invites to speak before audiences that either love him or hate him.
Milo is a bankable commodity and will continue to be so -- that is, until he really steps in it. And that is virtually guaranteed by the nature of his persona and the demands of his celebrity.
Yiannopoulos is already finding it more and more difficult to top "over the top." How many times can he utter controversial comments about race, gender, and religion without having to outdo his own standards to be objectionable? The mob demands new and exciting insults, provocative statements, and inventive ways to troll political opponents. Eventually, going over the top means that Milo will hit a ceiling. And that's when the real fall will occur.
His "explanation" for what he meant in that video from January is disingenuous but probably accurate. He was trying to get a rise out of people and it backfired.
Some day, he'll step so far over the line that he won't be able to jump back. 

Senator Dianne Feinstein: America's most corrupt war profiteer and servant of Red China! Where in Congress there's a deal to be made, there's Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum!

FEINSTEIN'S HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM 

HAS LONG HANDED OUT BRIBES TO 

HALF THE SENATE SO THEY KEEP THEIR 

MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT THE STAGGERING

CORRUPTION OF BLUM-FEINSTEIN-

BOXER.


Feinstein, like Pelosi, Reid, etc. has been 

using her position in Congress to build a 

personal fortune. Corrupt as can be.





Sen. Feinstein’s Husband’s Company to Bag $1 Billion for Government Deal

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, could bag $1 billion in commissions for his company from a government plan to sell 56 US Postal Service buildings.

As the New York Post notes, “Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014.”
Feinstein’s office denies that she had anything to do with the USPS decision.
This is not the first time Feinstein and her 
husband have come under fire for engaging 
In 2013, a construction group partially owned by Blum’s investment firm scored a construction contract for California’s high-speed rail project valued at $985,142,530.

Dianne Feinstein Still Dogged by Allegations of Conflicts of Interest

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Dianne Feinstein Still Dogged by Allegations of Conflicts of Interest
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The victor in yesterday’s California primary in the U.S. Senate, incumbent DemocratDianne Feinstein, has long faced questions about potential conflicts of interest in Congress, according to Breitbart News sources. Specifically, for at least 15 years, Feinstein has appeared to support government contracts that push federal funds toward companies co-owned or governed by her powerful, billionaire husband, Richard C. Blum

Breitbart News found evidence of possibly inappropriate influence from the period when Feinstein served on the Military Construction Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee (MILCON), which supervises military construction and oversees quality of life concerns for veterans, including the building of clinics and hospitals for wounded soldiers and housing for military families. 
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THROUGH THE U.S. SENATE MILITARY-CONSTRUCTION SUBCOMMITTEE
Financial disclosure reports from 2001-2005 indicate that MILCON–under Feinstein’s leadership–cleared appropriations that were eventually funneled as $1.551 billion worth of military construction contracts to URS Corporation, a San Francisco-based engineering services firm, and Perini (now Tutor Perini), both partially owned by her husband’s investment firms (and their investors) at the time (URS reportedly earned $791 million, and Perini earned $759 million). 
Public records reportedly show that Blum paid only $4 a share for the Perini stock, but was able to sell three million shares in 2005 for $23.75 each. (Federal lawmakers are required to file financial disclosure statements under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The forms are published each year to disclose any potential conflicts of interest with their or their spouses’ business decisions.) 
The couple earned somewhere between $500,000 and $5M from capital gains on URS and Perini stock, and another $1.3M-$4M from CB Richard Ellis, a global real estate service company. In total, the couple’s worth rose $10 million to an estimated $40 million. According to the San Francisco ChronicleBlum has served on the corporate boards for both URS and CB Richard Ellis
Brian Weiss, a press spokesman for Feinstein at the U.S. Senate, told Breitbart News that no conflict of interest existed. In a detailed e-mail response to questions, Weiss wrote the following: 
Senator Feinstein sought the advice of the Senate Ethics Committee about whether any conflict existed. The committee indicated that Senator Feinstein could consider, debate and vote on appropriations bills in the subcommittee, the committee and full Senate.  The Department of Defense awards contracts–not Congress. Senator Feinstein (and her staff) had no involvement in which entities were awarded military construction contracts.
According to Peter Byrne, a veteran, left-wing, anti-war journalist who has spent several years investigating Feinstein on location in California, that’s not true. 
“From 2002 to 2005, URS and Perini went from having very little in military construction contracts to having billions of dollars in such contracts,” he told Breitbart News in an series of exclusive interviews. “After December 2005, Feinstein no longer had a discernible financial interest in the contracts that were vetted by MILCON because her husband abruptly divested of his family’s URS and Perini stock–taking a substantial profit worth many millions of dollars that was directly caused by the military construction bonanza.” 
In a March 21, 2007 Metroactive story penned by Byrne, he wrote: “As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect the construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband’s inquiries, Perini Corp and URS Corp.” 
And that’s not the only allegation involving MILCON. 
According to a 2004 San Francisco Chronicle report, “Feinstein has also received scrutiny for husband Richard Blum’s extensive business dealings with China and her past trade issues with the country.”
The story was that after URS bought a substantial stake in EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the military, from the Carlyle Group in 2002, EG&G subsequently received a $600 million defense contract
Byrne also reported in his March 2007 expose that according to SEC filings listed in December 2006 report, Blum’s entities owned a total of $1 billion in stock in three companies that all “won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs,”–Boston Scientific CorporationKinetic Concepts, Inc., and CB Richard Ellis
Owen Blicksilver, Blum’s personal spokesman, dismissed any improper connection between MILCON, Perini and Feinstein: “Positions in Perini and URS were both fully liquidated in 2005. My assumption is they have received government contracts in the last six years and undoubtedly received them in the years prior to Blum Capital’s investment.” 
Surprisingly, MILCON isn’t the only shadow haunting the California senator. 
ALLOCATING TARP FUNDS TO THE FDIC – THE CB ELLIS CONNECTION
On April 21, 2009, the Washington Times broke an exclusive story that Feinstein proposed legislation to direct $25 billion in taxpayer money to the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation
The alleged Blum connection was that the FDIC had just awarded Blum’s real estate firm a profitable contract to resell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. 
According to the Washington Times, “Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments–not direct federal dollars.”
Documents obtained by the newspaper exposed that Feinstein had sent a letter to the FDIC on October 30, 2008 offering to help it secure funds to help them stave off ensuing foreclosures. 
That letter was sent only a few days before CB Richard Ellis Group (the commercial real estate firm that Blum serves as board chairman) had won a contract to sell foreclosed properties that FDIC was taking on from failed banks. 
According to Weiss, “this is an allegation that has totally been discredited.” 
Feinstein’s explanation was that the senator simply introduced legislation to allocate $25 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in 2009 because California had the third highest number of foreclosures in the nation.  
“Senator Feinstein learned of FDIC Chair Sheila Bair’s proposal for foreclosure relief from news reports, expressed her support in a letter, and introduced legislation to implement it,” Weiss wrote to Breitbart News. “She was unaware of CBRE’s bid for an FDIC contract so it clearly played no role in her decision to introduce legislation. The Inspector General at the FDIC reviewed this and concluded there was ‘no improper influence’ in the awarding of the contract.” 
LaJuan Williams-Young, a spokeswoman for the FDIC, declined to explain why CBRE was chosen and instead simply defended the agency: “There are four other contractors that perform similar work for the Corporation.”
According to Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring Washington ethics, Feinstein’s explanation isn’t adequate. He says that neither the FDIC nor MILCON connections pass muster under the U.S. Senate Ethics Rules or the U.S. Criminal Code.
“In these cases, she was voting on bills that ultimately benefited her husband’s companies . . . she knew, everyone knew what would come out of those bills, and at the least she should have known where that money could have gone, and that simply doesn’t stand scrutiny.” 
When asked about Feinstein and her husband benefitting from all of these contracts as well as the FDIC legislation, Weiss simply responded, “All items referred to above are Richard Blum’s separate property relating to his business . . . Senator Feinstein is not involved with and does not discuss any of her husband’s business decisions.” 
Blicksilver mirrored Weiss’ response, saying that, “Blum Capital Partners has a strict confidentiality policy which Mr. Blum and other members of the firm adhere to. As such, he does not discuss the Firm’s investments with the Senator.” 
A MYSTERIOUS GRANT FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Feinstein’s most recent controversy emerges from Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer’s book Throw Them All Out, which reveals that on November 18, 2009 she and her husband invested $1 million into Amyris Biotechnologies, a “green” company focused on plant-based renewable fuels and chemicals. 
Just weeks after her investment in Amyris, the company received a $24 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to build a pilot plant where altered yeast would turn sugar into hydrocarbons. Shortly thereafter, Amyris went public with an IPO that collected $85 million. It is unknown at this time how much Feinstein’s investment benefited from the grant. 
Weiss’ response? 
“The purchase of the stock in Amyris by Richard Blum was disclosed on Senator Feinstein’s financial disclosure in May of 2010.  In addition, the value of the stock in Amyris is also disclosed on Senator Feinstein’s financial disclosure forms as an asset that is owned solely by her spouse.  Senator Feinstein never discussed the purchase of this stock with her husband.  Senator Feinstein is not involved with and does not discuss any of her husband’s business decisions.” 
Feinstein revealed the Amyris connection in her May 2010 public disclosure reports, but Schweizer says that’s not what’s most important.
“This is the standard politician’s response,” Schweizer told Breitbart News. They say, ‘I disclosed it, so that makes it okay, or ‘I don’t talk to my spouse about their financial decisions so I’m in the clear.’  There’s a reason members of Congress are required to disclose their spouse’s financial transactions.  Let’s face it–politicians have been known to be less than straightforward with the truth.”



“Most journalists in the United States believe the press here is free. That grand illusion only helps obscure the fact that, by and large, the US corporate press does not report what’s really going on, while tuning out, or laughing off, all those who try to do just that. Americans–now more than ever–need those outlets that do labor to report some truth. Project Censored is not just among the bravest, smartest, and most rigorous of those outlets, but the only one that’s wholly focused on those stories that the corporate press ignores, downplays, and/or distorts. This latest book is therefore a must read for anyone who cares about this country, its tottering economy, and–most important– what’s now left of its democracy.” –Mark Crispin Miller, author, professor of media ecology, New York University.
“[Censored] should be affixed to the bulletin boards in every newsroom in America. And, perhaps read aloud to a few publishers and television executives.” —Ralph Nader
“Censored 2014 is a clarion call for truth telling. Not only does this volume highlight fearless speech in fateful times, it connect the dots between the key issues we face, lauds our whistleblowers and amplifies their voices, and shines light in the dark places of our government that most need exposure.” –Daniel Ellsberg, The Pentagon Papers
“Project Censored shines a spotlight on news that an informed public must have . . . a vital contribution to our democratic process.” —Rhoda H. Karpatkin, president, Consumer’s Union
Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this col-lection of suppressed stories allows us.” —San Diego Review
“The staff of Project Censored presents their annual compilation of the previous year’s 25 stories most overlooked by the mainstream media along with essays about censorship and its consequences. The stories include an 813% rise in hate and anti-government groups since 2008, human rights violations by the US Border Patrol, and Israeli doctors injecting Ethiopian immigrants with birth control without their consent. Other stories focus on the environment, like the effects of fracking and Monsantos GMO seeds. The writers point out misinformation and outright deception in the media, including CNN relegating factual accounts to the “opinion” section and the whitewashing of Margaret Thatcher’s career following her death in 2013, unlike Hugo Chavez, who was routinely disparaged in the coverage following his death. One essay deals with the proliferation of “Junk Food News,” in which “CNN and Fox News devoted more time to ‘Gangnam Style’ than the renewal of Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ law.” Another explains common media manipulation tactics and outlines practices to becoming a more engaged, free-thinking news consumer or even citizen journalist. Rob Williams remarks on Hollywood’s “deep and abiding role as a popular propaganda provider” via Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. An expose on working conditions in Chinese Apple factories is brutal yet essential reading. This book is evident of Project Censored’s profoundly important work in educating readers on current events and the skills needed to be a critical thinker.” -Publisher’s Weekly said about Censored 2014 (Oct.)
“[Censored] offers devastating evidence of the dumbing-down of main-stream news in America. . . . Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens.” —Los Angeles Times
“In another home run for Project Censored, Censored 2013 shows how the American public has been bamboozled, snookered, and dumbed down by the corporate media. It is chock-full of ‘ah-ha’ moments where we understand just how we’ve been fleeced by banksters, stripped of our civil liberties, and blindly led down a path of never-ending war.” –Medea Benjamin, author of Drone Warfare, cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK.
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“At a time when the need for independent journalism and for media outlets unaffiliated with and untainted by the government and corporate sponsors is greater than ever, Project Censored has created a context for reporting the complete truths in all matters that matter. . . . It is therefore left to us to find sources for information we can trust. . . . It is in this task that we are fortunate to have an ally like Project Cen-sored.” —Dahr Jamail
“Project Censored continues to be an invaluable resource in exposing and highlighting shocking stories that are routinely minimized or ignored by the corporate media. The vital nature of this work is underscored by this year’s NSA leaks. The world needs more brave whistle blowers and independent journalists in the service of reclaiming democracy and challenging the abuse of power. Project Censored stands out for its commitment to such work.” —Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire and associate professor of Media Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University
“One of the most significant media research projects in the country.” —I. F. Stone
“Activist groups like Project Censored . . . are helping to build the media democracy movement. We have to challenge the powers that be and rebuild media from the bottom up.” —Amy Goodman
“Those who read and support Project Censored are in the know.” —Cynthia McKinney
“Project Censored brings to light some of the most important stories of the year that you never saw or heard about. This is your chance to find out what got buried.” –Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System.
“Hot news, cold truths, utterly uncensored.” —Greg Palast
“Project Censored interrogates the present in the same way that Oliver Stone and I tried to interrogate the past in our Untold History of the United States. It not only shines a penetrating light on the American Empire and all its deadly, destructive, and deceitful actions, it does so at a time when the Obama administration is mounting a fierce effort to silence truth-tellers and whistleblowers. Project Censored provides the kind of fearless and honest journalism we so desperately need in these dangerous times.” —Peter Kuznick, professor of history, American University, and coauthor, with Oliver Stone, of The Untold History of the United States
“For ages, I’ve dreamed of a United States where Project Censored isn’t necessary, where these crucial stories and defining issues are on the front page of the New York Times, the cover of Time, and in heavy rotation on CNN. That world still doesn’t exist, but we always have Project Censored’s yearly book to pull together the most important things the corporate media ignored, missed, or botched.” –Russ Kick, author of You Are Being Lied To, Everything You Know Is Wrong, and the New York Times bestselling series The Graphic Canon.

# 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq

April 28, 2010
Source:
North Bay Bohemian, January 24, 2007
Title: “Senator Feinstein’s Iraq Conflict”
Author: Peter Byrne
http://www.bohemian.com/metro/01.24.07/dianne-feinstein-0704.html
Student Researcher: David Abbott, Amanda Spigut, and Ann Marie O’Toole
Faculty Evaluator: David McCuan, Ph.D.
Dianne Feinstein—the ninth wealthiest member of congress—has been beset by monumental ethical conflicts of interest. As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 to the end of 2005, Senator Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions of dollars to her husband’s firms.
From 1997 through the end of 2005, Feinstein’s husband Richard C. Blum was a majority shareholder in both URS Corp. and Perini Corp. She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were, or subsequently became, URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such projects.
In 2000, Perini earned a mere $7 million from federal contracts. After 9/11, Perini was transformed into a major defense contractor. In 2004, the company earned $444 million for military construction work in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as for improving airfields for the US Air Force in Europe and building base infrastructures for the US Navy around the globe. In a remarkable financial recovery, Perini shot from near penury in 1997 to logging gross revenues of $1.7 billion in 2005.
It is estimated that Perini now holds at least $2.5 billion worth of contracts tied to the worldwide expansion of the US military. Its largest Department of Defense contracts are “indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity” or “bundled” contracts carrying guaranteed profit margins. As of May 2006, Perini held a series of bundled contracts awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers for work in the Middle East worth $1.725 billion. Perini has also been awarded an open-ended contract by the US Air Force for military construction and cleaning the environment at closed military bases.
In 2003 hearings, MILCON approved various construction projects at sites where Perini and/or URS are contracted to perform engineering and military construction work. URS’s military construction work in 2000 earned it a mere $24 million. The next year, when Feinstein took over as MILCON chair, military construction earned URS $185 million. On top of that, the company’s architectural and engineering revenue from military construction projects grew from $108,726 in 2000 to $142 million in 2001, more than a thousand-fold increase in a single year.
Beginning in 1997, Michael R. Klein, a top legal adviser to Feinstein and a long-time business partner of Blum’s, routinely informed Feinstein about specific federal projects coming before her in which Perini had a stake. The insider information, Klein said, “was intended to help the senator avoid conflicts of interest.” Although Klein’s admission was intended to defuse the issue, it had the effect of exacerbating it, because in theory, Feinstein would not know the identity of any of the companies that stood to contractually benefit from her approval of specific items in the military construction budget—until Klein told her.
Feinstein’s husband has profited in other ways by his powerful political connections. In March 2002, then-Governor Gray Davis appointed Blum to a twelve-year term as a regent of the University of California, where he used his position as Regent to award millions of dollars in construction contracts to URS and Perini. At the time, he was the principal owner of URS and had substantial interests in Perini. In 2005, Blum divested himself of Perini stock for a considerable profit. He then resigned from the URS board of directors and divested his investment firm of about $220 million in URS stock.1
Citation
1. Peter Byrne, “Blum’s Plums” North Bay Bohemian, February 21, 2007.
UPDATE BY PETER BYRNE
Shortly before my expose of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s conflict of interest was published in January 2007, Feinstein, who had declined to substantively comment upon serious allegations of ethical misconduct as reported in the story, resigned from the Military Construction Subcommittee. I then wrote three follow-ups, including a news column on her resignation, an expose of her husband Richard Blum’s conflict of interest as a regent of the University of California, and an expose of Blum’s business partner, Michael R. Klein. With Blum’s financial backing, Klein, a war contractor, operates a non-profit called The Sunlight Foundation that awards millions of dollars to reporters and government watchdog groups to research government ethics.
In March, right-wing bloggers by the thousands started linking to and commenting upon these stories—agitating for a Congressional investigation of Feinstein. In just two days, the stories got 50,000 online hits. Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh did radio segments on my findings. I declined to appear on their shows, because I do not associate with racist, misogynist, homophobic demagogues. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly invited me to be on his national TV show, but quickly uninvited me after I promised that the first sentence out of my mouth would frame Feinstein as a neoconservative warmonger just like O’Reilly.
As the storm of conservative outrage intensified, Joe Conason, from The Nation Institute, which had commissioned the Feinstein investigation, asked to have the tag thanking the Nation Institute for funding removed from my stories because, he said, Katrina vanden Heuval, The Nation’s editor and publisher, did not want the magazine or its non-profit institute to be positively associated with Limbaugh. I told Conason that not only was I required to credit The Nation Institute under the terms of our contract, but that The Nation’s editors should be proud of the investigation and gratified by the public reaction.
The back story to that encounter is that, in October, vanden Heuvel had abruptly killed the Feinstein story, which had been scheduled to run as a cover feature before the November 2006 election in which Feinstein was up for reelection. The Nation’s investigative editor, Bob Moser, who worked closely with me on the project from start to finish, wrote that I had done a “solid job,” but that the magazine liked to have a political “impact,” and since Feinstein was “not facing a strong challenge for reelection,” they were not going to print the story. Moser added that there was no “smoking gun,” which amazed me, since Klein’s admission that he was funneling defense contracting wish lists developed by Feinstein’s husband’s company directly to the senator, who was in a position to make those wishes come true, was a hot and smoking fact pointing toward corrupt practices. Subsequently, vanden Heuval wrote an editorial praising women leaders of the newly-empowered Democratic Party, including Feinstein: go figure.
I then sold the story to Salon.com, who abruptly killed it right before publication, too. This time the editor’s explanation was that “someone talked to the Sunlight Foundation” and that Salon no longer saw the matter as a serious conflict of interest. So, I pitched the story to Slate, The NewRepublic, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Times and, by way of experiment, to the neoconservative American Spectator and Weekly Standard. Most of the editors praised the reporting, but turned down the story. I cannot help but believe that, considering the precarious balance of power in the post-election Senate, some of these editors were not eager to critique the ethics of a Democrat. As for rejection by the neoconservatives, I theorize that they secretly adore Feinstein, who has consistently supported Bush’s war and homeland security agenda and the illiberal Patriot Act.
So I sold the tale to the North Bay Bohemian, which, along with its sister papers in San Jose and Santa Cruz ran it on the cover—complete with follow-ups. After it appeared, the editors and I received a series of invective-filled emails from war contractor Klein (who is also an attorney) but, since he could show no errors of fact in the story, he did not get the retraction that he apparently wanted. In March, the story crested a Google tidal wave generated by left- and right-wing bloggers wondering why the mainstream media was ignoring the Feinstein scandal. After two dozen newspapers ran a McClatchy wire service article in April observing that no one had found any factual faults in my reporting, the lefty group Media Matters attacked me on its Web site as a right-wing pawn, without even calling me for comment, nor finding any errors in my reporting. I parried their fact-free insults with facts and they were compelled to correct the inaccurate rant.
On April 30, The Hill newspaper in Washington D.C. ran a highly-visible op-ed by a conservative pundit quoting from my story and comparing Feinstein (unfairly) to convicted felon and former Congressman, Duke Cunningham. As the Feinstein investigation gained national traction, mostly outside the realm of the mainstream media, one of Klein’s employees at the Sunlight Foundation posted a “critique” of my story, which was loaded with personal insults, but contained no factual substance. Not coincidentally, Feinstein’s press office distributes, upon request, a similarly-worded “rebuttal,” which insults my personal integrity, finds no factual errors, and does not address the damning fact, reported in the story, that four non-partisan ethics experts based in Washington D.C. found the senator had a conflict of interest after reviewing the results of my investigation.
Also, in April, CodePink and The Raging Grannies held a demonstration in front of the Feinstein-Blum mansion in San Francisco demanding that she return her war profits to the Iraqi people. That was my proudest moment.
Five months after the story was printed, opinion-floggers across the political spectrum continue to loudly ask why the mainstream media has not reported on Feinstein’s ethical problem. Some say that the hurricane of opinion raised by the investigation has killed Feinstein’s chance for a spot on the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket in 2008. Klein has continued to send me e-mails full of verbal abuse, misspellings, and implied threat of lawsuit.
Blissfully, I delete them.