JUDICIAL WATCH RANKS SEN. DIANNE
FEINSTEIN ONE OF THE 10 MOST CORRUPT.
SHE HAS AMASSED A HUGE FORTUNE FROM
DEALS SHE HAS PUSHED IN THE SENATE THAT ULTIMATELY PUT MILLIONS INTO HER HUSBAND’S
POCKETS.
SHE LIVES IN A $16 MILLION DOLLAR
MANSION IN SAN FRANCISCO ONLY MILES FROM HER S.F. HOTEL WHERE SHE HIRES
ILLEGALS.
HER BIGGEST (LEGAL) DONORS ARE
UTILITIES MONOPOLY PACIFIC, GAS & ELECTRIC AND CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WELLS
FARGO and BANK of AMERICA.
SHE VOTES FOR ANYTHING THAT WOULD
BENEFIT RED CHINA, AND RED CHINA THANKS HER BY CUTTING DEALS WITH HER HUSBAND
RICHARD BLUM.
FEINSTEIN IS THE BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER
IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
FEINSTEIN IS AN ADVOCATE FOR OPEN
BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY, NO ENGLISH ONLY, AND NO ID REQUIRED OF ILLEGALS VOTING.
FEINSTEIN, ALONG WITH HER
SISTERS-IN-CORRUPTION, PELOSI AND BOXER, ARE A MAJOR CAUSE FOR THE MELTDOWN AND
COLONIZATION OF CA BY MEXICO!
Feinstein’s net worth is partially explained by her marriage to
investment banker Richard Blum, who also sits on the University of California’s
Board of Regents. Blum has been a strong supporter of privatization and fee
hikes. Feinstein also reported owning homes in the Lake Tahoe area, the
Coachella Valley, the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, and San Francisco.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ranks as the
thirteenth wealthiest member of Congress, with a net worth of $26.4 million.
Much of Pelosi’s fortune comes from her husband Paul Pelosi, a land developer.
Pelosi’s fortune actually declined since 2010, but this can largely be
explained by $6 million in mortgages on two properties in Washington, D.C. and
San Francisco that are now counted as liabilities.
US
“Fifty Wealthiest Lawmakers” list: A Congress of the rich, by the rich, and for
the rich
By
Eric London
27 August 2012
27 August 2012
Last week’s report by
Washington, D.C. political blog The Hill details the vast wealth of the
nation’s legislative representatives and serves as an indictment of the
anti-democratic nature of the American political system. The “50 Wealthiest
Lawmakers” list shows that dozens of congressional politicians have amassed huge
fortunes while simultaneously slashing the wages, benefits and social services
of the American people.
In other words, not
only are these members of Congress overseeing a massive transfer of wealth from
the working class to the ruling class; they are also profiting from this
transfer.
The report reveals
the bipartisan composition of the extremely wealthy in congress. Seven of the
top 10 richest members of congress are Democrats; overall, Republicans make up
60 percent of the list.
According to The
Hill, 17 members of Congress have amassed fortunes of over $20 million, and
a total of 35 members of Congress have a net worth valued at over $10 million.
These numbers are
slightly skewed compared with past surveys. Due to the passage of the STOCK
Act, members of Congress now are legally required to report mortgages as
liabilities. The STOCK Act was passed after revelations were made regarding
banks giving members of Congress and their staffs “friendly” deals on their
personal mortgages in return for favorable legislation.
The list also sheds
light on the nature of wealth accumulation amongst the super-rich in America.
Among the elite today, wealth accumulation has less to do with productive work
than it does with parasitism, inheritance, and family ties.
Rep. Michael McCaul
(Republican of Texas) tops the list with a total fortune of $290.5 million.
McCaul’s wealth comes in part from his marriage to the daughter of Lowry Mays,
the founder of radio giant Clear Channel Communications. Belying the claim that
these fortunes come from productive hard work, McCaul’s 2011 financial report
explained that “certain assets owned by spouse were acquired via gift from
spouse’s parents.”
Democratic Party
leadership is featured prominently at the top of the list.
Sen. John Kerry
(Democrat of Massachusetts), the party’s nominee for president in 2004, is
second, with a net worth of $198.8 million. Like McCaul, much of this wealth
comes from family. His wife Theresa Heinz’s “numerous family trusts” have
helped push Kerry’s fortune up $5 million in the last year.
Democratic Senators
Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia), Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), and Dianne
Feinstein (California) are also featured in the top 10. The respective fortunes
of these three senators ($83.1 million, $80.1 million, and $47.2 million) come
in large part from family inheritances and trusts.
Feinstein’s net worth is partially
explained by her marriage to investment banker Richard Blum, who also sits on
the University of California’s Board of Regents. Blum has been a strong
supporter of privatization and fee hikes. Feinstein also reported owning homes
in the Lake Tahoe area, the Coachella Valley, the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, and
San Francisco.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA) ranks as the thirteenth wealthiest member of Congress, with a net worth
of $26.4 million. Much of Pelosi’s fortune comes from her husband Paul Pelosi,
a land developer. Pelosi’s fortune actually declined since 2010, but this can
largely be explained by $6 million in mortgages on two properties in
Washington, D.C. and San Francisco that are now counted as liabilities.
Republican Rep. James
Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin reported a net worth of $10.2 million. Among other
reported assets, “his prized stamp collection … is now worth at least $150,000.”
Maine Senator Olympia
Snowe, a Republican, ranks 35th on the list. A portion of her $9 million
fortune comes from investments in Education Management Corporation, a
for-profit post-secondary education company. Snowe’s husband, former Maine
governor John McKernan Jr., sits on the company’s board of directors.
All of the
Congressional members on the list amassed their vast sums of money on the backs
of the working people they purport to represent.
The web site
OpenSecrets.org reports that land speculation is the industry in which members
of Congress make the most money. Financial speculation, securities and
investments, oil and gas production, and commercial banking are also featured
in the top 10 profitable industries for members of Congress.
The report from The
Hill underlines what was already clear about American politics: the vast
majority of Americans are given no representation in government. Their
“elected” representatives are chosen from the rich, by the rich, and for the
rich.
The lives of these
members of Congress compare starkly with the realities that their constituents
face on a day-to-day basis. In the years following the financial crisis, the
average American family has lost 40 percent of its net worth. Half of America
lives either under the poverty line or one paycheck away from it. In some
states, a quarter of the population struggles to afford food. Meanwhile,
Congress cuts unemployment benefits, funding for health care, education, and
housing. Both parties have agreed that slashing pensions and food stamps are
next on the agenda.
For the richest
members of Congress, these cuts will result, as they evidently have already, in
an increase in net worth. For their working class constituents, the cuts pose a
more urgent threat: hunger, disease, poverty, and a loss of life.
I love the way
FEINSTEIN’S office, mostly a group of politician white collar criminals
servicing BLUM-FEINSTEIN’S interest above our own state’s...... keep denying
that FEINSTEIN is the biggest war profiteer in history....
SO HOW THE HELL DID
SHE ACQUIRE 40 MILLION IN MANSIONS? Even that phony tax supported used computer
school scam she and Blum worked up only made them about 10 million in ill
gotten profits extracted from the tax payer’s pockets.
Now FEINSTEIN-BLUM
are the biggest profiteers in AMERICAN HISTORY off BUSH’S WAR. Unfortunately
that’s only a drop in the bucket of money she’s made off her husband’s pimp of
her.
Ever hear of
FEINSTEIN speaking out on the WAR? But if you want a laugh, google Feinstein’s
comment on awful WAR PROFITEERS! Reminds me of her comment “Illegals are good
citizens!”
The only thing you
will ever hear FEINSTEIN speaking out on is something that will put money in
her filthy pockets.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN IS
THE MOST CORRUPT SELF-SERVING POLITICIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
SHE SHOULD SPEND THE
REST OF HER LIFE IN PRISON.................................
Google:
FEINSTEIN, BLUM AND
CHINA
FEINSTEIN, BLUM WAR
PROFITEER
FEINSTEIN, BLUM AND 17 MILLION DOLLAR MANSION, only one of a
dozen.
FEINSTEIN AND WELLS
FARGO and the BANKRUPTCY BILL
FEINSTEIN, BLUM AND MEDICARE billing profits
FEINSTEIN – BLUM AND
TARP CORRUPTION
FEINSTEIN – BLUM AND
BOARD OF REGENTS
....................................................
WITH VIEWS TO DIE
FOR.... Feinstein’s war profits mansion
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her
mega-millionaire husband, Richard Blum, are pulling up stakes on their quiet
Presidio Terrace home and moving uptown to a Pacific Heights mansion -- with
views to die for.
The $16.5 million mansion --
which sits at the foot of Vallejo Street, between the Presidio and some of the
city's most hoity-toity addresses -- offers a sweeping view of the bay.
It's right off what Herb Caen
christened the "Gold Rush" -- the final two blocks of upper, upper
Broadway, where the residents include Ann and Gordon Getty, Oracle founder
Larry Ellison, and Mimi Haas -- as in the Levi Strauss Haases.
"And everyone is
extending a warm welcome,'' said former Mayor Willie Brown, who hangs with the
hill crowd. "They figure it will mean better homeland security."
The very hush-hush house sale,
we're told, was finalized within the past three weeks. Workers are busy fixing
up the place and installing new recessed lighting before Feinstein and Blum
move in.
For the past two decades, San
Francisco's top power couple has lived in the shadow of Temple Emanu-El -- on
the very private and swank Presidio Terrace, just off Arguello Boulevard --
where they've hosted everyone from reporters to presidents.
The house, which has yet to go
on the market, comes complete with a flagpole.
So why the big move?
"We've never had a view,
and this was an opportunity to get one,'' Feinstein said Friday. "We also
have an expanding family -- five grandchildren and soon to be a sixth -- and we
needed some more space.''
Their new, 9,500-square-foot
mansion -- once owned by the former wife of "Star Wars" creator
George Lucas and featured as the 1995 San Francisco Decorator's Showcase --
offers much more than just picture-postcard vistas.
The four-story abode, which
has sat empty for the past couple of years, has five bedrooms (including two
master suites), three fireplaces, an elevator, a wine cellar and an in-law
apartment.
"It's a very gorgeous,
gorgeous property -- a very special home,'' says Sotheby's agent Pattie Lawton,
who represented the sellers, a couple she declined to name.
The sellers never actually
lived in the house, which they bought in 2004. The price then wasn't disclosed,
but real estate industry sources said they believe it was close to its
appraised value of $12 million.
One big curiosity is the
garden just off the front entrance that is actually part of the Lyon Street
steps, a favorite of joggers, walkers and camera clickers.
At night, the 332 steps are
also a popular hangout for teenagers to sneak a drink or two.
This is hardly Blum and
Feinstein's only real estate undertaking in recent years. Five years ago, they
traded in their five-story townhouse in Washington, D.C., for a nearly $6
million, French Renaissance-style estate in the Spring Valley neighborhood,
just down the street from American University.
A couple of years earlier,
they built themselves a $7.4 million ski retreat on 30 acres in Aspen, Colo.,
just down the road from the 15-bedroom pleasure palace of a Saudi prince.
No word yet on if -- or where
-- the flagpole will go up on the new digs.
More home views: Speaking of
home, Sen. Feinstein was undoubtedly feeling heat from the West Coast before
announcing Friday that she would support a floor filibuster against Supreme
Court nominee Samuel Alito after all.
Just a couple of weeks back,
Feinstein said she probably wouldn't support a move to block the nomination,
unless Alito turned out to be guilty of some "moral turpitude” LIKE BEING
A BUSH WAR WHORE OR SELLING OUT HIS COUNTRY TO RED CHINA, OR DENYING MEDICARE
BENEFITS TO SICK AND DISABLED FOR PROFITS a la BLUM. That kind of crap that has
made Feinstein filthy rich!
But by Friday, Feinstein
apparently had heard the message loud and clear from constituents urging her to
support the filibuster.
"It was very strong in
terms of Californians contacting us in support of the filibuster,'' Feinstein
spokesman Howard Gantman told us.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, AND HER LAP BITCH BARBARA BOXER, HAVE
VOTED FOR ANY AND ALL WARS FOR MUSLIM DICTATORS, WHILE THEY DEMAND THAT OUR OWN
BORDERS BE LEFT OPEN AND UNDEFENDED AGAINST NARCOMEX.
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT ABOUT MY WAR PROFITEERING WHORE WIFE’S
MANSIONS! HERE’S A BRIBE TO DO SO!
“Since the 2000 election cycle, Blum has contributed over
$75,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee, and thousands more to
individual Democrats, including John Kerry, Robert Byrd, Joe Lieberman, Ted
Kennedy, and Barbara Boxer.”
March 1,
2006 The Democrats' Daddy Warbucks
Feinstein
family war profits, part II
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum,
could well be called the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks. He's scored bundles from
war contracts. He has recently purchased a $16.5 million crib in San Francisco
and along with his wife has handed hundreds of thousands of dollars over to
fellow Democrats. Since the 2000 election cycle, Blum has contributed
over $75,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee, and thousands more to
individual Democrats, including John Kerry, Robert Byrd, Joe Lieberman, Ted
Kennedy, and Barbara Boxer. Richard Blum's history as an entrepreneur began at
the ripe age of 23 when he began to work for the San Francisco brokerage firm
Sutro & Company. Blum quickly climbed the ranks and became a partner by the
age of 30. According the San Francisco Chronicle, "Blum proved that he had
an eye for fixer-upper properties when he led a partnership that acquired the
struggling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for $8 million – then
sold it to Mattel Inc. four years later for $40 million." In 1975, Blum
went out on his own and formed a brokerage agency. Today, Blum's lofty firm,
Blum Capital, holds positions in more than 20 companies, including real estate
giants, credit bureaus, and yes, even military contractors. Blum sees himself
as an altruistic capitalist, claims one of his ex-employees: "He likes to
go after companies that are down and out, and bring their stock back to life.
He thinks he's doing good." Blum shares a large stake in Perini, a civil
construction company that is happily employed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But not
all of Blum's war profits come from Perini. In 1975, his venture capital firm
went after fledging construction and design company URS when the business was
about to be bought out by another corporation. Since then, Blum has increased
his stock in URS, capitalizing on its recent military contracts. Unlike Blum's
dabbling with Barnum & Bailey, his current profits aren't so safe for child
consumption. Here are the basics to date: Blum currently holds over 111,000
shares of stock in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense
contractors in the United States. Blum is an acting director of URS, which
bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the
U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002. Carlyle's trusty advisers, past
and present, include former President George H.W. Bush, James Baker, and ex-SEC
Commissioner Arthur Levitt, among other prominent neoconservatives and Washington
power brokers. URS and Blum have since banked on the Iraq war, scoring a phat
$600 million contract through EG&G. As a result, URS has seen its stock
price more than triple since the war began in March 2003. Blum has cashed in
over $2 million on this venture alone and another $100 million for his
investment firm. "As part of EG&G's sale price," reports the San
Francisco Chronicle, "Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in URS –
second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled by Blum Capital." The
Carlyle Group has long been accused of exploiting its political connections to
turn a profit. And if Carlyle can come under the microscope for its government
ties and war profiteering, as it did in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, than
surely Blum's URS ought to be subject to the same scrutiny. Owen Blicksilver,
Blum's spokesman, claims his boss and Sen. Feinstein have never talked shop at
home in their gated mansion: "Mr. Blum and Sen. Feinstein have never had
any discussions about outsourcing, government contracts, or URS." If this
were a Republican senator's spouse scoring bundles off the spoils of war and
passing it along to fellow Republicans, the liberals would be up in arms. But
since Dianne Feinstein is a leading Democrat, mum's the word. Partisanship
trumps ethics. The Byrne Report Hawk Tale By Peter Byrne ON JAN. 18, California
senator Dianne Feinstein introduced Dr. Condoleezza Rice at a Senate nomination
hearing for Secretary of State in terms so saccharine that molasses seemed to
ooze out of her mouth. She was a precocious child, Feinstein purred. She has
skill, judgment and poise. She loves football. Bush loves her. "The
problems we face abroad are complex and sizable. If Dr. Rice's past performance
is any indication, though, we can rest easy." That very same day,
Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, took advantage of a spike in the price of
his URS Corporation stock. He sold a third of his holdings in the defense
contractor for $57 million, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. With Rice confirmed, the business of death and occupation
looks rosy as hell for Feinstein, who--let's get real--benefits tremendously
from sharing community property with Blum. URS' largest customer is the U.S.
Army, which accounted for 17 percent ($587 million) of its cash revenue in
2004. In 2001, URS enjoyed a mere $169 million in defense contracts. Now, its
war contracts total more than $2 billion. According to its annual report, the
San FranciscoÐbased URS anticipates that profits will rocket up in 2005,
because "operations in the Middle East are expected to generate increased
work related to the development of weapons systems, the training of military
pilots and the maintenance, upgrade and repair of military vehicles." Provided,
of course, that our hawkish leadership remains as poised and lovable as the new
Secretary of State. Feinstein, who sits on the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee, is an advocate of first-strike warfare, even though it flouts
international law and the standards of common decency. Interestingly, her
Financial Disclosure Report for 2003 was more than three times the size of her
2002 disclosure (Feinstein's 2003 disclosure numbers 133 pages, compared to
Sen. Barbara Boxer's six-page report). The Feinstein-Blum portfolio is crammed
with multimillion dollar investments in the military-industrial-financial
complex and corporations that heavily exploit Third World peoples. The senator
has a lot to lose should the neoconservative war machine falter. Hubby holds a
controlling interest in another engineering firm, Perini Corporation of
Framingham, Mass. Perini ranks No. 6 by dollar amount in war-related government
contracts in the Middle East. According to its annual report, "Perini
proudly supports the U.S. government with global rapid response capabilities
for defense, reconstruction and security." Perini builds military
facilities and roads in Afghanistan, electrical infrastructure in Iraq and U.S.
embassies around the world. After the Senate, Feinstein included, approved
Bush's war plans in 2002, Perini's defense contract awards soared from
negligible to $2.52 billion. But, as with many of the sole-source, open-ended
contracts awarded to politically connected firms, there are problems with
accountability. Last summer, Department of Defense auditors determined that
Perini could not adequately justify its costs in Iraq as fair and reasonable.
That's government-speak for: They're gouging the #!$% out of us. Perini is
heavily engaged in military and municipal public works projects inside the
United States; at least two are also under investigation for contract fraud.
For example, the city of San Francisco has sued general contractor
Perini--which was in a joint venture with the Tutor-Saliba construction
firm--for $100 million in cost overruns at a San Francisco International
Airport project. The lawsuit alleges that the joint venture engaged in "a
sophisticated pattern of fraud," including inflating costs, fabricating
delays and setting up minority front companies to exploit affirmative-action
preferences. The attorney general of Massachusetts is looking into alleged
false claims made by a Perini joint venture in the "Big Dig" urban
highway construction boondoggle in Boston. Ron Tutor, owner of Tutor-Saliba and
CEO of Perini, bought into the latter company, along with Blum, as it teetered
on the edge of solvency in the mid- 1990s due to a bad real estate investment.
It rebounded, thanks to the firm's sudden ability to obtain lucrative U.S.
military and government contracts, which, of course, had nothing to do with the
fact that Blum's powerful wife has her hands on the military's purse strings.
Remarkably, Perini grossed $1.37 billion in 2003, up 27 percent from the
previous year, before the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Perini
attributes its rocketing profits to "increased volume of work in Iraq and
Afghanistan." As a risk factor, the firm notes that continued demand for
its military services depends upon "the political situation in Iraq,"
which, logically, means that it desires the bloody war and useless occupation
to continue indefinitely--a wish that hawktails with the foreign policy
positions of Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Feinstein. I almost forgot: Perini Corp.
is the nation's most active builder of Indian-fronted casinos. That explains a
few things about Sen. Feinstein and the politics of gambling, soon to be
revealed in greater detail in this space.
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