A COMMENT ABOUT THE WHITE COLLAR CRIME DUAL OF SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND RICHARD C. BLUM, MAJOR OBAMA DONORS:
This system is best characterized as a plutocratic kleptocracy, completely lacking in authentic democracy, operated by and for corporate racketeers, in short, a dictatorship of big capital, the top 1% of wealth holders, which makes up a ruling class."
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, WHOM RALPH NADER
HAS APTLY CHARACTERIZED AS A "CLOSET
REPUBLICAN" (LIKE OBAMA), HAS TURNED CALIFORNIA INTO A MEXICAN
LOOTED WELFARE STATE.
FEINSTEIN HAS
REFERRED TO AMERICANS OBJECTING TO HER LA RAZA SUPREMACY, OPEN BORDERS AND NO
E-VERIFY AS "STUPID".
2007 – CA NOW PUTS
OUT $22 BILLION PER YEAR FOR ILLEGALS, AND HALF THE MURDERS IN CA ARE BY
MEXICAN GANGS. COUNTIES PAYOUT EVEN MORE WITH MEX-OCCUPIED LOS ANGELES COUNTY
PAY OUT $600 MILLION IN WELFARE TO ILLEGALS, PRIMARILY MEXICAN ANCHOR BABY
BREEDERS (A NEW GENERATION OF "CHEAP" LABOR HAMBURGER TURNERS).
Another liberal, Sen. Diane Feinstein
of California, said the American people are too stupid to understand the
opening the nation's borders to anyone who wants to come in is good for them.
Feinstein said amnesty opponents "don't understand the bill."
Feinstein urged her colleagues to vote for cloture because "if we miss
this opportunity, there is not likely to be another opportunity in the next few
years to fix this." Tony Phyrillas
BUT THEN FEINSTEIN HAS LONG HIRED
ILLEGALS AT HER S.F. HOTEL, ONLY A FEW MILES FROM HER $16 MILLION DOLLAR WAR
PROFITEER MANSION.
HER LA RAZA SISTER
PELOSI HAS LONG HIRED ILLEGALS AT HER NAPA WINERY AND HER LA RAZA SISTER BOXER
WAS REELECTED ON A PLATFORM OF LA RAZA SUPREMACY, OPEN BORDERS, NO
E-VERIFY = NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!
ANY TIME THERE IS
EVEN A SEMBLANCE OF CLEANING UP THE ETHICS OF THE U.S. SEWER SENATE,
FEINSTEIN AND BOXER ARE RIGHT THERE TO VOTE IT DOWN! OBVIOUSLY ANY ETHICS
INVESTIGATIONS WOULD LEAD RIGHT TO FEINSTEIN AND PUT HER IN PRISON, ALONG WITH
HER WHITE COLLAR PIMP BLUM. NO OTHER WESTERN DEMOCRACY TOLERATES THE BRAZEN,
ALBEIT INSTITUTIONALIZED CORRUPTION THAT WE SEE YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR,
DEAL AFTER DEAL AFTER DEAL BY FEINSTEIN AND HER PIMP HUSBAND, RICHARD C. BLUM.
FEINSTEIN WAS BOXER'S
REELECTION CHAIRMAN. FEINSTEIN'S HUSBAND, RICHARD C. BLUM HAS ALWAYS PUMPED BIG
BRIBES INTO BOXER'S ORGANIZED CRIME SO SHE VOTES FOR ANYTHING THAT WILL BENEFIT
FEINSTEIN AND BLUM. BOXER HAS NEVER IN HER CAREER GOT A BILL MADE INTO LAW. IN
FACT, DURING HER LAST TERM SHE WAS OFF ON A TWENTY-TWO CITY BOOK SIGNING TOUR
FOR HER BULLSHIT NOVEL ON D.C. (SEE AMAZON).
WHILE BOXER STARTED
HER POLITICAL CAREER WITH NOT A POT TO PISS IN, SHE NOW HAS MILLIONS AND
MILLIONS... ALL BRIBES SHE'S COLLECTED SERVING THE SPECIAL INTERESTS AND
LAUNDERED BY HER SON, OAKLAND LAWYER DOUGLAS BOXER AS "CONSULTANT
FEES".
WHEN THERE WAS AN
EFFORT TO STOP THIS BRAZEN THIRD WORLD-TYPE CORRUPTION, FEINSTEIN STATED THAT
SHE SAW NO CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. SHE AND BOXER VOTED AGAINST ENDING
"CONSULTANT FEES" BRIBES. FEINSTEIN'S LA RAZA SISTER PELOSI HAS
LAUNDERED SOME BIG BUCKS FOR HER HUSBAND, A "CONSULTANT" AS WELL.
"I see no evidence of anything improper in this
body," said Senate Rules and Administration Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D‑Calif.)
during the floor debate.
ONE CANNOT SEPARATE
CALIFORNIA'S MELTDOWN FROM THE STAGGERING CORRUPTION OF FEINSTEIN, BOXER and
PELOSI!
YOU WILL NOT FIND
EVEN ONE EXAMPLE OF THESE THREE OPENING THEIR OTHERWISE BIG MOUTHS ABOUT THE
LOOTING OF CA BY FEINSTEIN'S PAYMASTERS BANK of AMERICA and WELLS FARGO, THE
FORECLOSURE CRISIS WHICH HIT CA THE HARDEST, CAUSED PRIMARILY BY THESE BANKS.
IN FACT, FEINSTEIN'S PIMP HUSBAND RICHARD BLUM IS NOW PROFITEERING ON THE
WHOLESALE SALES OF FORECLOSED PROPERTIES CAUSED BY FEINSTEIN'S BANK PAYMASTERS.
NOR WILL THEIR BIG MOUTHS OPEN UP ABOUT THE STAGGERING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS,
AFTER ALL, ILLEGALS IN CA HAVE NO PROBLEM FINDING A JOB SO LONG AS THEY HAVE
FOUND A STOLEN SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER FIRST!
FOR POLITICIANS AND
WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS IT'S ALWAYS A GAME OF BUCK$ AND INCEST AND THERE IS NO
WHORE BIGGER THAN FEINSTEIN.
FEINSTEIN'S PIMP
HUSBAND, RICHARD C. BLUM IS A MAJOR DONOR TO OBAMA. YOU SAW THE CRIME DUAL AT
OBAMA'S FIRST INAUGURATION WHERE FEINSTEIN GAVE THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS WHILE
PIMP BLUM SAT BEHIND OBAMA HOOTIN' AND HOLLERIN’ ABOUT ALL THE DEALS HE COULD
ALREADY SMELL THAT FEINSTEIN WOULD PUSH IN THE SENATE. FEINSTEIN HAS VOTED FOR
ANY AND ALL WARS AND OBAMA KNOWS HOW TO SQUANDER BILLIONS PROTECTING THE
BORDERS OF CORRUPT MUSLIM DICTATORS EVEN HAS HE SABOTAGED AMERICAN HOMELAND
SECURITY TO BUILD HIS LA RAZA DEM PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
RICHARD C. BLUM HAS
HANDED OUT BRIBES TO NUMEROUS DEMS SO THEY KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT
FEINSTEIN'S STAGGERING CORRUPTION. THESE HAVE INCLUDED NOT ONLY OBAMA AND
BOXER, BUT OF COURSE HILARY CLINTON, KERRY, AND THE OTHER WAR MONGER, JOE
LIEBERMAN.
FEINSTEIN'S AMERICA! "The American Southwest
seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a
single shot." ---Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico
Immigrating America Into a Colony of
Mexico
We’ve got an even more ominous enemy
within our borders that promotes “Reconquista of Aztlan” or the reconquest of
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into the country of Mexico. With 9.2
million Mexicans now living in America, their goal of colonizing our country
back into Mexico moves forward. A more sobering reality stems from the evidence
that it’s Mexican-American citizens in the forefront of this disintegration of
our country.
CRIMINAL BANKSTERS BANK of
AMERICA and WELLS FARGO are two of criminal Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s paymasters.
She voted for each and every banksters bailout that came along and did nothing
about these banks crime tidal wave the destroyed billions of dollars of
property value held by the people of California where she lives in a $16
million dollar war profiteers mansion in San Francisco.
Feinstein is a major donor to the
OBAMANATION and supports his amnesty hoax, open borders, no E-VERIFY and any policy
that aids the looting of this nation by Obama’s BIG BANKSTER DONORS!
FEINSTEIN'S PAYMASTERS, BANKSTERS BANK
of AMERICA and WELLS FARGO
BANK of AMERICA – A MAJOR CAUSE OF
MILLIONS OF FORECLOSURES, A MAJOR DONOR to the MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA
and a MAJOR MONEY LAUNDERER for the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS. Seen that
American flag flying over their executive offices???
BUILDING THE OBAMA
DICTATORSHIP: BANKSTERS, LA RAZA FASCIST and the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS… business
is good for them under the Obamanation!
“Not one
banker was prosecuted for illegal involvement in the drugs trade.”
BANK of AMERICA – A
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO MEXICAN FASCSIM AND DRUG CARTELS
SENS.
FEINSTEIN and BOXER and NANCY PELOSI VOW TO BUILD AMERICAN’S BIGGEST
GRINGO-PAID “FREE” LA RAZA ANCHOR BABY FACTORY.
OBAMANOMICS:
BANK PROFITS and CRIMES SOAR UNDER OBAMA… so do foreclosures!
FORECLOSED ON
AMERICA: HOW BARACK OBAMA and HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTERS LOOTED A NATION AND THEN
PROFITEERED OFF THEIR CRIMES
Sen. Feinstein's Husband Cashes In on
Crisis Ethical? Ethnics never enter into a deal Feinstein is pushing in
Congress! FEINSTEIN IS A MAJOR OBAMA DONOR. SHE MAKES SIGNIFICATN
"CONTRIBUTIONS" TO DEMS ALL OVER THE NATION SO THEY KEEP THEIR MOUTH
SHUT ABOUT HER LOOTING OFF ELECTED OFFICE.
On the day the new Congress
convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25
billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her
husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms,
the Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
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.
unfortunately this is only one of the
many “DEALS” Feinstein and her husband, Richard C. Blum have looted off of.
TWO OF FEINSTEIN’S BIGGEST DONORS ARE
CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WELLS FARGO and BANK of AMERICA. SHE FRONTS FOR THESE BANKS
IN THE SENATE LIKE SHE DOES RED CHINA! BOTH BANKS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST
FOR THE FORECLOSURE DEBACLE THEY ARE NOW PROFITEERING FROM.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/04/feinsteins-looting-are-housing.html
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
CA PUTS OUT $22 BILLION FOR SOCIAL
SERVICES TO ILLEGALS ON THE STATE LEVEL ALONE. Not one American voted to be
looted by MEXICO. Not one American will vote for OBAMA’S AMNESTY HOAX.
Here’s what Sens. Dianne Feinstein and
Boxer have done to the looted Mexican colony of CA… Obama’s vision of America
is 49 more Mexifornias.
THE AMNESTY HOAX AND MEXICO’ LOOTING: HOW THE DEMS BUILT THE
LA RAZA PARTY BASE OF ILLEGALS, THE MEX WELFARE STATE in CA and DESTROYED THE
GOP WITH 40 MILLION NEW “UNREGISTERED DEMS” HANDED AMNESTY FOR MORE LOOTING.
SENS. FEINSTEIN and
BOXER, TWO OF THE MOST CORRUPT AND SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
HAVE THREE (3) TIMES ATTEMPTED A “SPECIAL AMNESTY” FOR 1.5 MILLION ILLEGAL FARM
WORKERS DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONE-THIRD OF ALL FARM WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE.
THEY DO SO ON BEHALF OF THEIR GREEDY
BIG AG BIZ DONORS!
Jose Herria emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 -- all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" -- an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
the sad reality is, barack Obama is
merely DIANNE FEINSTEIN in drag!
FEINSTEIN
BOUGHT ANOTHER TERM AS AMERICA'S BIGGEST LOOTING HO WITH $9 MILLION IN SPEICAIL
INTERESTS MONEY FROM BIG LAWYERS, BIG BANKS, BIG PG&E MONOPOLIES AND ANYONE
THAT NEEDS A $2 BUCK HO IN THE SENATE!
MEANWHILE... CA IS IN MELTDOWN FROM THE CORRUPTION OF FEINSTEIN, BOXER and PELOSI!
*
MEANWHILE... CA IS IN MELTDOWN FROM THE CORRUPTION OF FEINSTEIN, BOXER and PELOSI!
*
CONGRESS: Wall Street’s Great HoHouse… or Sen. Dianne Feinstein
and husband Richard C. Blum’s HoHouse?
OBAMA'S LA RAZA PARTNERS for AMNESTY:
SENS. BARBARA BOXER and DIANNE FEINSTEIN - THEIR BRIBES, LOOTING and STAGGERING
CORRUPTION
FIENSTEIN
AMERICA'S BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER
"Why hasn't
she expressed outrage about some of the potential conflicts with people in or
close to the Bush administration?" Lewis said. "Could it be that she
(Feinstein) herself has some entanglements?"
BARACK OBAMA HAS SQUANDERED BILLIONS
PROTECTING THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE HE SABOTAGES HOMELAND SECURITY
AND AMERICAN BORDERS TO BUILD THE LA RAZA DEMS’ PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
ONE OF HIS MAJOR DONORS IS WAR
PROFITEER DIANNE FEINSTEIN!
FEINSTEIN FARM LABOR - EXPLOITING "CHEAP" LABOR
MEXICANS FOR HER BIG AG BIZ DONORS! STUPID AMERICANS GET THE TAX BILLS FOR THE
REAL COST OF ALL THIS "CHEAP" LABOR!
SENS. FEINSTEIN and BOXER, TWO OF THE
MOST CORRUPT AND SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS IN AMERICAN HISTORY HAVE THREE (3)
TIMES ATTEMPTED A “SPECIAL AMNESTY” FOR 1.5 MILLION ILLEGAL FARM WORKERS
DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONE-THIRD OF ALL FARM WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE.
THEY DO SO ON BEHALF OF THEIR GREEDY
BIG AG
BIZ DONORS!
BIZ DONORS!
CASE STUDY OF HOW MEXICO EXPORTS
POVERTY TO AMERICAN AND HOW WELL THE MEXICANS LOOT US.
Jose Herria emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 -- all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" -- an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
Lou
Dobbs Tonight Friday, May 16, 2008
(FEINSTEIN
IS THE BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER IN AMERICAN HISTORY. SHE HAS VOTED FOR ANY AND ALL
WARS SHE COULD)
Some in
Congress are once again trying to push piecemeal immigration reform through the
back door. Sen. Diane Feinstein of California attached a farm worker program to
the multibillion dollar Iraq war funding bill yesterday which would grant
temporary amnesty to 1.3 million farm workers and their families over the next
five years.
CALIFORNIA – MEXICO’S $22 BILLION DOLLAR WELFARE STATE
CALIFORNIA IS A LOOTED COLONY OF MEXICO. THE LA
RAZA-CONTROLLED STATE LEGISALTURE PASSES LAW AFTER LAW THAT BENEFITS ILLEGALS
AND ENCOURAGES MORE OF THEM TO HOP OUR BORDERS.
Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect
Welfare… ALL GET AMERICAN JOBS???
April 05, 2011
Surprise,
surprise; Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal
immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born
anchor babies.
SENS. FEINSTEIN and
BOXER and NANCY PELOSI VOW TO BUILD AMERICAN’S BIGGEST GRINGO-PAID “FREE” LA
RAZA ANCHOR BABY FACTORY.
ILLEGALS IN MEXICO
WHILE MEXICO RANTS, INVADES,
LOOTS AND BANKRUPTS AMERICA, IT’S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORY FOR ILLEGALS DOWN
THERE!
“Those seeking to obtain Mexican
citizenship must show a birth certificate, provide a bank statement proving
economic independence, pass an exam and prove they can provide their own health
care.”
IN MEXIFORNIA IT IS A DIFFERENT STORY.
MEX CONSULATES OPERATE TO HELP LA RAZA LOOT THE STUPID GRINGOS!
OBAMA and MEXICO LOOT PRIVATE
ENTERPRISE HOSPITALS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR “FREE” HEALTHCARE FOR LA RAZA
MEXICANS… What’s left for Americans (Legals)???
FEINSTEIN,
AN OBAMA DONOR, HAS ALWAYS CLAIMED SHE NEVER DISCUSSES THE COUNTLESS DEALS SHE
HUSTLES FOR HER PIMP HUSBAND AND THEN VOTES ON UNTIL THE DROP A BIG WAD OF LOOT
IN HER POCKET.
THIS
OLD WHORE IS ONE OF THE MOST GREEDY AND DISHONEST IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
ONE
REALLY GETS THE IDEA OF HOW STAGGERING CORRUPT THESE POLITICIANS ARE THAT LOOT
LIKE FEINSTEIN, OR PULL IN THE BRIBES FEINSTEIN’S HUSBAND DOLES OUT TO DEMS SO
THEY KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT FEINSTEIN AND HER PIM HUSBAND!
Semator passes oppportunity to her
husand. (Feinstein ! ! ! !)
Coincidence?
Oh yeah!
The US has entered into a contract with a real estate firm to sell 56 buildings that currently house U.S. Post Offices. The government has decided it no longer needs these buildings, many of which are located on prime land in towns and cities across the country.
The sale of these properties will fetch billions of dollars and a handsome 6% commission to the company handling the sales. That company belongs to a man named Richard Blum. Who is Richard Blum you ask? Why the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, that's who.
Senator Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, stand to make a fortune. His firm, C.R. I., is the sole real estate company offering these properties for sale. Of course, C.R.I. will be making a 6% commission on the sale of each and every one of these postal properties.
All of these properties that are being sold are all fully paid for. They were purchased with U.S. taxpayers dollars, and they are allowed free and clear by the U.S.P.S. The only cost to keep them is the cost to actually keep the doors open and the heat and lights on. The United States Postal Service doesn't even have to pay property taxes on these subject properties. Would you sell your house just because you couldn't afford to pay the electric bill?
Well, the Post Office is.
How does a powerful U.S. Senator from San Francisco manage to get away with such a sweet deal?
A powerful United States Senator's husband is standing by, all ready to make millions from a U.S. taxpayer funded enterprise.
The US has entered into a contract with a real estate firm to sell 56 buildings that currently house U.S. Post Offices. The government has decided it no longer needs these buildings, many of which are located on prime land in towns and cities across the country.
The sale of these properties will fetch billions of dollars and a handsome 6% commission to the company handling the sales. That company belongs to a man named Richard Blum. Who is Richard Blum you ask? Why the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein, that's who.
Senator Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, stand to make a fortune. His firm, C.R. I., is the sole real estate company offering these properties for sale. Of course, C.R.I. will be making a 6% commission on the sale of each and every one of these postal properties.
All of these properties that are being sold are all fully paid for. They were purchased with U.S. taxpayers dollars, and they are allowed free and clear by the U.S.P.S. The only cost to keep them is the cost to actually keep the doors open and the heat and lights on. The United States Postal Service doesn't even have to pay property taxes on these subject properties. Would you sell your house just because you couldn't afford to pay the electric bill?
Well, the Post Office is.
How does a powerful U.S. Senator from San Francisco manage to get away with such a sweet deal?
A powerful United States Senator's husband is standing by, all ready to make millions from a U.S. taxpayer funded enterprise.
BUSH WAR PROFITEER SEN. DIANNE FIENSTEIN SUPPORTS OBAMA'S ENDLESS
WARS FOR MUSLIM DICTATORS!
BARACK OBAMA IS NOTHING BUT BUSH’S THIRD TERM ON
STEROIDS!
WAR, WAR, WAR, ENDLESS WAR TO PROTECT THE
BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE OUR OWN BORDERS ARE LEFT WIDE OPEN TO THE
NARCOMEX DRUG CARTELS AND MEXICAN INVADERS!
CA ALONE PUTS OUT $22 BILLION PER YEAR IN
WELFARE TO ILLEGALS!
WHAT WOULD $51 BILLION HAVE DONE IF SPEND ON
EDUCATION GRANTS TO LEGALS IN OUR BORDERS???????
WHO BENEFITS FROM THE OBAMA WAR MACHINE?
TRY OBAMA DONOR, SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN! ONE OF
THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS IN HISTORY! AS BUSH’S WAR PROFITEER SHE RAKED IN
MILLIONS AND WENT OUT AND BOUGHT HERSELF ANOTHER MANSION, HER $16 MILLION S.F.
PLACE ONLY MILES FROM HER S.F. HOTEL WHERE SHE HIRES ILLEGALS BECAUSE THEY WORK
“CHEAP” COMPARED TO A LEGAL!
WE CAN’T FIX OUR NATION UNTIL WE RID OURSELVES
OF THESE CORRUPT POLITICIANS!
Auditors say billions
likely wasted in Iraq work
by ROBERT BURNS |
Associated Press – 6 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — After
years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars
provided to rebuild a broken Iraq, the U.S. government can say with certainty that
too much was wasted. But it can't say how much.
In what it called its final
audit report, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction Funds on Friday spelled out a range of accounting weaknesses that put
"billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of waste and
misappropriation" in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in U.S.
history.
"The precise amount
lost to fraud and waste can never be known," the report said.
The auditors found huge
problems accounting for the huge sums, but one small example of failure stood
out: A contractor got away with charging $80 for a pipe fitting that its
competitor was selling for $1.41. Why? The company's billing documents were
reviewed sloppily by U.S. contracting officers or were not reviewed at all.
With dry understatement,
the inspector general said that while he couldn't pinpoint the amount wasted,
it "could be substantial."
Asked why the exact amount
squandered can never be determined, the inspector general's office referred The
Associated Press to a report it did in February 2009 titled "Hard
Lessons," in which it said the auditors — much like the reconstruction managers themselves —
faced personnel shortages and other hazards.
"Given the
vicissitudes of the reconstruction effort — which was dogged from the start by
persistent violence, shifting goals, constantly changing contracting practices
and undermined by a lack of unity of effort — a complete accounting of all
reconstruction expenditures is impossible to achieve," the report
concluded.
In that same report, the
inspector general, Stuart Bowen, recalled what then-Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld asked when they met shortly after Bowen started in January 2004:
"Why did you take this job? It's an impossible task."
By law, Bowen's office
reports to both the secretary of defense and the secretary of state. It goes
out of business in 2013.
Bowen's office has spent
more than $200 million tracking the reconstruction funds, and in addition to
producing numerous reports, his office has investigated criminal fraud that has
resulted in 87 indictments, 71 convictions and $176 million in fines and other
penalties. These include civilians and military members accused of kickbacks,
bribery, bid-rigging, fraud, embezzlement and outright theft of government
property and funds.
Much, however, apparently
got overlooked. Example: A $35 million Pentagon project was started in December
2006 to establish the Baghdad airport as an international economic gateway, and
the inspector general found that by the end of 2010 about half the money was
"at risk of being wasted" unless someone else completed the work.
Of the $51 billion that
Congress approved for Iraq reconstruction, about $20 billion was for rebuilding
Iraqi security forces and about $20 billion was for rebuilding the country's
basic infrastructure. The programs were run mainly by the Defense Department,
the State
Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
A key weakness found by
Bowen's inspectors was inadequate reviewing of contractors' invoices.
In some cases invoices were
checked months after they had been paid because there were too few government
contracting officers. Bowen found a case in which the State Department had only
one contracting officer in Iraq to validate more than $2.5 billion in spending
on a DynCorp contract for Iraqi police training.
"As a result, invoices
were not properly reviewed, and the $2.5 billion in U.S. funds were vulnerable
to fraud and waste," the report said. "We found this lack of control
to be especially disturbing since earlier reviews of the DynCorp contract had
found similar weaknesses."
In that case, the State
Department eventually reconciled all of the old invoices and as of July 2009
had recovered more than $60 million.
The report touched on a
problem that cropped up in virtually every major aspect of the U.S. war effort
in Iraq, namely, the consequences of fighting an insurgency that proved more
resilient than the Pentagon had foreseen. That not only made reconstruction
more difficult, dangerous and costly, but also left the U.S. military
unprepared for the grind of multiple troop deployments, the tactics of an
adaptable insurgency and the complexity of battlefield wounds. It also left the
U.S. government short of the expertise it needed to monitor contractors.
Although the audit was
labeled as final, a spokesman for Bowen's office, Christopher M. Griffith, said
several more will be done to provide additional details on what the U.S. got
for its reconstruction dollars and what was wasted.
BARACK OBAMA IS NOTHING BUT BUSH’S THIRD TERM ON
STEROIDS!
WAR, WAR, WAR, ENDLESS WAR TO PROTECT THE
BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE OUR OWN BORDERS ARE LEFT WIDE OPEN TO THE
NARCOMEX DRUG CARTELS AND MEXICAN INVADERS!
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most
Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007
4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the
Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction,
Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which
were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by
Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards
military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate's
subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein,
therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process. Senator
Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor
of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and
then cancel them without financial penalty. Judicial Watch’s
investigation into this matter is ongoing.
“WHY HASN’T SHE EXPRESSED OUTRAGE ABOUT SOME OF THE
POTENTIAL CONFLICTS WITH PEOPLE IN OR CLOSE TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION?...
COULD IT BE THAT SHE HERSELF HAS SOME ENTANGLEMENTS?”
"Why hasn't she expressed outrage about
some of the potential conflicts with people in or close to the Bush
administration?" Lewis said. "Could it be that she herself has some
entanglements?"
Blum's firms win multimillion-dollar defense contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross Sunday, April 27, 2003 When it comes to scoring mega-military-related contracts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's multimillionaire husband, Richard Blum, is right in the thick of things.
First up: a contract announced last week
between the Army and URS Corp., the San Francisco planning and engineering
company that specializes in defense work -- and that happens to be partly owned
by Blum's investment firm. The contract -- which could grow to $600 million --
is to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism
methods. That's on top of a $3.1 billion Army contract that URS snared back in
February for weapons systems and homeland defense. Next up: Perini Corp., which
qualified earlier this month for as much as $100 million of defense work in
Iraq and elsewhere. The Massachusetts-based company is already busy building
barracks and other facilities for the new Afghan army -- a separate contract
worth $28 million. Blum's investment firm controls about 20 percent of Perini's
shares, with the majority held by a group of investors led by company chairman
Ron Tutor. Some of Perini's stock is also held by Tutor's West Coast
construction company, Tutor-Saliba -- the firm that built the Los Angeles
subway system, rebuilt the Oakland Coliseum and put BART into San Francisco
International Airport. Tutor-Saliba also oversaw construction of SFO's new
international terminal - - work that is under investigation by the city
attorney's office for alleged overbilling. But it's Blum's ties to URS -- in
which he controls about a quarter of the stock -- that are certain to raise the
most questions. In July, URS acquired defense contractor EG&G (the
technical services branch that won the $600 million contract) from the Carlyle
Group investment firm. That's the outfit that boasts ex-President George H.W.
Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-British Prime Minister John
Major as advisers. In exchange, Carlyle received cash and a chunk of URS stock
worth a total of $500 million. What's more, a top Carlyle manager now sits
alongside Blum on URS' board of directors. Celia Wexler, research director for
Common Cause in Washington, D.C., says all the defense and homeland security
deals involving Blum-connected companies raise concern of political hanky-panky
-- especially with talk of the United States spending $100 billion to rebuild
Iraq. "You don't want this process to be tainted by the possibility that
there is any favoritism involved -- whether it's to the husband of a powerful
Democratic senator or someone close to the Bush administration," Wexler
said. "In the end, you want a process that is competitive, accountable and
open. It's the only way there will be confidence the process is not larded by cronyism
or inside deals." Both Blum and Feinstein -- along with representatives of
both URS and Perini -- said all the deals have been on the up and up.
"Sen. Feinstein has no say or involvement whatsoever in how (Defense
Department) contracts are awarded," said Blum spokesman Owen Blicksilver.
He added that URS -- with 27,000 employees worldwide -- is "a big public
company that bids on dozens of public contracts . . . and as a matter of
policy, the board of directors -- of which Mr. Blum is a member -- is never
told what the company is bidding on." As for Blum's Perini involvement,
Blicksilver said that Blum doesn't serve on the board and that the company
represents less than 1 percent of his overall investments. "So his benefit
from any contract to Perini is (minuscule)," Blicksilver said. Feinstein
spokesman Howard Gantman similarly dismissed any ethics concerns, saying none
of the contracts is voted on by the Senate. "We have checked with the
Ethics Committee to make sure there is no conflict of interest, and have been
told there are no conflicts," Gantman said. By the way, we questioned the
office of Rep. Henry Waxman, the Los Angeles Democrat and House Government
Reform Committee member whose protest recently halted the awarding of a defense
contract to Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton. "That's
a fundamentally different situation," said Waxman's chief of staff, Phil
Schiliro. His boss objected to a Halliburton subsidiary being awarded a no-bid
contract to repair Iraqi oil fields because the firm had just paid $2 million
to settle a claim that it had overcharged the government on an earlier
contract, Schiliro said. "The government didn't allow any other bidders to
compete for the contract, and gave Kellogg Brown & Root (the Halliburton subsidiary)
the kind of contract it had just abused," Schiliro said. Charles Lewis,
executive of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity watchdog group in
Washington, says that "regardless of whether there is a direct conflict of
interest, it's useful to know that the spouse of a sitting senator is getting
richer because of what's going on in the world."
“WHY HASN’T SHE EXPRESSED OUTRAGE ABOUT SOME OF THE POTENTIAL
CONFLICTS WITH PEOPLE IN OR CLOSE TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION?... COULD IT BE
THAT SHE HERSELF HAS SOME ENTANGLEMENTS?” "Why hasn't she expressed
outrage about some of the potential conflicts with people in or close to the
Bush administration?" Lewis said. "Could it be that she herself has
some entanglements?"
March 1, 2006 The Democrats' Daddy Warbucks Richard C. Blum
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.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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 Francisco based 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.
"I smell the sweet stench of war profits!" Sen. Dianne Feinstein
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.
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.
THE HYPOCRISY OF FEINSTEIN....................AND YOU WONDERED WHY FEINSTEIN WAS INVITED INTO THE BUSH’S FAMILY’S CARLYLE GROUP!
THE CLOSET REPUBLICAN
Codifying Riches Above Honor
J.G. Schwam - November 2, 2003
The GOP will stop at nothing to
prevent its crony capitalist partners from getting as rich as possible. As the
allegations of over payments and price gouging by US government contractors
operating in Iraq surfaces, there sits an entire party in the capital that took
direct action to codify their desire to look the other instead of decrying
potential frauds against the American taxpayer.
Today the office of Senator Patrick
Leahy (D-VT) distributed a press release
that points out that, despite the repeated efforts of its member Democrats the
Senate Appropriations Committee refused to allow the insertion of a provision
putting the teeth of Federal prosecution against those would seek to profiteer
from their Iraqi War and reconstruction contracts into the bill authorizing
Bush’s $87 billon Iraq war appropriations request.
Leahy said; "We are about to
spend a lot of money in Iraq, quickly and with few real controls on how it is
spent," said Feinstein.
FEINSTEIN QUOTE: (PRIOR TO BUSH INVITING HER TO PROFITEER OFF HIS WARS TO PROTECT SAUDIS INTERESTS)
“THE LEAST WE CAN DO IS PREVENT
PRIVATE COMPANIES FROM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, ITS PEOPLE,
AND THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE RISKING THEIR LIVES EVERY DAY TO MAKE IRAQ, AND
THE WORLD A BETTER, SAFER PLACE TO LIVE.”
GUESS THIS DIDN’T APPLY TO HER
HUSBAND, WHITE COLLAR CORPORATE CRIMINAL, RICHARD C. BLUM.
The
amendment cosponsored by Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) would
create new laws making it a federal crime to engage in war profiteering or
overcharge taxpayers for any good or service with the specific intent to excessively
profit from the war or reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The bill would also
prohibit perpetrating fraud or making false statements in any form involving a
contract or the provisioning of goods or services in Iraq.
True
on Snopes:
Sen. Feinstein's Husband Cashes In on
Crisis (ethical? You decide)....WHAT? ANOTHER ONE??? THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH MONEY FOR THIS OLD WHORE AND HER PIMP!
Sen. Feinstein's Husband Cashes In on
Crisis
By Washington Times
Published April 21, 2009
FoxNews.com
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms, the Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
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.
By Washington Times
Published April 21, 2009
FoxNews.com
On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms, the Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
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.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/04/feinsteins-looting-are-housing.html
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
(Some ethics analysts question whether Mrs. Feinstein ran afoul of the latter provision, creating the appearance that she was rewarding the agency that had just hired her husband's firm.)
Richard C. Blum and Dianne Feinstein: The Power Couple of California
"They remain at the pinnacle of power today, he as a billionaire financier, speculator, real estate executive and deal maker; she as the senior Senator (California's highest federal official), from the largest and most powerful state in the United States. They exemplify power as it is now wielded in the higher circles of the class system of the U.S. today, and illustrate well the dismal results of this system. This system is best characterized as a plutocratic kleptocracy, completely lacking in authentic democracy, operated by and for corporate racketeers, in short, a dictatorship of big capital, the top 1% of wealth holders, which makes up a ruling class."
Democrats want to tax the rich... That's Rich!!
http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Richard_C._Blum_and_Dianne_Feinstein:_The_Power_Couple_of_California
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/sen-feinsteins-husband-cashes-crisis/#ixzz28BwHuQMm
(Some ethics analysts question whether Mrs. Feinstein ran afoul of the latter provision, creating the appearance that she was rewarding the agency that had just hired her husband's firm.)
Richard C. Blum and Dianne Feinstein: The Power Couple of California
"They remain at the pinnacle of power today, he as a billionaire financier, speculator, real estate executive and deal maker; she as the senior Senator (California's highest federal official), from the largest and most powerful state in the United States. They exemplify power as it is now wielded in the higher circles of the class system of the U.S. today, and illustrate well the dismal results of this system. This system is best characterized as a plutocratic kleptocracy, completely lacking in authentic democracy, operated by and for corporate racketeers, in short, a dictatorship of big capital, the top 1% of wealth holders, which makes up a ruling class."
Democrats want to tax the rich... That's Rich!!
http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Richard_C._Blum_and_Dianne_Feinstein:_The_Power_Couple_of_California
"I
see no evidence of anything improper in this body," said Senate Rules and
Administration Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D‑Calif.) during the floor debate.
Senators Diverting
Campaign Funds to Kin
Loophole
in Ethics Rules Is One That the Senate Did Not Close Last Year
By
Shailagh Murray
Washington
Post Staff Writer
Sunday,
February 24, 2008; A04
Under long‑standing congressional ethics rules,
corporations, unions and other large organizations cannot directly pay senators
stipends. But their contributions to senators' election campaigns can be paid
without limit to the children, spouses, in‑laws and other relatives of the
lawmakers, in a practice that has aroused controversy but is fully legal.
Since
2000, at least 20 members of the Senate dipped into their campaign
contributions and wrote more than half a million dollars in checks to their own
relatives, typically as payment for fundraising and other campaign work,
according to a new report by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington (CREW).
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D‑Calif.), for example,
paid her son Douglas $320,409.17 in campaign donations through his company
Douglas Boxer and Associates from 2001 to 2006, CREW found. Douglas Boxer is a
lawyer and a 10‑year veteran of her political team, a Boxer spokesman said.
Sen.
Mike Enzi (R‑Wyo.) paid his daughter‑in‑law Danielle Enzi $306,718.18 from his
campaign accounts over the same period, according to the report. She was a
fundraiser before she married into the Enzi family, an Enzi spokesman said.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R‑Ky.) paid his daughter Amy Towles $138,933.37 over six
years, CREW found. Bunning's office said it was for campaign accounting.
"It
is an area that's ripe for abuse, for someone who wants to turn campaign funds
into personal use," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the nonprofit group
Public Citizen. Although most lawmakers do not abuse the practice, he said,
"those campaign funds always come from special interests, and those
special interests are always looking for something in return."
Information
about the practice is not easy to find, because senators are required to
disclose such payments only in the minutiae of their periodic public statements
of campaign finance expenditure and do not flag the recipients as relatives.
CREW staff compiled the data over nine months by looking at microfiche and
electronic records for the 2002, 2004 and 2006 election cycles, and by tracing
names.
None
of these arrangements appears to violate federal election law (THESE FUCKERS
MAKE THE LAWS!), noted Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director. Although
lawmakers are barred from hiring relatives as staffers in their legislative
offices, family members may perform campaign work, as long as the pay is
reasonable and the individuals are qualified.
Yet
some lawmakers are seeking to restrict payments to some family members as part
of a broader effort to eliminate opportunities for conflicts and improprieties ‑‑
an effort urged by watchdog groups such as CREW after ethics scandals over the
past two years, including several cases involving lawmakers' family members on
political payrolls who may or may not have performed much work.
The
senators' family payments were relatively small, compared with the $5.1 million
that 72 House members paid from campaign funds to relatives or to relatives'
companies or employers during the same period, according to CREW. "We
found much worse stuff in the House," Sloan said.
Yet
the Senate has become a roadblock to changing the rules on family employment.
The House, in contrast, approved legislation last July to ban payments from
campaign or leadership funds to candidates' spouses and to require the
disclosure of campaign payments to other immediate family members. The bill was
sent to the Senate, where it has stalled indefinitely.
The
House acted after disclosures that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff organized
campaign contributions or other payments that wound up in the hands of several
lawmakers' relatives. Rep. John T. Doolittle (R‑Calif.), who announced his
retirement from the House last month, is under federal investigation along with
his wife, Julie, in part related to employment for her provided by Abramoff and
other lobbyists.
BOXER
VOTES AGAINST STOPPING BRIBES SIPHONED THROUGH RELATIVES!
Senators
took up the issue before passing the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act
on Jan. 18, 2007. The law tightened rules on accepting meals, private plane
rides and other perks from lobbyists. But an amendment to ban the practice of
paying relatives for their campaign work was rejected 54 to 41, with Boxer
voting "present."
Even
senators with no relatives listed in the CREW report criticized the measure,
offered by Sen. David Vitter (R‑La.), as overly harsh. "I
see no evidence of anything improper in this body," said Senate Rules and
Administration Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D‑Calif.) during the floor debate.
LA RAZA DEMS LIKE
OBAMA, FEINSTEIN, BOXER, PELOSI and REID, A WHO’S-WHO OF CORRUPTION, HAVE
WORKED TIRELESSLY ADVANCING THE INTERESTS OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA
RAZA. TO THESE LA RAZA DEMS, KEEPING OUR BORDERS WIDE OPEN KEEPS WAGES
DEPRESSED AND PUTS MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS.
YOU CAN NOT SEPARATE
THE CORRUPTION OF THESE POLITICIANS, THE LA RAZA OCCUPATION, AND THE LOOTING OF
THE NATION BY THEIR BANKSTER DONORS!
MEXICAN DRUG DEALER
OPERATES IN OUR BORDERS
THE MEXICAN DRUG
CARTELS OPERATE IN 2,500 AMERICAN CITIES AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY ENDORSE OBAMA’S
OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS AGENDA.
“Oropeza, 48, was
arrested May 31, 2007, by police in Saraland, Ala., who stopped him on a
traffic violation. Checking his record, they learned of the investigation in
Texas.
They searched the van
and discovered 185 pounds of cocaine hidden under a false floor. That allowed
federal agents to freeze Oropeza's bank accounts and search his marble-floored
home in Brownsville, Robinette says.”
The government, like the banks, had a
vested interest in shutting down the investigation, as the results of any
genuine inquiry would have exposed negligence and collusion on the part of the
regulators as well as gross violations of law by the banks that would have made
it more difficult for the Obama administration to avoid criminal prosecutions.
The
Times also reported that such “independent investigators” played a key
role in the HSBC money laundering scandal, helping cover up the extent of the
British-based bank’s money laundering operation for Mexican drug cartels.
Firms make billions as middlemen in
government cover-up of Wall Street crimes
By Andre Damon
7 February 2013
7 February 2013
In the network of corrupt and
incestuous relations between government financial regulatory agencies and the
banks they nominally police, a growing role is played by private, for-profit
“consulting” firms that serve as middlemen in the government cover-up of
corporate crime.
The New York Times in a
front-page article last week called attention to this lesser-known mechanism
used by the government to protect Wall Street from being held to account for
the fraudulent and illegal practices in which it engages on a daily basis.
The Times wrote: "Federal
authorities are scrutinizing private consultants hired to clean up financial
misdeeds like money laundering and foreclosure abuses, taking aim at an
industry that is paid billions of dollars by the same banks it is expected to
police."
The firms in question operate in
essentially the same way as the credit rating agencies that facilitated the
subprime meltdown. Just as Standard& Poor’s Rating Services and Moody’s
Investors Service are paid by the banks whose securities they rate, the
consulting firms tasked with investigating banks are chosen and paid by the very
institutions they are investigating. This arrangement is based on a howling
conflict of interest. Consulting firms that want to keep old clients and add
new ones, and increase their profits, are obviously under pressure to cover up
the misdeeds of their banking paymasters.
Moreover, the same revolving door by
which individuals move seamlessly between Wall Street and the regulatory
agencies exists between the consulting firms and the banks and regulatory
bodies.
Last month's $8.5 billion foreclosure
fraud settlement with major US lenders lifted the lid on bank regulators'
increasing use of these “independent investigators.” Tasked with finding the
extent of fraud and illegality in the processing of home foreclosures, these
companies helped the banks cover up their fraudulent activities and ensure that
the extent of their wrongdoing was not brought to light.
The settlement between ten major
mortgage lenders and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a
branch of the Treasury Department, related to widespread fraud committed by the
banks in their rush to foreclose on as many homes as possible in 2009 and 2010.
To expedite the foreclosure process, the banks had employees or contractors
sign off on thousands of mortgage documents every month, swearing that they had
intimate knowledge of their contents when, in reality, they had not even read
them.
This resulted in the improper expulsion
of an unknown number of families—probably in the hundreds of thousands—from
their homes.
In April of 2011, the OCC, the Office
of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System ordered individual reviews of foreclosures carried out between 2009 and
2010 by fourteen mortgage lenders, including Bank of America, Citibank,
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
The investigation was intended to
individually review all cases in which homeowners claimed that they were
improperly foreclosed on, so that each victimized household could receive a
cash payout. The findings of such an investigation would have undoubtedly shown
that foreclosure fraud was far more prevalent than had been previously known,
and laid the basis for further lawsuits against the lenders.
Instead of reviewing the foreclosures
themselves, regulators had the banks hire so-called independent investigators,
who, while receiving $2 billion in fees from the lenders, dragged their feet in
reviewing the foreclosure cases.
Last month, government regulators
closed down the review on the grounds that it was too time-consuming and too
expensive for the banks and came up with a sweetheart settlement that cost the
banks a relative pittance.
Instead of payouts to individuals who
were harmed by the banks' wrongdoing, the lenders agreed to split a $3.3
billion cash payout among 4.2 million foreclosed homeowners, without
"determination of harm." As a result, homeowners will receive a check
of under $1,000 even if they were illegally thrown out of their homes.
The government, like the banks, had a
vested interest in shutting down the investigation, as the results of any
genuine inquiry would have exposed negligence and collusion on the part of the
regulators as well as gross violations of law by the banks that would have made
it more difficult for the Obama administration to avoid criminal prosecutions.
THE CHINA FEINSTEIN DEALS
NO WONDER FEINSTEIN IS A GENEROUS DONOR
TO OBAMA!
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
"There
is no doubt in my mind that, if Dianne Feinstein had a pattern of taking
positions on U.S.China policy that Chinese officials disliked, Mr. Blum would
have a great deal more difficulty doing business in China and probably would
find it impossible to do." Senator Is Warned of China Overtures Already,
federal investigators have detected that the Chinese government might attempt
to seek favor with Feinstein”
NEW YORK TIMES
March 29, 2009
Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103
Countries
By JOHN MARKOFF
TORONTO — A vast electronic spying
operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of
government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama,
Canadian researchers have concluded.
In a report to be issued this weekend,
the researchers said that the system was being
controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China,
but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was
involved.
The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the
University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the
exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers
for signs of malicious software, or malware.
Their sleuthing opened a window into a
broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295
computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign
ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan
exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.
Reports Wikipedia:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Critics have frequently accused Blum and Sen.
Feinstein of political corruption and conflicts of interest arising from his
business interests and his contributions to his wife's Senate campaigns. In
1992, Feinstein was fined $190,000 for failing to disclose that Blum had
guaranteed nearly $3 million in loans to fund her 1990 bid for California
governor. In 1997, a Los Angeles Times article revealed that while Feinstein
was campaigning in the Senate for a lifting of trade sanctions against the
People's Republic of China, Blum was managing millions of dollars of
investments in Chinese businesses through his firm Newbridge Capital.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LA Times Article March 28, 1997
Feinstein, Husband Hold Strong China Connections
Asia: Senator, Blum insist a solid 'firewall' separates her foreign policy
role, his growing business interests there.
SEN.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN – RED CHINA’S WHORE IN THE U.S. SENATE!
On Capitol Hill, Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.) has emerged as one of the staunchest proponents of
closer U.S. relations with China, fighting for permanent most-favored-nation
trading status for Beijing. At the same time, far from the spotlight,
Feinstein's husband. Richard C. Blum, has expanded his private business
interests in China to the point that his firm is now a prominent investor
inside the communist nation. For years, Feinstein and Blum have insisted
that they maintained a solid "firewall" between her role as an
influential foreign policy player and his career as a private in VP But such
closely coinciding interests are highly unusual for major figures in public
life in Washington. And now, as controversy heats up over improper foreign
influence in t.he U.S. political process. the effectiveness of the firewall
between those interests could be called into question.
On Thursday, after he was interviewed by The
Times about his China business, Blum announced that he will donate future
profits from his personal investments there to his nonprofit foundation to help
Tibetan refugees. "This should remove any perception that I am in anyway,
shape or form benefit from or influence my wife's position on China as a U.S.
senator,'
In 1992, when Feinstein entered the
Senate, Blum's interests in China amounted to one project worth less than
$500,000, according to her financial disclosure reports. But since then, his
financial activities in the country have increased. In the last year, a Blum
investment firm paid $23 million for a stake in a Chinese government owned
steel enterprise and acquired sizable interests in the leading producers of
soybean milk and candy in China. Blum's firm, Newbridge Capital Ltd., received
an important boost from a $10-million investment by the International Finance
Corp., an arm of the World Bank. Experts said that IFC backing typically
confers legitimacy and can help attract other investors. "It seems to be
going quite well," Rashad Kaldany—who in 1994 managed the IFC's capital
markets investments in Asia—said of the project. He added: "There also was
some comfort in that Mr. Blum had some contacts with the Chinese."
Feinstein's Growing China Policy Role Meanwhile, Feinstein's role on U.S.
policy toward China has expanded. In January 1995, she became a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving her a prominent platform for her
efforts to support China's trade privileges. Blum’s position could strictly
insulate his interests when he is so prominently involved in the China market,
is visibly associated with the leading friend of China in the Senate and has
access to inner circles that other entrepreneurs do not. In China,
"everything is personal," said Arthur Waldron, professor of strategy
at the Since 1995, Feinstein has made three visits to confer with senior
government officials in Beijing. Blum has accompanied her each time at his own
expense and has attended many of her meetings with President Jiang Zemin and
other top Chinese leaders—an unusual degree of access for a private
businessman. On their trip to China in January of last year, Blum accompanied
Feinstein to dinner with Jiang in the exclusive leaders' enclave, Zhongnanhai.
THIS WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO PUKE. FEINSTEIN ROLLING AROUND IN MAO TSE-TUNGS OWN WHORE'S BED!
THIS WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO PUKE. FEINSTEIN ROLLING AROUND IN MAO TSE-TUNGS OWN WHORE'S BED!
"We
had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tung's old residence in the room where he
died. We were told that we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and the
swimming pool. It was a very historic moment to see some of these things,"
Feinstein told a Times reporter later. Feinstein said this week that her Senate
position in no way has affected her husband's business. She said that Blum has
never sought to exploit her influence or access to increase his opportunities
in China. "My husband has never discussed business with Jiang Zemin. never
would, never has," she said. Said Blum: "Somebody will have to explain just how I have been benefited
because my wife goes over to China.' THIS IS HILARIOUS. WHO
WAS THIS SHIT BLUM BEFORE HE AND HIS WIFE STARTED PULLING IN MILLIONS OF
FEINSTEIN’S CONNECTION IN CONGRESS? Ross H. Munro, co-author of the recent China
policy book "The Coming Conflict with China," said: "There is no doubt in
my mind that, if Dianne Feinstein had a pattern of taking positions on
U.S.China policy that Chinese officials disliked, Mr. Blum would have a great
deal more difficulty doing business in China and probably would find it
impossible to do." Senator Is Warned of China Overtures Already, federal
investigators have detected that the!!!!!!!!!!!! Chinese government might
attempt to seek favor with Feinstein. Last year, she was one of six members of
Congress who received warnings from the FBI that China might try to improperly
influence them through illegal campaign contributions. The inquiries into
allegedly improper Chinese political efforts in, the United States have
increased the sensitivity of Blum's associations there. Investigators are
looking at the activities of dual business-government entities, including China
International Trade and Investment Corp. (CITIC), a $20-billion, state-owned
conglomerate that is the most influential financial enterprise in China.
Newbridge Capital, the Blum business venture, has two investments with partners
originally from CITIC, said Peter Kwok managing director of the Hong Kong fund.
Kwok also serves as a consultant to a unit of China Ocean Shipping Co. That
state-owned company won rights to build a $200-million cargo terminal at the
closed Long Beach Naval Station. Blum called any purported link between China
Ocean Shipping and his firm "ridiculous." BUT PROFITABLE! Feinstein
said, "I had absolutely no knowledge" of any of this. SUCH A CHEAP
ACTRESS. SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW SHE’S ENDED UP ACQUIRING 40 MILLION IN MANSIONS
ON A SENATOR’S SALARY WHILE IN ELECTED OFFICE EITHER! In separate telephone
interviews Wednesday, Feinstein and Blum emphasized that they share a deep,
personal interest in China dating back two decades. Blum won permission from
the Chinese in 1981 to lead the first attempt in modern times to climb the east
face of Mt. Everest. He describes himself as a "close personal
friend" of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan religious leader—a
friendship, he notes, that would not win favor with the Beijing government.
FEINSTEIN: Senator, Husband Say 'Firewall' Divides Their China Ties As a
pro-business mayor of San Francisco in the 1980s, Feinstein worked intently to
expand economic ties in the Pacific Rim, especially in China. She set out early
in her tenure to establish sister city relations between San Francisco and
Shanghai. Feinstein and her counterpart in Shanghai at the time, Jiang Zemin,
who is now China's president, agreed in 1986 to designate various corporate
entities to foster trade and other business relations. One was named Shanghai
Pacific Partners- Blum served as a director. PIMPING HIS WIFE AND HER TRUSTED
ELECTED OFFICEBlum traveled with Feinstein to China in August 1995, and January
and November 1996. Jiang Zemin personally invited Feinstein to make the first
visit.
Feinstein's support of China in Congress has
been so outspoken that she occasionally has drawn criticism. In a recent
speech, she called for creation of a commission that would study the evolution
of human rights in both the United States and China. The panel "would
point out the success and failures [of] both Tiananmen Square and Kent
State," she said in a remark denounced by some human rights advocates.
Hundreds of demonstrators were killed in the 1989 assault by the Chinese
military. Four students were killed by Ohio National Guard gunfire in the 1970
antiwar demonstration. IN CHINA.... WHORE TRAITOR FEINSTEIN WOULD HAVE BEEN
TRIED AND EXECUTED
Chinese
Spy 'Slept' In U.S. for 2 Decades Espionage Network Said to Be Growing
By
Joby Warrick and Carrie Johnson
Washington
Post Staff WritersThursday, April 3, 2008; A01
Prosecutors called Chi Mak the
"perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two
decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in
a Los Angeles suburb, buying a
house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded
him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a
hard worker who often took paperwork home at night.
Eventually, Mak's job gave him access
to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly
copied and sent via courier to China
-- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say he had been planning since the
1970s.
Mak was sentenced last week to 24 1/2
years in prison by a federal judge who described the lengthy term as a warning
to China not to "send agents here to steal America's
military secrets." But it may already be too late:
According to U.S. intelligence and Justice
Department officials, the Mak case represents only a small facet
of an intelligence-gathering operation that has long been in place and is
growing in size and sophistication.
The Chinese government, in an
enterprise that one senior official likened to an "intellectual vacuum
cleaner," has deployed a diverse network of professional spies, students,
scientists and others to systematically collect U.S. know-how, the officials
said. Some are trained in modern electronic techniques for snooping on wireless
computer transactions. Others, such as Mak, are technical experts who have been
in place for years and have blended into their communities.
The cases are among at least a dozen
investigations of Chinese espionage that have yielded criminal charges or
guilty pleas in the past year. Since 2000, Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officials have launched more than 540
investigations of illegal technology exports to China.
The FBI
recently heightened its counterintelligence operations against Chinese
activities in the United States after Director
Robert S. Mueller III cited "substantial concern"
about aggressive attempts to use students, scientists and "front
companies" to acquire military secrets.
Recent prosecutions indicate that
Chinese agents have infiltrated sensitive military programs pertaining to
nuclear missiles, submarine propulsion technology, night-vision capabilities
and fighter pilot training -- all of which could help China modernize its
programs while developing countermeasures against advanced weapons systems used
by the United States and its allies.
"The intelligence services of the
People's Republic of China pose a significant threat both to the national
security and to the compromise of U.S. critical national assets," said
William Carter, an FBI spokesman. "The PRC will remain a significant
threat for a long time as they attempt to develop their military capabilities
and to develop their economy in order to compete in today's world
economy."
While military technology appears to be
the top prize, the Chinese effort is also aimed at commercial and industrial
technologies, which often are poorly protected, several officials said.
"Espionage used to be a problem for the FBI, CIA and military, but now it's a problem for
corporations," Brenner said. "It's no longer a cloak-and-dagger
thing. It's about computer architecture and the soundness of electronic
systems."
But U.S. intelligence and defense
officials say China has been able to use technology of U.S. origin in a new
generation of advanced naval destroyers and quiet-running, stealthy submarines.
Chinese
espionage has become one of the most pervasive US counterintelligence problems,
officials say.
Husband's investments
entangle Feinstein
|
LATEST FLAP OVER MEDICARE
PAYMENT DENIALS
|
By David WhitneyMcClatchy
NewspapersSan Jose Mercury News
|
05/19/2007
|
WASHINGTON - California lawmakers are questioning whether an auditing
company in which San Francisco investor Richard Blum, the husband of Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, has a major financial stake is rejecting Medicare claims at
California rehabilitation hospitals in order to reap millions of dollars in
profits at the expense of patient care.
The company, PRG-Schultz
International, has a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, the overseer of the Medicare program, to check payments in
California for mistakes. Its only pay is a bounty of up to 30 percent on the
"overcharges" it identifies.
The California Hospital
Association first raised concerns in November that PRG-Schultz was targeting
rehabilitation hospitals that cared for Medicare patients after knee or hip
replacement surgery. The hospital association said PRG-Schultz has reviewed
thousands of cases dating as far back as 2002 and has rejected nearly all as
medically unnecessary. Melinda
Staveley, president of the 38-bed Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara,
said more than 100 such cases from her non-profit institution had been
rejected. The facility could face having to repay more than $2 million.
Elderly patients
As difficult as that would
be financially for a small hospital with a $12 million annual budget, she
said the bigger concern is future patient care. The frail and elderly surgery
patients with compound medical problems no longer will have access to rehabilitation
hospitals and will have to rely on home or outpatient services.
"This is
devastating," Staveley said of the audits.
Her husband's business
interests in PRG-Schultz have proved awkward for Feinstein, the state's
Democratic senior senator, as the hospital association turns to Congress for
relief.
This is not the first time
Blum's business interests have collided with his wife's job. Blum Capital
Partners is a major investor in Northwest Airlines, which in 1995 won the
first contract by an American air carrier to fly to Beijing. Feinstein had
been friends with a former Chinese political leader since she was mayor of
San Francisco.
More recently, concerns have
been raised in Republican circles about some of Blum's investments benefiting
from defense contracts at a time when the senator was serving on the Senate
military construction appropriations committee.
Feinstein's press aide,
Scott Gerber, said the senator played no role in the legislation creating the
auditing program and did not intervene with program administrators to help
PRG-Schultz get the three-year contract in 2005.
Serious concerns
On Thursday, after questions
from McClatchy Newspapers, Feinstein sent a letter to the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services that called the hospital association's
concerns "potentially serious." She asked program administrators to
investigate, saying the concerns are spreading beyond its determinations on
rehabilitation hospitals to other aspects of Medicare-financed
hospitalizations for the elderly, including short-stay hospital admissions.
Feinstein made no mention of
her husband's interest in PRG-Schultz, which she lists in her annual
financial disclosure reports. According to PRG-Schultz, Blum's investment
companies own 10.5 percent of its outstanding common stock, 53 percent of its
outstanding preferred stock and 28 percent of its notes and securities.
California House members
soon will follow with a joint letter of their own asking for an
investigation.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa
Barbara, is taking the lead among Democrats. Her press aide, Emily Kryder,
said 15 members - more than a quarter of the state's congressional delegation
- have agreed to sign the letter so far.
"The review and
collection practices of PRG-Schultz threaten access to rehabilitation
services in California," the letter said. "We urge you to examine
the actions taken by PRG-Schultz International, Inc."
The auditing program was set
up as a demonstration project initially focusing on the three highest-cost
Medicare states - California, New York and Florida. Separate contractors are
used for each state. PRG-Schultz is the only for-profit contractor among
them, and Medicare administrators believe it has been the most controversial
because it alone has been zeroing in on rehabilitation hospitals.
Highly lucrative
On the brink of financial
collapse when it won the contract two years ago, PRG-Schultz has found the
job to be enormously lucrative. Government figures indicate that it had
rejected $105 million in California Medicare overcharges as of Sept. 30, the
end of the 2006 fiscal year.
Medicare managers said they
could not release figures for how much PRG-Schultz was claiming as
commissions for finding the alleged overcharges, saying the information was
proprietary. But based on bounties of 28 percent that were used in
establishing the program, PRG-Schultz's entitlement could be as much as $29
million.
The California Hospital
Association said in a letter to Medicare administrators in November that
PRG-Schultz should be suspended for improperly applying Medicare rules and
using unqualified personnel.
PRG-Schultz declined to
comment. But officials of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
steadfastly defended PRG-Schultz, saying it's applying rules on medically
necessary admissions that probably have been ignored in California for years.
PRG-Schultz "coming to
town is probably the first real look at these hospitals in many, many
years," said Melanie Combs, senior technical adviser for the federal
program.
"These rules have been
on the books since 1985," Combs said. "Maybe it's possible some
have been overlooking them. Maybe there have been consultants out there
helping hospitals to, quote, maximize reimbursements. And maybe perhaps some
of that has entailed looking the other way." A call to Blum Capital
Partners - of which Blum is board chairman - asking for comment was not
returned.
PRG-Schultz reported a
first-quarter profit this year of $1.5 million, compared to a $10 million
loss for the same period in 2006.
|
WHILE LA RAZA DEM FEINSTEIN HAS VOTED FOR ANYTHING THAT
BENEFITED ILLEGALS, INCLUDING DREAM ACT DISCOUNTS, HER HUSBAND, RICHARD C. BLUM
IS FUCKING OVER THE UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA FOR EVERY DROP OF BLOOD HE CAN
SUCK OFF.
Smart Money
The University of California invests
$53 million in two diploma mills controlled by UC Regents chairman Richard C.
Blum
June 30, 2010 - by Peter Byrne
Photograph by Curtis Cartier
A YEAR
ago, Richard C. Blum, then the chairman of the Regents of the University of
California, spoke at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2009, held at the
Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The corporate confab was hosted by Michael
Milken, the "junk bond king" who went to prison in the aftermath of
the savings and loan fiasco in the 1980s.
Milken,
who is barred from securities trading for life by federal regulators, has since
re-created himself as a proponent of investing in for-profit educational
corporations, an industry that regularly comes under government and media scrutiny
in response to complaints of fraud made by dissatisfied students.
At the
conference, Blum, who is the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a
professional Wall Street speculator, sat on a panel called "The New
University and Its Role in the Economy," alongside the presidents of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Arizona State University. The panel
focused on how universities can best serve the corporate jones for tech-savvy
employees by recruiting smart freshmen with scientific talent. One panel member
urged treating universities as "laboratories of business ideas and
products."
As
someone who oversees investment policy decisions for the University of
California's $63 billion portfolio, and as the largest shareholder in two
for-profit corporate-run universities (in which UC invests), Blum had a unique
perspective to share at the conference. He advised public universities to
attract business-oriented students with clever advertisements as vocational
schools do.
"It's
like anything else," he said. "It's how you market it."
Marketing strategy aside,
Blum has taken on two seemingly disparate roles—one as an advocate for a
nonprofit university, and the other as an owner of two for-profit educational
corporations. However, as a regent, Blum has taken actions that, intentionally
or not, have enhanced the value of his vocational schools. Are his loyalties
conflicted?
For several years, Blum's
firm, Blum Capital Partners, has been the dominant shareholder in two of the
nation's largest for-profit universities, Career Education Corporation and ITT
Educational Services Inc. The San Francisco–based firm's combined holdings in
the two chain schools is currently $923 million. As Blum's ownership stake
enlarged, UC investment managers shadowed him, ultimately investing $53 million
of public money into the two educational corporations.
The Regents'
conflict-of-interest policy requires them to "avoid the potential for and
the appearance of conflicts of interest with respect to the selection of
individual investments," and says "public officials shall not make,
participate in making, or influence a governmental decision in which the
official has a conflict of interest." And the California Political Reform
Act of 1974 provides civil and criminal penalties for officials who ignore
conflicts of interest—as UC makes clear in ethics training presentations
specifically created for university officials.
The Board of Regents,
however, is self-policing and tolerates situations that cause others concern.
John M. Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit education and advocacy
organization based in Santa Monica, says that's wrong.
"It
is hugely inappropriate for the University of California to invest in
for-profit colleges when it should be promoting public education," Simpson
says. "And something stinks when university investments end up in
companies largely controlled by a regent.
"To
the average fellow on the street, this would seem to be a conflict of interest.
It is up to Mr. Blum and the UC treasurer to explain how it could not be a
conflict of interest."
THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION: While UC students were protesting
budget cuts last spring (far right), the firm owned by UC Regent Richard Blum
(right) was enjoying record dividends from its investment in for-profit colleges.
Photograph by Jim Block
Disaster Capitalism
Due to serial tuition
hikes by the UC Regents, their gutting of many classes and educational
programs, and the imposition of a 15 percent reduction of in-state admissions
to the university, the gateway to higher learning in California has seriously
narrowed. As a UC regent, Blum voted in favor of all of these measures—and such
actions have indirectly benefited his corporate colleges. But his schools are
not the only ones profiting from the financial disaster that besets many public
universities.
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.
*
Feinstein says campaign may be
'wiped out' by Durkee
Senator employed treasurer accused
on fraud charges, but her office is unable to access accounts to see how much
might be missing. Rep. Davis calls suspect 'the Bernie Madoff of campaign
treasurers.'
By
Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
10:38
PM PDT, September 12, 2011
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said her
campaign is among those that may have been "wiped out" by a
Burbank-based Democratic campaign treasurer who was arrested on federal fraud
charges earlier this month.
Kinde Durkee is accused of taking thousands of dollars from the campaigns of several elected officials, including Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), Rep. Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego) and Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana). The Los Angeles County Democratic Party reported that more than $200,000 had been taken from its fund.
Durkee, head of Durkee & Associates, was arrested by the FBI on Sept. 2. A federal affidavit said she admitted misappropriating clients' funds for years and filing false federal campaign forms.
Durkee, who has not entered a plea on federal mail fraud charges, was released Friday on $200,000 bond.
Feinstein said Monday that Durkee had struck her campaign in addition to Sanchez's. According to her staff, Feinstein said she "was wiped out, too, but we don't know how much."
Durkee managed Feinstein's campaign finances in 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2006, and during her failed 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
Feinstein and other lawmakers have said Durkee's alleged actions came as a surprise, but investigators had been reviewing her work for years. When the FBI launched its investigation in January, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission were already investigating Durkee. During the last decade,
Kinde Durkee is accused of taking thousands of dollars from the campaigns of several elected officials, including Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), Rep. Susan A. Davis (D-San Diego) and Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana). The Los Angeles County Democratic Party reported that more than $200,000 had been taken from its fund.
Durkee, head of Durkee & Associates, was arrested by the FBI on Sept. 2. A federal affidavit said she admitted misappropriating clients' funds for years and filing false federal campaign forms.
Durkee, who has not entered a plea on federal mail fraud charges, was released Friday on $200,000 bond.
Feinstein said Monday that Durkee had struck her campaign in addition to Sanchez's. According to her staff, Feinstein said she "was wiped out, too, but we don't know how much."
Durkee managed Feinstein's campaign finances in 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2006, and during her failed 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
Feinstein and other lawmakers have said Durkee's alleged actions came as a surprise, but investigators had been reviewing her work for years. When the FBI launched its investigation in January, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission were already investigating Durkee. During the last decade,
she had amassed $185,860 in fines from the Fair Political
Practices Commission in eight separate cases.
MORE ON FEINSTEIN SERVICING HER BIGGEST PAYMASTER, PACIFIC, GAS & ELECTRIC:
OPENSECRETS.org reports that FEINSTEIN’S biggest
corporate paymasters, even bigger than BIG BANKS that FEINSTEIN works so hard
for, is the CA utilities monopoly, PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC. PGE has long
been a criminal corporate rape and pillage crime wave. The pillage PGE performed
would be later used as the paradigm the BIG BANKERS’ utilized in their massive
rape that brought down a global economy.
The paradigm is simple; first buy an easily bought whore like
FEINSTEIN. One that has no compunctions about selling out her state and country
when the money looks good. Then have the whore work to deregulate so the
monopoly can more easily roll the pillage along. FEINSTEIN has been
characterized by Ralph Nader as a “closet republican” already. During the 16
years of the HILLARY, BILLARY, BUSH CORPORATE RAPE, the banks, and utilities
were all DEREGULATED so the nation’s economy could be more easily be
transferred to the CORPORATE CLASS. We know how hard old Bush worked for BIG
BUSH SAUDI OIL, his family having started two (2) wars to protect our 9-11
invaders from SADDAM, as well as Bush’s sell out of our nation, environment,
institutions, and economy to WALL ST. And right there, as always, was
FEINSTEIN, voting for anything that put money in pimp BLUM’S pockets or repaid
her corporate paymasters. FEINSTEIN fell in love with BUSH from day one! The
smell of money was just too enticing not to!
After deregulation of the utilities monopoly PGE, came BUSH’S ENRON
that kicked PGE’s ass across town. Things backfired on the monster utility, but
that’s never a problem in this country when you have a bought whore like
FEINSTEIN. The corporate losses are simply socialized. The people of CA will be
subsidizing PGE’S demand for deregulation, and damages from BUSH ENRON RAPE,
for years to come. But there’s always a few tricks to rape consumers more.
One of my fave PGE rapes was when they went to the elected whores in
Sacramento and demanded $200 million for “tree trimming”. Sacramento put the
money out immediately. Probably no legislator in SAC isn’t paid off by this
monopoly. Then the $200 million “disappeared”. So PGE went back for more, and
the whores in SAC paid out $300 million for “tree trimming”. Last I read was on
this was the $300 million had also “disappeared”. There’s a half-billion of
pillage that disappeared.
The old whore FEINSTEIN has many devices to pay back her corporate
paymasters. In this instance, she sent her senior staffer SUSAN P KENNEDY over
to head up the so-called PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, which in theory is
supposed to protect consumers from CA’s utility/phone monopoly. Of course, the
PUC’s real job is to protect the MONOPOLIES so there is NO REGULATION and rate
increases are rubber stamped “approved” instantly.
HOW FEINSTEIN SENT HER CORRUPT STAFFER SUSAN KENNEDY OVER TO SERVICE HER BIGGEST BRIBSTER PG&E
The day FEINSTEIN staffer KENNEDY started at the PUC, the Los
Angeles Times, in a front-page article, characterized her as a “closet
republican”. Kennedy made it clear whom she worked for when she admitted her
vision of her job (at taxpayers’ expense) was to RUBBER STAMP PGE’s rate
increases. CA pays the highest rates for utilities in the country, and it is
not surprising that WHORE FEINSTEIN will work hard to assure the monopolies
pillage will roll on, and on, and on!
This is the whore that fronted for the so called BANKERS’ BANKRUPTCY
REFORM on behalf of her paymasters WELLS FARGO and BANK of AMERICA , to prevent
victims of these banks’ mortgage devices from obtaining impartial help in the
courts EVEN AFTER WELLS FARGO HAD their CA MORTGAGE LICENSE REVOKED FOR FRAUD
AND CORRUPTION, and then voted over and over again for NO STRINGS BANKERS’
WELFARE . There is NO amount of corporate rape and pillage that would possibly
prevent WHORE FEINSTEIN from taking money from her corporate paymasters, or
working their crimes in Congress. None! Susan P Kenney then went on to work for
the Austrian steroid freak, ARNO who has cut more than a few back room deals
just like FEINSTEIN’S PIMP-HUSBAND, BLUM.
So, you ask…..
Why would this old
whore care about a swath of desert and a few wind power projects at the time
we’re at the mercy of BIG BUSH SAUDI OIL???? It’s because WHORE FEINSTEIN is
doing the bidding of PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC! This monopoly has long be
successful in preventing any competition. It’s no more difficult for PGE than
buying a whore like FEINSTEIN, or running over to SAC and demanding a
half-billion ransom!
From the Los
Angeles Times
Feinstein
wants desert swath off-limits to solar, wind projects HER PAYMASTERS AT
PG&E TOLD HER TO!
In a move that
could pit environmentalists and alternative energy industries against each
other, the senator wants hundreds of thousands of acres in California
designated as a national monument.
By
Richard Simon
March 25, 2009
Reporting from Washington — While President Obama has made development of cleaner energy sources a priority, an effort is underway to close off a large swath of the Southern California desert to solar and wind energy projects.
In a move that could pit usual allies -- environmentalists and the solar and wind industries -- against each other, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is preparing legislation that would permanently put hundreds of thousands of acres of desert land off limits to energy projects. The territory would be designated California's newest national monument.
The move has triggered cries of NIMBY-ism on Capitol Hill.
"If there is such strong support for renewable energy, then why are they moving to block renewable energy production in their own state?" said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Myron Ebell, an energy expert with the pro-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, called Feinstein's effort "just the first example of how hard it is going to be to realize President Obama's dream of a green-energy economy."
Feinstein disputed that she is engaged in a not-in-my-backyard campaign. "I'm a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands," she said. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE HOW MUCH FEINSTEIN WILL LIE FOR A BUCK!
The area of concern to Feinstein is between the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park, off old Route 66 between Ludlow and Needles. The area includes desert tortoise habitat, wildlife corridors, cactus gardens and the Amboy Crater -- an inactive volcanic crater where portions of the 1959 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" were filmed.
"That section of the road is as pristine as it was when travelers came across it in the 1920s and '30s," said James Conkle, chairman of the Route 66 Alliance.
Boundaries for the proposed monument have yet to be drawn up. But David Myers, executive director the Wildlands Conservancy, said it probably would be in excess of 800,000 acres. Feinstein said in a Capitol Hill interview Tuesday that she was sending her staff to the desert -- and would probably visit the area herself next month -- to consider what areas should be made off limits to green-energy projects and where they should be permitted.
March 25, 2009
Reporting from Washington — While President Obama has made development of cleaner energy sources a priority, an effort is underway to close off a large swath of the Southern California desert to solar and wind energy projects.
In a move that could pit usual allies -- environmentalists and the solar and wind industries -- against each other, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is preparing legislation that would permanently put hundreds of thousands of acres of desert land off limits to energy projects. The territory would be designated California's newest national monument.
The move has triggered cries of NIMBY-ism on Capitol Hill.
"If there is such strong support for renewable energy, then why are they moving to block renewable energy production in their own state?" said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Myron Ebell, an energy expert with the pro-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, called Feinstein's effort "just the first example of how hard it is going to be to realize President Obama's dream of a green-energy economy."
Feinstein disputed that she is engaged in a not-in-my-backyard campaign. "I'm a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands," she said. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE HOW MUCH FEINSTEIN WILL LIE FOR A BUCK!
The area of concern to Feinstein is between the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park, off old Route 66 between Ludlow and Needles. The area includes desert tortoise habitat, wildlife corridors, cactus gardens and the Amboy Crater -- an inactive volcanic crater where portions of the 1959 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" were filmed.
"That section of the road is as pristine as it was when travelers came across it in the 1920s and '30s," said James Conkle, chairman of the Route 66 Alliance.
Boundaries for the proposed monument have yet to be drawn up. But David Myers, executive director the Wildlands Conservancy, said it probably would be in excess of 800,000 acres. Feinstein said in a Capitol Hill interview Tuesday that she was sending her staff to the desert -- and would probably visit the area herself next month -- to consider what areas should be made off limits to green-energy projects and where they should be permitted.
Feinstein,
who regards the 1994 California Desert Protection Act as one of her proudest
achievements, noted that the Wildlands Conservancy spent more than $40 million
buying the former railroad land in the desert and turning it over to the
government in one of the largest land purchases in California history, with the
intent of protecting it. "I feel very strongly that the federal government
must honor that commitment," she said.
The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing 130 applications for solar and wind energy development in the California desert, covering more than 1 million acres of public land, according to Feinstein, who recently discussed her concerns with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. At least 19 projects have been suggested in the area where the monument has been proposed, Myers said.
Salazar said in a letter to Feinstein that projects in the desert would be "carefully considered" before any decisions were made and that "every effort will be made to avoid the most environmentally sensitive and valuable areas." But he also noted that developing cleaner energy sources was a priority.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a speech last year at a Yale University climate-change conference: "If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave Desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it."
In November, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order that a third of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020. A major boost in solar and wind power is an essential component of the state's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions under its landmark global warming law. About 12% now comes from renewable sources, excluding large hydropower plants.
His administration, however, has signaled that it will work with Feinstein. A number of companies pursuing solar or energy projects said they hoped to work with Feinstein to fashion legislation that would satisfy her, environmentalists and the industry. THE ONLY THING FEINSTEIN WORKS FOR IS HER BRIBES FROM PG&E… AND OF COURSE HER WAR PROFITEERING, BRIBES FROM RED CHINA FOR BEING THEIR ADVOCATE IN CONGRESS! (OPENSECRETS.ORG)
Feinstein holds a position of influence: She chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that writes the Interior Department's budget.
The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing 130 applications for solar and wind energy development in the California desert, covering more than 1 million acres of public land, according to Feinstein, who recently discussed her concerns with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. At least 19 projects have been suggested in the area where the monument has been proposed, Myers said.
Salazar said in a letter to Feinstein that projects in the desert would be "carefully considered" before any decisions were made and that "every effort will be made to avoid the most environmentally sensitive and valuable areas." But he also noted that developing cleaner energy sources was a priority.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a speech last year at a Yale University climate-change conference: "If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave Desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it."
In November, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order that a third of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020. A major boost in solar and wind power is an essential component of the state's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions under its landmark global warming law. About 12% now comes from renewable sources, excluding large hydropower plants.
His administration, however, has signaled that it will work with Feinstein. A number of companies pursuing solar or energy projects said they hoped to work with Feinstein to fashion legislation that would satisfy her, environmentalists and the industry. THE ONLY THING FEINSTEIN WORKS FOR IS HER BRIBES FROM PG&E… AND OF COURSE HER WAR PROFITEERING, BRIBES FROM RED CHINA FOR BEING THEIR ADVOCATE IN CONGRESS! (OPENSECRETS.ORG)
Feinstein holds a position of influence: She chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee that writes the Interior Department's budget.
Power players warm to Feinstein bill....THE PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC MONOPOLY IS FEINSTEIN'S BIGGEST BRIBESTER!
Plan
to reduce electric utilities' greenhouse gas emissions by 25% gets industry
backing
- Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 18, 2007
- Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 18, 2007
OBAMA-CLINTONomics:
the never end war on the American middle-class. But we still get the tax bills
for the looting of their Wall Street cronies and their bailouts and billions
for Mexico’s welfare state in our borders.
While the wealth of
the rich is growing at a breakneck pace, there is a stratification of growth
within the super wealthy, skewed towards the very top.
In 2014, those with over $100 million in private wealth saw
their wealth increase 11 percent in one year alone. Collectively, these
households owned $10 trillion in 2014, 6 percent of the world’s private wealth.
According to the report, “This top segment is expected to be the fastest
growing, in both the number of households and total wealth.” They are expected
to see 12 percent compound growth on their wealth in the next five years.
In 2014 the
Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the median household
net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to $56,335—a drop of
36 percent. While the rich also saw their wealth drop during the recession,
they are more than making that money back. Between 2009 and 2012, 95 percent of
all the income gains in the US went to the top 1 percent. This is the most
distorted post-recession income gain on record.
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