Sunday, July 20, 2014

DEALS for DICTATORS: WAR MONGER SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN STALKS THE HALLS of the U.S. SENATE SNIFFING OUT DEALS



SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN’S LEGACY OF STAGGERING CORRUPTION AND SELF-SERVING OFF THE DEALS SHE PUSHES IN THE SENATE WITH LAP BITCH AND BLUM CAMPAIGN BRIBE RECIPIENT SEN. BARBARA BOXER
 
(DATED!) LA Times Article Friday March 28, 1997 Feinstein, Husband Hold Strong China Connections
 
FEINSTEINT HAVE MOVED ON TO BIGGER POTATOES  - BUSH’S WAR AND WAR PROFITEERING!
 
Asia: Senator, Blum insist a solid 'firewall' separates her foreign policy role, his growing business interests there.
 
S U C H   B U L L S H I T!
 
WASHINGTON 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 the 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.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.
 
MAO GIVES FEINSTEIN A BONER!
 On their trip to China in January of last year, Blum accompanied Feinstein to dinner with Jiang in the exclusive leaders' enclave, Zhongnanhai."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.
 
FEINSTEIN HAS ALWAYS VOTED FOR ANY AND EVERYTHING THAT BENEFITED HER PIMP HUSBAND’S RED CHINESE PAYMASTERS!
 
 'However, experts on China question whether someone in Blum's distinct 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 Naval War College and an associate of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard. "That's how business works—personal contacts, friends and friends of friends. "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. There is no evidence that Feinstein received such 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 Blum's businesses come in contact, either directly or indirectly, with such entities. There is no indication of impropriety in any of these relationships or that Feinstein was even aware of any overlap between her husband's Pacific Rim investments and Chinese government-related firms. But the links, even tenuous ones, can trigger questions in the current highly charged political atmosphere.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. "Feinstein said, "I had absolutely no knowledge" of any of this. 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 Establishing Shanghai, San Francisco 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. In 1992, the value of Blum's stake in Shanghai Pacific Partners was between $250,001 and $500,000, according to Feinstein's financial statements. By last year's filing, Blum's interest had grown to between $500,001 and $1 million. Blum said that less than 2% of the approximately $1.5 billion his firm manages is committed to China. He said that he has put between $1 million and $2 million of his own money into China firms—the same amount as before Feinstein was elected to the Senate. Blum's biggest investment, an estimated 5300-million stake in Northwest Airlines, is poised to gain from China's emergence as an economic power. Northwest operates the only nonstop service from the United States to any city in China. Blum earned in excess of $1 million from his Northwest holdings in 1995, according to Feinstein's financial report. The potential for conflict between Feinstein's and Blum's parallel China interests increased after Feinstein was elected to the Senate in 1992 and Blum formed Newbridge in 1994 with more than $100 million provided by various investors who had to put up a minimum of $1 million to participate. Blum is a general partner along with Texas financier David Bonderman, according to reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.In a boost, Blum's partnership secured a $10-million investment from International Finance, the World Bank entity. The deal was approved without the support of the United States, which holds one seat on the IFC's 24-member governing board, because of objections to China's human rights record. The U.S. abstention on Blum's proposal was reported to three congressional committees in April 199S—including the Senate Foreign Relations panel on which Feinstein serves. Kwok, the Newbridge managing partner in Hong Kong, said in an interview that investors thought Feinstein's high profile in China might help Blum's business there. "But it's not the case," Kwok said. "We thought the Chinese would be very polite and respect who he is, but Chinese are very pragmatic these days. They just care about the deal. "In June 1996, Newbridge acquired a 24% effective stake in Beilong Iron & Steel Group for $23 million. Beilong is a state-owned enterprise near Shenyang in Liaoning Province that makes pig iron often used in automobile manufacture. The deal was initiated by Englong Group from Hong Kong, a troubled investment and property company run by a former CITIC official and ex-vice minister of petroleum, said Kwok. Together, Englong and Newbridge hold a 60% stake in Englong. In late 1996, Newbridge invested $14 million izXuzhou W Food and Beverage Ltd., the leading producer of soybean milk in China and maker of the popular brand "Wei Wei." Newbridge bought a 24% stake from Guangdong Enterprises, run by another old CITIC executive, Kwok said. The third venture, made final-in January, is a 50% stake in Guangshengyuan, a leading maker of milk candy and honey products. Their most popular product is "White Rabbit" milk candy. Blum's Travels With Feinstein Blum 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.
 
THE SQUALID POLITICS OF DIANNE FEINSTEIN – THE BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER IN AMERICAN HISTORY
 
"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
 
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.
 
But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D‑Calif.), who sponsored the House bill, said he thinks "there's some serious self‑interest involved" in the Senate's refusal to go along. Keeping a spouse on the payroll, Schiff said, "just struck me as an inherent conflict of interest. Most people are shocked that it's not a crime, and it should be outlawed." He is still seeking a senator to take up the cause in that chamber.
Some Senate family members do work for bargain prices, at least by Washington standards. Towles, who lives in Kentucky, has kept her father's campaign books since the 1990s, said Bunning spokesman Mike Reynard. He described her as "a one‑person office." Towles's Citizens for Bunning salary rose from $19,589.10 in 2001, according to CREW, to $23,180.60 in 2006. She received an additional $4,999 through the separate Political Hall of Fame PAC, the group found.
Enzi spokesman Coy Knobel said Danielle Enzi works as a contract fundraiser for the Wyoming senator and has other political and nonprofit clients. "I think it's essential to point out the work Danielle does for Senator Enzi is paid for by donors to his campaign," as opposed to public funds, Knobel said. "If the donors don't agree with something, then they don't have to give."

The campaign political director for Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R‑Idaho), whose wife, Susan, was paid $78,514.50 over six years, said Susan Crapo "has always been the top campaign hand." Jake Ball described her duties as "organizing and carrying out big events," along with keeping Crapo's schedule and driving him to events.
"She's able to make decisions and act on things that other campaign workers would not feel as bold at doing," Ball said. "Any dollars she's paid are dollars she has earned."
Other names on the CREW list include Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D‑Del.), whose sister, Valerie Biden Owens, has managed all of his Senate campaigns, dating back to 1972. She was paid $51,286.27 in 2002, according to CREW. Her daughter Catherine Owens, also known as Casey, was paid $3,618.51 for her job as a field organizer.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D‑Mass.) has paid nephews Joseph and Matthew Kennedy, who co‑chaired his 2006 reelection campaign, a total of $50,073.87 from his Kennedy for Senate 2012 campaign fund.
Sen. Richard Burr (R‑N.C.) reached to a farther branch of his family tree, employing Mary T. Fauth as the treasurer of his leadership political action committee, the Next Century Fund. Fauth is the wife of Burr's wife's brother, according to a spokesman for the senator, and earned $32,013 over six years, the report found.
 
 “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, Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer.”
 
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."
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.


True on Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/blum.asp
 
RALPH NADER CHARACTERIZES FEINSTEIN AS A “CLOSET REPUBLICAN” BUT WASN’T OBAMA BUSH’S THIRD AND FOURTH TERMS AS WELL?

 
LIKE THE CLINTONS, THE BUSH CRIME FAMILY, and the OBAMANATION, FEINSTEIN LOVES THE SMELL OF MONEY OFF ELECTED OFFICE.

YOU DON’T GET ANY MORE CORRUPT THAN THIS OLD WHORE! 


 
(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 LOOTING AMERICA FROM TOP TO BOTTOM!

"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."


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