Quote :

"ON CAPITOL HILL Feinstein quits committee under war-profiteer cloud Report documents military contracts for firms owned by senator's husband March 28, 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has abruptly walked away from her responsibilities with the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee after a report linked her votes to the financial well-being of her husband's companies, which received billions of dollars worth of military construction contracts she approved. As reported in Metroactive, an online report from the Silicon Valley, Feinstein's resignation followed six years of subcommittee work during which time her alleged conflict of interest stemmed from her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of Perini Corp. and URS Corp. "Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases – often without the benefit of competitive bidding – to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch," he wrote. "You would think that, considering all the money Feinstein's family has pocketed by waging global warfare while ignoring the plight of wounded American soldiers, she would show a smidgeon of shame and resign from the entire Senate, not just a subcommittee," Byrne wrote. "Conversely, you'd think she might stick around MILCON to try and fix the medical-care disaster she helped to engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and Bush's panoply of unjust wars." From 1997 through 2005 Blum, with Feinstein's knowledge, was a majority owner in both URS Corp. and Perini Corp., both of which were regularly among the companies awarded major military contracts proposed by the Department of Defense. According to those reports, from 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup work approved by MILCON, while Perini collected $759 million for the same. "Sen. Feinstein has had a serious conflict of interest, a serious insensitivity to ethical considerations," Wendell Rawls, of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, told Metroactive. "The very least she should have done is to recuse herself from having conversations, debates, voting or any other kind of legislative activity that involved either Perini Corp. or URS Corp. or any other business activity where her husband's financial were involved." One example was that in 2005, MILCON approved a Pentagon plan to fund "overhead coverage force protection" for Iraq to reinforce the roofs of U.S. Army barracks. About three months later, Perini announced an award of a $185 million contract to provide "overhead coverage force protection to the Army in Iraq." Byrne noted when Blum divested ownership of URS and Perini in 2005, the conflict of interest was resolved. "But Feinstein's ethical dilemma arose from the fact that, for five years, the interests of Perini and URS and CB Richard Ellis were inextricably entwined with her leadership of MILCON ... ." The investigation examined thousands of pages of documents, including transcripts of hearings in Congress, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and reports and government audits as well as corporate press releases. The result? "The paper trails showing Sen. Feinstein's conflict of interest is irrefutable," according to Danielle Brian, of the Project on Government Oversight. "Because of the amount of money involved," said Melanie Sloan, of the Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, "Feinstein's conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than [other] conflicts [involving U.S. Rep. John T. Doolittle, former Speaker Dennis Hastert and others]." In 2005, Roll Call calculated Feinstein's wealth at $40 million, up $10 million from just a year earlier. Reports show her family earned between $500,000 and $5 million from capital gains on URS and Perini stock. From CB Richard Ellis, her husband earned from $1.3 million to $4 million. The report also showed URS' military construction work in 2000 was only $24 million, but the next year, when Feinstein took over as MILCON chair, military construction earned URS $185 million. Additionally, its military construction architectural and engineering revenue rose from $108,000 in 2000 to $142 million in 2001, a thousand-fold increase. "

Shaking my head.

I doubt perky Katie Couric and her pals will ever make a media storm over this.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54932

3/30/2007 9:40:07 AM

busted!

but i thought only dick cheney and evil halliburton profited from the war?

3/30/2007 9:41:13 AM

lookee there


you mean to tell me that politicians from both sides of the aisle are toolbags?

3/30/2007 9:47:48 AM

Quote :

"you mean to tell me that politicians from both sides of the aisle are toolbags?"

shocking...i know....they are all pathetic

3/30/2007 9:48:32 AM

I wonder when the democrat party is going to "demand" trials and investigations into this?

3/30/2007 10:25:28 AM

I am thinking that that wont happen any time soon...im also thinking that Dan Rather wont be doing any special reporting on this one

3/30/2007 10:26:58 AM

you mean to tell me that politicians from both sides of the aisle are toolbags?

3/30/2007 10:36:29 AM

^ its true...


the problem is...there will be no hearings on this...and there will be no media outrage

3/30/2007 10:39:23 AM

Quote :

"In 2005, Roll Call calculated Feinstein's wealth at $40 million, up $10 million from just a year earlier. Reports show her family earned between $500,000 and $5 million from capital gains on URS and Perini stock. From CB Richard Ellis, her husband earned from $1.3 million to $4 million. Public records show Blum's company paid $4 a share for controlling interest in Perini, and later sold about three million shares for $23.75 each. "

That's just ridonkulous. How is she not being prosecuted for this shit?

3/30/2007 10:56:32 AM

Because she didn't do anything illegal?

This is a huge conflict of interest, but ethics violations are not the same as criminal acts.

3/30/2007 11:26:28 AM

Just glancing over it I would say it might be alot less severe than people are saying. I mean, you are on a board that approves spending for military construction and your husband is majority owner in companies that do this work. There is an obvious conflict of interest there and she should of resigned before hand.

But how much wrongdoing she actually was involved in was completely left out of the article. "MILCON approved a Pentagon plan to fund "overhead coverage force protection" for Iraq" and then Perini was awarded it. MILCON only approved the plan. She only has one vote. It doesn't say anything about if MILCON had anything to do with choosing what contractor completed the work. It doesn't say if the vote was a landslide or if her vote was a deciding factor.

It also doesn't mention how the contractor was chosen. It did say that some of the medical stuff was "often without the benefit of competitive bidding" giving the idea that the other stuff was. If these contracts were in fact competitively bid and URS/Perini won then I don't see much of a problem. There is also no mention about other companies that do similar work and if their military contracts went up at a similar rate.

Quote :

"The investigation examined thousands of pages of documents, including transcripts of hearings in Congress, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and reports and government audits as well as corporate press releases. The result? "The paper trails showing Sen. Feinstein's conflict of interest is irrefutable," according to Danielle Brian, of the Project on Government Oversight."

After examining thousands of documents the only result they reported was that she in fact did have a conflict of interest. No shit, anyone could realize that. Them only reporting that she had a conflict of interest makes me think she did not in fact unfairly vote for funding for her husbands companies.

Quote :

"The report also showed URS' military construction work in 2000 was only $24 million, but the next year, when Feinstein took over as MILCON chair, military construction earned URS $185 million. Additionally, its military construction architectural and engineering revenue rose from $108,000 in 2000 to $142 million in 2001, a thousand-fold increase."

2001 also happened to be the year we invaded afghanistan... I'd expect military contracts to be going up alot.

Quote :

"That's just ridonkulous. How is she not being prosecuted for this shit?"

If she isn't being prosecuted I'd say her wrongdoing was nothing more than ignoring the ethical consideration that she shouldn't be on a government committee that decides funding for a company her husband had interest in.

If she did use her position to better her husbands companies then I'll be the first the call for her hanging. This article says nothing about if that is the case though.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 11:30 AM. Reason : f]

3/30/2007 11:26:48 AM

Quote :

"you mean to tell me that politicians from both sides of the aisle are toolbags?"

repeated cause...well...it's the truth

Quote :

"the problem is...there will be no hearings on this...and there will be no media outrage"

Media: Fox News, New York Post, Washington Times, etc.

Please, stop looking at the media as one big liberal lovefest. There are two separate medias: there's a left media and there's a right media. The whole idea of people clinging to some abstract concept like an independent unbiased media for anyone or any party is pure foolishness out of the 1950s.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 11:32 AM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 11:30:12 AM

Quote :

"you mean to tell me that politicians from both sides of the aisle are toolbags?""

Funny how when a republican is found to be corrupt, we zero in on the fact that he's a republican. When it's a democrat, our liberal friends indict both parties equally.

It's true that politicians from both sides can be corrupt. But where republican Duke Cunningham sits in prison, democrat William "freezer money" Jefferson sits on a congress committee. The maddening aspect is how the MSM ignores democrat sleaze.

We know that the press is not unbiased. What gets me is that both sides ignore that fact and keep claiming they inject no opinion into their stories. Just come clean, we know you're biased. Jeeez!

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 11:42 AM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 11:37:54 AM

Quote :

"Funny how when a republican is found to be corrupt, we zero in on the fact that he's a republican. When it's a democrat, our liberal friends indict both parties equally. "

Good thing I'm neither I guess. I don't fall under your umbrella you created.

Quote :

"It's true that politicians from both sides can be corrupt. But where republican Duke Cunningham sits in prison, democrat William "freezer money" Jefferson sits on a congress committee. The maddening aspect is how the MSM ignores democrat sleaze."

That's cause white-as-vanilla Nancy Pelosi is afraid of being labeled racist by the CBC.

3/30/2007 11:42:43 AM

Quote :

" Funny how when a republican is found to be corrupt, we zero in on the fact that he's a republican. When it's a democrat, our liberal friends indict both parties equally."

Blanket statements always work!!!!

And when the entire governing branch of the country is dominated by Republicans, well, it's kinda hard to not zero in on all of them being republican.

As we keep going forward, and we all realize the Dems are no better than their right leaning ilk, the hatred that was once only reserved for the right will get spread around, just be patient, and stop being just as partisan hacked as the rest of the people you are trying to codemn.

3/30/2007 11:50:35 AM

^ he is only being partisan because for the last 12 years every time there has been any susupicion of anything shady going on its been "YOU DIRTY CRIMINAL REPUBLICANS!!" ...and thats still the case....just go to some place like rawstory.com and see how the typical liberal reacts to anything republican

...but of course state409 has me blocked soo...whatever

3/30/2007 12:18:24 PM

rawstory is where to find the typical liberal now?

3/30/2007 12:22:02 PM

its not?

3/30/2007 12:22:52 PM

i would guess most liberals have never heard of it. i don't consider myself a democrat. i guess i am fairly liberal and i've never heard of the site. it looks terrible and akin to a tabloid though.

3/30/2007 12:26:08 PM

well...if you have ever seen people like paul begala or kieth olbermann....there ya go

3/30/2007 12:27:22 PM

typical liberals are partisan pundits now?

3/30/2007 12:27:46 PM

WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

SHE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED

3/30/2007 12:28:46 PM

Quote :

"Funny how when a republican is found to be corrupt, we zero in on the fact that he's a republican. When it's a democrat, our liberal friends indict both parties equally. "

well, to be fair, I initially said it and I am FAR from bineg a democrat or a liberal

I was being sarcastic because usually it's OMFG CRIMINAL REPUBLICANS BLOOD MONEY CORPORATIONS WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH

and all along I've been like, "the left does the same damn thing"

and all the liberals here act like the democrats are above such actions when in reality, they are as corrupt or even more corrupt than the conservatives

3/30/2007 12:50:48 PM

^thats true

but perception is everything...and because the libs have been yelling that all repubs are criminals every day for the last 10 years....its taking its toll

3/30/2007 12:52:48 PM

you reap what you sew libs


this is why there needs to be a 3rd party

3/30/2007 12:55:08 PM

the first Roman triumvirate worked pretty well until one of the 3 died

3/30/2007 12:57:49 PM

There are lots of third parties.

3/30/2007 1:00:58 PM

obviously libertarians are the best choice because they have the easiest case to argue on message boards.

3/30/2007 1:02:44 PM

ok, someone like Ron Paul needs to get elected then


the protection that comes along with a 2 party system is sickening


and I do want the media to be screaming about this incident just as loudly as they do anytime a conservative does anything

politicians are supposed to serve us, not the other way around

I want accountability from these assholes

3/30/2007 1:04:18 PM

^^^there are a lot of small parties that cant come close to competing with the funding and support of the Ds and Rs

and tell me this...how is a candidate from a third party supposed to compete with the Ds and Rs? the Ds and Rs jointly pay for the presidential TV debates so that they can be assured that one of them will win

Even people who are rich as fuck like Forbes and Perot who are financially able to at least become known to the public don't usually do anything other than take a FEW votes from one of the major parties

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:06 PM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 1:04:47 PM

Quote :

"this is why there needs to be a 3rd party"

Quote :

"the first Roman triumvirate worked pretty well until one of the 3 died"

We all learned in statics that there is nothing more stable than a triangle.

(That would be a great line in a debate for a third-party politician. )

Quote :

"Even people who are rich as fuck like Forbes and Perot who are financially able to at least become known to the public don't usually do anything other than take a FEW votes from one of the major parties"

19% is more than a few, and Forbes ran as a Republican.

It will take a person that is very rich to win as a third party for the foreseeable future. It won't be a third party though, more likely independent. One example of that for 2008 could be Michael Bloomberg. What's going for him? He did a generally acknowledged good job running New York City as mayor-a job that is harder than governor of most states. He knows he can't win the Democratic or Republican nomination due to his personal views (something Giuliani will discover), so if he wanted to become president it would have to be as an independent. And he has his own personal future that is larger than Perot's.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:17 PM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 1:09:19 PM

^yeah and even though the govt has an assload of problems, and the E, L and J branches often seem to have power shifts, at least there are 3 branches...so theres still hope!

3/30/2007 1:10:41 PM

the 2 major parties understand that if an independent were to come in things would never be the same for them ever again


these people will do anything to prevent it from happening

3/30/2007 1:12:34 PM

What I'm saying, I guess, is that everybody says there should be a third party and everybody wants this third party to fit exactly their positions and beliefs. That just isn't going to happen.

3/30/2007 1:13:46 PM

Quote :

"busted! but i thought only dick cheney and evil halliburton profited from the war?"

This dumb cunt stepped down though, after she was found out.

Haliburton continued to get no bid contracts for a while (and maybe still are), and on top of that, have moved their operations to Dubai so they don't pay US taxes anymore.

3/30/2007 1:14:30 PM

Quote :

"and all the liberals here act like the democrats are above such actions"

No, no they don't.

Just because democrats are only pointing out republican problems (which, like I said, is going to happen more frequently when more of them are in control) does not mean they think Dems are above such actions.

It just doesn't man.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:17 PM. Reason : a]

3/30/2007 1:15:39 PM

Quote :

"What I'm saying, I guess, is that everybody says there should be a third party and everybody wants this third party to fit exactly their positions and beliefs. That just isn't going to happen."

ok and your point is


the democrat party nor the republican party fit me now but you're saying i should just deal with it?

I'd rather not

^^ look for more companies to GTFo if the dems win in 08

^I'm not saying you, but there are plenty of people that think the sun rises and sets in the words of a democrat

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:16 PM. Reason : ...]

3/30/2007 1:15:47 PM

Quote :

"What I'm saying, I guess, is that everybody says there should be a third party and everybody wants this third party to fit exactly their positions and beliefs. That just isn't going to happen."

As a third-party advocate I partially agree.

However, the arch-left (Moveon.org, DailyKos, Howard Dean) and arch-right (Rick Santorum, RedState, Pat Robertson) are increasingly taking over the Democratic and Republican parties. (Remember there are primaries, where only the diehard members of each party vote.) With that happening, there is huge and wide gaping hole in the middle. So a centrist party that rejects extremism from either side (like Jesse Ventura and his Minnesota Independence Party when he won), has a huge vacancy to fill. Not saying it is likely or I would bet on it, but the hole is there for the willing and capable.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:21 PM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 1:21:00 PM

.

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:22 PM. Reason : .]

3/30/2007 1:22:04 PM

course i dont think anybody wants a 3rd party to be forced into place...cause that kinda goes against our whole country's principles

3/30/2007 1:22:31 PM

Quote :

"the democrat party"

Rush called, he wants his talking point back.

Quote :

"This dumb cunt stepped down though, after she was found out."

Stop letting facts get in the way of a good EarthDogg thread.

3/30/2007 1:26:45 PM

what about the fact that Cheney hasnt worked for Haliburton in years

3/30/2007 1:28:06 PM

Quote :

"Cheney continues to received a deferred salary from the company. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004. The Congressional Research Service has concluded that holding stock options while in elective office does constitute a “financial interest” whether or not the holder of the options donates the proceeds to charities, and deferred compensation is also a financial interest."

3/30/2007 1:35:08 PM

^^^ stfu tool

I don't even like Rush

I have no idea if he says it or not

but a quick google search shows that the term has been used since the harding administration


I do know that if it pisses you socialist, DEMOCRAT types off, I'll continue to use it

because there is nothing "democratic" about the left side (loudest side) of that party

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 1:38 PM. Reason : OMG I AM REVOLTNOW I HAVE SUCH A CATCHY NAME THAT SHOWS I'M SUCH A FREE THINKER]

3/30/2007 1:37:57 PM

what about sandy berger stealing confidential documents after the clinton administration

3/30/2007 5:00:27 PM

^nobody's memory goes back to any time before when Bush stole the 2000 election...thats essentially the beginning of time...before that day, 100% of the world loved the USA, we had 0% unemployment, and all politicians were honest

3/30/2007 5:12:46 PM

nah, all us socialists remember raegans double digit unemployment

strangly, none of you do

3/30/2007 5:14:03 PM

I loved the charged rhetoric in that hack piece. I know worldnetdaily is a conservative organization, but at least try to give the other side.

3/30/2007 5:19:25 PM

BUT ACCORDING TO YOUR PROFILE YOU WERENT EVEN ALIVE DURING BUSH SR'S PRESIDENCY

[Edited on March 30, 2007 at 5:19 PM. Reason : ^^]

3/30/2007 5:19:43 PM

like the media isnt liberally biased

3/30/2007 5:26:18 PM