Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) DID step down.

[Mr.Vicchio]

Government watchdog groups want more answers as to why Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) stepped down from a military appropriations subcommittee at a time questions were being asked billions of dollars in federal defense contracts going to her husband's companies. Feinstein resigned her post as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction Appropriations last week.

Feinstein Leaves Senate Defense Panel Amid Controversy -- 04/02/2007

Now I went to the WEB SITE of the Military Appropriations Subcommittee, and guess whose NOT a member?

Appropriations Committee - Dave Obey, Chairman

Now WND had a story on this, and bishop sunk the thread claiming it was BS, well bishop you were pre-mature. SHE is no longer a member of the committee. My question is, why isn't this being reported? Hmmm?

Yeah makes ya think don't it?

[brien]

billions of dollars in federal defense contracts going to her husband's companies. Feinstein resigned her post as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction Appropriations last week.

It is fairly obvious what is going on if the allegations are true. Why am I not surprised over this? It is business as usual in DC

[PatrickHenry]

Heh. Vicchio targeting Democrats...

Be a little more even handed, why don'tcha?
Under The Influence, 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft Reports On Drug Lobbyists' Role in Passing Bill That Keeps Drug Prices High - CBS News
⇧
Ex-congressmen lobbying for Big Pharma, making millions and legally authorizing fraud against the taxpayer.

The unorthodox roll call on one of the most expensive bills ever placed before the House of Representatives began in the middle of the night, long after most people in Washington had switched off C-SPAN and gone to sleep. The only witnesses were congressional staffers, hundreds of lobbyists, and U.S. Representatives like Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Walter Jones, R-N.C. "The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill," says Jones. "The bill was over 1,000 pages. And it got to the members of the House that morning, and we voted for it at about 3 a.m. in the morning." Why did the vote finally take place at 3 a.m.? "Well, I think a lot of the shenanigans that were going on that night, they didn't want on national television in primetime," according to Burton. "I've been in politics for 22 years," says Jones, "and it was the ugliest night I have ever seen in 22 years." The legislation was the cornerstone of Republican's domestic agenda

[gr8fuldaniel]

Yep, she should be charged with "Impersonating a Republican".
In the first degree. Git a rope.

I hope she doesnt step down (as senator) though. Then our republican gubner would replace her with somebody like Cunningham (more of the same)

[Mr.Vicchio]

PH, there re enough people here slamming the GOP why the hell should I be even handed?

I never said they were perfect... quit sidetracking my threads with crap please.

[PatrickHenry]

Quote by: Mr.Vicchio PH, there re enough people here slamming the GOP why the hell should I be even handed? I never said they were perfect... quit sidetracking my threads with crap please.

It's not really crap, but OK, it is a sidetrack...

Except in so far as the fact that our two-party Hydra is milking us cattle for billions.:(

[Mr.Vicchio]

That's another thread, both parties have their problems right now I'm following up on a previously posted thread that got bishop'd because it was deemed false.

Well it's happened and that's that.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: Mr.Vicchio Now WND had a story on this, and bishop sunk the thread claiming it was BS, well bishop you were pre-mature.

Not sure what you mean by "sunk the thread". But if it was moved to Misc.... it was probably because of the misleading title you gave it. Like with this thread. You make it sound like she retired. Stepped down. She only quit a committee.

SHE is no longer a member of the committee. My question is, why isn't this being reported? Hmmm?

It was reported several days ago, when it happened. I saw it.

[Jack]

I didn't see it, and thought the story may be bogus. So I'm better informed now.

[xyzer]

I saw the story and was disgusted by this latest revelation of Congressional corruption! Whether Republican or Democrat these people we elect and trust to do the nations business should be above nepotism and favoritism which gives them financial profit..
We even have one caught taking bribes.."Cold Cash Jefferson.. still participating in our government?Where is the federal prosecutor that hasn't followed up on that? Did Bush fire him?

Have they no shame? Even Congressman Frank was caught using his residence as a whorehouse and giving one of his homosexual lovers special favors normally reserved for congressmen. He is still serving?.

Admittedly Feinstein wasn't stealing but her interests apparently lay in improperly influencing legislation for her own(husbands)gain? It's been done before and probably will again in the political elite that considers itself above the law!
Since this latest perp is a Democrat the media will probably play it down!

[Mr.Vicchio]

No gr8, he sunk it because WND was the source, and he couldn't find other courses, at the time I had to wonder myself, but after reading about it again, I went and found more solid information.

Do you know why she stepped down from the committee?

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: MrV Do you know why she stepped down from the committee?

Guilty conscience? I doubt its because this scandal would redirect her attention from more important matters on her other committees and senatorial duties. (even if it were true) I bet the committee voted her off the island.

Shes a "pro-war" minority democrat. You can have her.

But if you go after her you need to put a bead on Rumsfeld and all his murder for profit minions too.

The privatization of the MIC is more than a symptom.
Check out this expose of Blackwater USA

Jeremy Scahill Goes Inside Blackwater, the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army <snip> Once they took power again, Donald Rumsfeld, in one of his first major addresses, on September 10, 2001, stood before the gaggle of former corporate CEOs and executives that would make up the core of the civilian leadership of the Pentagon. He said, "I have no desire to attack the Pentagon; I want to liberate it. We need to save it from itself." What Rumsfeld meant was that he intended to enact nothing short of a revolution in military affairs. That revolution brought increased use of special forces, increased privatization, and unprecedented use of private soldiers and other contractors in the waging of America's wars. The day after he announced that initiative, of course, the 9/11 attacks happened. That gave the Administration a blank slate on which to paint its radical overhaul of how the United States wages its wars. Now, six years later, we have upwards of 100,000 private contractors in Iraq. They are subjected to no effective laws. There's almost no oversight. They operate with almost no transparency. What's the difference between having covert operators in clandestine operations, and overt operators over which there's no oversight or transparency, or effective legal mechanisms to control what they're doing? It really boils down to an absolute subversion of the nation-state and what little semblance of democracy we have in this country. The American people are against the war. But the Administration no longer needs to turn to the army of the country to fight its wars. It can now hire mercenaries from all over the world. So we really are seeing a subversion of democratic processes, a subversion of the electoral system in this country, and a waging of aggressive, offensive wars using private soldiers.

... for undermining our good will by sending lawless mercenaries on armed robbery missions. In our name.

Harry Truman said "Wartime profiteering is TREASON" I agree.

Patrick Leahy introduced The War Profiteering Act in January.

Heres a liberal journalist who really tears into Feinstein:
Joshua Frank: the Mansion the War Bought
(includes a picture of her $16M brand new mansion)

[brien]

Well it's happened and that's that.

It seems as though the story is true but has largely been ignored by the mainstream electronic media.

WorldNetDaily: Feinstein quits committee under war-profiteer cloud

Another fine example of the temtations of corruption in government that knows no partisian boundaries. Dem or Repugs, they are all the same. Give them the power in the halls of Congress and watch them hang themselves. I can't believe she really thought she would get away with steering those contracts to her husbands companies. She should resign her seat in the Senate for being the corrupt louse she is in Congress if the allegations prove to be true.

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

And her husband Richard Blum is allegedly responsible for some other cruel apects in this case as well:

"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

.

And the Democrats promised to eliminate corruption in Congress.:rolleyes: Anyone who believes that should line up to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: brien And the Democrats promised to eliminate corruption in Congress

Hey, its happening. Right?



I think the biggest chunks should be removed first. Fire Blackwater USA at every f*cking level.

Jeremy Scahill Goes Inside Blackwater, the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army <snip> BuzzFlash: I think it's important to point out that this is not something that most Americans put at the top of their dance card as a concern. They may say, well, it's over in Iraq and that's a mess anyway. But, sure enough, after Hurricane Katrina, we saw Blackwater in New Orleans. Jeremy Scahill: When Hurricane Katrina hit, Blackwater started a domestic operations division of its company, and it began seeking greater contracting opportunities domestically inside of the United States. At one point, the federal government was paying Blackwater about $240,000 a day for Hurricane Katrina. The company was billing the government $950 per day, per Blackwater man deployed in the hurricane zone. They had about 600 guys stretched from Texas all the way through the Gulf region. Now Blackwater's been in negotiations with several state governments in the United States. Blackwater met recently with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about doing disaster response in California. They're opening up a new private military base in San Diego. Another one is in Mount Carroll, Illinois. They have applied for operating licenses in every coastal U.S. state. This is the expansion of a privatized army. Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, speaks boldly about Blackwater being the FedEx of the national security apparatus. They're manufacturing surveillance blimps and trying to market them to the Department of Homeland Security to use to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Blackwater and its executives continue to pour money into these Christian conservative causes, conservative politicians' campaign coffers. This is really the embodiment of everything that President Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address, when he talked about the dangers of unchecked power of the private sector, and the rise of the military-industrial complex. BuzzFlash: Let's get back to the issue that privatization comes at a high cost to the taxpayer. It's not as though someone else is paying for Blackwater. We are. This Administration has been giving inflated contractual reimbursement to companies like Blackwater at the expense of our military. As we learn in Robert Greenwald's "Iraq for Sale," a lot of GIs say they resent Blackwater and don't see why these guys are getting paid $1,000 a day. Jeremy Scahill: One of the things that has happened as a result of these mercenary forces is that there's been a real drain to the special operations community. Special operations commanders have spoken quite openly about this, saying that they're in a real crisis right now for numbers. U.S. taxpayers are spending tens of millions of dollars, in some cases, to train U.S. Navy SEALs, or Delta Force, or Army Rangers, or Green Berets. The taxpayers shoulder the financial burden of training these elite forces, and then Blackwater and other companies come around and hire them away. Then they repackage them to the federal government and say it's much cheaper to pay our guys because you don't have any of the overhead of deploying them. We'll absorb the cost of that. But they never take into account that they're essentially taking money out of the public sphere that was spent on these soldiers in the active duty military. They're taking all of that training that U.S. taxpayers have paid for, taking it away from the military, and repackaging it as a privatized entity. That is essentially a bilking of the U.S. taxpayer. The whole model of these privatized armies really is a rip-off of the American taxpayer. It's ridiculous when the industry lobbyists say they're a cheaper alternative to the bloated military. They're taking advantage of what they called the bloated military.

A private military base in California? WTF?

Thats the worst kind of profiteering.

[bishop]

Quote by: xyzer I saw the story and was disgusted by this latest revelation of Congressional corruption! Whether Republican or Democrat these people we elect and trust to do the nations business should be above nepotism and favoritism which gives them financial profit..

agreed... the sad thing is that congress is completely full of these corrupt members of the establishment - and people keep voting them into office.

there comes a point where voters must accept reality and stop voting for corrupt incumbents.. whether they actually do is another story - and frankly, i'm have low expectations given the number of people who voted for bush in 2004...

[xyzer]

The thing we tend to overlook in all this furor about Iraq and obviously retributive Democrat attacks on the Executuve Branch is that Congress isn't getting much done! What about the nations business? What about illegal immigration, social security reform health care, etc.

They are too busy having stop the war hearings and even stuffing pork into a military emergency appropriations bill to do their jobs. And there are the presidential candidates from both sides(Hillary if the best example) who spend most of their time campaigning and fund raising two years before the election! What is she doing for her constituency?

[The Decider]

Quote by: xyzer The thing we tend to overlook in all this furor about Iraq and obviously retributive Democrat attacks on the Executuve Branch is that Congress isn't getting much done! What about the nations business? What about illegal immigration, social security reform health care, etc.

Like it or not, Congress has "oversight" responsibility. "Oversight" requires investigation.

I'm all for investigating Feinstein in a larger, comprehensive look at war profiteering. During WWII, Congress held war profiteering hearings and that was a popular war. Let's look at Feinstein and Haliburton...the whole shebang. In fact, such hearings have begun:

Senate Judiciary Holds Hearing On Combating War Profiteering

Republicans will have plenty of opportunities to bring up Feinstein in the near future; but, unlike the past, Halliburton et al will get more attention. I'm sure conservatives won't mind.

Quote by: xyzer They are too busy having stop the war hearings and even stuffing pork into a military emergency appropriations bill to do their jobs. And there are the presidential candidates from both sides(Hillary if the best example) who spend most of their time campaigning and fund raising two years before the election! What is she doing for her constituency?

It's not unusual for Congress' productivity to diminish as presidential election season approaches.
As for endless fundraising, we could address that problem with strict limits on campaign financing. Unfortunately, conservatives and libertarians don't like the idea much. They see it as unconstitutional and not worthy of a constitutional amendment. I don't take conservative and libertarian complaints about election year spending very seriously anymore.

[rmnunez]

War profiteering is an issue, how do perceptions of this affect contenders for the presidency? Diane Feinstein isn't a candidate, how about Giuliani is he clean, what about Hillary, Obama or McCain? Corruption is part of war profiteering do different potential nominees have problems with this?