Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, created the investment firm, Blum Capital. Blum Capital is part owner of the construction firm, Perini-Zachary-Parsons. Dots connected so far? Perini-Zachary-Parsons has won the bid to build high speed rail track that will link Madera to Fresno, California. Once built, the Reason Foundation estimates that the railway will lose between $124 million to $373 million a year.
If you’ve never heard of Madera California and have barely heard of Fresno, you are not alone. But California’s mania in pursuing this fiscally suicidal venture is not what is spotlighted, here. As Mr. Rogers might have asked, Can you say ‘Conflict of interest’?” Or “graft”?
How did Perini-Zachary-Parsons manage to snag this prize? With the “lowest” bid, Blum’s company, miraculously, came up the victor. Their bid, $985,142,530, comes to $35 million per mile. At the moment, no one is asking the question of how it happened. The project is state funded. And, once again, Senator Feinstein’s dynasty makes out while the state and nation she represents tunnels ever deeper into the septic tank.
Feinstein has been tied to cronyism, using taxpayer funds, several times in the past. According to Breitbart.com, in a report from June, 2012, Feinstein used her position and the information she was privy in order to:
- Appropriate funds through the U.S. Senate Military Construction Subcommittee. Feinstein was serving on this committee and forced funding to companies owned by her husband. The pair netted somewhere around $5 million for their pains. Oh yes; the company prominently concerned was Perini.
- Allocate TARP Funds to the FDIC. Feinstein proposed legislation to funnel $25 billion in taxpayer funds to the FDIC. The FDIC had just awarded Blum’s real estate organization (he served on the board), the CB Ellis Group, a contract to resell foreclosed properties at rates higher than industry norms. The problem with Feinstein’s redirection of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars? According to the Washington Times: “the California Democrat (Feinstein) isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; …the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments-not direct federal dollars.”
- Obtain a mysterious grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2009 Feinstein and her husband invested in a “green,” renewable fuels company, Amyris. Weeks later, the DOE awarded Amyris a grant of $24 million; yes, taxpayer money. Amyris then took the stock public with an IPO that snagged the company another $85 million. Think Feinstein and Blum made their investment back?
Even if one believed in the miraculous regularity with which Feinstein/Blum’s “luck” occurs, Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring Washington ethics, says Feinstein’s explanation isn’t kosher. His research confirms that: “…neither the FDIC nor MILCON connections pass muster under the U.S. Senate Ethics Rules or the U.S. Criminal Code.”
Senator Feinstein excels at creating scenes of high dudgeon when she is confronted with facts she doesn’t like. And she still gets away with fiscal murder at taxpayer expense. If California wants to bloat the sewer that was the Golden State until it explodes, that’s their problem. But if Californians continue to re-elect venal specimens like Feinstein to the Senate, term after term, the billions it costs the rest of America is our problem.
The only way to get rid of Moonbeam’s Train to Nowhere is for another ballot initiative cutting it off at the pass.
Tie that to a Constitutional Amendment to require big-ticket items like this to be approved by voters and not allow additional funding without voter approval.
No other way to curb the appetite for $pending that continues to flourish in the Legislature.
She is so hypocritical, us peons must try harder though.
One more little tidbit on Mr. Blum, during the Iraq war, he won a no bid contract with his company URS, Didn’t hear that in the press though, all we heard was Haliburten.
Here is another unrelated Feinstein story. Wish the state Democrats would wake up and vote her and Boxer OUT!
We’re #1, but it’s bad.
The Firearms Statistics That Gun Control Advocates Don’t Want to See:
May. 6, 2013 3:30pm
“To accompany TheBlaze’s coverage of the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston, we figured it could be helpful to share some gun statistics pointed out to us by some of the NRA Convention attendees. Forget the talking points used by both sides in the gun control debate; we’re going to be talking about verified statistics.
Gun control advocates be advised, these are not the statistics you are looking for.
According to data from the FBI’s uniform crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220 — which makes up 68 percent of all murders in the state that year and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people.
The irony of such a grisly distinction is evident when you look at which state was named the state with the strongest gun control laws in 2011 by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. You guessed it — it was California.
“What is very unusual is that California also has a program by which we can remove guns, recover guns from people who have a gun and then subsequently become prohibited or dangerous,” Brady Campaign spokeswoman Amanda Wilcox said at the time.
It should be noted, though, that California is also one of the biggest states in the country, with a population of about 37 million. Therefore, it might make sense that it would have a high number of murders but its murder rate is still high as gun control has had a seemingly inconsequential impact. In comparison, Texas has a population of about 25.6 million and saw 699 total gun murders in 2011 — nearly half that of California — and a firearms murder rate of 2.91 per 100,000.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/06/the-firearms-statistics-that-gun-control-advocates-dont-want-to-see/
Well, I’d be shocked, but that would be very silly of me.
However, given that cronyism is endemic to human endeavor, and decidedly unipartisan … as a concept, the high-speed rail is a good idea. You can haul more people for less fuel; it’s a dang good idea.
You should be working on the North State end … Redding to Sacto. Get off the stick!