By Fin on 2/6/2005, 10:15am PT  

Guest blogged by Fin

For those who wondered why Senator Feinstein didn't join Senator Boxer in opposition to Condoleezza Rice, we have this from The Byrne Report:

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....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....Hubby holds a controlling interest in another engineering firm, Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass....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.

Some would say it's just business as usual, but with 1,500 dead and tens of thousands wounded (both physically and psychologically), it all seems criminal.

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