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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSen. Feinstein's husband has been selling post offices to his friends, cheap
Source: East Bay Express
... The Berkeley crowd is not acting alone: From the beaches of Santa Monica to the avenues of the Bronx to the orange farms of Nalcrest, Florida, people who like the US Mail are getting mad. "Hey, wait a minute, Mr. Postman! That is our community post office "
To which the federal flak-catchers reply: "The Internet is killing us. The Postal Service is broke. We have to sell. Get used to it."
But email is not the problem and the budget deficit is easy enough to fix, so there must be other reasons for the forced sales, say save-the-post-office activists. The post office is being killed for political reasons, they assert, pointing out that the corporation with the exclusive contract to negotiate sales for the Postal Service's $85 billion real estate portfolio is C.B. Richard Ellis (CBRE). And that the company is chaired by Richard C. Blum, who is the husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein and a member of the University of California Board of Regents. CBRE's connection to a politically powerful family with a history of accessing public pension funds to make private investments has caused more than a few activists to suspect wrongdoing even though no evidence of any conflicts of interest tied to the CBRE contract have been revealed.
Until now.
Read more: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/going-postal/Content?oid=3713528
msongs
(67,405 posts)to primaried and dumped
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Not personally, of course. She creeped me out then and she creeps me out now.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and was on tv right after Harvey Milk was shot,
Shakespeare popped into my head:
"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look."
something about her...just a vibe...
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)were at loggerheads.
The Supervisor who had Dianne Feinstein's promise to support him in Mayorial race for 1979, Quentin Kopp, was an honorable and honest man (if you like that sort of thing in a politician). He was the leader of one group who pushed for Feinstein to be a temporary placeholder. Although she was the President of the Board of Supervisors (mostly an honorary position which kept order during the Board of Supervisors' meetings), she was not seen as an up-and-comer. The other group agreed. She became Mayor. Then, in 1979, she reneiged on her promise to support Kopp. In a run-off, Kopp narrowly lost.
She was the accidental Mayor.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)She's too entrenched. She's the darling of the CDP and is, therefore, protected. She'll be 79 when her next term is up in 2018. Let's hope she doesn't run again as we have so many really good progressives in the wings just waiting to take her place. I was hoping the old bat (and I say this as an old bat) would choose not to run this last time but nooooooo, there were too many lucrative MIC contracts from which she can still build massive amounts of wealth.
frylock
(34,825 posts)the Feinstein brand is entrenched, and she ain't going anywhere until she dies. fyi, she was just reelected in 2012, and no, I did NOT vote for her this time around. it felt great.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)(From the OP link.)
CBRE has sold valuable postal properties to developers at prices that appear to have been steeply discounted from fair market values, resulting in the loss of tens of millions of dollars in public revenue.
In a series of apparently non-arm's-length transactions, CBRE negotiated the sale of postal properties all around the country to its own clients and business partners, including to one of its corporate owners, Goldman Sachs Group.
CBRE has been paid commissions as high as 6 percent by the Postal Service for representing both the seller and the buyer in many of the negotiations, thereby raising serious questions as to whether CBRE was doing its best to obtain the highest price possible for the Postal Service.
Senator Feinstein has lobbied the Postmaster General on behalf of a redevelopment project in which her husband's company was involved.
Mr.Bill
(24,289 posts)I have followed her political career from the earlier days. I always joke that we elected her Senator and sent her to Washington to keep her from being Governor. It has worked so far.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)You are not the first person I have heard say that.
What is amazing to me is that to my knowledge, none of the major Bay area newspapers have published anything about this particular Feinstein/Blum scandal.
Mr.Bill
(24,289 posts)has never laid a glove on her.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)She made a bet that Pier 39 wouldn't be finished on time. It was. She cut the ribbon wearing a bikini.
It's been all downhill from there.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)The problem is she'll do the same thing other senators do, stay in the Senate and keep running until she dies. Without a decent primary opponent it will probably work too. She'd be 85 in 2018 when her current term would be up for reelection.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)Wow! This stinks to high heavens.
Sending this out to my email list.
Who to we complain to, her buddies Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi?
dogknob
(2,431 posts)Left Coast2020
(2,397 posts)..on war funding votes. Not as much as a peep on the war criminal.
Wished she could have been voted out then.
We're stuck with her till 2017 when we can primary her.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)have in the past. Sadly, though, it shouldn't be a "one or the other" kind of thing.