Privatization Nightmare: Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Husband Selling Post Offices to His Friends, Cheap

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/post-office-and-privatization


Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from the new book, Going Postal, in which investigative journalist Peter Byrne reveals the results of a year-long study into a privatization scheme that has enriched the powerful and robbed ordinary Americans.

***SNIP

This year-long investigation has uncovered evidence of multiple conflicts of interest and problems with post office sales supervised by Blum's company:

CBRE appears to have repeatedly violated its contractual duty to sell postal properties at or above fair market values.
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.
Backstory

Because the Postal Service is running an artificially created budget deficit, tens of thousands of jobs are being liquidated as post offices and mail processing facilities in towns and cities across the country are short-listed to be sold for ready cash. CBRE has already sold 52 of these properties, and hundreds more are on the chopping block.

Eighty percent of the agency's multi-billion-dollar deficit is caused by a law passed by Congress in 2006 that requires it to prepay retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. This unprecedented, budget-killing command does not apply to any other government agency. If this burden was to be rescinded—and business-mail was to be charged the cost of its delivery—the Postal Service would be in the black, according to congressional reports.

The ugly truth of the matter, say informed critics such as New York University professor Steve Hutkins, is that the Postal Service is being privatized in the interests of scores of corporations that not only compete with it, but are also its largest contractors, including FedEx and United Parcel Service (package routing); Parsons Corporation (management services); Accenture (financial consulting); and Pitney Bowes (direct mail).

[jollyreaper2112]

1. Yup

Note you never hear this on the news. You only hear they are bankrupt. Stupid government can't do anything right! I like how Obama is all quiet on this one. If he cared, this would be great bully pulpit material.

[Enthusiast]

4. Yes.

"I like how Obama is all quiet on this one. If he cared, this would be great bully pulpit material."

You can hear it in the national media narrative. You only hear the USPS is going broke and costing the tax payer a whole lot of money. Third way BULLSHIT. It's just like part of the national media narrative is that charter schools are superior to public schools because they don't have to deal with those greedy, incompetent union teachers.

When dealing with an issue, any issue, be concerned when you find the national media is united in their message (Iraq).

[Fuddnik]

2. Crook belongs in jail.

Her husband too.

[jollyreaper2112]

6. Agreed

Loyalty tests can be self-defeating but you have to know what your principles are and recognize when someone on your side is working to defeat them. If your top donor to save the elephants had ivory earrings, do you keep quiet because you need her support?

[A Simple Game]

12. The symbolic use of elephants in your post fits so well. n/t

[Scuba]

3. This is what happens when we back conservative Dems "because they can win".

[LuvNewcastle]

8. Yes, all you get is a fiscal conservative who's a little better on social issues.

Economic issues are the most important issues we face these days and fiscal conservatives just aren't going to work for us anymore. They never were working for us, really, but we were able to put up with it until their neo-liberal policies destroyed the economy. It's time for them to shape up or be kicked out of office. There's no reason for a state like CA to have such a RW Senator, anyway.

[Puzzledtraveller]

32. Ding!

[dotymed]

11. THAT is THE problem

with a 2 party system.
In the 20's and 30's we had a vibrant, multi-party system. The economic climate then, like now, was conducive to "people-first" representation.

Eugene Debs and the Socialist party forced the 2 parties to change their rhetoric.
IMO, if not for the (non-existent by todays standards) national security apparatus (FBI) these other parties would have been winning major offices. At least they changed the national rhetoric and the 2 corporate parties' messages.

We need to re-think the 2 party system. Maybe this is a safety valve designed by our masters maybe not, either way, WE need representation.

[SamKnause]

5. Going Postal

This country has so many traitorous politicians.

It is impossible to follow all the scandals, scams and fraudulent activities they are engaged in.

They are cannibalizing our country from the inside out.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. I am SHOCKED!

Well, not really.

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.

There's a giant red flag right flapping violently in the wind right there.

[daleanime]

9. Easiest job fix in the nation...

and the last one they'll do.

[marmar]

10. k/r

Stealing as much as fast as they can before it all collapses.

[woo me with science]

13. CORRUPTION.

Waaaay past time to clean house of these corporate thieves.

[xchrom]

14. i keep thinking that seems obvious.

i keep being wrong.

[Hotler]

24. +1.....n/t

[gulliver]

15. Alternet and anti-Democrat

Posts like this don't belong on DU.

[7962]

17. Why? It's the truth. We're supposed to turn a blind eye simply because it's a Democrat doing it?

If so, then we become part of the problem. This story has been around for awhile and SHOULD piss everybody off, regardless of party. I always look at it like this: "What would I think if this was being done/said by George Bush?".
I'm GLAD to see it posted here. If it was on "Red State" no one would pay any attention to it. Here, people who are constituents might actually make a stand.

[gulliver]

20. Well "Alternet truth"...and absolutely anti-Democrat

It amounts to something bad about a Democrat from a site that is untrustworthy at best. It SHOULD piss everybody off—at least on DU. If Alternet disseminated something about George W. Bush, it should be ignored. If Alternet says the earth is round, start doubting that.

[7962]

22. Then how about this, from Feb. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022326804

Maybe a story posted right here months ago makes you feel a little better about the source.
Or this: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/01/1165912/-Selling-off-the-Post-Office-Berkeley-calls-out-Richard-Blum#

There's a dozen others out there. Just because the OP has a link to some odd website doesnt mean you should instantly close your eyes to it.

[marmar]

18. So corruption is OK, as long as it has a -D behind it?

[gulliver]

21. Again, this is Alternet.

Alternet.

[marmar]

23. Your argument is tragically uncompelling.

[Egalitarian Thug]

33. Wishful thinking and fantasy trump reality every time. n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. Anti-democratic Democrats shouldn't be running the party. If they would go back to the

party that shares their wrong-headed ideals, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

[diane in sf]

34. DiFi is a Democrat in name only. I never vote for her.

[marble falls]

16. Oh yes they do. Keeping these discussions under wrap gave the GOP Teapublican masters. We need to...

keep from the equivalent from happening here.

[AndyA]

19. I think it's past time for DiFi to go. This isn't the first corruption rumour involving her

Every so often, things pop up. Now that she's basically endorsing spying on everyone, regardless of rights being infringed...it's time to go.

We need new people who aren't corrupt and remember why they are in Washington. (To represent the people--not themselves, their cronies, or the corporations.)

[BlueCaliDem]

28. Well, my group and I last election tried our best during the primaries,

when we voted for Mike Strimling. We tried very hard to spread the word, talked to friends and family, talked to people on the street, in restaurants (people who were interested and overheard us), talked to people on our FB, Twitter, and Tumblr, and I posted about him here at DU under the California category ... but in the end, he got less votes than nutty Orly Taitz.

I was so disillusioned. Here we had a fantastic challenger to that ConservaDem, and no one gave a shiite. I wrote him and told him I hope he will run again, and he was kind enough to respond that he will, but that I should vote for DiFi even though I was against her. He said we need to keep a Democrat in her seat.

This experience made it clear to me that even Democrats are not readily open to change barring some national scandal. It's disheartening.

[Conium]

25. This is a violation of her public trust.

She should resign.

[Octafish]

26. And people wonder why the Rich get Richer.

Ah, a heapin' helpin' of good ol' government service.

[FreakinDJ]

27. DINO with Croney Capitolist ties - why am I not surprised

DiFi is no Democrat

[WillyT]

29. K & R !!!

[KurtNYC]

30. The sabotage of ACA shines a different light on the 2006 sabotage of USPS

This is a method of destroying public services and buying public assets for pennies on the dollar.

I dub this method the Pottery Barn Buddy System: They break it, their friends buy it (cheap).

[solarhydrocan]

35. Feinstein's $16.5 million view in Pacific Heights

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her mega-millionaire husband, Richard Blum, are pulling up stakes on their quiet Presidio Terrace home and moving uptown to a Pacific Heights mansion -- with views to die for.

The $16.5 million mansion -- which sits at the foot of Vallejo Street, between the Presidio and some of the city's most hoity-toity addresses -- offers a sweeping view of the bay.

It's right off what Herb Caen christened the "Gold Rush" -- the final two blocks of upper, upper Broadway, where the residents include Ann and Gordon Getty, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Mimi Haas -- as in the Levi Strauss Haases.

"And everyone is extending a warm welcome," said former Mayor Willie Brown, who hangs with the hill crowd. "They figure it will mean better homeland security." >more

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Feinstein-s-16-5-million-view-in-Pacific-Heights-2523619.php

The Rich get Richer and the Poor get ...TPPeed on !!!

Edit-add: Richard C Blum:

Blum's wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein, has received scrutiny due to her husband's government contracts and extensive business dealings with China and her past votes on trade issues with the country. Blum has denied any wrongdoing, however.[3] Critics have argued that business contracts with the US government awarded to a company (Perini) controlled by Blum may raise a potential conflict-of-interest issue with the voting and policy activities of his wife.[4] URS Corp, which Blum had a substantial stake in, bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the U.S. military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002; EG&G subsequently won a $600m defense contract.[1]

In 2009 it was reported that Blum's wife Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to provide $25 billion in taxpayer money to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a government agency that had recently awarded her husband's real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis, what the Washington Times called "a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Blum