Sen. Feinstein's husband has been selling post offices to his friends, cheap

[Newsjock]

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]

1. dianne feinstein is a great example of a democrat who has outlasted her original purpose and needs

to primaried and dumped

[NYC_SKP]

2. She's horrid. I've known her since she was an SF Board member then became Mayor.

Not personally, of course. She creeped me out then and she creeps me out now.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Way back then, when she was Board member,

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]

6. She fell into the position of Acting Mayor because the Board of Supervisors had two groups that

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]

15. She can't be primaried.

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]

18. yeah, well good luck with that..

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]

4. k&r

[pinboy3niner]

5. What investigative journalist Peter Byrne uncovered:

(From the OP link.)

• 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.

[Mr.Bill]

7. Living in the SF Bay Area

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]

10. I live in the Bay Area too.

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]

11. The press in the Bay Area

has never laid a glove on her.

[avaistheone1]

13. ...which makes me wonder if they are the recipients/partners in some of the Feinstein/Blum booty.

[KamaAina]

19. She jumped the shark when she was mayor

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]

8. I'm not a fan of Feinstein

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]

9. Pretty damning evidence that both she and her husband are corrupt.

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]

12. Dianne Feinstein is like an colostomy bag -- you really want to go without it, but then... n/t

[Left Coast2020]

14. She pissed me off when she was supporting the douchbag from Texas

..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]

16. Feinstein and her husband made an enormous fortune off those wars too.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/War-brings-business-to-Feinstein-spouse-Blum-s-2652085.php

[hughee99]

17. I'd rather have her making money off of this than off of the wars like she and her husband

have in the past. Sadly, though, it shouldn't be a "one or the other" kind of thing.