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Originally Posted by whatsyurprob
Anyone thought about this?
It started with 9/11. What a stroke of luck (Bush' way of thinking. Yes, I think he's that scandalous). Nothing like going to war to make a little $$.
Katrina. Just let it flood. Let all them refineries stop production due to that flood and the gasoline and home heating oil go through the roof.
Then the war in, Iraq. Let's go into that country and destabilize the region so the cost of oil can go even further. No telling how much coin we can make with an open ended war.
Real estate. Don't try to help the working man by loosening restrictions. The government is not a charity house.
Inflation. The three for instances above have a direct relation to the VERY weakened dollar. Imagine that.
Tax stimulus. What a nice guy our Prez is.
Me thinks this is the perfect recipe for lifting the moratorium on drilling domestically and don't try to site the energy bill of 05. Bush, had to set it up so no one could rightly point the finger at him for collusion.
When it comes to greed, who said Bush was stupid?
PROB
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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.
URS' largest customer is the U.S. Army, which accounted for 17 percent ($587 million) of its cash revenue in 2004. In 2001, URS enjoyed a mere $169 million in defense contracts. Now, its war contracts total more than $2 billion. According to its annual report, the San FranciscoÐbased URS anticipates that profits will rocket up in 2005, because "operations in the Middle East are expected to generate increased work related to the development of weapons systems, the training of military pilots and the maintenance, upgrade and repair of military vehicles." Provided, of course, that our hawkish leadership remains as poised and lovable as the new Secretary of State.
Feinstein, who sits on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is an advocate of first-strike warfare, even though it flouts international law and the standards of common decency. Interestingly, her Financial Disclosure Report for 2003 was more than three times the size of her 2002 disclosure (Feinstein's 2003 disclosure numbers 133 pages, compared to Sen. Barbara Boxer's six-page report). The Feinstein-Blum portfolio is crammed with multimillion dollar investments in the military-industrial-financial complex and corporations that heavily exploit Third World peoples. The senator has a lot to lose should the neoconservative war machine falter.
Perini attributes its rocketing profits to "increased volume of work in Iraq and Afghanistan." As a risk factor, the firm notes that continued demand for its military services depends upon "the political situation in Iraq," which, logically, means that it desires the bloody war and useless occupation to continue indefinitely--a wish that hawktails with the foreign policy positions of Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Feinstein.
I almost forgot: Perini Corp. is the nation's most active builder of Indian-fronted casinos. That explains a few things about Sen. Feinstein and the politics of gambling, soon to be revealed in greater detail in this space.
Hubby holds a controlling interest in another engineering firm, Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass. Perini ranks No. 6 by dollar amount in war-related government contracts in the Middle East. According to its annual report, "Perini proudly supports the U.S. government with global rapid response capabilities for defense, reconstruction and security." Perini builds military facilities and roads in Afghanistan, electrical infrastructure in Iraq and U.S. embassies around the world.
After the Senate, Feinstein included, approved Bush's war plans in 2002, Perini's defense contract awards soared from negligible to $2.52 billion. But, as with many of the sole-source, open-ended contracts awarded to politically connected firms, there are problems with accountability. Last summer, Department of Defense auditors determined that Perini could not adequately justify its costs in Iraq as fair and reasonable. That's government-speak for: They're gouging the #!$% out of us.
Perini is heavily engaged in military and municipal public works projects inside the United States; at least two are also under investigation for contract fraud. For example, the city of San Francisco has sued general contractor Perini--which was in a joint venture with the Tutor-Saliba construction firm--for $100 million in cost overruns at a San Francisco International Airport project. The lawsuit alleges that the joint venture engaged in "a sophisticated pattern of fraud," including inflating costs, fabricating delays and setting up minority front companies to exploit affirmative-action preferences. The attorney general of Massachusetts is looking into alleged false claims made by a Perini joint venture in the "Big Dig" urban highway construction boondoggle in Boston.
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/so...yrne-0505.html
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Perini Corporation
Founded more than a century ago in Massachusetts as a civil infrastructure contractor, Perini is known today for its hospitality and gaming industry projects, and for its corrections, health care, sports, entertainment and educational expertise. It is the largest casino and hotel builder in the United States. It also builds hospitals, prisons and public buildings. In addition, Perini is a major player in civil infrastructure construction, working on everything from bridges and highways to subways and airports.
Chairman and CEO Ronald Tutor and billionaire investor Richard Blum, who together own investment groups that hold 75 percent of Perini's voting stock, control the company. Blum is the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Iraq contracts
In April 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Transatlantic Programs Center awarded a contract to Perini worth as much as $500 million to provide goods and services to the U.S. Central Command. Washington Group International and Fluor Intercontinental were awarded similar contracts. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract has a performance period of one year. The IDIQ contract allows the Corps of Engineers to call upon the contracted companies to rapidly execute design and construction services as needed anywhere in CENTCOM's area of operations to support military operations, other U.S. government agencies, or friendly foreign governments under established agreements. The area of operations encompasses 25 nations from the Horn of Africa into central Asia, including Afghanistan and Iraq. No specific work or location for work to be performed has been identified to date.
In late September 2003, the Army Corps of Engineers issued additional task orders totaling $278 million on the three individual contracts and the Corps decided to raise the contract ceiling from $100 million to $500 million.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/b...ct=pro&ddlC=45
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What about Dianne Feinstein's (D -CA) war profits did you forget about them?
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Would you rather have a walk on part in the war or a lead role in a cage?
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06-21-2008, 03:41 AM
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