Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EFLtrainer]

Cheney profits from terrorism, keeps job.

It's OK to help kill our soldiers as long as you outsource it...

[ddeubel]

And even bigger, is the SAIC. The obtained contracts worth billions without any oversight.

Much of that money went to those on its staff that are former administration members, politicos...... Basically SAIC is where former govt members go to be "rewarded".

Horrid. This I see as the number one dilema and why America seems addicted to the military and war.........those in power see a quick way to enrich so they have reason to promote. Either through earmarks or through military / pentagon contracts and scooping off what falls between the cracks...... The system must be broken and is even more dangerous in the long term than lobbying and corporate interference through political "donations" in my mind.

DD

[spliff]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSK5PwiWcQQ

[jinju]

This is going to draw the pathetic leftists like crap draws flies. Maybe ddeubel can write an amateurish poem on this issue

[ddeubel]

Jinju,

If I am left, you are left out.

If there wasn't any shyte, us flies wouldn't be so much about either....

But to honour your request, here are a couple. Of course not all Americans are idiots, but the ones in the White house are...

[khyber]

[EFLtrainer]

I thought presidents and vice-presidents were supposed to put their holdings into blind trusts?

Further, I thought any company they might be invested in where there would be *any* chance of a conflict of interest had to be immediately divested?

So, here we have a VP, who is THE point man on the war, holding stock in the primary recipient of war spending... and said company has failed in virtually every area they have been contracted for... and have over-charged on pretty much every contract.... and have aided and abetted the enemy... how is this ALONE not enough for impeachment? The last is outright TREASON!

[igotthisguitar]

The thread title is missing the word "CRIMINALS"

[cranura]

let's be fair...........cheney had to give up his money connections upon becoming vice president

what about a senior senator from california who made billions and only recently "resigned"?

political corruption is everywhere, every country, every party..........let's try to be balanced about it eh? otherwise just accept the reality that it lives on both sides of every aisle

Feinstein Corruption Case
by Peter Byrne Friday, Mar. 30, 2007 at 12:21 AM

Feinstein Resignation - U.S. Senator Feinstein resigns from MILCON Appropriations suncommittee due to corruption. Feinstein approved billions of dollars of defense contracts to her husband Richard Blum, which directly benefited her and resulted in her family making hundreds of millions of dollars

Feinstein Corruption...
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Feinstein Resigns

Senator exits MILCON following Metro expos�, vet-care scandal

By Peter Byrne

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.

Two years ago, before the Washington Post became belatedly involved, the online magazine Salon.com exposed the horrors of deficient medical care for Iraq war veterans. While leading MILCON, Feinstein had ample warning of the medical-care meltdown. But she was not proactive on veteran's affairs.

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases�often without the benefit of competitive bidding�to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.

As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and http://www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum's financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:

* Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.

* Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.

* CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.

You would think that, considering all the money Feinstein's family has pocketed by waging global warfare while ignoring the plight of wounded American soldiers, she would show a smidgeon of shame and resign from the entire Senate, not just a subcommittee. Conversely, you'd think she might stick around MILCON to try and fix the medical-care disaster she helped to engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and Bush's panoply of unjust wars.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/196025.php

[EFLtrainer]

[ontheway]

The link in the OP only says that Cheney gets a pension from Haliburton. Drawing a pension is NOT a conflict of interest.

Cheney might be a real Dick but this link has nothing of interest.

[EFLtrainer]

[ontheway]

No stock options were mentioned in the posted article. Those should be held in his blind trust, the story was mute on all but his pension.

[huffdaddy]

[ontheway]

Huff's article explains the options and deferred compensation issues.

Deferred compensation, especially as Cheney had it insured, is no different than a pension. There is no conflict of interest.

The stock options are another matter. The potential value of the options is at least 50 times that of the deferred compensation, perhaps much more. If not held inside a blind trust, they are a TOTAL conflict of interest. Cheney gains from every little increase in stock value of Haliburton stock. The pledge to donate the net proceeds to charity sounds plausible, but why not transfer the options to a blind trust with instructions to donate the proceeds to specified charities?

Even inside a blind trust, he would be aware that the asset was likely there and growing in value. The thing about a blind trust is that the option could have been exercised and the stock sold by the trustee without Cheney's knowledge. Cheney, therefore wouldn't really know if he would benefit from an increase in the stock value.