Sen. Dianne Feinstein steered “billions of dollars in military contracts to companies partially owned by her wealthy husband, Richard Blum. One company alone earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by Feinstein’s committee and another $759 million.”

Yet she never even recused herself from voting on these. Even though she and her husband directly profited from it. Sickening, isn’t it?

Now she’s the new chair of the Senate Rules Committee and, laughingly, is in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of senators. Perhaps she wanted this new post so she could better block investigations into her conflicts of interests?

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While many commentators accuse the rich nations of not acting like the Samaritan, the Pope goes a big step further and compares them to the thieves.

Plus, he praises Marx’s analysis of modern man as well, saying Marx “provided a clear image of the man who has fallen victim to brigands.”

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This Saturday, April 7, 12 noon
Olympic & Broadway, Los Angeles
Full rights for all immigrants! Stop the racist raids!

Legalize now! Gran Marcha Abril 7, 2007 !Legalizacion ahora!

More info: ANSWERLA.org

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Washington Post

The revelations, combined with protester accounts, provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence.

The Partnership for Civil Justice has more. They filed the lawsuit which forced the release of the police logs.

“It really is a secret police: This is an effort to suppress political dissent,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice. “If this was happening in another country that the U.S. was targeting, U.S. officials at the highest levels would be decrying this as a violation of human rights”

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DiFi is feeling the heat for being chair of a subcommittee that voted billions of dollars in funding to her husband’s companies. Breaking silence on the issue, she is now calling such allegations “nonsense,” yet it’s her denial that is nonsensical.

Feinstein’s service on the committee never presented a conflict of interest, [Feinstein spokesperson Scott] Gerber said, because she didn’t have the power to direct contracts to her husband’s business or any other company.

That’s only technically true, said Kenneth Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog group. He said Tuesday it was disingenuous for Feinstein’s office to claim she had no role in awarding contracts.

To repeat, Feinstein voted yes on the appropriations, so her denial is the usual haughty weasel-worded non-denial denials that politicians issue when they’re starting to get into serious trouble and still think they can stonewall their way out.

“To say she didn’t actually do the contract is fall-down-laughing material,” Boehm said.

Yet no one in Congress, not even Republicans, are saying anything.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, reportedly said the Feinstein matter could eclipse other congressional scandals.

“There are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest,” Sloan told Metro Newspapers. “But because of the amount of money involved, Feinstein’s conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts.”

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From Wikipedia

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion founded in 2005 by Oregon State University physics graduate Bobby Henderson to protest against the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution.

In an open letter sent to the education board, Henderson professes belief in a supernatural Creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which resembles spaghetti and meatballs. He furthermore calls for the “Pastafarian” theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms, essentially invoking a reductio ad absurdum argument against the teaching of intelligent design.

I believe the Kansas State Board of Education has finally been dragged kicking and screaming into at least the 1800’s, so the Noble Truths espoused by FSM are being used to attack other examples of junk science.

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