Steve:
Did you get to ask DiFi any questions afterward? Did you get to ask her what she's doing for the No to Prop 8 campaign? What did Mort Halperin have to say? And for all the readers out there, Mark Halperin(Yes, that one) is Mort's son.

JK's conscience -- I didn't. This photo was taken a while back. Senator Feinstein spoke about her efforts to get a serious new nuclear strategy assessment launched as she had concerns about a slippery slope towards the development of a whole new generation of nuclear weapons. I was quite impressed with her take on the subject matter -- but other matters were not discussed. I posted this not for substance but because I liked the picture...

best, steve

Steve,
For "great" art, check out the paper weight collection in the basement of the Art Inst!

questions -- thanks for the recommendation. will do, steve

The heck with Feinstein, I'd like to hear from Halperin. That guy has been around. Some of his creds, for me, were referred to by Rep. Phillip Crane on March 17, 1993.

From the Congressional Record:
"Halperin, however, is no `New Democrat,' but a far-left civil libertarian who made his mark during the Cold War attempting to undermine America's key national security agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and the Pentagon.

"Until recently the director of the ACLU's Washington office, Halperin has championed the activities of Philip Agee, the pro-Communist CIA renegade, testified on behalf of `Pentagon Papers' leaker Daniel Ellsberg and generally waged an unholy war against America's intelligence community."

The old man looks wealthy, powerful, terrified and deathly.

Ugh. One voted for the atrocious FISA bill, the other merely betrayed everything that he supposedly stood for by supporting it. A shameful chapter in modern "Democratic" history, that Obama should forever be ashamed for supporting.

But we'll deal with that after 11/4.

Steve,

Sorry, DiFi's true position on the Iraq war is really about as clear as your picture. And just maybe she wants it that way.

DiFi and her hubby live in a multi-million SF Bay palace worth over $15 million. DiFi's's old man got a multi-million DOD contract for "helping out" on the Iraq war, doing things he supposedly was not really trained in or knowledgable of.

From over five years ago,

"URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million.

The award to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism efforts is the latest in a string of plum defense jobs snared by URS. In February, the firm won an army engineering and logistics contract that could bring in $3.1 billion during the next eight years.

Government contracting has come under increasing scrutiny by Congress and citizen groups, with critics decrying the political connections of firms winning lucrative jobs. Richard Blum, Feinstein's husband, serves on the company's board of directors and controls about 24 percent of the firm's stock, according to Hoover's Inc. research firm.

A Feinstein spokesman Monday declined to comment on the contract."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/22/MN310531.DTL

Off topic, but this is what civil service and service to country really look like:

Judith C. Gilliom, 65, who led the first department-level disability program at the Defense Department, died Oct. 15 at Suburban Hospital from the effects of a stroke. She lived in Wheaton.

Ms. Gilliom was paralyzed from the neck down in 1970, when she fell in her home and struck the back of her neck on a kitchen stool. After a year of rehabilitation, she returned to her job as editor of Hearing & Speech Action, a publication of the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action.

She reached a turning point, she said in a 1975 article in Ms. Magazine, when she accepted her fate as a disabled person.

"I cannot overemphasize the importance of giving up hope," she said. "Facts are facts. Wishful thinking is a waste of time."

She used motorized wheelchairs and specialized devices to help her with writing, eating and other everyday tasks.

In the late 1970s and early '80s, Ms. Gilliom worked for the old U.S. Civil Service Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she wrote documents that helped form the basis of a federal affirmative action program for people with disabilities.

In 1983, she joined the Defense Department, where she had a key role in making building standards and computer and electronic accommodations meet the needs of people with disabilities. She also helped develop programs for disabled hiring and career advancement. Many of those programs were adopted by other federal agencies.

At the Defense Department, Ms. Gilliom was also Asian Pacific program manager for 21 years and served as interim manager of the Federal Women's Program. She was also a member of the U.S. Access Board, an independent federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities.

She received two Civilian Career Service Awards from the secretary of defense and the Outstanding Service Award of the Federal Asian Pacific American Council. She was named to the Defense Department's civilian employee hall of fame.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101801920.html