Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Rowland Safe at Home
As a citizen of Waterbury, I am delighted to have John Rowland on the case, promoting and pushing for the place he loves most. Waterbury 's downtown has many assets as a place for businesses and offices, but the city has never been willing to pay for a top person to do the schmoozing and selling. Now they are getting a very good schmoozer, who still has good contacts in place, at what will no doubt be a bargain price. Make all the Waterbury jokes you want. I have heard them all and even made up a few. Rowland has paid a fair price for his foolish behavior and now wants to turn the page and prove himself anew. I really do think Waterbury will benefit from this move.
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4 comments:
yea, nothing like a felon to be doing business and representing your city. Just the kind of image Waterbury needs.. LAUGHING STOCK
Most of us are felonious in word, thought or deed. The beauty of getting caught and doing your time is the chance to redeem yourself.
Mayor Jarjura's hiring of Rowland was like a pharmacy hiring a convicted drug addict. Just read the following from the website Rowland, Inc.:
The crimes of federal prisoner #15623-014 John Rowland are numerous and of colossal scale. Connecticut taxpayers will be footing the bill for Rowland's scams for decades into the future. In a state and city with an extensive culture of political corruption, Rowland's decade in power ascended to a new level of fraud. The biggest frauds he perpetrated against the state's treasury were each in excess of $200 million:
• the disappearance of $220 million in an illegal loan in the CCRA/Enron scheme
• the $317 million of no-bid contracts awarded to Tomasso family entities
• the over $200 million in state subsidies and investments showered on Pfizer/NLDC in New London and New Haven
• the over $500 million Rowland's State Treasurer, Paul Silvester, steered to favored investment firms before Silvester was also caught and sent to prison.
Then there is the minor matter of an unpaid $2,199.66 bill (for stone for his vacation cottage) from O&G Industries which was not paid by the governor until four years later as his ethical problems began to catch up to him. Four years during which O&G received more than $276 million from the state. Common Cause has revealed that individuals associated with this firm contributed $136,975 to various political campaigns, primarily those in which Rowland was a candidate.
Do the math. If you add the five figures above, it is clear John G. Rowland, former Connecticut Congressman and Governor, was a master criminal who purloined over $1,500,000,000 on behalf of his powerful patrons.
At sentencing [wherein he admitted on the record to committing eight different felonies] Rowland claimed he possessed but $10,000 in a checking account as his entire assets, after a decade as the criminal mastermind behind the greatest robbery in history. $10,000 amounts to less than one thousandth of one percent of the massive haul from all of his crimes.
Contrast this to Connecticut State Senator Ernest Newton, convicted in early 2006 of taking $5,000 in bribes and engaging in a pattern of shaking down constituents and selling his office. Newton got five years in prison, comparable to sentences handed out to other public officials who violate the public trust.
When the feds were forced to lock up Governor John G. Rowland because of his increasingly obvious corruption, he served but 10 months in prison. Upon release in February of 2006, Rowland announced that he had gained religion and would henceforth proceed with his life based on "blind faith." Not likely. Meet the new Rowland, same as the old Rowland, we won't be fooled again. kelovnewlondon.com/rowland.htm
Wow! The next time I'm looking for an example of how hatred can cloud the mind, I'll be sure to return to the previous post. Rowland definitely showed illegal favoritism to friends and associates and he went to jail for that. But to say he "purloined" over a billion dollars along the way shows little understanding of where the money went and how it was spent. It mostly went to projects that needed to be done (Tomasso) or investments that needed to be made (Silvester). The vast majority of the money you cite was actually put to normal use. It just flowed through corrupt hands along the way. You zealots have a way of destroying your own arguments.
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