1019 Punish Pedro

1019 Punish Pedro!

Pedro Espada is a thief.  This is not news, because everyone already knew that.  But now he’s a convicted thief.

Espada is a former State Senator from the Bronx.  He has been in one public job or another for around 30 years.   And all he says about his thievery is that it’s a bunch of charges trumped up by his political enemies.  That’s what they all say... or at least all who get caught.

Politicians who steal are a dime a dozen.  What’s special about Espada is that he skimmed money from the supposedly non-profit healthcare network he started and he heads.  Another rob the poor job.  The Bronx has produced some elegantly corrupt office holders.  Most of them understood you had to give back.  Not Pedro.

His company is called Soundview.  And Espada used his corporate credit card to buy little things like lobster and sushi.  You can buy an awful lot of that with $100,000.  How much lobster can one guy eat?  But the lobster and sushi are small fish.  The real stealing went into the millions.

You may remember this guy as the Democrat who defected to the Republicans after his original party won a majority in the State Senate.  That brought chaos.  Of course, chaos is standard operating procedure in Albany.  But this was even more chaotic chaos than the usual.  No one knew what to do.  Pedro did.  He went back to the Dems and they elected him leader of the pack.

Fortunately for everyone but his girlfriend, he beat her up and that got him thrown out of Albany.  But it didn’t get him thrown out of Soundview.

How many doctor visits and colonoscopies and mammograms can you buy for what Pedro stole?

Now, lock the guy up and let him skim scam and steal for cigarettes and cerveza in the federal pen.

Meantime someone has to put Soundview back on sound footing.  Is there a doctor in the house?

Shrapnel:


--NYU researchers in southern France have found what they say are the world’s oldest cave paintings, perhaps 37,000 years old.  One says “even then, people wanted to decorate their homes.”  Hard to believe since God created the world only five or six thousand years ago.

--Things are tough in the banking world.  First, there was the two billion dollar trading loss at Chase.  Now First Republic, about one millionth the size of Chase is cutting back on the grace period for renewing CDs, and probably further lowering interest payments.  But they still know your name when you walk in, which is becoming easier because no one will walk in after the latest changes.

--Stop using “comparing apples and oranges” as a contradiction... you know who you are and it isn’t.  Both are spherical fruit, both grow on trees, both can be eaten raw or juiced, both are filled with seeds.  It’s a perfectly decent and legitimate comparison.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
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© WJR 2011