| Good Morning Michigan!
Well kidz today's Thursday, I've got a wildcard, and I'm going to use it to bring you on over to my side of Michigan. Lovely Shiawassee County, farm country in the heart of Michigan, population 71,687. Sal-ute.
 So, there's this prosecutor who left work in the middle of the day, T-boned a car, fled the scene, was chased by an Argus Press route driver, ran his truck into a ditch, drove his truck out of the ditch, and then continued to flee until a cop caught him. (Stop me if you've heard it.)
He was arrested last Friday and charged with a couple of misdemeanors by the Michigan Attorney General's Office. Because when you T-bone a car, flee the scene, get chased by an Argus Press route driver,run your truck into a ditch, drive your truck out of the ditch, and then continue to flee until a cop catches you, that's just a couple of misdemeanors. Pish.
Doesn't really matter though. I am convinced that there is nothing the legal system can do to Colbry that will hurt as much as the bad press and the Internet and public opinion. He is getting skewered by the public, and I. Don't. Care.
Now if this was Rep Dick Ball (R-85) or Sen Valde Garcia (R-whatever my district is) , I'd have a different opinion. I don't like either one of them, but they don't give Shiawassee the finger on a regular basis. Randy Colbry, on the other hand, is an arrogant and secretive ass. And as legal counsel for the Board of Commissioners, he's a lying sack of crap. He requests closed BoC meetings, he supports illegal contracts, he makes up fake criminal cases, and he denies FOIA after FOIA after FOIA. One FOIA he denied on the basis that "this FOIA request requires me to write an opinion, and the Freedom of Information Act does not require me to write opinions."
:: exhale ::
As I said, if this were Dick Ball or Valde Garcia, I'd feel something for them. Might even step in and ask for mercy on their behalf. Ball and Garcia at least approach their public service with some humility and respect for their positions. Not Colbry.
I have a special relationship with Randy Colbry.* He's the one who made me angry enough to start blogging about Shiawassee. We have plenty of scoundrels, but he was the one person in the county who was disrespecting my people** so bad that I finally stood up and said, "You & me pal. Let's take this online."
Not one to back down from a challenge, he said "aight" and straight up kicked my ass on the drain commissioner story. One could say that I kicked his ass, since I was telling the truth and the AG agreed with me. Although the AG didn't actually agree with me, so much as just issue a legal opinion that validated everything I was saying. But in the press, Colbry kicked my ass by ignoring me, and I kicked my own ass by not doing a very good job of staying on point. He's a good politician, and I mean that in a bad way. Randy Colbry taught me how to fight good politicians. I'll give him credit for that.
And I'll give him credit ... I want to barf, I can't believe I'm saying this ... I'll give him credit for being a prosecutor. Prosecutors see things that most of us will never see. Murder, rape, child abuse, suicides. Terrible things that we would never want to see. Prosecutors study the details of these things. I can forgive a man for developing a drinking problem, when he makes his living staring into the abyss. Colbry doesn't do his job perfectly ... in fact he does it very badly ... but I want to believe that there was at least one point in time when he wanted to protect the public from the dark side of humanity. So I'll give him credit for that.
I don't want him to continue to be our prosecutor, but that's not because he T-BONED A CAR, FLED THE SCENE, WAS CHASED BY AN ARGUS PRESS ROUTE DRIVER, RAN HIS TRUCK INTO A DITCH, DROVE HIS TRUCK OUT OF THE DITCH, AND THEN CONTINUED TO FLEE UNTIL A COP CAUGHT HIM. Oh no. That's because Randy Colbry has overstayed his welcome. If there was ever an earnest protector of the commons in Randy Colbry, that man is gone. In his place is a shell of a man who resents the public that he serves.
But part of me wants Colbry to stay on as prosecutor. I desperately want to kick Colbry's ass, and I want to do it in a way that it makes history. I want people telling their children, "you should've seen the day when that girl kicked the prosecutor's ass with nothing but a blog." I want state offices to close on that day. And none of these 'unpaid furlough' things, I want a REAL holiday, thankyouverymuch. I want Randy Colbry limping walking away from all of this knowing that all he had to do was show some respect for the people he is supposed to represent.
Yes, I want to kick Randy Colbry's ass. But I want to kick his ass when he's up. Not when he's down. Doesn't count if it's not a fair fight.
Answer to yesterday's Michigan trivia:
Michmark!
O'Shea and Meadows found features that they believe to be hunting pits, camps, caribou drive lanes and stone piles used to attract the caribou to the drive lanes. Drive lanes are long rows of rocks used to channel caribou into ambushes.
All found at the bottom of Lake Huron! Awesome!
Ahem. Trivia is not a spectator sport people!! Come on Blogging For Michigan peeps, let's get to it!
(That probably came across better in my head than online)
Today's Michigan trivia:
Franklin Thompson and enlisted as a private in the Second Michigan Infantry in Detroit on May 25, 1861. What was so special about him?
Today in Michigan history:
1792 - Michigan voters go to the polls for the first time. Although Michigan became part of the U.S. in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Great Britain refused to surrender its outposts at Detroit and Mackinac. As Canada was being organized, Detroiters went to the polls for the first time and elected three representatives (William Macomb, Francois Baby and David W. Smith) to serve in the Upper Canada (Ontario) Provincial Assembly. Via Michigan History Magazine
That's it. Enjoy Thursday!
* Don't tell him! He might not know.
** The fine folk of Shiawassee. My people, every day of the year. |
