"The Whole Month of May Was Just a Blur"

One might want to file this under "Things a Politician Shouldn't Say." Yet, this is exactly what Colbert County Commissioner David Black did say at last Tuesday's meeting. We'll assume he was referring to the mad whirl of a failed state political campaign, but as one of his staunchest critics pointed out, no matter what he's currently running for, he's still an elected official in Colbert County. Black, like many pols, needs a coach to polish his rough edges...and that's at a minimum.

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You've probably seen a link here to a Facebook page called Colbert County Corruption. We have two comments about the page - one pro and one con. First, on the down side, we've seen criticism of the page for being too combative in its approach. We can see merit in that argument. When readers contact us about taking down a photo or changing wording in an article, we certainly are more amenable to their requests if they don't start out with "You, m***********g b***h." Certainly the writers of CCC have not used such language, but we have seen a combative edge to the site. We do not believe that has been their intention, but the written word does not always come across as originally intended.

On the other side of the coin, we've seen criticism of the name, specifically the word "corruption." We have no doubt that there has been abuse of the power of elected officials in all 67 Alabama counties. Some counties have more abuse than others, and perhaps Colbert is one of these. The abuse of power for gain does not have to be strictly for monetary gain, but can involve nepotism or a quest for social position. We certainly believe that has occurred in the City of Muscle Shoals government and probably in all local governments at one time or the other. 

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Finally, our blog regularly receives reports of, calling a Swiss bank account a Swiss bank account, bribes involving one Colbert County official who is involved in legislation. We cannot publish these claims without proof. Ideally, if you have proof of these statements, send your information to the Alabama Ethics Commission and more importantly to the attorney general's office. 

There should be no room for any servant of the people lining his/her pockets with bribes.