His Jihad
My friend, rightwing radio talk show host Michael Graham, has been radicalized by the draconian treatment he received in Massachusettsanamo. Now he’s on jihad. Handcuffed, booked, and hauled before a judge for … failing to properly cancel his insurance in Virginia. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles claims they sent him a warning. Graham claims he never got it.
So Graham, host of a popular rightwing morning drivetime rant on WTKK, 96.9 FM in Boston, going all jihad on the Registry. He wants a trial by a jury of his peers. Sure, it will cost the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a lot, tie up court time that might be better used advancing the public safety interests of the citizenry in some other way. But the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should have thought of that before it slapped cuffs on Graham for failing to properly cancel his insurance in Virginia.
“I want a jury trial. I want six registered Massachusetts drivers and I’m calling one witness, Rachel Kaprielian - Register of the RMV - and they can let her know what they think of how she treats the drivers of Massachusetts,” he said.
Graham said he is going through paperwork and that no one can explain why he lost his license in the first place.
Graham said the Massachusetts RMV doesn’t inform drivers when their license is expired or when it’s been revoked.
Amicus brief: I got a ticket recently for an expired registration, after the RMV failed to mail the biennial renewal notice it has sent like clockwork for the last quarter century. Good thing a meter maid spotted it while I was parked, and not a cop while I was driving, or they might have slapped the cuffs on me like they did with Graham. That reminds me. I was planning to go jihad on the RMV myself. The Registry clerk said renewal notification is now “random.” Random? “She got one. I didn’t,” the clerk said, pointing to the next clerk over. Random? It sounded so crazy, I didn’t think it could possibly be true. You know, like flushing Korans down the toilet.
Hey Michael, you need a witness to the random nature of Registry notifications? I’m your carbomb driver.
So what jury of free men and women would convict a man of driving without a license, because he failed to properly cancel his insurance in Virginia? Well, if his Middlesex County jury is comprised mainly of good citizens from, say, Cambridge or Concord, Graham’s out of luck. And this is Massachusetts, where judges and legislators can be cavalier about their interpretations of law, so who knows what will happen.
Graham’s pop news quiz: Which one of the following have been cuffed and jailed?
A. Tom Daschle, who failed to pay $140,000 in income taxes.
B. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who took money from his employer to “reimburse” him for taxes he never paid.
C. Every illegal immigrant in Massachusetts who is committing tax fraud and/or driving without a license or insurance.
D. Radio talk host Michael Graham.
Also at Graham’s site: Why the RMV sent me to jail. Or just scroll through the running rage updates.
Topics: Jihad, law & order
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 3:47 pm on Tuesday, February 17, 2009
6 Responses to “His Jihad”
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February 17th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Are you sure this is not a cunning plan to qualify for the Mr Gibbs’ replacement.
Cheers
February 17th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
This sounds like yet another opportunity to bring up Obama’s Harvard years parking tickets that he didn’t pay until he decided to run for president decades later, despite being a lawyer and senator and married to a lawyer and his having gotten a nice Rezko real estate deal that must have left him with a few dollars left over for old parking tickets, one would think. Did Obama ever get arrested for driving around for decades with unpaid parking tickets in another state I wonder? No, he got elected to the presidency.
February 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Graham’s pop news quiz: Which one of the following have been cuffed and jailed?
How many guesses do I get?
Ummm, Jules MUST you live there to fufill your professional duties?
Oooppss, sorry. Christ, you’d probably get life.
February 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
OH, I have a brother-in-law that ummm, well he’d take your place with the carbomb, thingy….:).
February 17th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I never heard of getting jailed because you failed to cancel your insurance in one state before moving to another state (in fact, I didn’t realize insurance doesn’t carry over from one state to another). Is this the iUnited States of America or not?
February 17th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Don’t cry for me, Cid. I live just off Currier and Ives Street, in N. Rockwell, New England. After spending my youth in sweaty tiger-infested jungles and the seedy back alleys of Bangkok, and parts of my adulthood in the dustier parts of Derkaderkastan, this place is exotic, with its four seasons and its picket fences and its cahs that are pahked in Hahvahd Yahd.
I have to put up with effed-up government, ridiculous laws, bureaucracy and taxes, and the local GOP is a trainwreck, but look on the bright side. I have the pleasure of voting against some of the biggest hacks, mountebanks, bounders, scoundrels and two-bit con men in government almost every year. At Boston’s conservative tabloid, it is a joy to be able to fight in all directions.