Barbourous oral flatulence

Mere words cannot convey the depth of human contempt for the Barbourous pronouncements issuing from the Mississippi gubernator over the last few weeks. After recently attempting to justify the racist behavior of his hometown Citizens Committee in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, Gov. Haley Barbour trumped his own play by suspending the double life sentences of  Jamie and Gladys Scott for their alleged role in an $11 armed robbery in 1994.  So surprising was this turn of events that the womens' attorney and the NAACP proclaimed this a victory for JUSTICE IN MISSISSIPPI.


No such interpretation is warranted, or even conceivable, given that the Guvna's "pardon" is contingent upon Gladys giving her sister a healthy kidney. After all, reasoned the Governor, Jamie's daily dialysis is costing the State almost $200,000 a year.

If JUSTICE is the point, why hasn't Mississippi's judicial system reversed the original conviction of these women? Why hasn't it been reviewing the probity of a double life sentence for conviction of the alleged crime? Why hasn't it questioned why others convicted of "armed robbery" are not serving double life sentences?

If COMPASSION is the Governor's motive, why hasn't the Mississippi correctional system, and the Governor's office, been actively searching for a kidney transplant for Jamie so that she may serve at least half of her sentence?

Is there a moral or ethical issue here? What? Trading organs for a reduced sentence? What? Isn't that illegal in civilized societies? Is Mississippi jurisprudence so warped that champions of racial justice would celebrate this as a victory? Affirmative to all these questions.

One thing not left in doubt, is that, somewhere in Yazoo City, or Jacksonville, lives a soul-less, quivering, gelatinous mass of neurons devoid of a single strand of moral fiber. And, He would be King?

Tommy Lee Jones said it best in "No Country for Old Men", "You cain't make up such a thing as that--I'd dare ya to try!"

P.S. to all Americans:  Be more careful with your vote; sometimes you get what you asked for.