Haley's Comet

When the outgoing governor of Mississippi, the honorable Republican Haley Barbour, was leaving the office the other day, he apparently packed up all personal belongings, all that stuff that collects in a desk over the years, and failed to check the new calendar on the wall.

He just totally LOOKS like the governor of Mississippi!

In the apparent belief that this is the year 1812, Mr Barbour let loose upon this land some 200 of the finest that his famed penitentiaries have to offer.  Murderers, thieves, probably a rapist or two, who knows?  "But nobody on death row!" he proudly proclaimed. 

Here's the part that makes me wonder what year it is in Mississippi:

"The pardons were intended to allow them to find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote," Barbour said.

So, setting aside our wondering about what sort of "professional" organizations will grant licenses to convicted felons, are we just to understand that food is so hard to come by in the greater Hattiesburg area that, rather than just send them to the Buy-So-Lo, we give rifles to murderers in hopes they will come back with the pickup full of venison?

Among those getting early outs from the Walled Off Astoria was the brother of former Packer/Falcon/Jet/Viking quarterback and Southern Miss college star Brett Favre. Earnest Scott Favre had his record cleared in the 1996 death of his best friend, Mark Haverty. Favre had driven in front of a train in Pass Christian while drunk, pleaded guilty in 1997, and was sentenced to a year of house arrest followed by two years' probation.  All this happened 15 years ago, and he was still in the Big House?  Just for spelling his first name wrong?

Karen Irby also packed up her troubles in her old kit bag and headed home, presumably to Jackson, where she was a socialite before a DUI crash killed two doctors. 

In 1996, South African Azikiwe Kambule was sent up as a teen in the carjacking and murder of a Jackson woman.  Today, it's like that never even happened.  He's headed home.


I did mention Mr Barbour's party affiliation, did I not?  Lest anyone think he's one of those liberals, soft on crime,  and willing to spring forth a veritable phalanx of Willie Hortons on an unprotected populace...