Saturday, January 28, 2012

NY Times reports more details on the pardons

The New York Times published a new story on the Barbour pardons last night. Some excerpts:

"Many of those pardoned appear to have no special connections. Others with political ties made persuasive cases that they had led chastened lives and earned a second chance. Applications contained letters from pastors, teachers and counselors attesting to genuine redemption.

Yet in a state with the highest poverty rate in the nation, where nearly 70 percent of convicts are black, official redemption appears to have been attained disproportionately by white people and the well connected. ...

In some of the appeals for clemency, personal connections to Mr. Barbour were unabashedly made. “Maggi and I wanted to begin by thanking you and Marsha for a lovely and special lunch at the Mansion last Tuesday,” began a letter to the governor by a family friend of Doug Hindman, one pardon applicant. “It was very interesting to see the historical quilt upstairs.” ....

Many of the applications contain the type of recommendations that a poor person could be hard-pressed to collect: character references from state legislators or local elected officials. .....

Mr. Bonds pointed out in his own letter that he was the nephew of “one of the largest cotton farmers in Mississippi,” Don Waller, who also wrote a letter on his behalf. Mr. Waller is the brother of William L. Waller, a former governor who died in November.

John Champion, the district attorney, said that knowing Mr. Bonds’s family, “I suspected all along that they were going to attempt to get him a pardon.” He added, “I know that he has political connections...." Rest of article

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This stuff makes it harder to try and find reasons to justify Barbour's actions. I think I'll give up on that now.

Anonymous said...

Must be IDed as bourbon democracy. Its a christian thing to a degree.
But should be identified as a slavery and master thing that typified the Delta and the former speakers Sillers, Newman, et. al. Barbour is following in the footsteps of his own father, family, and Delta patriarchs of old who exercised a complete power in their isolated sphere.

Anonymous said...

Did several who received pardons have connections to Barbou's nephews?

Anonymous said...

Come on people, give the Ex Guv a break.

He woke up in the middle of the night with fire in his belly, hitched up his britches, and opened the gates
at Parchman.

Curt Crowley said...

Maggie and I wanted to begin by thanking you and Marsha for a lovely and special lunch at the Mansion. So sorry we made Marsha throw up when we described the horrible things our little pedophile friend did. Especially enjoyed seeing the quilt upstairs, for little dougie envisioned using the same type of quilt to nail what he thought was a 13 year old girl. Again, thanks for listening to us tell you what a great guy little Chester Hindman is.

Anonymous said...

my opinion only:

Barbour was a great governor at a time when we needed him most. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, he exited in a blaze of doo doo! What a legacy to leave!

Anonymous said...

I am a life long republican and Barbours immoral, greedy, corrupt ..self is making me reconsider. Wonder how his big obese behind would feel if his children were victimized. He is a disgusting disgrace to our state.

Anonymous said...

Barbour also destroyed one of the top five Employment Security Departments in the Nation when he tricked the
House & Senate to abolish the MESC and create the MDES.

Anonymous said...

The MESC had been run like a plantation for 50 years. Cronyism, favoritism and political payoffs at it's very worst, regardless of the party in power. It's been destroyed alright, but not because the three member commission posts were abolished. The destruction began when it stopped being a service agency and became a political dumping ground.

Anonymous said...

I am a life long republican and Barbours immoral, greedy, corrupt ..self is making me reconsider.

Maturity then has not been kind to your thought processes.

Anonymous said...

I don't disagree 2:23.

But as a small business owner, I can't fire any worthless employee without having
to answer the most idiotic questions from their staff after said fired employee attempts to file for Unemployment at my expense.

If I appeal "their decision", then the so-called
Administrative Judges screw me worse and allow the idiot employee to get unemployment and
jack up my tax rate .

Don't even get me started on the WIN Job Centers.

They have never sent me anyone that truly wanted a job. I quit using them years ago.

You can't beat private employment agencies if you want decent people that want to work.

Anonymous said...

Hello small business owner above, all I can say is amen to what you just said! I have 16 employees and you're right, if I fire one for not coming to work, speeding, failure to be safe, or even destroying equipment, I am paying unemployment whether I document it or not! The laws hurt small businesses and we have no one to defend us , I just appealed again and now am waiting on a court date to defend my position in a Madison court against MDES decision to give an employee unemployment, I've never gone this far before but I'm going to do it this time just out of principal, wish me luck!

Shadowfax said...

3:08; if you've lost appeals, then you either fired people without proper planning or you didn't know how to represent yourself at the hearing.

Using the WIN center for employee referral is like wanting a good meal. Do you go to the free Soup Kitchen or a Restaurant where you pay a fair price?

Anonymous said...

This is an eye-opener about MDES. I've heard the union organizers terrorizing workers that Mississippi is an "at will" employment state, and an employer can be terminated with no notice for any reason, or even no reason at all.

This may explain why UMMC HR will not fire people with documented, major infractions whose supervisers want fired.

Anonymous said...

That's the first time I've seen Shadowfax make a good point, and there are actually TWO in the same post!

Anonymous said...

He's right about the soup kitchen analogy, but I must agree with the businessmen.
I have prepared all of the documentation that any average "Justice Court Judge" would clearly see
as "work related misconduct" .

From what I've been told , they are operating under new Federal Dept. of Labor Regs that
the Obama Administration has forced upon them . That makes sense, as many of their employees
apologize when they have to call me back with additional questions that their "adjudicators" require.



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