BOSS HOGG MAKES A DEAL, OR YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDNEY-ING ME, HALEY

Laura Conaway over at Maddowblog flags down this story starring everyone's favorite Southern Gentlemen, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

That Jamie and Gladys Scott were still in a Mississippi prison at all shows something's wrong. The two sisters had been given double life sentences for a 1993 armed robbery that may have netted no more than $11 and injured no one. They left behind four small children.


Yesterday Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour announced that he would let the Scott sisters out of jail, suspending their sentences with a condition that managed to make headlines all on its own: Gladys has to give Jamie one of her kidneys. Jamie is suffering from complete kidney failure, and her sister offered one of hers in their application for parole.

Effing really?  A kidney?  And the only reason Barbour's agreeing to this is that keeping Jaime Scott in prison is costing the state far more in medical treatment than it's worth to keep her in jail.

To recap, incarcerating two women for the rest of their lives over $11 was totally worth it to the state, until it started costing the state nearly $200 grand a year in dialysis treatment.  Now?  Not so much.  But to make sure you don't cost taxpayers much more than that, Boss Hogg is looking to make a deal.  Of course, how the Scott sisters ended up in this mess is open to debate.

In 1993, Gladys and Jamie Scott were arrested and charged with leading two men into an ambush in Scott County, according to CNN affiliate WLBT. Court records show the men were robbed by three teenagers who hit them with a shotgun and took their wallets.

According to The Clarion-Ledger, in Jackson, Mississippi, the sisters had pleaded not guilty as accessories but were convicted of armed robbery, while the three accomplices received lesser sentences and since have been released.

All over $11. Best part is while Boss Hogg certainly has enough problems, he thinks he's a hero because he's saving Mississippi taxpayers money.

"Instead of Mississippi taxpayers bearing that, it will be spread over all the taxpayers in the United States," Barbour said. Just as long as he doesn't have to think about it anymore.

Guy's got a heart of gold...heavy, dense, and you could kill someone with it.