"FuneralGate" is Reanimating - Three Part * Scandal Guide

[autorank]

FACT: Funeral Home Giant, SCI is close to the * family and a Texas funeral home investigator who was hot on their case on Texas was fired (during *'s term as Gov.). She claimed the firing was to protect *'s pals SCI. Nothing happened to SCI after she was fired.

Scandal (Wikipedia on SCI-Service Corporation International
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Corporation_International

In the late 1990's, SCI was involved in a scandal in which the remains of a number of people were desecrated in a cemetery that the company owned. The cemetery was found to have been "recycling" graves - removing the remains of previous burials and placing other people in the graves.

The scandal took on an extra political dimension - company chairman Robert Waltrip was a friend of former US President George H.W. Bush's family. He had made a number of campaign contributions to the Bush family over the years.

The scandal, often called "Funeralgate", grew even further when Eliza May - a director with the Texas Funeral Service Commission - was fired while investigating SCI. She alleged in a lawsuit that she was fired because she refused to halt the investigation despite pressure from then Governor George W. Bush to halt the investigation into SCI's practices. However other members of the commission indicated that she was fired because others in the office had lost confidence in her, and that she was using her authority in an inappropriate manner.

FACT: Service Corporation International does business in Florida and is being sued by 50 Florida families for desecrating the dead, dumping corpses in public places, and mixing up remains.

Service Corporation International (SCI) Sued By Dozens Of Area Families
- Several Executives/Former Managers To Be Charged With Felonies Today -
http://www.riccilaw.com/FSL5CS/Noteworthy%20Results/noteworthyresults291.asp

Charges will be filed today in Palm Beach County, Florida against a number of Service Corporation International (SCI) corporate executives and former managers by James Cobb who has been designated the prosecutor in the case by the Florida Attorney General's Office. Jeffery Frucht, SCI's South Florida vice president, along with Robert McKay, a former general manager of two Menorah Gardens cemeteries include those to be named in the suit. SCI proclaims itself the world's largest funeral industry company.

ANALYSIS: Given the previous connection between * and SCI in a similar scandal and the suit in Florida and involvement from the Florida AG's office, could the scandal reemerge and be resuscitated linking it back to George W. *?

CannonFire

"Chop shops" are dealing in human body parts. The problem has been growing for some years, although this blog has never discussed it heretofore...

While it will be difficult to prove with certainty, many people are claiming to have been infected with potentially deadly viruses from contaminated body parts and human tissue illegally harvested from bodies and then marketed for implantation and grafting into unsuspecting patients. (From www.NewsInferno.Com)

The diseases include AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis. It gets worse...

The billion dollar body-part industry provided irresistible temptation to a group of unscrupulous criminals who bypassed all of the safety procedures in order to flood the market with potentially contaminated human tissue. Forged consents from family members, bogus documentation, and no regard for the cause of death of people who may have had serious or even fatal diseases, has placed an enormous number of people at risk.

Funeral homes across the country have been involved. And the story gets even worse...

Among the unspeakable horrors linked to this trafficking was the kidnapping of homeless children (for their transplantable tissues and organs) along the border between the U.S. and Mexico and the forced removal of organs from prisoners in third-world countries for sale in the U.S.

Joseph Cannon concludes: "(Emphasis added.) By now you must be thinking: Yes, yes...this is all very droll, but where's the Bush connection? There's gotta be a Bush connection...

Droll Indeed

[ccarter84]

1. SCI - Katrina links?

Dug this up from a blog I was keeping at the time tracking this BS....dunno how much tinfoil stuff I wanna think about right now during finals, but here is for the rest of you to ponder.

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.

Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses."

Full Article

[autorank]

2. That sounds about right. Thanks and the article is great. n/t

[starroute]

13. Don't forget it was Joe Albaugh who helped cover it up

Before he was set to trashing FEMA, Albaugh was Bush's chief of staff in Texas.

http://www.bushwatch.com/gravedigger.htm

Bush is presently pulling a "Where's Waldo?" with respect to telling the court what he knows about interactions between himself, his Funeral Commission, the Service Corporation International, which owns over 10% of all funeral homes in Texas and has been called "the world's largest death care company," key members of his staff, and the Attorney General, among others. George has missed a July 1 deposition date in a lawsuit filed by former Funeral Commission head Eliza May, which "alleges that May was fired because she 'repeatedly and in good faith reported violations of the law and conduct that she reasonably believed to constitute violations of the law.'" . . .

On May 18, 1998, state agency head Eliza May met with Bush chief of staff Albaugh, Bush general counsel Margaret Wilson, May's boss, Dick McNeil, the agency's general counsel, Jack Schrader, the corporation's laywer, Johnnie Rogers, and Waltrip, himself. The meeting was held in Joe Albaugh's office. May came with a court reporter, but claims the court reporter was "refused entrance into the meeting." May is quoted in a previous Austin Chronicle story by Robert Bryce as saying, the meeting "was clearly designed to intimidate me and to obtain information about what we were doing. They were unhappy with the fact that I was doing this investigation." May expected some kind of political heat with the job, but "she never expected to be called onto the carpet in the office of Joe Allbaugh, Gov. George W. Bush's chief of staff. Nor did she ever imagine that she'd have to explain the rationale behind an unannounced April 10, 1998, visit her investigators had made to two SCI funeral homes -- particularly while Robert Waltrip, the burly, surly CEO and founder of SCI, was sitting in the same room."

[autorank]

3. Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals

Thanks CCARTER84 = This looks significant. It had slipped my mind. Of course, Raw Story was the only outlet that I saw it it. Many more burried between the lines. Nice seeing Belaciao got it.



FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FEMA_outsources_Katrina_body_count_to_firm_implicated_in_bodydumping_scan_0913.html
Miriam Raftery 09/13/2006 Raw Story

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.

Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco subsequently inked a contract with the firm after talks between FEMA and the firm broke down. Kenyon's original deal was secured by the Department of Homeland Security.

[paineinthearse]

4. Inappropriate content for anyone reading this while eating lunch

...but important info, thanks for keeping us informed.

Recommended #4.

[autorank]

5. I know, it's an incredibly unpleasant topis. I think CannonFire is on

to something.

[fooj]

8. lots of unpleasant topics floating around lately.

:grr:

[autorank]

14. fooj,"Go directly to Jail, Do not Pass Go, Do not collect $200"

:rofl:

[kster]

6. Kick.nt

[babylonsister]

7. Add yet another scandal to their plate! Thanks, autorank, and nom! nt

[autorank]

15. The Resurection Tour of Bush Scandals--Two articles

Here's the big cover up. We're all interested in Gonzo keeping * from jury duty to hide his DUI problems (which would have been revealed on the jury questionaire. BUT look at these two (submitted anonymously to me through the "Secret Admirer" mail box.

Cornyn, now Sen, then AG of Texas appears in court in *'s behalf to keep him from having to testify rearding the dismissal of the TX gov official who was investigating the funeral company and it's many problems. She was fired and sued the state. Knowingi that SCI, the company, and *, the Gov., were connected, she called him to testify. Then TX AG Cornyn shows up and bellows...stop, to many people would subpoena the Gov. Wonder if that was his position on Clinton's civil suit. It wasn't *'s because he spoke out the time of the indictment...sheer disgust at his actions, I remember seeing his
press conference after Ken Starr announced something or other.

This all goes to show my point, "George Bush is the Messanger of Death."



HOME: SEPTEMBER 3, 1999: NEWS: BURYING THE PAST
Burying the Past
Funeral Board Resurrected (nobody can do this story with out shtick)
BY ROBERT BRYCE
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:idhP7UMYjyIJ:www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/1999-09-03/pols_feature3.html+whittington+funeralgate&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6


It's been a tumultuous week for the Texas Funeral Service Commission. On Monday, Travis County District Court Judge John Dietz ruled that Gov. George W. Bush won't have to testify in Eliza May's whistle-blower lawsuit against the agency. On Tuesday, the old TFSC board was dismissed. On Wednesday, the new board, headed by Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, took over the struggling agency. The moves are the latest developments in the ongoing drama surrounding the funeral regulatory agency. And while the new board should bring some stability to the tiny agency, the biggest development in the funeral scandal came when Dietz, a Democrat, ruled that lawyers for May, the former executive director of the TFSC, did not prove that Bush has "unique and superior knowledge" of the facts in the case. The ruling came after an all-day hearing rich in hyperbole.

Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, who appeared in court on the governor's behalf, told the court during his opening argument that "the eyes of the world are on Texas and this court to see if Texas believes in frontier justice or in the rule of law."(Really now Sen. Cornyn, did you say this about Bill Clinton when he was slapped with a civil suit a while back....let's see, NO you didn't)

Cornyn explained that his rather unusual appearance in the courtroom was motivated by his desire to "defend an important principle." He said the state of Texas is sued about 10 times a day and that if Bush were required to testify in the lawsuit brought by May, "then this governor and future governors will have little time to do anything else."

After hearing testimony from three witnesses -- May, SCI attorney Johnnie B. Rogers Sr., and SCI spokesman and political operative Bill Miller -- Dietz ruled against May's efforts to get Bush's testimony. He cited Texas case law which requires that before plaintiffs are allowed to depose heads of corporations and other entities, they must show that person has information that is not available from other, lower-ranking people in the company. Cornyn argued that the same, or higher, standard should apply to the governor. Dietz agreed.

Great Blog entry from:

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:i1Z85VWVSscJ:cupofjoepowell.blogspot.com/2006/02/whittington-funeralgate-and-fema.html+whittington+funeralgate&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

But the story isn't over yet.

A subsidiary of SCI , Kenyon International, got handed a no-bid contract to operate a "mobile mortuary" to deal with the bodies left in the destructive wake of Hurricane Katrina. Yep. It pays and pays to be a friend of Bush.

Charged with desecrating corpses? Get a FEMA contract.

In addition (this story seems to have no end!) the same SCI was also the same owner of the crematory in Georgia a few years ago where bodies were never cremated but stacked up like cordwood and stuffed into sheds.

The company's web site proclaims they are dedicated to "compassionately supporting families at difficult times, celebrating the significance of lives that have been lived, and preserving memories that transcend generations, with dignity and honor."

(big thanks to Dr. R. Fleenor for bringing all this to my attention)

posted by Joe Powell at 10:12 AM

[ccarter84]

9. More Katrina links I dug up with SCI

To keep track of the shenanigans surrounding Katrina I set this blog up ....then let it lapse, but here are all the links I dug up related to SCI
SCI NolaSentinel
Additionally, here would be a good time to just come out and say i'm easily drawn into conspiracy crap for periods of time....so just ignore a lot of the stuff on that blog....or take it with a cup full of salt.

[autorank]

19. Thank you. We're like really smart.

:sarcasm:
Quick, we must all stop or somebody will think they've logged on to DKOS.


That's an excellent find. THANK YOU.

[Independent_Liberal]

10. Thanks autorank!

You da man!

:)

[autorank]

16. So are you. Where's the impeachment article thread?

You send them to the states, Il? They'd like them.

[0007]

11. Thanks autorank

I can't believe this is still hanging in the air. And how well hidden they've kept it the last six or seven years.

[autorank]

17. Old Native American names for the area that is now our Capitol

"The place that nobody goes."

"The land of perpetual scandals"

Well the first one is true and what a deal that must have been to unload that turkey.

The second one is a good contemporary moniker. Why not. We have "Land of 1000 Dances"
why not a land for scandals that just keep coming back.

"Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back." Little Steven on the Sopranos (and God Father)

[vickitulsa]

12. '"Chop shops" are dealing in human body parts.'

This part of the scandalous story was given an excellent airing in a recent episode of the drama "Bones." It was similar to the way many "Law & Order" episodes involve story ideas "ripped from the headlines" while offering disclaimers saying such programs aren't sticking to any one real life story.

The lead character in "Bones" is based also on an actual, highly respected lady anthropologist whom the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have called upon many times to help them solve crimes where a victim's body was little more than skeletal remains -- thus the title "Bones."

In the episode I'm referring to, the lead lady and her sidekick FBI agent are drawn into an unusual case where the FBI Director has a teenaged daughter dying of cancer she had apparently contracted from a bone transplant. The young woman had suffered a leg fracture which would have in no way threatened her life but for this transplant, and the investigators seek to learn where the "body part" (piece of bone) came from.

They track down not only that "donation" of a body part but 10 or 12 others as well to the same corpse which had been "salvaged" by some morgue worker (I think it was) who had found a nifty, illegal way to pad his bank account. Without concern for living patients who would receive the body parts -- and with them whatever diseases might have infected the deceased, this shady individual had quite a bit of business going on on the side.

This episode aired just two or three weeks ago, and it struck me at the time as more than usually realistic for some reason. I worked in the medical field for many years, and my dad was in law enforcement and moonlighted in the funeral home industry, and there was just something all too plausible about this story.

Now I know why....

I wonder when we can start talking about this criminal administration as "the most scandal-ridden in American history"?

[autorank]

18. Art imitates reality...art anticipates reality (by a few days)

He's simply the worst ever. Harding weeps, Grant sighs a sigh of relief that he's no longer
in the running, Nixon, damn, he's redeemed (I'm sorry he's not around to see it;).

* is the all time scandal generator but he's protected by the all time "illusion generator," MSM/CM,
without whom he'd be in jail.

[Kurovski]

20. Kick(nt)

[autorank]

21. Well, how nice to see you Kurovski! It's a slow day on the DU...

People are tired from all that great Colbert energy. His profoundity is penetrating America in
ways we cannot know now.

As for the ghouls who treat human bodies with disrespect, I suggest that they read Antigone again, if they ever read it in the first place;)

[Kurovski]

22. Did you know that

I know one of the writers of "Re-Animator?

I do. Isn't that something?

I also have a headache today. I was just going to sign off.

Genevieve Bujold was a powerful Antigone. I wanted to play Antigone when I was young. I probably could have pulled it off, too. (I was a pretty enough boy to suspend disbelief.) Maybe.

Not to take anything from a great tragic play, but I sure would like to see Bush administration buried soon.

Good post, well presented. Why doesn't everyone already know all this stuff about the Bushes? They and those who benefit from supporting them have no human decency. Talk about "big creeps". Monica just didn't know how bad it could have been for her.

(Though I imagine Jeff Gannon must be just fine with his deal.) :evilgrin:

Here's to the mysterious penetration of America. :toast: Thank you for letting me hijack your excellent thread. see 'ya! :hi:

[autorank]

23. Could you show the writer some of this information.

I think that Re-Animator is one of our greatest contributions to world culture. It's a case of art anticipating reality. I'm not surprised you pal around with that elite crowd, a veritable west coast Algonquin Round Table. Tell them, where ever you sit is the head of the table.

:rofl: to everything else, splendid hijacking. :hi:

[Kurovski]

24. Hehehe...Midwest.

And there was indeed something of a round table in the 90's. but if I'd declared myself the "head" of it, I would've gotten agreement that might've gone something like this: "Yeah, you're the head, just somewhere south of the tabletop."

You're a Lovecraft fan? I have a friend in this movie, he plays Dan Upton.
http://www.maelstromproductions.com/MPMovie_StrangeAeons.html

And now I've killed your thread. :hi:

[Kurovski]

25. Kick(nt)