THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

[Guest guest]

Franklin's Focus 9/14/05

 

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

 

I have previously commented on the reports that huge military cargo

planes were landing at the New Orleans area airport not to rescue

people, who were callously denied transportation to refugee centers

in other states, but rather to stuff the huge planes with truckloads

of corpses. I also mentioned the actions of Big Bush in Panama, where

thousands of dead civilians were piled into trucks, loaded onto US

cargo ships, and taken to Honduras where the bodies somehow vanished.

I called it a case of 'like father, like son'.

 

This observation of mine now seems to have progressed to a stunning

reality as Bush/Cheney have hired professional body snatchers to

gather corpses and make them disappear. Does this sound like some

sort of whacko sci-fi movie? Do you sometimes feel as though you were

living in just such a movie?

 

I guess little Bush and mentor Dick decided they should grab the

chance to privatize body snatching. After all, the government would

surely botch the job. A private, experienced body snatching company

would be just the ticket. Lo and behold, it turns out Little Bush has

friends in this line of work. It's amazing how many different

contacts the Bush family has who are engaged in shady lines of work.

 

I suppose they used a private outfit to blow up the levees. It was

kind of neat how they did that. Both levees failed at the exact same

second. On second thought, what do you suppose the statistical

chances of that happening might be? You don't suppose they used the

same guys who wired the three WTC towers. Probably. After all, they

did a helluva job on 9/11.

 

Now we can sit back and wait until the inevitable stories of

insurance companies screwing hell out of poor black families begin to

leak out on the Internet. This macabre story is far from over.

 

I might start feeling as though I were a great prognosticator if it

weren't for the fact that Bush/Cheney are so damnably predictable.

One merely has to imagine the worst possible, most corrupt, most

thoroughly vile scenario and then offer that as a prediction.

 

Changing subjects, I listened briefly to Roberts dodging questions at

the hearings. About 15 minutes was all I could stomach. Roe v. Wade

look out! I don't mean to suggest this decision will go away. It will

remain as an important precedent. What will happen is this: abortion

opponents are already making lists of small restrictions on abortion

procedures that will be passed by state legislatures. These will go

to the supremes, who will, under the leadership of Roberts, endorse

these

relatively small restrictions on a one by one basis. In other words,

Roe v. Wade will slowly but surely be restricted to death. It will

remain in name only as a legal procedure. In practice, abortion will

become so heavily restricted most doctors will quit doing them, and

most women of means will be traveling outside the US for their

abortions. Of course, poor people will be returned to the days of

coat hanger abortions.

 

I don't want to call that a prediction, so let's just call it an

educated guess. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm forced to believe the worst

considering the way things are going.

 

Now enjoy today's fascinating report on the looming invasion of the

body snatchers.

 

Warmest regards,

Richard

 

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http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FEMA_outsources_Katrina_body_count_to_fi

rm_implicated_in_bodydumping_scan_0913.html

9/14/05

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.

 

In other words, FEMA and then Blanco outsourced the body count from

Hurricane Katrina -- which many believe the worst natural disaster in

U.S. history -- to a firm whose parent company is known for

its " experience " at hiding and dumping bodies.

 

The Menorah Gardens cemetery chain, owned by SCI, desecrated vaults,

removed hundreds of bodies from two cemeteries in Florida and dumped

the gruesome remains in woods frequented by wild hogs, investigators

discovered in 2001. In one case, a backhoe was used to crack open a

vault, remove corpses and make room for more dead bodies.

 

SCI paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit filed by outraged family

members of the deceased.

 

A secretary at the law firm that sued SCI over the Florida cemetery

scandals gasped when informed that FEMA had outsourced handling of

Katrina victims' bodies to an SCI subsidiary.

 

" Oh, good lord! " she said.

 

Peter Hartmann, general manager of the Menorah Gardens Cemetery

chain, was later found dead in his car from carbon monoxide poisoning

outside his parents' home in an apparent suicide.

 

RAW STORY calls to FEMA were not returned.

 

Waltrip, chairman of SCI, is a longtime friend of Bush's father,

former President George Herbert Walker Bush. The firm's political

action committee donated $45,000 to George W. Bush's 1994

gubernatorial campaign.

 

The company also contributed more than $100,000 for construction of

the George H.W. Bush presidential library.

 

" It is appalling that the Bush administration –- which has already

badly bungled its response to hurricane Katrina –- would hire a

company with a record of gross mismanagement of mortuary services, "

said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility

and Ethics, a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group. " I can only

imagine that this decision was made because of President Bush's long-

time friendship with the head of SCI, Robert Waltrip. "

 

SCI also owned fifteen funeral homes named as defendants in a lawsuit

filed on behalf of family members alleging " macabre mishandling,

abuse and desecration of bodies " by Tri-State Crematory in Georgia.

The lawsuit accused SCI-owned funeral homes of sending bodies to the

unlicensed, unregulated crematorium, where never-incinerated corpses

were found piled outdoors and stuffed in sheds in 2000.

 

Some vaults designed to hold one body each had 67 sets of human

remains stuffed inside, investigators discovered. SCI was among the

companies ordered to pay settlement fees to family members, a legal

source has confirmed to RAW STORY.

 

Kenyon bills itself as the world's leading disaster management

company. It provided morgue support services following the 9/11 plane

crash in Pennsylvania and the Asian tsunami.

 

As North America's largest funeral and cemetery company, SCI operates

1,500 mortuaries and cemeteries nationwide.

 

The company's website claims the firm is 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. "

 

SCI was also involved in an earlier scandal in Texas. Eliza May,

former Texas Funeral Service Commission Director, filed a lawsuit

accusing George W. Bush, then Governor, of obstructing an

investigation into SCI license violations. May was fired following a

dispute with Waltrip.

 

Waltrip and an SCI lobbyist met with Governor Bush's chief of staff,

Joe Allbaugh (Allbaugh was later appointed head of FEMA after Bush

became President, but left to become a lobbyist representing

Halliburton, among other corporate clients).

 

According to Newsweek, Bush stopped by and said to Waltrip, " Hey,

Bobby, are those people still messing with you? "

 

May, a Democrat, sought to force Bush to testify in the case, but in

August 1999, a Texas judge tossed out a subpoena issued by May's

lawyers for Bush to give a deposition. Bush, who was not a defendant,

called May's claims " frivolous " and denied knowing the circumstances

of her ouster.

 

In 1999, when Bush was gearing up to run for the presidency, Texas

Governor Rick Perry approved a settlement for May. SCI paid $55,000;

the state of Texas shelled out the balance without admitting

wrongdoing in May's termination.

 

Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

(D-Calif.), expressed concern over FEMA's choice of an SCI subsidiary

and questioned whether the selection was made through a no-bid

process.

 

" The tragedy in the Gulf States must not be compounded by

disrespecting those who have died, " Crider told RAW STORY. " It's

critical that government contracts be subjected to scrutiny to ensure

that there has been no fraud or abuse of taxpayer money or interest. "

 

Democrats have called for formation of an anti-fraud commission to

investigate no-bid contracts awarded in relation to Hurricane

Katrina, she added.

 

Why FEMA chose to outsource mortuary services to a paid contractor is

also mystery to Dan Buckner, co-owner of the Gowen-Smith Chapel in

the Gulf area. Buckner had planned to serve with the Disaster

Mortuary Operational Responses Team, which reportedly told Buckner's

partner, Gary Hicks of Paducah, KY, to expect up to 40,000 deaths

from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.

 

Upon learning of Kenyon's contract, Buckner expressed puzzlement. He

told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, " Volunteers would have gone at no

charge. "

 

Clarification: After FEMA began working with Kenyon, they were

subsequently contracted by Louisiana Governor Blanco. It was

Louisiana that signed a formal contract.