Connection? Funeralgate and NOLA FEMA-hired body-counting Co.?

[Festivito]

My bad memory.
I just recall that the company hired to lose, opps!, count bodies from New Orleans was somehow connected to Texas/Bush funeralgate.

I might be totally wrong.

[Kurovski]

1. A kick for you.

Maybe someone who knows will see this.

[Festivito]

6. Great sense of timing Kurovski. /nt

[annabanana]

2. I also remember this detail

I remember that the contractor was a Texas firm who had had several ethical lapses (and, I think, lawsuits) in it's past. But I can't remember the firm's name either.

[Festivito]

5. Yes, thank you. /nt

[chookie]

3. You're correct

It's a Texas company called Service Corporation International (SCI)

[Festivito]

4. So, SCI is funeralgate and NOLA body count CONtractors.

So, Cheney shoots the guy in charge of counting bodies from NOLA.
Wouldn't want that count to rise before '06 elections, would we -- BANG!

[malaise]

8. Here's some more on this

http://jmhm.livejournal.com/1418607.html

[Festivito]

13. MY BAD. Harry is not quite the man counting the bodies in NOLA.

Harry Whittington once helped SCI from his position on a government board.
SCI owns the company that counts NOLA's bodies.

He came close to needing a funeral.
Perhaps he'd have got one he'd deserve.

Thanks for the link.
Nicely linked blog.

[Kurovski]

7. Kick.

Hmm.

[Swamp Rat]

9. "Talking Points Memo" - Joshua M. Marshall - September 10, 2005

Joshua M. Marshall
(September 10, 2005 -- 09:09 PM EDT // link)

Another question I'm hoping someone can provide more information on.

To assist with the recovery and disposition of the victims of Katrina, FEMA has hired Kenyon Worldwide Disaster Management, a Houston-based company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), another Houston-based corporation, which bills itself as the "dominant leader in the North American death care industry."

SCI is not only closely associated with the president (which is not surprising since the company is based in Houston), they were also at the center of what is probably the best-known scandal during Bush's six years as governor of Texas: the so-called 'funeralgate' case.

What's more, Joe Allbaugh -- President Bush's Chief of Staff in Texas and later his first FEMA Director -- was the central figure in that scandal, or at least the guy whose job it was to take care of the mess SCI had gotten into.

The last we heard, you'll remember, now-lobbyist Allbaugh was in Lousiana "helping coordinate the private-sector response to the storm."

cont.:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_04.php

[Swamp Rat]

10. Texas-based Kenyon makes money off of New Orleans dead

FEMA mortuary move irritates volunteer

Saturday, September 10, 2005
By Clint Confehr

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a hired contractor to provide services that a local mortician says have been available from volunteers through the National Funeral Directors Association.
"Volunteers would have gone at no charge," said Dan Buckner, co-owner and manager of Gowen-Smith Chapel. "Now, they'll have this job done by people who will be paid. That kind of irks me."

Buckner was on stand-by to go to Louisiana or Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina since hundreds of bodies have yet to be recovered, identified and handled with respect as they're moved to their final resting place.

(snip)

"The company that FEMA has chosen to outsource the recovery work in Louisiana is Kenyon, a worldwide disaster management company, wholly owned subsidiary of Service Corporation International," according to the NFDA.

SCI, of Houston, Texas, provides funeral, cremation and cemetery services in North America and Reuters reported Kenyon International Emergency Services spokesman Jay Kirsch said it was sending 50 workers to the area struck by Katrina to help recover the bodies of those killed by the hurricane.

cont.:

http://www.t-g.com/story/1117672.html

[Festivito]

14. You're a beautiful Swamp rat. So, in a nutshell.

I'm sleepy. Can't recall everything now.

Harry Whittington
took the job of a fired investigator, //not sure just how he came onboard as related to the firing//
dropped fines, and //or let them lapse//
settled with Texas tax-money a wrongful dismissal suit with the fired investigator
before GW Bush's testimony
might be contridicted by witnesses who saw Bush say he'd take care of it,
thereby uncloaking possible unjustified motive for the wrongful dismissal,
exposing a possibly illicit act by the governor, and
embroiling GW Bush in possible perjury
frighteningly close to a 2000 election cycle for candidate Bush.

..in a sentence.

[Solomon]

11. Kicking this one.

gonna kick the hell out of it. Good work.

[Kurovski]

12. kick. (nt)

[upi402]

15. Like taking another sip from the firehose of insanity

unreal. how can the fundies not see this stuff for what it is? corruption on a scale that a mob family would cool off from.

[Kurovski]

16. kick(nt)