RE-POST: Funeralgate - Bush's First Scandal

Funeralgate - Bush's First Scandal
Thu Oct 23 01:06:58 2003
64.140.159.12

Salon News | The funeral scandal time line
... The funeral scandal time line A chronology of the battle between the Texas
Funeral Service Commission and Service Corporation International. ...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/08/20/timeline/

Funeralgate - GW Halted Investigation into Corpse Abuse
Funeralgate The Skeleton in Bush's Closet that won't go away. ... Here's a new chapter
in an old scandal involving a Bush contributor and longtime family friend ...
http://www.hereinreality.com/funeralgate.htm

Funeralgate - Bush's First Scandal
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=216

As governor, George W. Bush had to choose between upholding the law or intervening on behalf of a big campaign contributor. He asked his Chief of Staff, Joe Allbaugh, to pressure a state agency into silence so the money guys could keep breaking the law.

Now both Allbaugh and Bush are about to be caught lying under oath.

Could Bush be impeached? Stay tuned!!

Eliza May was head of the Texas Funderal Services Commission when it began receiving complaints about unlicensed embalmers being used by Service Corporation International (SCI), the world's largest funeral services company.

In one case, the mother of a popular newscaster went to lay flowers at her son's mausoleum. She was horrified to find it was "infested with gnats, and a malodorous maroon-colored fluid oozed out of her son's crypt," according to Newsweek.

May launched an investigation of SCI. But instead of receiving praise for defending the interests of Texas citizens, she was called into the Governor's office where Joe Allbaugh, Bush's Chief of Staff, was waiting with Robert Waltrip, the owner of SCI - and major Bush campaign contributor. These officials tried to pressure May into stopping her investigation - and George W. Bush stopped in to help them.

May refused to buckle under, and ultimately imposed a $445,000 fine. Soon thereafter, May was fired. May then filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Bush, Waltrip, and SCI.

To avoid being named as a defendant, Bush gave a sworn affidavit. That affidavit has since been contradicted at least four times. In other words, Bush lied under oath.

In the Paula Jones case, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a President can be compelled to testify in a civil case stemming from actions taken before he became President. Eliza May plans to depose Bush sometime this year. If Bush lies under oath, he could be impeached.

Likewise, Joe Allbaugh will be deposed by Eliza May. Will Allbaugh tell the truth or lie to protect Bush and himself? "There isn't anything more important," Allbaugh has been quoted as saying, "as protecting him."

Documents

February 13, 2001
Testimony of Joe Allbaugh before the Senate Government Affairs Committee
http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1390

February 8, 2001
Funeralgate: Bush Charged With Lying Under Oath About Influence-Peddling
http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=1292

February 5, 2001
Senate Government Oversight Committee
Nomination of Joe M. Allbaugh for Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Pre-Hearing Questions: Allbaugh Answer
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=214

July 10, 2000
Plaintiff's Response To Request For Disclosure
By Defendant Governor George W. Bush
Excerpts Naming Joe Allbaugh
Full Document (149 Pages)
Excerpts Naming Joe Allbaugh
Word for Windows 95 (408KB)
http://democrats.com/images/funeralgate/resp-bushrfd95.doc
HTML (897 KB)
http://democrats.com/images/funeralgate/resp-bushrfd.htm

July 20, 1999
Affidavit by Governor George W. Bush
(see 2/9/01 Funeralgate article above)
http://www.realchange.org/bushaffi.pdf

Media Coverage

Austin Chronicle: Timeline
http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.sci.side1.html

3/99 Austin Chronicle: Buried in Scandal, by Robert Bryce
Funeral Industry Troubles Could Land Regulators at Death's Door
Buried in Scandal
http://www.auschron.com/issues/vol18/issue30/pols.funeral.html

Robert Waltrip, the burly, surly CEO and founder of SCI

[snip]
SCI has operations in 20 countries on five continents. It operates 3,442 funeral homes (90 of them in Texas), 433 cemeteries, and 191 crematoria. It sells cemetery plots, cremation urns, caskets, and pre-arranged funerals. According to SCI's Web site (http://www.sci-corp.com) the company even sells travel insurance "in case a death occurs away from your hometown." Charles Babcock, Roberts' Houston-based lawyer, thought the company's claim was almost laughable. "We thought it was untenable. To call somebody a conglomerate is hardly defamatory," he said.
[snip]

Democratic Underground Forums
Funeralgate: Bush's First Scandal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/forum_archive_html/DCForumID12/103.html

Sunday, November 24, 2002
TERRI SCHIAVO TO DIE IN ATTORNEY'S "DEATH FACTORY"? SUNCOAST HOSPICE BOSS WAS GEORGE FELOS...
Click Full Story:

Things are coming together now.

This story was from 2002, about the conflict of interest with this hospice.
Whole chains of Florida hospices and nursing homes to which Jackson Stephens is the ultimate owner, along with Carlysle Groupies, run with front men in charge. These companies are interbred with funeral homes and graveyards where bodies get disinterred and bones sold.
The FuneralGate scandal was a big thing before 911.

How many hops between this hospice, and the nearest FuneralGate figure?
Damm few, betcha.

... with Ken Lay, his giving the finger to Clearwater protesters, Florida's criminal
purge of LEGAL voters, the Menorah Gardens Funeralgate scandal, and on and on ...
http://www.democrats.com/search.cfm?term=funeralgate

Austin Chronicle: From Sharpstown to Funeralgate
By many accounts, Funeralgate threatens to become the biggest influence-buying scandal
since Sharpstown, the banking controversy that rocked Texas in the early ...
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue45/pols.sci.side3.html

Articles about Decca
... (article by Robert Bryce and Anthony York, salon.com). "Funeralgate" Scandal
for George W. (article by Molly Ivins, monitor.net). Who is Eliza May? ...
http://www.mitford.org/artob.htm

Bush betrayed his oath to the American people when he let Ken Lay hand pick regulatory watchdogs we entrusted to prevent the massive meltdown that cost Americans $billions. This makes letting the fox guard the hen house look like tender loving fiduciary care.

This is nothing new for Bush, who fired Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC) director Eliza May in retaliation for her investigations of Service Corporation International and its CEO Robert Waltrip. Waltrip--like Enron's Lay--is a longtime Bush patron.

Bush lied under oath regarding this political quid-pro-quo, then he and SCI settled a lawsuit to keep May quiet. Texas taxpayers picked up $155,000 of the hush money tab, while SCI paid May the other $55,000, according to a Dallas Morning News story published 11/09/2001. Texans know this scandal as "Funeralgate."
http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive.php?haney+594

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