Service Corporation International

Remember them? It was called funeralgate and it sort of exploded in the news in 1998 when little boots was governor of Texas. According to it's website "SCI is the largest provider of funeral, cremation and cemetary services in North America".

It began as a usual tawdry tale of influence peddling and campaign contributions, unlicensed activities and political intrigue. Bush, of course, was chin deep in all the muck. Then it emerged that SCI had, um, unusual methods of disposing bodies.

According to Raw Story: "...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."
"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."

I'm sure the family members and all the thousands of affected people in New Orleans will be thrilled to hear that governor Blanco has signed a formal contract with Kenyon International, a subsidiary of SCI, to handle the dead from Katrina. One wonders how much pressure there was from sockpuppet to help out his old buddies.