Friday, September 23, 2005

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (and Dumpers)

September 23, 2005 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (and Dumpers). Under obvious pressure from FEMA, the state of Louisiana contracted with a Texas firm, Kenyon International (a subsidiary of Services Corporation International), to collect and properly arrange for the burial of the bodies of victims of Hurricane Katrina. Kenyon, a firm charged with illegal body dumping and which was tied politically to both George W. Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Bush was Governor and Gonzales was his counsel, now stands to receive similar contracts to improperly dump the bodies of victims (we earnestly hope there will not be any) from Hurricane Rita.

From an informed source in St. Tammany Parish and the city of Slidell comes this revelation: A week after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, small planes from around the country began delivering food, water, and medical supplies to outlying parishes in Louisiana and counties in Mississippi. However, according to the source, St. Tammany Parish made a startling request to one of the pilots: the parish needed well over 5000 body bags.

The controversy over the wild swings in body counts from Katrina are viewed by many on the Gulf Coast as an attempt by the White House to limit the overall death count to a level manageable by spinmeisters like Karl Rove and Karen Hughes. And speaking of spin, ABC ran a disclaimer on the season premier of its series, "Invasion," Wednesday night. The series is about the "snatching" of bodies (not by Republican-connected funeral companies from Texas but by other-worldy elements) after a strong hurricane ravages southern Florida. Its uncertain why the network ran the disclaimer. Was it to clam nerves following Katrina and prior to Rita or an attempt to focus attention away from the "body snatching" aspect of the show. Knowing of Karl Rove's affectation for influencing Hollywood, I'd bet on the latter.