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It was the first civil verdict for Iraq reconstruction fraud.

But in 2006, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III overturned the jury award. He said Isakson and Baldwin failed to prove that the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-backed occupier of Iraq for 14 months, was part of the U.S. government.

Not a single Iraq whistleblower suit has gone to trial since.

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On Thursday, May 18, 2006 Ellis dismissed a lawsuit filed by Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen, against the CIA and three private companies allegedly involved with his kidnapping, transport, and torture in Kabul.

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Originally posted by Eric:
Here's the absolute best part.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
3) Bush said after a few Katrina days had gone by that "they" had under-estimated the impact of the storm...however there is video of him warning his staff of the potential enormous catastrophe days before it hit...just a total, indifferent lack of leadership of epic proportions.

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Originally posted by Hero:

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
3) Bush said after a few Katrina days had gone by that "they" had under-estimated the impact of the storm...however there is video of him warning his staff of the potential enormous catastrophe days before it hit...just a total, indifferent lack of leadership of epic proportions.

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President Bush was not referring to the storm, Katrina, he was referring to the storm of incompetence (along with a generous helping of wrong decisions) coming from FEMA, the State of Louisiana, and especially the Mayor of New Orleans.

You said it yourself, he warned everyone about the potential enormous catastrophe. Little or nothing was done to prepare the state of city. FEMA did a good job preparing by prepositioning supplies, personel, and equipment...they just mismanaged the deployment.

The New Orleans disaster could have been mitigated by a rapid deploylment of Marines of US Army troops. Ultimately it took an Army General to kick some ass and get things rolling. Such a deployment is illegal until its formally requested by the Governor and that request took days to come despite efforts from the President and the Federal Govt. to get the ball rolling.

I've always thought the Democratic Party hoped to parley Katrina into a political issue over the President's response. They did the same thing in 1992 with hurricanes in Florida. Its simple. If the President responds immediately but illegally then you go after him for that. If he waits and obeys the law, then you go after him for waiting. Hurricane Andrew...1992. Later Bush, this is the first Bush, was very quick to respond to Hurricane Charlie and was bashed for that.

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Jongsstraw wrote:
Monday, August 27, 2007 09:03
I just saw Spike Lee's Katrina documentary " When The Levees Broke" on HBO...it turned me around.
I avoided watching it for almost a year because I thought it would be just another Michael Moore-type propaganda piece...but what a surprise

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
The city of N.O has had DECADES to prepare for this very storm, the one EVERY SINLGE RESIDENT in South Louisiana KNEW would some day hit, and they failed MISERABLY.

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Originally posted by SergeantX:
This is way too easy. Instead of bashing Bush, let's do something more productive and bash the asshats who voted for him in 2004, after it was obvious what a tool he was. What in the hell were you people thinking?
SergeantX

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Jongsstraw wrote:
Monday, August 27, 2007 09:03
I just saw Spike Lee's Katrina documentary " When The Levees Broke" on HBO...it turned me around.
I avoided watching it for almost a year because I thought it would be just another Michael Moore-type propaganda piece...but what a surprise

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But nothing. You DID see a Michael Moore type hit piece.

Exactly how is Condi Rice shoe shopping and playing tennis a 'compelling moment' ??

How old is mamma Bush? 80+ ?? The Alamo Dome (?) was a well lit, clean and dry place of shelter. I'm sure she's comparing that to what the evacuees had vs what they left behind. Granted, not a great 'home', but she didn't mean it in the way most have taken it out of context. It was far better than the conditions of the LA Superdome.

No one could have predicted the levees WOULD fail. They could speculate, guess, but no one KNEW. Had 'Chocolate City' Nagin done his job, and gotten HIS people out, many would still be here today. Had LA. Gov Blanco not sat on her hands and allowed the National Guard to set up in advance of the storm, instead of waiting until AFTER the fact, then they wouldn't have to have dealt with washed out/ flooded roads.

The city of N.O has had DECADES to prepare for this very storm, the one EVERY SINLGE RESIDENT in South Louisiana KNEW would some day hit, and they failed MISERABLY.

I'm so damn sick of folks trying to pass the buck up to folks in Washington D.C. when the very people who live in Louisiana, where the storm HIT, and who took in BILLIONS of Federal $$$'s for decades, shirked their duties, cut corners on building of the levees and pocketed the rest of the $$, leaving themselves wide open for such a disaster.

Was the FEMA blameless? Hell no. It showed its typical ineptness of how the Fed level burcaucracy works.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Well I'll tell ya...if you Dems had put up a viable candidate, which Mr. Kerry was not, somebody like Leiberman or Biden for example, or even Gore again, many Bush 2000 voters would have gone the Dem way in 2004.
Kerry had too much anti-war, anti-military & Kennedy-alignment baggage to be elected President. If he was to run again in 2008 I think he'd waltz in, but unfortunately the Dems are probably gonna nominate more polarizing, non-viable candidates like Hillary & Obama.

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Originally posted by SergeantX:

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Well I'll tell ya...if you Dems had put up a viable candidate, which Mr. Kerry was not, somebody like Leiberman or Biden for example, or even Gore again, many Bush 2000 voters would have gone the Dem way in 2004.
Kerry had too much anti-war, anti-military & Kennedy-alignment baggage to be elected President. If he was to run again in 2008 I think he'd waltz in, but unfortunately the Dems are probably gonna nominate more polarizing, non-viable candidates like Hillary & Obama.

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I ain't a Dem, and Kerry wasn't the only other choice. But are you honestly saying that Kerry was worse than endorsing the neo-cons??? I thought I despised Clinton until Bush came along. After Bush and crew showed us their mettle I'd have voted for the timecube guy before giving them my vote. "There were no better candidates" is a copout. There were (pretty much all of them) - you didn't vote for them.

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Seriously, nobody could be worse than Bush.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Spike Lee give some credence to the levees being blown up? I'm iffy on that point.

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Originally posted by Righteous9:



So no, he did not try to prop up the theory of the levies being blown, at all.

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Isn't voting for the "least" damaging idiot better than a vote for a 1%er?

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