The money might be nice, but the KBR gang rapists are walking around free among us.

Good point!

How about doubling her award for every day KBR stalls!

Binding Arbitration is apparently only 'binding' if the corporation is happy with the findings...

exxon delayed too. penalty cut in half. delayed more and the court finally grew a pair and penalties were imposed.

the entire judicial system has to decide whether they are in service to 'we the people' or 'we the corporation' ...

I hate to tell ya man but that ship has sailed and the fat lady sung. SANTA CLARA COUNTY v. SOUTHERN PAC. R. CO.,118 U.S. 394 (1886). In one sentence one judge declared corporations "persons" and protected under the 14th amendment, even though our founding fathers conspicuously left business and corporations or companies out of the constitution or any mention of an economic system. In 1978 The supreme court ruled that part of "corporate personhood"'s rights was free speech AND that money = speech (dont ask me where they get that math) therefore corproations can buy our political system. THE END

well, actually, no, marxymcliberalson, the court never said any such thing ... from john murphy for congress page:

Quite simply "corporate personhood" is the legal fiction turned science-fiction that US corporations have the same protections under the United States Constitution as do human beings. Yet just as slavery is the fabrication that a person can be property; "corporate personhood" is the fabrication that property can be a person.

Corporate personhood in fact came about as a result of either deceit or accident on the part of a law clerk in 1886. More and more it looks like it was a deliberate act of deceit given the law clerk's connections with the railroads -- the most powerful corporations back in those days. Although the Supreme Court itself had nothing to say about the issue of corporate personhood in this particular case (Santa Clara) the clerk wrote in the “head notes” that corporations should be considered persons under the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

This is not what the Founding Fathers intended. And for 100 years after the Constitution was ratified, various governmental entities led corporations around on leashes, like obedient puppies, canceling their charters promptly if they compromised the public good in any way. In 1886 that all changed and the public good was increasingly compromised—until it was finally displaced altogether.



Today, the First Amendment protects the right of corporations-as-persons to finance political campaigns and to employ lobbyists, who then specify and redeem the incurred obligations. Democracy has been transformed into a crypto-plutocracy, and public policy is no longer crafted to serve the American people at large. It is shaped instead to maintain, protect, enhance or create opportunities for corporate profit.

Consider this little event that took place just a few years ago. Senators Patty Murray from Washington and Ted Stevens from Alaska inserted a last-minute provision in the 2002 defense appropriation bill. It directed the Air Force to lease, for ten years, one hundred Boeing 767 airplanes, built and configured as passenger liners, to serve as aerial refueling tankers. Including the costs of removing the seats and installing the tanks, and then reversing the process ten years from now, the program will cost $17 billion. The Air Force never asked for these planes, and they weren’t in President Bush’s budget for the Defense Department. Political contributions from the Boeing company totaled $640,000 in the 2000 election cycle, including $20,230 for Senator Murray and $31,100 for Senator Stevens.

Try this one: The former chairman of the CSX Corporation, Mr. John Snow, was appointed by President Bush to be the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Snow’s company, another legal person, exercised its Constitutional rights by contributing $5.9 million to various campaigns—three-quarters of it to Republicans—over seven election cycles. It was a wise investment. In 3 of the last 4 years, averaging $250 million in annual profits, CSX paid no federal income taxes at all. Instead, it received $164 million in tax rebates—money paid to the company by the Treasury Department.

Are all you Republicans who voted against Franken's bill paying attention? Do you even care?

If Killers Brigands & Rapists is unhappy with the binding decision from the arbitration, they can always request the issue be settled in a criminal court of law with trial by jury. I don't think Miss Barker would object, that is what she wanted from the start. If that is what they want, I'm sure that it can be arranged. It would make great headline; "KBR officals charged with serial gang rape and kidnap!" I would read that article and I expect everyone in Congress and the Pentagon also would.

I don't think KBR has any chance to get away with this. They deliberately wrote the arbitration clause into the contracts. And it's binding on them, too. Of course, they thought their carefully chosen arbitrators would always side with them. They simply couldn't believe some corporate crimes would be too much even for the very flexible moral compass of those pro business "judges". But it happened. And now they have to pay for it. Any failure to do so will only give their victim a standing to sue in a civil court, and this may bring additional punitive damages. Really too bad for KBR, couldn't happen to nicer guys!

The main reason that KBR might want to reconsider their position and swallow the $3 million judgment is that if they do find some way to open up the binding arbitration in court, then there are a lot of people who will gladly follow them to reopen their own cases against KBR. It could end up costing them a lot more than just $3 million. One can only hope.

Too bad the headlines for "roadside" bombings hardly ever read." xx contractors were killed today when a roadside bomb...." It would certainly brighten up hope for a victory.

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Change "contractors" to "mercenaries and rapists" and you're golden.
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Use this to get discovery against KBR and its executives. The law firm that handles it and in-house lawyers should be given a look at to see what else they are covering up. They should be called to testify before Congress. State and local prosecutors and governments should pursue every available avenue to them including any subpoena power they have. KBR can be investigated as a criminal enterprise under local and state laws and as an accessory for this incident for acts committed in specific states in the US. Talk of making examples of employees, etc. can be basis for declaring attorney client privilege does not apply. Lawyers have to tell of crime they know of more under more recent rules. Pursue that. Also any state securities law disclosures.

Referendum should be used to reveal these incidents and make secrecy clauses void.

besides the fact that KBR (or any corp for that matter) either have in house lawyers and/or lawyers on retainers ... so as long as they (the lawyers) can come up with a way to fight paying out the money they probably have job security ... and I'm sure KBR would rather have the money go to their lawyers rather than go for any kind of settlement

Maybe we can hire some blackwater people to assasinate the rapists from KBR.

Dick Cheney's old company which he has stock in still .... says it all.

How is that fair?"

Fairness has nothing to do with it. It is illegal as hell. If they bring some sort of case to court, it needs to not only be thrown out, but the need to be penalized for bringing a frivolous suit and wasting court time.

KBR know enough dirt on the US government that they will get their way no matter what. These government contractors own the government, and nothing will be done. The government would gladly pay the money themselves to keep them quiet, but KBR wants to show how much power they really have. I can only try to imagine the things they have done and will never be charged with. This administration is no different than the last one. Farming out our military, to avoid the draft, is the worst idea ever. It is a wholesale dismissal of accountability.

Life and death are cheap commodities in a war zone. They may be afraid to give her too much money. Had she been my daughter, they already would have gone "over the wall".