Ok, so now we're in the 21st century America. Founding Fathers aside, it appears that any time we are attacked by a foreign enemy, we should apologize profusely and put a trillion dollars aside into our American Terrorist Defense Fund. That would be the fund to defend America and the constitution from it's greatest enemy of all time. Nothing, not the Nazis, not the Japanese imperialists, not the Russian Cold war can hold a candle to the ultimate enemy of America: The American Lawyers Army. This army has one goal, to bankrupt every american citizen and take their spoils, laughing at our stupidity of how human nature works, to themselves. American lawyers are true anarchists, caring nothing for community, civilization or the future. They are hyenas who gnaw and gnaw until nothing is left. They build nothing, they contribute nothing, they do nothing but blame blame and blame and then ask anyone they blame to give them all their possessions before they die.

Tort Reform is the number one defense for our civilization. Nuclear bombs and Islamic regimes will never be able to inflict as much damage on the world as our legal system does.

Everyone has failed to notice that with the groundbreaking health insurance reform, the one thing that was never discussed, never debated, was tort reform. We have no defense against the "American Lawyers Army" for suing everyone for everything slightly less then divine intervention when it comes to healthcare. Be a minute late diagnosing a patient, 1 billion dollars please. Of course now healthcare reform makes it easy, they no longer have to sue individuals or even businesses, they can sue the government and every taxpayer in america for any amount imaginable. No limits. It's the only no limit industry in America. The banks, Wall Street and even the IMF are envious of this army that can take over the world by simply issuing paper.

to think, America put these people on a pedestal and hailed them as heroes.

Cancer or not, I would have still helped clear people out of the rubble. I am sure a lot of volunteers still would. As for firefighters, national guards, and the rest of them, there is always danger. People should not make honor into a mockery.

If we had worked together, anyone going to that location to help would have been required to wear a mask. All fire fighting people would have been required to wear respirators. We needed the help, but not at the expense of the helpers health. It is like the people working on Chernobyl dying, they did not have to, there was a better way.

I was going to say we all know who is going to make the most out of this deal but rrobsen2 makes my post seem a bit useless. No way I could have said it better.

These lawyers have had dollar signs sparkling in their eyes since that morning...

I believe that tort reform is necessary. But I also believe that as far as health care costs go, less than 1% of the costs are related to lawsuits. So I'm not convinced it's the number one priority in health care reform.

As far as the WTC goes, if the cnacer incidence is the same as the general population, it seems hard to justify making the city of New York liable for the occurrances in the responders any more than they would be responsible for all the people in NY who get these types of cancers. It's a hard decision to make in a caring and appreciative society. Those people responded selflessly to a crisis of rare proportions. But it does appear that there is no evidence so far that their cancers were caused by the efforts they made. Nevertheless the city seems prepared to pay on principle.

I wonder how much the lawyers will get of the total settlement? And how much the actual alleged victims will get.

NY didn't cause the attack, Terrorist did so why make us pay for their actions?

Ok. The dust problem in the towers has many items in it. Most people in the construction industry do know that when the towers were constructed, that in the area of I think the 70th floor, there was a change in the fire proofing materials. I read the article several years ago, but either is was above that level or below that they used asbestos as fireproofing in the building. Until about 1978 most construction materials in flooring, fireproofing and ceiling materials had it. I am shocked that this has not come out. The building had to be loaded in it. Considering the dust cloud that came out, there had to be alot of it in it. Mostly from the fireproofing materials since it was dry. The cleanup crew was probably exposed to the rest including the flooring materials and ceiling materials. God only knows how much was on the piping insulation in the building.

just another money grab by more new york city residence to capitalize on 911. from larry silverstein to your street sweeper. its all about money and how much they can extort.

Just WHAT about the dust from the collapsed buildings would have been toxic? Inhaling dust isn't good for your lungs, but the remains of the buildings was simply concrete dust, maybe a bit of glass dust and some insulation. Inhaling any of that might cause problems in the lungs, but certainly not cancer in other parts of the body. American lawyers are ruining the American way of life by trying to sue everyone for everything that happens. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Lawyers need to swear an oath not to attempt to defraud the government, or anyone else, but to uphold the law and not try to get (more) rich from twisting it all around.

I am not a big fan of determining present and future health risks in a court. The fact is that the cause most chronic diseases such as cancer or obsrtuctive pulmunary disease are complex in nature and can not usually isolated to one specific exposure. I think the fairest of all is to get asn indpendent medical and epidemelogical reviw of that looks at the type and level of exposure from the WTC contaminants, as well as other non WTC factors. They then can give the best scientific assessment of what diseases may have been caused or aggrevated by WTC exposures. In the court system the only personns that really benefit economically are the lawyers on both sides. And I'll cite a specific example. The Angelos family that ows the Baltimore Orioles and built Camden Yards ball park did it with the billions they made from Asbestos litigation, while the Asbestos victims got the shaft money wise.

How many of those blood sucking lawyers actually when into the WTC right after the attack and tried to help? All they do is point fingers and say you should done this or that. Have any of those blood sucking lawyers managed to get a dime from the terrorists or stopped the terrorists from doing more harm? The lawyers are useless in the defense of this country, all they do is try to suck blood from the tax payers which leave more money for lawyers and less money for national defense.

I'm glad the lawyers didn't get this windfall. They should be doing this work pro bono and expect nothing for it. Good on you, judge.

I have noticed over the years that firemen smoke more then any other group of people I know. I have seen them stand around a burning building that they decided to let burn to the ground smoking. They have also been exposed to more burning stuff the the general population. None of it good for you. How can they say they have damage from 911 that did not come from somewhere else. This is just a way to make money. You also develop these kinds of illnesses from long term exposure. Not a short time. Show me a spike in these people. And one that is consistent in the group and I might change my mind. And don't make it up like climate change.

i was a first responder to 9/11. i worked on all sides of the pile. i was down where the barges were. i developed Hodgkin's lymphoma stage 4 B aprox. 4years after being there. did it come from that? considering what i've herd and read, i believe it did. there are too many documented deaths from people who were at 9/11, that died of cancer to coincidental.

If the government needs a comparison to the incidence of cancer due to fallout such as that of 9/11, they should check the medical records of deceased service members who were stationed in B.C.I. (Burma, China, India) Triangle during the time when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; they will also find a disproportionate number of individuals who have died of multiple mylomas and a higher incidence of cancer among their offspring. My father died of more than one type of cancer, my eldest sister died at the age of 31 of leukemia, and another sister died at the age of 47 of metastasized cervical cancer. The doctor who treated my father also treated one of my sisters and he had certainly seen a trend of multiple cancers in WWII veterans and cancers in their offspring before. Believe me when I say that 9/11 is going to haunt us for generations to come. This is just the beginning.