statesman.com | Austinite directing repairs says Iraq seeing real progress: "'There's just an incredible amount of productive stuff going on over there, with a lot of Iraqi participation,' he said. 'To come here and see it portrayed as a failure in the making -- it's very superficial and inaccurate.'

It's Lucke's job to get the lights on, the water clean and running, the phones working, the trash picked up, roads and bridges repaired, and schools and hospitals fully operating. He has a staff of 90 in a second-floor office in the Baghdad Convention Center, 500 independent contractors such as Save the Children spread around the country, and a preliminary budget of more than $1 billion. "

Hmm, Bubba Lucke hasn't read this article by riverbend about how one reconstruction contract for a bridge in Iraq was given to an American company at $50,000,000 instead of to an Iraqi company at $300,000. That's about 150 times more expensive.

Anyway, with that much money to throw around and so little oversight, I understand how Bubba Lucke feels so good about his job!