Bad Deeds for 4-10-07

Data Shows Veterans’ Disabilities Being Downgraded – The U.S. military appears to have dispensed low disability ratings to nearly 93% of wounded service members with serious injuries, thus avoiding paying them full military disabled retirement benefits, according to an analysis of Defense Department data. While most recent attention has been paid to substandard conditions and outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, veterans’ advocates say that a more grievous problem is an arbitrary and dysfunctional disability ratings process that is short-changing the nation’s newest crop of veterans. The trouble has existed for years, but now that the country is at war, tens of thousands of Americans are being caught up in it.

Republican Party’s Private E-Mail System May Have Violated Federal Law – A back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for and maintained by the RNC, may have been used to conceal previously denied contact with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as well as policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules. “There is concern about what may be in these e-mails,” said one GOP activist, speaking for some Republicans who believe that the huge number of e-mails – many written hastily, with no thought that they might become public – may contain more detailed and unguarded inside information about the administration’s far-flung political activities than has previously been available. RNC officials will respond this week to requests from congressional investigators for access to broad categories of the e-mails.

Professor who criticized Bush added to terrorist ‘no-fly’ list – A top Constitutional scholar from Princeton who gave a televised speech that slammed President George W. Bush’s executive overreach recently learned that he had been added to the Transportation Security Administration’s terrorist watch list. He shared his experience this weekend at the law blog Balkinization.

The Gutting Of The Justice Department – The Administration’s forced brain drain at Justice threatens its stature and effectiveness for years to come. An example: In Minnesota last week, three top attorneys in the U.S. Attorney’s office rebelled and demoted themselves to regular line prosecutors rather than work directly with the newly appointed U.S. Attorney there., who is a crony of attorney general Alberto Gonzales.

Bush’s ‘Surge’ Several Times Larger, More Expensive than Administration Claimed
The graphic below says it all.

Bush Admin. Wins ËœMuzzle Award” for Stifling Free Speech - The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression  announced Tuesday that the Bush administration and the Defense  Department are among the winners of the 2007 Muzzle awards for,  respectively, efforts to censor government scientists’ reports and  studies to be more in line with the administration’ policies on  global warming, and covert investigations of organizations that  conducted peaceful anti-war protests. Other winners of the 16th  annual awards include the Ohio General Assembly for enacting a state- level version of the Patriot Act, and U.S. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y.,  for calling for a criminal espionage investigation of The New York Times.