Sedition?!? What happens when a VA nurse criticizes the Bush Administration.

Hmmm.... I guess the current administration doesn't want nurses -- esp. those who work with veterans of war -- to dare to speak up.

This is the earliest story I can find. And it ran on the AP wire. Hmmmph.

New Mexico ACLU wants apology to employee investigated on 'sedition'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 1, 2006

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico wants the government to apologize to a nurse for seizing her computer and investigating her for "sedition" after she criticized the Bush administration.

The ACLU said Wednesday the Department of Veterans Affairs found no evidence Laura Berg used her office computer to write the critical letter.

VA human resources chief Mel Hooker said in a Nov. 9 letter that his agency was obligated to investigate "any act which potentially represents sedition," the ACLU said.

A VA spokesman in Washington could not say Wednesday whether the agency had received the ACLU's request.

It seeks an apology from Hooker "to remedy the unconstitutional chilling effect on the speech of VA employees that has resulted from these intimidating tactics."

Even if Berg had used an office computer, neither that nor her criticism approached "unlawful insurrection," said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU.

"Is the government so jealous of its power, so fearful of dissent, that it needs to threaten people who openly oppose its policies with charges of sedition?" he said.

Berg, a clinical nurse specialist, wrote a letter in September to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. She urged people to "act forcefully" to remove an administration she said played games of "vicious deceit."

She signed the letter as a private citizen, and the VA had no reason to suspect she used government resources to write it, the ACLU said.

"From all appearances, the seizure of her work computer was an act of retaliation and a hardball attempt to scare Laura into silence," the ACLU said.

And how come this never made big news? This release was from Jan. 31. Timing looks right from above, but a news google search had only 23 results by Thursday night (March 2 btw).


Or maybe I'm over reacting?

The major bloggers have picked this up,so...

On Thursday night, there were 9,190 results on a Google search for "Laura Berg" sedition.


Here's the original ACLU release

Go to the original publication that had Berg's letter, punch her name in search if you want more validation.

"Then they came after me, and there was no one left to protest"

WTF?!? Is Fox saying the Iraq Civil War is made up?

As posted by a Kossak...

D'oh! More know Simpsons than Constitution

(AP via MSNBC)

Study: America more familiar with cartoon family than First Amendment

The Associated Press
Updated: 1:22 a.m. ET March 1, 2006

CHICAGO - Americans apparently know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment.
Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.

The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the museum, said he was surprised by the results.

“Part of the survey really shows there are misconceptions, and part of our mission is to clear up these misconceptions,” said Madeira, whose museum will be dedicated to helping visitors understand the First Amendment when it opens in April. “It means we have our job cut out for us.”

The survey found more people could name the three “American Idol” judges than identify three First Amendment rights. They were also more likely to remember popular advertising slogans.

It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Jan. 20-22 by the research firm Synovate and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

_________________________________________________________

Editor's note: The five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.

Somalis pushed into sea and drown

A boat sailing from Somalia forced all of its 137 passengers into deep waters off the Yemeni coast, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says.

More than 30 of the migrants have drowned. Survivors that reached shore on Monday night says dozens more, including children, are missing.

Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden each year, many hoping to reach Europe.

Fearing Yemeni coast guards, smugglers often force their passengers overboard.

Torino

Another blogger beat me to it, but I swear, I was gonna post about Dave Hyde's columns on the Winter Olympics from the moment I read in his column about how countries like Iran marched in the opening to oldschool American Disco (read:funkytown).


Anyways, in a retrospective of looking back, here were some of the good parts:

Gold isn't all that glitters at Olympics

One night, on a media bus, the door opened at a red light and several men got on. One shouted something in a foreign language. The others repeated it loudly.

"We're the happiest fathers in the world," one said in English.

They were Swedish. Their daughters on the Swedish hockey team had just beaten the United States for the first time in 26 games. "He's the goalie's father," one said, and they pointed at a small man, maybe 5-foot-6, whose daughter sparked the win.

"The greatest night of my life," Fleming Martin said.

His eyes teared up. All these fathers' eyes did. You only see these Swedish tears, after an American game, on a media bus, at the Olympics.

Chocolate state of mind

"What's this?" I asked the shopkeeper of Gertosio Cioccolato.

"Chocolate cabbage," she said.

Chocolate cabbage?

"I'll try some," I said.
...

But solid chocolate isn't just Italy's invention. It's Turin's. The first chocolate bar was created here in 1802. And with the Olympics wrapping up, Turin soon will go back to its normal life of driving Fiats, eating pizza (perhaps imported) and eating chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Every other shop in Turin is a gourmet chocolate shop. And every other shop sells lingerie. How can the two co-exist? Or maybe that's why they do?

Chocolate is so big here they sell something called the Choco-pass in Turin. You pay 15 euro (about $19). You get to walk around town with a map and get treats from up to 23 shops. It's a mixture of Halloween, a scavenger hunt and being Augustus Gloop.