Nurse Charged with 'Sedition' for Criticizing bush

[katty]

cont'd: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/10/154248/969

Nurse Charged With Sedition For Criticizing Bush!!!
by Maccabee
Fri Feb 10, 2006 at 01:42:48 PM PDT
This is how it starts people,


Laura Berg is a clinical nurse specialist at the VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, where she has worked for 15 years.

Shortly after Katrina, she wrote a letter to the editor of the weekly paper the Alibi criticizing the Bush Administration.

After the paper published the letter in its September 15-21 issue, VA administrators seized her computer, alleged that she had written the letter on that computer, and accused her of "sedition."


Here's what her letter said. if you can even believe this

link and more on the flip

Maccabee's diary :: ::
Find it here: http://progressive.org/...


"I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this government," it began. "The Katrina tragedy in the U.S. shows that the emperor has no clothes!" She mentioned that she was "a VA nurse" working with returning vets. "The public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder," she wrote, and she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that might result from Katrina and the Iraq War.

"Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown, and Rice should be tried for criminal negligence," she wrote. "This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil. . . . We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.

Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times."


Her computer was seized, Berg wrote a memo to her bosses seeking information and an explanation. Mel Hooker, chief of the human resources management service at the Albuquerque VA, wrote Berg back on November 9:

[rodeodance]

1. oh my GAWD!!

[cascadiance]

2. Well, if they are going to accuse her of sedition...

... then she should be able to say they were guilty of using Gestapo techniques to force her out of her job too! Same difference!

[wtmusic]

3. no legal charges...just freeper administrators w/o a clue nt

[gilpo]

24. BINGO!

Just jack-booted underling minions

[babylonsister]

4. se·di·tion:

se·di·tion
1. Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.
2. Insurrection; rebellion.

So exactly when did we lose our right to free speech?

This is beyond outrageous!

[Dharma_Bum]

16. Right on it Sister!!

:kick:

[robbedvoter]

18. December 13, 2000. But only shows nowadays.

[Booster]

48. I learn something new every day. Hell, I should be charged with

sedition, as well we should all be. ha The nurse is in good company, but no way should she have lost her job over this.

[cynatnite]

5. "and act forcefully to remove a government administration"

That's why she was charged.

I doubt she would have been charged under any other administration, but she gave them the ammo. :shrug:

[Deja Q]

13. Good catch. I didn't see that. And, yeah, she gave him the ammo.

I've also seen posts on DU I've alerted the mods on because those particular posts said similar things. DU is no hangout for such people and it affects us all. (kudos to the mods and admins for promptly removing those too...)

First Amendment allows free speech. What has also been true since day 1 is you do not threaten to forcibly overthrow the government. :dunce: She did give them the ammo with that one line alone. (it's also dumb to yell "Bomb!" in an airport setting (or anywhere else) because the only thing one CAN accurately predict is that chaos will ensue! Human nature is as predictable as the Random Number Display I wrote in BASIC 15 years ago...)

And our current administration is proving they take NO threat as a joke; that much is obvious.

[cynatnite]

25. I've always felt all threats should be taken seriously...

From what I've read that most of the time they investigate, determine there is no real threat, scare the hell out of those who make these kinds of statements and send them on their way.

They can usually figure out who to take seriously and deal with them. With an administration such as this, it's no surprise comments like these are more common. I just hope they don't prosecute every single person who expresses themselves in a moment of anger or frustration.

This nurse sounds like she did just that given the tragic lives she has to deal with. Hopefully, she'll be treated fairly.

[Mnemosyne]

26. Declaration of Independence (United States)

From the Preamble:

But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

[liberalhistorian]

58. Unless it's Ann Coulter

advocating the poisoning of a Supreme Court justice or inciting Muslims to burn down the SUPCO building after first advising Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy. THEN they have no problem seeing it as just a little "joke" to bring "levity."

[fujiyama]

66. That's a good point

Shhe also advocated bombing the NY Times building saying something along the lines of "McVeigh should have gone after the NY Times building instead".

S/he's a truly vile and disgusting thing.

[LiberalPartisan]

31. Perhaps, but how does that stand up against this?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

-- Declaration of Independence, paragraph two

[cynatnite]

39. What about this?

The government used the sedition law after World War I to convict anarchists. In the 1950s, the Supreme Court upheld convictions of communists on sedition charges for teaching doctrines that were held to be subversive.

"These weren't people blowing things up; they were basically basement seminars where people would read Marx," said constitutional law professor Richard Primus of the University of Michigan.

"Teaching people that the government is bad in the abstract is a constitutional right, but once you go beyond to an agreement to commit crimes, that becomes clearly punishable," said UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/11/08/national1420EST0650.DTL

bush and his minions are using outdated sedition laws. After reading this I can't see this nurse actually being prosecuted.

[LiberalPartisan]

41. Intimidation works just as effectively....n/t

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

47. Next? Anyone advocating the electoral opposition to the

guvment will be incarcerated indefinitely as an enemy combatant.

[skids]

32. Not quite.

Forcefully and forcibly are not the same word.

[druidity33]

42. my first thought too... n/t

[Catrina]

54. I agree ~ she meant with determination. Anyone can see that. They

just can't take any criticism and if they were freepers, that explains why they would not understand the nuances of the English language. This IS and outrage ~ there was absolutely no threat of violence in that letter.

[TahitiNut]

61. Literally: "with full force"

Synonyms: actively, angrily, animatedly, boisterously, briskly, brutally, cruelly, earnestly, energetically, ferociously, fiercely, forcefully, forcibly, frantically, furiously, heavily, intensely, keenly, like fury, madly, meanly, painfully, powerfully, relentlessly, rigorously, roughly, rowdily, savagely, seriously, severely, sharply, spiritedly, sprightly, stormily, strongly, tumultuously, turbulently, uproariously, urgently, viciously, vigorously, violently, vivaciously, wildly


While much ambiguity can be inferred, there's enough to bring the charge. It would be the job of a jury (definers of fact) to determine whether force/violence was being advocated. It's an unfortunate choice of words, to say the least.

[Der Blaue Engel]

34. Demanding impeachment is forceful, isn't it?

I think that's an awfully vague reason to claim sedition. Guess we'd all better be damn careful what we say from now on.

She should have just written: This administration is double-plus ungood.

[panader0]

6. Wow! How can we support that woman?

Does she still work at the VA in Burque? We need to e-mail them or try to put some pressure on the VA administration. Sedition, my ASS!! If that's sedition , they better arrest us all.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. This too is not impossible.

"...they better arrest us all."

Maybe we'd all better start keeping a bag packed with the things we'll be needing in the Gulag.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. You vill not be allowed personal items in de barraks...

Vimen to de right, mens to de left.... march!

[Deja Q]

7. Shouldn't she have written it on her HOME computer, at home?

Do something at the work computer and you're bound by the company's regulations and executives' whims. Especially when outgoing e-mail has the work address stamped all over it; her e-mail also represents the company she works for.

She made an oopsie.

Though the resultant actions (arrest, sedition, et al) is ludicrous. Especially when American corporations are moving jobs offshore to countries neighboring terrorist nations and must surely be aware of offshoring by now... (the list as to the negative long-term repercussions of offshoring and its effect on America's infrastructure AND economy is too huge to adumbrate upon here...)

[JohnyCanuck]

21. ACLU says no evidence she wrote the letter on her work computer

According to the ACLU, there was no evidence she wrote the letter on her work computer.

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.

<snip>

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.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/38858.html

[converted_democrat]

8. Why aren't more people flipping out over this?? This seems like a

really big deal to me..

[katty]

14. I am- it IS a big deal, just like the 24/7 corruption in the WH, et al

[0007]

35. Probably has scared the living shit out of many.......

When a senator gets involved ya know its big.

[Faygo Kid]

9. Just getting started. Either sedition laws, or martial law

One or the other is going to be imposed, I predict in 2007. 40 percent of Americans will applaud. 30 percent won't care one way or the other. That leaves the rest of us. I for one will be pissed. Big time.

[JohnyCanuck]

10. And a schoolteacher is blacklisted for honking at a "honk for peace" sign

In Mayer’s case, she says it was an article in Time Magazine for Kids that lead to her termination. In January 2003, she was teaching a Current Events class to fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Clear Creek Elementary School. They had been discussing the articles in the magazine, which dedicated an issue to the situation in Iraq. One student asked Mayer if she had ever participated in a peace march.

“I said that peace marches are going on all over the country and that whenever I pass the courthouse square where the demonstrators were, I honk for peace because they hold up signs that say honk for peace.”

That night, a sixth-grade student girl told her parents that Mayer was encouraging them to protest against the war, igniting a furor that Mayer said she'd never before experienced in her 20-year teaching career.

Three days later, the girl’s father showed up to the school for a meeting with Mayer and principal Victoria Rogers. Mayer explained that she had simply explained to the children that there are two sides to the story. When the father asked if she had any children in the military, she told him her son had recently enlisted. But that only seemed to antagonize him even further.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Educators_face_blowback_for_protesting_war_0209.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

20. Did you post this in it's own thread?

It really needs it's own thread.

They keep telling us it's not fascism... repeating a lie doesn't make it true though. :(

[JohnyCanuck]

23. Someone started a thread on this yesterday

but it sunk after only a few posts.

Here's the original thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x375601

[converted_democrat]

27. I just kicked it back up..n/t

[Viva_La_Revolution]

28. thanks! it just got kicked.

:)

[0007]

38. Let's get it back up. There are trolls that drown these types of post.

[Nikki Stone 1]

56. How do they drown these posts?

?

[Coexist]

68. they start a bunch of threads that are dupes of existing threads

or nonsense threads that push these down to the bottom of the page quickly - or kick threads that are examples of the above-mentioned - to keep them at the top and stuff like this at the bottom, where it falls off the page.

Did that make any sense??

[Nikki Stone 1]

72. Yes, and thank you

I'll be more cautious and on the lookout.

[rman]

57. you can't make this stuff up;

(from the same story)

Just over three years ago, as the nation readied for war with Iraq, elementary school teacher Deb Mayer stood in front of her class and uttered the word that would get her blacklisted from her profession.

It was a word that got her deemed “unpatriotic” by an angry parent. A word that led to her termination from the Bloomington, Indiana school district. A word that got her labeled as a potential sex offender and ruined her chances of finding work elsewhere.

That word was “peace.”

<more>

[TankLV]

65. Just ANOTHER in the THOUSANDS of examples of how well intentioned

but BAD "sex predator" laws are being abused and should be abolished.

Too many innocent persons are being falsely labeled.

[SPKrazy]

12. Maybe Violation Of Hatch Act?

But Sedition?

no legal charges

she should have written it from home computer

it is illegal to campaign on government time, although I don't know if this is campaigning under Hatch act or not.

Interesting story.

Computers and employers, it's amazing that they give anyone internet access given all the time lost due to their use. (Partly facetious, partly serious) They recently did an audit of what employees at my workplace were using internet access for. The number one thing was gambling. On the job gambling. Then news, and porn was way down the list.

Be careful what you post from work, big brother is watching

[katty]

17. don't care about BB, they want to you to STAY FEARFUL-that's the point

[SPKrazy]

30. Perhaps That Is The Case

It is also true that most employers frown on employees using computers for personal use, although they all probably realize that it is going to happen.

I would suspect that writing from a government computer criticizing the government is not without risk under any administration.

I know that I did an internship at the VA and it was made very clear that you couldn't campaign, or be political in any way while on the job due to the Hatch Act.

I don't know if this has any relation to this woman's situation, or whether it is just asshat bosses, but you do have to realize that what you send from your computer at work, is likely to be known by your employer.

[rodeodance]

29. maybe during her lunch break? (not that nurese get lunch breaks on busy

days)---

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. I was wondering how long it would be before that word was bandied

about.

It was inevitable, and I'm extremely surprised it took 'em this long.

[burythehatchet]

40. Time to watch Gandhi again

this brings me back to the pre-independence days in India.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. tick tock; tick tock. The sound of our freedoms being erased.

with each swing of the pendulum, we lose more of our rights.
The GOP blindly follows their dear leader because deep inside they know that all of their policies are bankrupt and failed. If they face up to the truth, they realize that they have driven the country into the ground. All they can hope for is to hold on when the revolution comes.

The Democrats, unfortunately, were cowed into protecting themselves against bullshit and spin, rather than staking out new territory. There are some exceptions. Dick Durbin, (although even he had to withdraw accurate statements) Howard Dean, Al Gore, and a few others have been brave, but not widely heard, except when today's MSM attacks or pokes fun at them.

At least now, many more Democrats are waking up and finding a spine, even though they cravenly caved with scAlito. if some key dems continue to cave, they will be replaced next election cycle.

[rodeodance]

33. he is right--the sedition charge is beyond comprehension

VA, wrote Berg back on November 9:

"The Agency is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition," he said. "In your letter . . . you declared yourself `as a VA nurse' and publicly declared the Government which employs you to have `tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence' and advocated, `act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.' "

Berg, who is not talking to the press, is "scared for her job" and "pretty emotionally distressed," says Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico.

"We were shocked to see the word `sedition' used," Simonson tells The Progressive. "Sedition? That's like something out of the history books."

So the ACLU is currently helping her, but the entire idea that someone can be charged just for criticizing the president is beyond me. The letter itself apparently worked it's way to the ladder all the way to the FBI. Good God, this is how it starts

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. Another thread on this outrage:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2445973
thread title (2-8-06 GD-P): Nurse investigated for "Sedition" for writing a letter to the editor
Comment/excerpt: “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 woman is a VA employee, and VA Human Resources has been looking into her “sedition.”

[kath]

37. Is it fascism yet?

[f-bush]

43. This and all the other bullshit is scary as hell.

It can happen to anybody and it happened to me in October of 1988 I was one of 7 who infiltrated a campaign appearance by shrub's father. Things got out of hand and shrub sr. had to leave 17 minutes early. The next morning an FBI agent came to my door, told me I could be charged with sedition and then since I was not a native born citizen (naturalized) I could be deported to my birth nation. I told him to shove it up his ass, and that's the last I've heard from them!

[proud patriot]

44. Supporting Bush is Seditious

[upi402]

45. rightwing fascism is alive and kicking

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

46. Beyond Outrageous! Even if she gets off, a certain amount of damage

has been done to her as well as the "chilling effect" on free speech.

And Coulter gets to write or talk about assassinating former Presidents with zero consequences??? (I just saw a subject line) What is massively wrong with this picture?????

[Kurovski]

49. It can't be too long before the ACLU is involved, can it?

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

51. They already are.

"Berg, who is not talking to the press, is "scared for her job" and "pretty emotionally distressed," says Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico.

"We were shocked to see the word `sedition' used," Simonson tells The Progressive. "Sedition? That's like something out of the history books." "


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/10/154248/969

[Kurovski]

53. Thanks, I should've gone to the link.

:blush:

[redacted]

50. free speech = sedition

I just can't deal anymore.

:banghead:

[buddysmellgood]

52. I know the guy who started the Alibi, he also started the Onion. Cool.

[tanyev]

55. And Ann Coulter gets paid for "joking" about killing Pres. Clinton.

Shameful.

Ann Coulter at CPAC on "Ragheads" and Assassinating Bill Clinton
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=382828

[Straight Shooter]

59. She also gets paid (and applauded) for joking about poisoning a SC Justice

Definitely a double standard at work in this country. When everything crumbles all around, Repubs will have no one to blame but themselves.

[gracie76]

60. Nurse charged with sedition for criticizing Bush

I am not sure I got this one straight....if they did NOT find the letter on the computer they seized, which I am ASSUMING (and, yes, I know what that makes me..) was the computer this nurse used at her workplace...then she is being accused of sedition for expressing her own opinion, apparently on her own computer (?) at home (?) not on work time (?)
No matter which computer, where located and at what time....it is sad to see this disgusting over-reaction, but NOT surprising.
However, I will have to admit that I was very careful, when being critical of my employer many years ago, NOT to use the computer at my work station, and NOT to use my work hours to generate the letters, notes, memos, etc. that I did write. IF Ms. Berg used her computer at work to write the criticizing letter, then she has put herself in the middle of the muddle. Of course we all know she could have written the letter and printed it and mailed it (was it e-mailed from work ??!!) and THEN erased it from the files, yes?
I AM in sympathy with Ms. Berg, and the filing of sedition charges is more than just stupid...it is suppression of free speech, but I would recommend any other federal government employees who feel it incumbent upon themselves to speak out against the current cabal of this administration and its anti-human, anti-servicepeople, anti-everyone who isn't white, male and part of PNAC and the religious fanatical right, and rich.....that they do this on their own time, away from work, and on their own computer...or one in the public library. Would that work?? gracie76

[autorank]

62. This is not good! At all. Who is next? Bingaman, D, NM sticks up for her.

"Meanwhile, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, has taken up the Berg case.

“I am writing to express my deep concern regarding news reports that Ms. Laura Berg . . . was investigated for sedition after writing a letter that was critical of the current Administration,” Senator Bingaman wrote to R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, on February 7. “In a democracy, expressing disagreement with the government’s actions does not amount to sedition or insurrection—it is, and must remain, protected speech.”

The only hook I can see here is that she referenced being a VA nurse. I don't know what the policy is in detail, but there are restrictions on Federal employees and political activity. This was simply an expression of opinion, however. The business about doing it on a Federal computer is ridiculous. If they went after every Federal employee who wrote a letter on their computers, we'd have no civil service.

Very disturbing stuff.

Recommended.

[Harper_is_Bush]

63. Here's a good line for her: "BRING IT ON!"

[bigbrother05]

64. Badge of Honor

[EVDebs]

67. Iraq and Corruption are the main topics R's fear public awareness of

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x389406

The nurse should be given a Medal of Freedom with Oak Leaf Clusters, IMHO. Retribution against whistleblowers, and she should declare herself on immediately (!), is illegal. Her lawyers should begin publicizing the case (and thank you, katty !) for setting us all wise to this.

The revolution has begun. It won't be televised. We don't care. We're taking OUR country back and reinstituting Constitutional government !

[sakabatou]

69. This is a disgrace.

Becuase of this administration, the act of free speech is being squashed even in business and the public. :grr:

[mdmc]

70. kick

for your art

[sakabatou]

71. Thanks!