Yesterday on Michael Moore's web site, Cindy Sheehan finished reciting the story of her arrest at the Capitol on Tuesday night with the lament: "I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain."

Sheehan most certainly did lose her son, which all acknowledge is a painful tragedy for any family, but her other two assertions are debatable.  Has Sheehan really lost her First Amendment rights? Does she really love her country?

Her recent trip to Venezuela to embrace the odious Hugo Chavez answers both questions - in the negative.  As Deb Saunders points out, it's a good thing Sheehan wasn't caught wearing a T-Shirt that offended El Presidente:

Free speech? Sheehan should take a look at how her buddy Chavez treats dissidents. As Jackson Diehl reported in The Washington Post last year, the Chavez-controlled legislature passed new media laws that included this choice provision: "Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the president of the republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of six to 30 months if the offense is serious, and half of that if it is light."

Thanks to the mainstream media, Cindy Sheehan has enjoyed more free speech than all other parents in America who've lost loved ones in Iraq but still support the war and honor their children's sacrifice. By far. 

She's lied her way into meetings with Senators only to berate them in public afterwards. Now there's a classy use of her First Amendment right. Indeed, Cindy has so vigorously exercised her right to free speech recently she's even managed to start scaring off some of her fellow moonbats. This is quite an achievement for someone who is being so viciously oppressed.