Another Sad Tally

It's been a while, but time for another tallying up of gutless politicians. At least my hope with regard to the first one came to pass (that the Military Commission Act would be declared unconstitutional -- ok, the whole thing wasn't declared unconstitutional, but at least the part eliminating habeas corpus was declared unconstitutional).

Today's disaster is a senate vote (80-15) to invoke cloture on the House's odious FISA cave (293-129; Reps 188-1 and Dems 105-128, the spineless Dem leadership, scheduling the bill and voting for it and the Dem caucus able to vote against it because the Reps were 99% for it) -- giving the president not one, but two, things he wanted -- for no reason at all!!! Telecomm immunity AND gutting of the 4th amendment (allowing blanket searches and essentially warrentless searches). Allowing corporations to break the law for 5 years AND stripping hundred year old protections all in one bill -- hard to imagine the Democratic Party could do that -- especially when they are in such a politically powerful position, given how unpopular the president is. Argh!!!!

So, once again, we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

The GOOD (NAYs --15)
Biden (D-DE) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Dodd (D-CT)	Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA) Kerry (D-MA) Lautenberg (D-NJ)	Leahy (D-VT) Menendez (D-NJ) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Wyden (D-OR)

The BAD (YEAs ---80)
Akaka (D-HI) Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Bennett (R-UT) Bingaman (D-NM) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Dole (R-NC)	Domenici (R-NM) Dorgan (D-ND) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feinstein (D-CA) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (D-SD) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Mikulski (D-MD)	Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Roberts (R-KS) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Stevens (R-AK) Sununu (R-NH) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS)

The Ugly -- (Not Voting - 5, Kennedy and Byrd are sick, the others have no excuse, running for President is not an excuse and Clinton isn't even running any more and made a big show yesterday of being back in DC)
Byrd (D-WV) Clinton (D-NY)	Kennedy (D-MA) McCain (R-AZ)	Obama (D-IL)

In theory, it's not over. This was just cloture on moving to debate. In theory they can filibuster at many others steps. Hopefully the amendment to be offered by Dodd and Feingold to strip Telecomm immunity will be voted on (although, out of spite -- or fear, I could see opponents filibustering it, rather than allowing a vote -- a similar amendment failed 31-67 Feb 12, 2008, but Obama voted for it then -- maybe he can bring himself to vote for it again). Make them vote on that!!! Dodd gave what everyone is saying was a great speech last night -- but maybe he shot everything last night because he knew the fix was in. Agh!!

I tried -- I wrote, I called, I e-mailed and contributed. I hope the Act Blue organization (currently has $322,223 from 5,596 donors, I think raised in just the last week) set up by Glenn Greenwald (many good posts) does what it was set up to do -- go after (and more importantly, frighten) those who take the wrong position on this issue.