Why do we elect Senators. No, seriously, why?

The Washington Post did a little calculation recently of who's doing the voting in the Senate, and it ain't John McCain. The only Senator with a higher percentage of missed votes than McCain was the one who had a brain hemorrhage:

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) 65.2%
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 56.4%
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) 39.8% (I so did not see that one coming!)
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) 36.7%
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 35.4%
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) 28.5%
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) 28.3%

And the saddest statistic of all? Out of 100 Senators, only 11 have made 100% of the votes ....

The Matthew Shepard Act is in trouble - Please take action now!

For the first time, hate crimes prevention legislation has passed both chambers of Congress. This is the closest we've ever been to securing federal assistance for the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity.

Please join me in urging your senators and representative to ensure that the Matthew Shepard Act (S 1105) is included in the conference report of the Department of Defense Authorization Act (HR 1585) and sent to the President's desk for signature.

This legislation would eliminate the barrier currently preventing federal involvement in protecting victims of bias-motivated crimes on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. Current law authorizes federal involvement only in cases involving bias related to race, color, religion or national origin.

Senate confirms Mukasey as new Attorney General

Am I romanticizing history? Wasn't there a time in this country when people stood for their beliefs, and when something was blatantly morally wrong, they said so?

Waterboarding is torture. The U.S. military knows it, and bans the practice. The U.S. government knows it -- after World War II we prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners of war.

Yet yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm a man as U.S. Attorney General who would not state that waterboarding is torture. He went as far as to call it "repugnant," but would say no more. Why couldn't he state that if confirmed, he would ban the practice in the future? The talking heads' analysis is that he doesn't want to jeopardize CIA staff who are currently using the method, but I don't buy it. All he has to do is say "from here on out, it won't be used by anyone working for the United States government."

There was a time when the United States was respected around the world as a fair and just country. A nation that truly lived the ideals of democracy. You know, with liberty and justice for all.

I am happy to say that my senators, Mikulski and Cardin, both voted against Mukasey's confirmation.

I am disgusted to report that several presidential hopefuls simply did not vote:

• Clinton
• Obama
• Dodd
• Biden
• McCain

Six democrats and the president's BFF, Joe Lieberman, voted to confirm. See how your senator voted here.

More Democracy in action. Not!

From the Washington Post:

Senators Block D.C. Vote Bill, Delivering Possibly Fatal Blow

Republican lawmakers yesterday blocked the Senate from taking up the D.C. vote bill, a potentially fatal setback for the District's most promising effort in years to get a full member of Congress.

The vote was on a motion to simply consider the bill. Fifty-seven senators voted in favor, three short of the 60 needed to proceed. Without enough support to vault the Senate's procedural hurdles, the bill is expected to stall this year and possibly next year.

Proponents have portrayed the bill as a civil rights measure, saying that depriving a majority African American city of a vote echoes discriminatory practices outlawed decades ago. They also have said it is hypocritical for the United States to fight for voting rights in Iraq while denying them in its own capital.

"It's time to end the injustice, the national embarrassment that citizens of this great capital city don't have voting representation in Congress," Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a brief floor session before the vote. Opponents did not make speeches.

So, once again, a bill was kept from coming to a full vote by a small number of Republican senators. Among this group deciding the fate of the hardworking people of D.C., (who, by the way, not only pay all the same taxes you do, but also have to put up with obnoxious political types every day), are such upstanding citizens as Sen. Larry Craig (R-Sex Sting) and Sen. David Vitter (R-Hookers).

See how your senators voted here, and if they voted against bringing this bill up for a full vote, give them an earful.

Senator Dole's twisted compassion

The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would raise tobacco taxes to pay for expanding a children's health program, shrugging off a veto threat from President George W. Bush who wants a more limited plan.

Senator Elizabeth Dole denounced the bill, saying “Of the 20 percent of the adult population that smokes, around half are in families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. In other words, many of the families SCHIP is meant to help will be disproportionately hit by the Senate’s proposed tax hike.”

Aww, she's standing up for the poor people. What a wonderful person.

But wait — Dole's home state of North Carolina is also a major producer of tobacco. Uh, could her compassion really be more about money in North Carolina and getting re-elected?

Senator Dole's concern notwithstanding, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 68-31. The House also approved a similar bill. The two bills will now need to be reconciled.

President Bush has vowed to veto this bill, but the votes in both the House and the Senate are more than enough to override a presidential veto.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. President!

Update on the Hate Crimes Bill

With Congress trying to unravel so many White House scandals, the Hate Crimes Bill hasn't gotten much press lately. It passed the House of Representatives in May of this year, and has been placed on hold until the mess that is our U.S. Senate can work itself out.

Existing federal law authorizes federal involvement only for hate crimes involving race, color, religion or national origin. The pending Hate Crimes Bill would include a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.

Please watch the new video from the Human Rights Campaign if you wonder why this is impotant. And then contact your Senator.

GOP leaders say D'oh!

Remember this: the Republicans are the ones who are voting against the procedure called “cloture” on the Iraq spending amendments.

From the American Heritage Dictionary: “Cloture: A parliamentary procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion. Also called closure.”

According to Senate rules, a vote for cloture must result in not just a simple majority of votes, but 60 votes. That is what the Democrats are trying to get done. The Republicans are the ones voting against ending the debate! So when the blowhards of Mitch McConnell and John McCain get in front of the press and announce that the Democrats are wasting time, someone needs to ask them why they voted against ending the debate and having a simple vote on the Senate floor?

If you're still confused, the best explanation I've seen yet for what the heck is going on in the Senate right now is at Firedoglake:

This is a pretty in-your-face procedural move from Reid — who gave the GOP leadership an opportunity to vote on all of the amendments up or down and, when they refused, Reid left the Grand Obstruction Party to stew in its own obstructionist failure. He’s left no cover for them or for the Bush Administration for continued stall and obstruct maneuvers on this — instead, the onus is on them to explain why their actions are focused on protecting the President’s flank, rather than on standing up for American soldiers and against more failed policies.

Why the filibuster was necessary: The Democrats grow a spine!

GOP talking points have labeled last night's filibuster on the Iraq defense spending amendments "Political Theater." Well, then, they shouldn't have threatened to have it come to this.

You see, much of what goes on in the halls of Congress, well, it goes on in the halls of Congress — not on the House or Senate floor. And the Republicans in the Senate tried to make legal maneuvers in the committee rooms and hallways to keep the many proposed amendments (almost all aimed at requiring troop withdrawal) from ever making it to the floor for an honest vote. It is to the Democratic leadership's credit that they finally stood up and said “No.”

A candlelight vigil was held outside Congress last night as well, attended by 57 Representatives and 25 Senators. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) said this to those assembled:

So I have one question for all of you: Are we united in speaking out against the Republican obstructionism on the floor of the United States Senate? If we are united let us respectfully proceed and listen to our Senators and bear witness to the obstructionism of the Republicans, and bear witness to their just saying ‘No’ to having a vote on Levin-Reed.

If we are unified then we will be successful and we will soon have the vote on Levin-Reed to end the war and bring the troops home.

If this was theater, it was public theater. And that is how our American democratic system is supposed to work. It remains to be seen how the voting will go on these amendments, but one thing is for sure: the Democrats in Congress have finally stood up to the Bush-Cheney war machine and said, “No more.”

[UPDATED] Just in: Republicans Kill Webb's Troop-Protection Amendment

From The Huffington Post:

Just moments ago, Senate Republicans succeeded in a filibuster in which they refused to end debate on Virginia Democrat Jim Webb's S. 2012, which would have placed strict limits on National Guard and reserve deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as mandating more downtime at home before active-duty combat troops are returned to battle.

The vote was 56-41 to end debate, with 60 votes needed to move to a full, up-or-down vote on the Webb measure. Once again, the GOP has been successful at destroying another Democratic attempt at helping service members and their families caught in the buzzsaw of the Bush administration's lies and incompetence.

So let me get this straight: The Senate was 4 votes shy of deciding whether to vote on this Amendment?! This was not even the actual vote on the amendment, but the vote on whether to vote. Yep. Your tax dollars at work folks.

And by the way, what was in S. 2012? Oh, just that active duty troops have at least the same time at home as the length of their previous tour of duty overseas. Is that so undreasonable to the Republicans that they cannot even agree to vote on the idea?

Here is the list the votes. See how your folks voted.

File this under: Ha ha ha!

Senate panel cuts off funds for Cheney’s office

AP reports:

A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president’s budget until Cheney’s office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

Cheney’s office, with backing from the White House, argues that the offices of the president and vice president are exempt from the order because they are not executive branch ”agencies.”

The funding cut came as the appropriations panel approved 5-4 along party lines a measure funding White House operations, the Treasury Department and many smaller agencies.

One hate crime is commmited every hour in the United States

From the Matthew Shepard Foundation:

On May 3, the United States House passed the federal hate crimes legislation with bi-partisan support (237 - 180). The legislation now heads to the United States Senate, where it has been renamed the Matthew Shepard Act. In response to this, Judy Shepard, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said "I can’t think of a better way to honor Matthew’s memory. He was a 21-year-old college student just living his life."

We need your help to ensure that this bill is sent to the President to be signed into law. Call now and ask your Senators to Support the Matthew Shepard Act

Call 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator's office.

Thousands of people are attacked every year because of their sexual orientation, and there's still no federal hate crimes law to protect them.

Be the one to protect all Americans. Call.