corrente

Your Senate unanimously passed the appropriations bill with the Real ID booby prize tucked inside.

According to Raw Story, the Dems were shut out of the debate over Real ID,(though it doesn't seem to have stopped them from going along):

"Both chambers of Congress have already passed their versions of the bill; the Senate version does not contain REAL ID but it is expected to be added during negotiations. Senate Democrats say they are being kept out of discussions in much the same way that the House Democrats were barred from negotiations in late 2004."

Lambert's favorite Senator had this to say:

"Democrats have been completely shut out of the backroom negotiations
that I understand have taken place this week about the REAL ID Act,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said.
“This is not the way the United States Senate should be doing business, and this is certainly not the way the American people expect that the laws that govern their daily lives will be produced," he added. "This is yet another example of the Republican leadership's abuse of power."

All this fuss over the filibuster, and meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the Congresional bodies, Republicans are quietly cutting off half the nation's citizens' access to their government in little backroom deals and with the help of a mostly sedated Democratic "opposition". I suppose if they had attached an amendment to the bill requiring all people over 50 to show up at Selective Service for repatriation to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, they would have gone along with that, too, since it would have been attached to a "support the troops" bill.

I'm away from the computer much of the day after this, so maybe my blood pressure will go back down.