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Well, it happened. The monster got revived. It seems like no matter how the American public feels about this bill, it just won’t die.

The vote was taken on the Senate floor this afternoon, and it was voted to receive cloture (meaning it was voted to be brought back to the Senate floor and debated again) 64 - 35. It needed 60 votes, and barely got it. (For anyone who doesn’t know, cloture only means that it is brought back to the floor and debated, it does NOT mean that it is passed into legislation. That will be done in another vote, although it is assumed that if the senator voted for cloture, they will vote for the bill to be passed.)

As I was reading the roll call for the Senate vote, a name that stuck out at me: Senator Larry Craig. He is one of Idaho’s senators, and he actually voted for cloture!!! I could not believe it! I live in Idaho, the senators are both Republican, I could trust them to do the right thing, life was good.

But apparently not.

Although Senator Craig voted for cloture, our other Idaho senator, Mike Crapo, voted against it (thank you Crapo!!) So I did something I have never done before: I actually called a senator’s office to complain. I told Senator Craig’s staffer that I wouldn’t vote for Craig again (I voted for him in the last election) if he voted to pass this bill. I told them that I am very strongly against it. It was, to be honest, a liberating feeling! So this is what it’s like to be an American! LOL!

So in case I have any readers from Idaho and they want to feel like an American too, here is the information for Larry Craig’s offices:

Boise office: 208-342-7985
DC office: 202-224-2752
If you want to e-mail him, go to http://craig.senate.gov/webform.cfm where there is a web form.

The great part of this was, when I called the DC office, the lines were ringing off the hook!!!!! They put me on hold about four times to answer other lines, and I could tell the staffers were really stressed. That’s wonderful!!! That means that people are rising up against this and against Senator Craig for doing this, which hopefully means that we’ll be able to keep this bill from passing. If we can get Craig, and even part of the other 24 Republican senators to switch their vote to against the bill (yes, you read that right - 24 Republican Senators voted for cloture - unbelievable!!!) we can kill this bill once and for all.

Well, after I got off the phone with the DC office, I started to worry. They were so busy, they didn’t even take my name or number, so I figured I should call another office too and tell them how I felt. So I called Boise, Idaho. The atmosphere was much more relaxed there, and the lady took down my name and address, which hopefully gives my complaint more ummph. We’ll see.

I hung up feeling pretty darn proud of myself. Not only had I called the Senator, I had called him at two different offices! This American stuff was starting to go to my head. Then I realized: I should call Crapo and tell him thank you for voting against cloture! What if he doesn’t receive any phone calls, and doesn’t think that anyone cares, and changes his vote before the final vote, and ends up voting FOR the bill??! So I called his office and told the very nice staffer in DC (who, btw, didn’t sound harried or stressed out in the slightest, LOL!) that I greatly appreciated Crapo’s vote, and that I wanted him to know that he had done the right thing. So in case any of you Idaho readers are so inclined, his info is thus:

DC office: (202) 224-6142
Boise office: (208) 334-1776
E-mail form on the web - scroll down just a bit to find it: http://crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

For anyone who lives outside of Idaho but doesn’t know their Senator’s information, go to Google and type in “Senator ____ (name) _____ (state)” so if you were looking for Senator Crapo from Idaho you would type in “Senator Crapo Idaho” and you’ll find the info just fine. That’s how I found both Crapo and Craig’s websites, and then from there you just have to poke around a bit on the website to find the contact info.

To find out if you need to call/write/e-mail your senator, check out the following information and scan for your senators (notice that I bolded the names of all presidential candidates, and italicized the names of my two senators from Idaho - the names are in alphabetical order):

Voting “yes” were 39 Democrats, 24 Republicans and 1 independent.

Voting “no” were 9 Democrats, 25 Republicans and 1 independent.

*Democrats Yes:

Akaka, Hawaii; Biden, Del.; Bingaman, N.M.; Boxer, Calif.; Brown, Ohio; Cantwell, Wash.; Cardin, Md.; Carper, Del.; Casey, Pa.; Clinton, N.Y.; Conrad, N.D.; Dodd, Conn.; Durbin, Ill.; Feingold, Wis.; Feinstein, Calif.; Harkin, Iowa; Inouye, Hawaii; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Klobuchar, Minn.; Kohl, Wis.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Leahy, Vt.; Levin, Mich.; Lincoln, Ark.; Menendez, N.J.; Mikulski, Md.; Murray, Wash.; Nelson, Fla.; Nelson, Neb.; Obama, Ill.; Pryor, Ark.; Reed, R.I.; Reid, Nev.; Salazar, Colo.; Schumer, N.Y.; Webb, Va.; Whitehouse, R.I.; Wyden, Ore.

*Democrats No:

Baucus, Mont.; Bayh, Ind.; Byrd, W.Va.; Dorgan, N.D.; Landrieu, La.; McCaskill, Mo.; Rockefeller, W.Va.; Stabenow, Mich.; Tester, Mont.

*Democrats Not Voting:

Johnson, S.D.

*Republicans Yes:

Bennett, Utah; Bond, Mo.; Brownback, Kan.; Burr, N.C.; Coleman, Minn.; Collins, Maine; Craig, Idaho; Domenici, N.M.; Ensign, Nev.; Graham, S.C.; Gregg, N.H.; Hagel, Neb.; Kyl, Ariz.; Lott, Miss.; Lugar, Ind.; Martinez, Fla.; McCain, Ariz.; McConnell, Ky.; Murkowski, Alaska; Snowe, Maine; Specter, Pa.; Stevens, Alaska; Voinovich, Ohio; Warner, Va.

*Republicans No:

Alexander, Tenn.; Allard, Colo.; Barrasso, Wy.; Bunning, Ky.; Chambliss, Ga.; Coburn, Okla.; Cochran, Miss.; Corker, Tenn.; Cornyn, Texas; Crapo, Idaho; DeMint, S.C.; Dole, N.C.; Enzi, Wyo.; Grassley, Iowa; Hatch, Utah; Hutchison, Texas; Inhofe, Okla.; Isakson, Ga.; Roberts, Kan.; Sessions, Ala.; Shelby, Ala.; Smith, Ore.; Sununu, N.H.; Thune, S.D.; Vitter, La.

*Others Yes:

Lieberman, Conn.

*Others No:

Sanders, Vt.

Mitt has not released a press release on this vote yet, but when he does, I’ll make sure to post it on here. For anyone interested, his stance on illegal immigration and his thoughts on the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill are neatly laid out on this page; here are the important highlights:

In December 2006, Governor Romney Signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Federal Government to Allow State Troopers to Enforce Federal Immigration Laws. “Governor Mitt Romney…announced the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Massachusetts and ICE, which will give specially trained Massachusetts State Troopers the authority to administer and enforce federal immigration laws in the Commonwealth. “

Let’s compare this to McCain’s stance on illegal immigration (let’s write up a horrible bill that almost everyone is against - except the politicians in Washington - that gives amnesty to millions of illegal aliens!) and Rudy Giuliani, who actually declared New York City a “sanctuary city” where illegal aliens could go and know that they would not be arrested or deported back home. These two are the antithesis of Mitt Romney, who not only right now supports dealing with illegal immigration fairly and justly by not giving law breakers a jump to the head of the line, but who also supported and helped in this fight even back when he was governor of a state, by commissioning his state troopers to help in this battle. Who do we want to be our next president, truly - a man who has fought this issue all along, or two men who have only made this issue worse?

One last excerpt from the site, although there’s more there that you might be interested in:

IN-STATE TUITION: Governor Romney Vetoed In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants. “Romney also vetoed a number of outside sections of the budget, including:…A plan that would have permitted illegal aliens to pay the same in-state tuition rate at our public colleges and universities as Massachusetts citizens.”

I cannot believe that this was even in the budget. Illegal aliens come into our country, break our laws, and then the legislature wants to reward them for doing that by giving them in-state tuition at the colleges??? This would have meant that their tuition would have been cut between in half or even in third - there is a HUGE difference between in-state vs out-of-state tuition, as any college student would tell you. The fact that this was even in the budget tells you how extremely liberal Massachusetts really is (as if you needed another reminder…)

The fact that Mitt Romney was able to do everything in that state that he was, is amazing. He was able to hold the line on Roe vs Wade - legislation came up that would have made it easier for abortions to be done and he vetoed it! He promised in his campaign that he would not change the abortion laws on the books, and he did exactly that. He also fought against gay marriage and when he lost that fight, he then found a loophole in the state laws that kept people coming in from other states to get married in Massachusetts as gay couples, which because Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that allows gay marriage, that was not only a distinct possibility, it was absolutely guaranteed to happen. He prevented that. He did all of this despite the fact that the legislature was a whopping 85% Democratic! He did so much for that bluest-of-blue states, and I cannot WAIT to see what he does for America!

Hava

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