Here's what almost EVERY SENATE Democrat voted for today

I expect Republicans to vote for fascistic, Big Brother tactics such as those contained in the so-called USA PATRIOT Act. I expect them to march in lockstep with a president whose approval ratings are under 40%. I expect them to do this because Republicans worship authority above all else, and like an abused dog placed in a new home, they can't quite believe that they're safe now. So even those "less government" Republicans now love Big Brother.

But I fail to understand why the Democrats are still going along with this, as if Bush still had the support of anyone other than the die-hard Christofascist neocon death cult zombies who would support him no matter what he does.

John Kerry voted for the act's renewal yesterday. So did Ted Kennedy. So did Hillary Clinton. So did the Great Party Hope Barack Obama. So, for that matter, did Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, the Senators from my home state.

Only 10 Senators -- 9 Democrats plus Jim Jeffords -- had the courage to buck a 39% president in order to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

For the record, those Senators are:

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-OR)

Here is what the rest voted for yesterday:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Walter Soehnge is a retired Texas schoolteacher who traveled north with his wife, Deana, saw summer change to fall in Rhode Island and decided this was a place to stay for a while.

So the Soehnges live in Scituate now and Walter sometimes has breakfast at the Gentleman Farmer in Scituate Village, where he has passed the test and become a regular despite an accent that is definitely not local.

And it was there, at his usual table last week, that he told me that he was "madder than a panther with kerosene on his tail."

He says things like that. Texas does leave its mark on a man.

What got him so upset might seem trivial to some people who have learned to accept small infringements on their freedom as just part of the way things are in this age of terror-fed paranoia. It's that "everything changed after 9/11" thing.

But not Walter.

"We're a product of the '60s," he said. "We believe government should be way away from us in that regard."

He was referring to the recent decision by him and his wife to be responsible, to do the kind of thing that just about anyone would say makes good, solid financial sense.

They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.

"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.

I don't know about you, but I've been known to do the card-switch, where you take a zero-introductory-rate card and use a balance transfer check to pay off a balance. I've been known to pull money out of savings to pay off a big purchase, like a computer, all at once. But, as Mike Malloy pointed out while subbing for Randi Rhodes today, if you make a payment that's more than 30% higher than your average payment, it must be reported to the Department of Homeland Security.

Credit Card Balances of Mass Destruction? WTF kind of homeland security act is this? If my average payment is $200/month and I make a payment of $300/month it has to be reported to Homeland Security? That's absurd, and frankly, it smacks to me of a nice way the government can add to the list of people they want to keep under surveillance 24 x 7 x 365.

And in voting for renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, all but nine Democratic Senators voted for this.