Author: Jack
I retired in 2008 and so I have more time now to devote to several of my interests The blog here is mainly for my interests in some current events but may have the occasional rant on other subjects. I have also decided to keep my genealogy posts here instead of in a second blog (and so simplify my life a little).

Prophecy by S.J. Parris (advance reader)

Prophecy by S.J. Parris (advance reader)

Posted on by Jack

After a few pages I was back in 1583. Was it a miracle of time travel? No, I had just started reading Prophecy by S.J. Parris.

I had read the first book in this series (Heresy) which introduced me to Giordano Bruno, a renagade Italian monk who fled to England to avoid the wrath of The Inquisition. He was a free-thinker and philosopher and the Pope wanted him burned at the stake as a heretic. Much to my surprise I later learned that Giordano Bruno was a real person and he did flee the heresy charges but was eventually arrested by The Inquisition, declared a heretic and burned at the stake. And he was really in England for several years (including 1583) during his years between the fleeing and the execution. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel/thriller based on this character.

When I saw the second in this series by S.J Parris was coming out in a few months, I managed to get an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of Prophecy. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, the author does a wonderful job of setting the stage and transporting you back to the time period. Much more important than adjusting to life with no cars, no TV, and even no internet is the texture of life with the importance of being Catholic or Protestant, superstition, astrology, and so forth.

The story is set in 1583, the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align in a certain way, an astrologi­cal event that occurs about once every thousand years and was thought to herald the end of one age and the start of another. All sorts of things could happen, maybe even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When one of the queen’s maids of honor is killed, Francis Walsingham “spymaster” of the Queen asks Giordano Bruno to help solve the crimes. Bruno must allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs but in doing so may allow the plot to go too far and result in the death of the Queen.

And although historical fiction does have an interest in itself, it is also very relevant to modern day dilemmas. Walsingham uses methods which would seem to be inconsistent with Elizabeth’s desired openness and tolerance. A dilemma in modern day democracy is how far you should go using methods inconsistent with your values to ensure the survival of your government and values. The police certainly want to prevent crime and terrorism but when they discover plots need to let them go far enough that they are sure they are right and maybe even convict the guilty.

The writing of S. J. Parris and her remarkable sense of place and time make both books stories worth reading. Heresy is now available in paperback and Prophecy is scheduled to be out in March in the UK and Australia but May in the US.

Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

Posted on by Jack

The short answer is “we don’t know”. There have been several articles about federal pay that have been much in the press and repeated often enough that many people probably think they are correct. But the story is much more complex and has been well reviewed by FactCheck.org.

Both the FactCheck article and the responses from both sides are well worth reading if you wish to have an informed opinion in the debate about private vs federal compensation.

Henrietta Lacks and immortal HeLa cells: a legal but not moral tale

Henrietta Lacks and immortal HeLa cells: a legal but not moral tale

Posted on by Jack

I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

OK, I am not your typical reader. I am a scientist and have done quite a bit of cell culture. (I am retired now and read a lot.) I knew something about Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells and thought the book would be only somewhat interesting and really not worth the time. But I was wrong. The reviews have all been so positive, I figured I should give this book a try. The story here is well-told and adds much detail that I thought I wouldn’t care about. (Did I mention that I was wrong?).

The doctors treating her cancer took her cells without informed consent. (But that was accepted practice until fairly recently.) This was the first immortal human cell line and was extremely important to medical science. There were medical advances and money was made. Yet the Lacks family got nothing. It was all legal but I doubt many would consider it moral.

There are several stories: Henrietta, her immediate family, the extended Lacks family, and the injustices done to them. And these are important stories. The book would be worthwhile if all it did was tell these stories. But it also puts these stories into the larger contexts of ethics, science, medical research, race, class, journalism, poverty, and education. So it is very complex and somehow Ms. Skloot manages to weave all of these facets into a fascinating and educational book in much less than 400 pages.

The reviews have been great and the book has become a best seller. And there is a simple reason for this. Rebecca Skloot has transformed an interesting story of an injustice into a fascinating book.

And unlike many of those who benefited from these cells and this family, Rebecca Skloot did something very strange. She actually tried to help this family. She has established The Henrietta Lacks Foundation to help Henrietta Lacks’ family. She is donating a potion of the book’s proceeds to the foundation and all visitors to the site may donate as well.

This story is really well-told. And different readers may enjoy one aspect more than another. But all aspects are well done and I think fairly covered.

House Proposal to Defund Health Reform Would Block Market Reforms, Cost-Containment Measures, and Coverage Improvements — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

House Proposal to Defund Health Reform Would Block Market Reforms, Cost-Containment Measures, and Coverage Improvements — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Posted on by Jack

House Proposal to Defund Health Reform Would Block Market Reforms, Cost-Containment Measures, and Coverage Improvements — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Gideon Crew series)

Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Gideon Crew series)

Posted on by Jack

Thanks to netgalley I read an advanced reader’s copy (ARC) of Gideon’s Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The book won’t be released until February 22, 2011 but is available for pre-order though Amazon as either a physical book or a Kindle edition. The novel is planned to be the first installment in a new series featuring Gideon Crew. Gideon Crew is a fascinating character: an accomplished art thief, a Los Alamos physicist, an outdoorsman, an actor, a jazz fan, and more.

In the opening chapter a boy’s father is killed in front of him as a traitor to the United States government. Years later, Gideon who is now a young man learns his father was murdered as a scapegoat for an intelligence failure.

He plots his revenge and in carrying it out shows skills which bring him the attention of a private company which seems to be a government contractor for secret projects. Needless to say, Gideon agrees to a specific project and that does not go as planned and a thrilling sequence of events follows.

The authors do a wonderful job in telling his story. It was a real page-turner and I read the whole book (300+ pages) in less than 24 hours. The characters were interesting and the plot moved quickly. I had high expectations having previously read several books in the Agent Pendergast series by the authors.

I almost completely enjoyed this book. The ending seems to only partially resolve Gideon assignment. In many ways it felt like watching a TV show and getting very interested and wondering how they are going to wind up the story in a few minutes and then being left hanging when they say “Continued next week” but worse because you know it will be much more than a week. Although I found this ending disappointing, it does pique your interest for future installments of this planned series.

So this is sort of a mixed review. I enjoyed the book until the chapter which disappointed me greatly.

Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda

Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda

Posted on by Jack

I enjoyed the biography of Andrew Johnson (see previous post) so much I decide to read a short biography of the next president. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero by Michael Korda is a good short biography. It is part of “The Eminent Lives” series.

It is worth reading because although we usually think of Grant as a great general and poor president, Korda’s biography shows the decency and gentleness that paired with military genius to make Grant the leader he was. He also makes a great case that Grant was a much better president than is usually thought.

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Posted on by Jack

I read the new book on President Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed. The author is best known for her books on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and has won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her work. She is also a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Humanities Medal and holds 3 appointments at Harvard.

Here is a partial quote from near the beginning of the book

… an assassin’s bullet would place the political fate of African Americans into the hands of a man who despised them.

Were it not so thoroughly steeped in mindless tragedy the first assassination of an American president, the destruction of the hopes of a people long treated as property who thought they were finally going to be able to live in dignity and peace, the lost chance to make the promise of America real to all who lived here one might be content to cast Andrew Johnson’s time in the White House as a form of cosmic joke. The gods were playing tricks on us, giving us Abraham Lincoln exactly when we needed him, having him cut down by an inconsequential person, and then giving us Andrew Johnson to teach us the folly of even imagining that we controlled our own destinies. But the effects of Johnson’s presidency were too profound, too far ranging — reaching into twenty-first-century America to be considered anything approaching a joke or trick, even one to teach an important lesson.

To be fair to Johnson, any man would have had a tough time following Abraham Lincoln, particularly under the circumstances that ended his presidency. …

Seems a very tragic thing that we went from Lincoln who is considered one of the best presidents to Andrew Johnson who is considered one of the worst presidents at a time of great national need. Like Lincoln, Johnson rose from very humble beginnings to the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, Johnson learned a very different lesson from the journey. The book documents his career which includes white supremacist beliefs and battles with Congress over Reconstruction of the defeated South.

My take on this is that the author has very strong feelings about the failures of Johnson as a President and events resulting from those failures. At a time the nation need unity and healing, a white supremacist became President and his failures have “haunted the nation ever since.” It seems to me that the author is very fair in her evaluation of events and documents those failures well. The book was extremely interesting and gave me insight into the first president to be impeached (and the only one before Bill Clinton). The Constitution provides for impeachment for “… high Crimes and Misdemeanors” but those offenses are not defined. There is an interesting discussion about various interpretations of that provision of the Constitution. The book has also made me want to learn more about the period after the Civil War and its implications for modern society.

This book is part of The American Presidents Series and if this is a typical example, I assume it must be a series of fairly short and excellent biographies.

Plan B alternative to the individual mandate for health insurance

Plan B alternative to the individual mandate for health insurance

Posted on by Jack

Last month I wrote about Plan B or finding an alternative to the individual mandate for health insurance . Several have been proposed but I’d like to point out a recent NY Times opinion piece by Ross Douthat which says in part:

The mandate is a harder puzzle, since it works in tandem with the requirement — popular enough to have many Republican supporters — that insurers cease denying coverage to customers with pre-existing conditions. If you repealed the mandate without repealing that requirement, people could simply wait until they were sick to buy insurance, driving everyone’s prices up.

But Republicans could propose dealing with the same problem in a less coercive way. One alternative would establish limited enrollment periods (every two years, for instance) when people with pre-existing conditions could buy into the new exchanges without being denied coverage. Anyone who failed to take advantage wouldn’t be able to get coverage for a pre-existing condition until the next enrollment period arrived. This would reduce the incentive to game the system, without directly penalizing Americans who decline to buy insurance.

Several other ideas for conservative reforms of the health care reform known as ObamaCare are discussed and the article is worth reading but this seemed directly relevant to my thoughts on finding alternatives to the individual mandate for health insurance.

Gabriel Cohen: “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”

Gabriel Cohen: “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”

Posted on by Jack

Recently I’ve been reading some non-fiction and really enjoyed those books but large non-fiction books can be a bit slow and since I liked the crime fiction by Gabriel Cohen, I thought I would give myself a treat with a couple of his books that were on my “to read” list. These would be “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue”. And as expected, both were much faster and enjoyable in a different way.

In the past few months, I reviewed 2 books by Gabriel Cohen: “The Ninth Step” and “Red Hook”. I really liked both, the first and fourth in a series about Detective Jack Leightner. “The Graving Dock” and “Neptune Avenue” are and second and third.

Gabriel Cohen’s books are crime novels, they are so much more. Jack grew up near the docks in Red Hook, Brooklyn and is haunted by his childhood (his relationship with his father and the death of his brother mostly) and his failures as an adult (especially a failed marriage, an uneasy relationship with his son, and difficulties in relationships). All in this series have been excellent reads and now that I’ve read all 4 in the series to date, I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next.

Since the sense of place is so important in Gabriel Cohen’s novels, these books are wonderful for those who either know Brooklyn or want to know more about Brooklyn. By the way, a graving dock is a dry dock and is used to repair ships below the water line. And Neptune Avenue is in Brooklyn, the Coney Island, Brighton Beach area.

So I’ll finish up with a few links you might find useful or interesting:

Amazon’s Gabriel Cohen Page

Gabriel Cohen’s website

saveindustrialbrooklyn.org

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Posted on by Jack

I knew of Lawrence of Arabia from the movie of that name. I have a much better understanding of T.E. Lawrence now that I’ve read Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

The movie was great and so was the book. And the book certainly was more accurate and a much deeper portrait of the man known as Lawrence of Arabia. The movie is a much smaller investment of your time (long for a movie but still less than 4 hours) but it only tells part of the story. Reading the book takes much longer but if you’d like a deeper understanding of T.E. Lawrence and the events of the time, it is well worth your time. I’ve watched the movie several times but decided to watch it again after reading the book. I’d recommend doing that.

I first learned of this book while driving and listening to NPR. I forget which day it was but a search of the NPR website shows an interview with Michael Korda on T.E. Lawrence on “Talk of the Nation” on November 18, 2010. I am listening as I type and that interview sounds familiar. (But I did fail at multi-tasking this time as I stopped typing to listen intently.) You can read about it or listen to the whole interview.

Korda starts with Lawrence as a very junior British officer in Cairo during World War I. And he then manages to become a leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. This is the story told in the movie. But the book by Michael Korda fills in the rest of the story explaining how Lawrence got there and why he was who he was, gives more details on the Arab Revolt, and tells how he coped with his fame, successes and failures.

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia is a great success. Korda is a wonderful story teller and is a master at integrated quotes about Lawrence or by Lawrence into the story. I did like his use of footnotes to expand on some points or to explain important issues which did not fit easily into the flow of the story. In a few places I wished he had used footnotes more. On occasion he quotes French without translation and I would have appreciated a translation. I would have also liked to see an explanation of the strings of letters after names. I just assumed they were all various types of knighthoods and British honors but an explanation would have been nice. By the way, there is a good summary webpage on knighthood abbreviations (you’ll have to page down a little). Perhaps a few pages where you could easily refresh your memory as to who various characters are when they reappear would have made a nice addition.

But these are all minor quibbles. Hero is a wonderful book about a complex character and covers complex events. The partition of the defeated Ottoman Empire suited the European power politics of the time but seems to be the root of many of our problems in the Middle East today.

I thought it did bog down in details in a few places but in other places I was glad for the details and enjoyed the narrative. At times the book felt too long but at other times I was glad it was as long as it was. I would guess another reader might find the places I found slow to be enjoyable and some of the passages I enjoyed to be too detailed.

So this book is not only a good history and biography but it is very relevant to current events. I’d highly recommend it.

Filibuster while on vacation?

Filibuster while on vacation?

Posted on by Jack

Did you that Senators can actually Filibuster while on vacation? Senator Al Franken (D-MN) would like to end that nonsense.

Senator Franken would like to change the Filibuster rule so that Senators have to be in the Senate chamber to vote to maintain the Filibuster.

Follow this story on FireLakeDog which has had several stories on this in the last few days.

See proposed House bills before vote

See proposed House bills before vote

Posted on by Jack

Barack Obama promised that bills would be available on the White House website for public comment (for 5 days) before he signed them as president. It didn’t always work out that way. This is a promise broken according to PolitiFact.com which does a fine job of following up on political promises.

And it probably would have been better to see proposed bills before vote. Well that is exactly what Speaker of the House John Boehner promises. The House rule is now that a bill should be available online for three days before a vote. The public will have time to read a bill and respond to their Representative before a vote. This sounds great but we’ll have to see how it works out. Politifact will be watching.

Are you smarter than a Supreme Court justice

Are you smarter than a Supreme Court justice

Posted on by Jack

There was a TV show that asked “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?” I thought of posing a similar question “Are you smarter than at least one U.S. Supreme Court justice? ” and that is what I did in my original post. And it seems in retrospect to be an attempt at cleverness rather than being helpful. It seems disrespectful to Justice Scalia, but I mean no disrespect. I just disagree strongly and a shrill tone does nothing to further the debate.

Justice Scalia is known for his intellect so rather than question it, I will just say I don’t understand his position.

Justice Scalia apparently doesn’t think the 14th Amendment applies to women. In an interview with California Lawyer he says:

In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don’t think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly not to sexual orientation. So does that mean that we’ve gone off in error by applying the 14th Amendment to both?
Yes, yes. Sorry, to tell you that. … But, you know, if indeed the current society has come to different views, that’s fine. You do not need the Constitution to reflect the wishes of the current society. Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. You don’t like the death penalty anymore, that’s fine. You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it. Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.

Well, looking at the text of the 14th Amendment, I think it is obvious that this does apply to women. Here is the text of the amendment :

14th Amendment
Amendment XIV
Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Go back and look at Section 1. Never mind, it it so important that I’ll repeat if here.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

It clearly says all persons (born or naturalized and subject to jurisdiction) are citizens. No other qualifiers. I suppose one could argue that the legislators of 1868 did not consider women to be people. Seems a bit of a stretch to me but someone could argue that, except that in section 2 they specify that apportionment should be proportional to male citizens. Thus they clearly believed there were non-male citizens and it is not hard to guess who they might be. If section 1 was meant to apply to only males it seems they would have said that rather than “all persons”.

It is also seems to me that the last phrase of this section (“nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”) clearly indicates the citizenship is not even the critical test. And while the rest of the section looks to me like it applies only to actions of the state or federal government, the last phase has to do with equal protection of the laws without any government qualifier. Since this phrase refers to “any person” with specifying which groups are to be protected it seems that all individuals are protected if any are.

Further indication that legislators believed women to be citizens is the 19th Amendment.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Look at the first sentence. If a right of citizens cannot be taken away on account of sex, it suggests to me that Congress believed that citizens were not all of the same sex.

So the text of the 14th Amendment clearly indicated that equal protection applies to all persons. The text further indicated all persons are citizens (not just males). Congress in 1920 (19th Amendment) did not think the Congress of 1868 meant to exclude women from citizenship (just from voting). If they believed the 14th amendment did not apply to women, it seems logical that they would have granted citizenship before the right to vote.

So to those who agree with Justice Scalia, let us have an exchange of ideas here. I know your reasoning on this is different from mine so please expand on your view in my comments section.

Hero Lawrence of Arabia

Hero Lawrence of Arabia

Posted on by Jack

I am now reading Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda. Interesting book but slow going at least at the beginning. Starts out with Lawrence’s activities during World War I (as in the movie Lawrence of Arabia). It has been a long time since I saw the movie but these seems less dramatic but more accurate and better explained. The author gets you interested in the character (if you weren’t already interested enough) with this and fills in the rest of his life. At least I think that is the plan after 150 pages or so. More when I finish.

Christmas miracle – do the right thing for 9/11 responders

Christmas miracle – do the right thing for 9/11 responders

Posted on by Jack

It has been called a Christmas miracle. But it is not quite there yet. Let’s hope the Senate can do the right thing.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 has been passed by the House but is now being filibustered in the Senate. The bill (HR 847) was passed by the House on September 29, 2010 and passed on to the Senate. Well it seems the Senate was rather busy and managed to read it twice by the middle of November and put it on the calendar and finally considered it on December 6. Then it was filibustered and on December 9 they voted to end the filibuster but that voted failed.

This is the recent legislative history accord to Thomas, Library of Congress

9/29/2010:
Received in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
11/15/2010:
Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 641.
12/6/2010:
Motion to proceed to consideration of measure made in Senate. (consideration: CR S8552)
12/6/2010:
Cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the bill presented in Senate. (consideration: CR S8552; text: CR S8552)
12/9/2010:
Cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 57 – 42. Record Vote Number: 269. (consideration: CR S8668-8669; text: CR S8669)
12/9/2010:
Motion by Senator Reid to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the motion to proceed to the bill (Roll Call Vote No. 269) made in Senate. (consideration: CR S8669)

These are the votes (Roll Call Vote No. 269 to invoke cloture) according to Thomas

Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —57
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Coons (D-DE)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs —42
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (R-MA)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Reid (D-NV)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting – 1
Brownback (R-KS)

Does anyone see a pattern here?

I don’t know when they will act but the NY Senators are optimistic. I hope the Senate does do the right thing. Here is a more complete story on this sad tale with the possible happy ending by ABC News

Notes added to post: I suspect I’ll be adding a bunch of notes to reflect recent events and posts I come across. Often they will be links to recent comments on news but sometimes a note from me will be here.

  1. PoliticusUSA
  2. Talking Points Memo
  3. GOP blockade
  4. Where is the outrage
  5. FireDogLake “…Hey, Jon Stewart…”
  6. Sen. Tom Coburn to block bill NPR
  7. Sen. Coburn again

Update:
They did reach a compromise. It looks like the lame-duck Congress is actually reaching some agreements. Wer’ll have to see how the new congress does in 2011.