The day after the day after

I keep singing "Happy days are here again," which by the way, happened to be Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 campaign song. Democrats have 51 seats in the Senate, the narrowest possible margin with the current Vice-President. Well, actually 49 seats, but Senators Lieberman and Sanders will caucus with the Democrats, giving them 51 votes. It's not much, but I'll take it particularly with controversial issues like the Terrorist Surveillance Act at stake. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act currently prohibits warrantless electronic surveillance where foreign surveillance is a substantial purpose of the surveillance. I don't think I could add surveillance one more time to that sentence. The Terrorist Surveillance Act would allow it, so if I make a phone call to Taiwan, I should speak slowly and clearly for the NSA transcribers. Either that or use Skype, which the NSA can't easily wiretap. Of course, a terrorist would never be that clever or computer-literate or use code, so electronic surveillance would let us know all their secret plans when they talk to each other.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is not the only one out of a job, because of the midterm election results. John Bolton is Ambassador to the UN on a recess appointment, meaning he's never been confirmed by the Senate. There are 10 Republicans and 8 Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the outgoing Senate. However, the votes aren't breaking that way, so the Committee has not recommended Bolton for a floor vote. First it was Senator Voinovich, then Senator Chafee who broke ranks. So Bolton got a recess appointment, meaning he only got the job until a new Congress. It's time for a new Congress, a new Congress that is even less likely to confirm Bolton. So Bush wants a lame duck session of the Senate to confirm Bolton, even though they weren't doing it before. Well, a lame duck session won't. Senator Chafee who was always a bit shakey on Bolton, has now said he won't vote for Bolton. He issued a statement that included, "On Tuesday, the American people sent a clear message of dissatisfaction with the foreign policy approach of the Bush administration . . . . To confirm Mr. Bolton to the position of U.N. ambassador would fly in the face of the clear consensus of the country that a new direction is called for."

This actually was a plot in The West Wing second season episode "The Lame Duck Congress," where the President ponders calling a lame duck session of the Senate to ratify a nuclear test ban treaty, because the 107th Congress would be far less amenable to it. However, the President's staff learns that one of the Senators who would voted for it would now vote against it in a lame duck session. He won't vote for it, because he was voted out of office, probably because his constituents were opposed to the test ban treaty. I can't imagine voters getting that worked up over a nuclear test ban treaty. The Kyoto Protocol, maybe, but a nuclear test ban treaty?

I used to be a faithful viewer of Law & Order, back before it had spun-off into any other series, and long before it was on TNT. Each day, I watched all four times it would air on A&E, which meant I was watching two episodes twice. I used to be able to identify any episode if given five seconds. So Law & Order was pretty ingrained into my brain. Yet for some reason, I don't connect Law & Order episodes to anything I read or watch. Now I don't watch any Law & Order, or Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, or Law & Order: Criminal Intent, or Law & Order: Crime & Punishment, or Law & Order: Trial by Jury, or Conviction. Well, I would watch Law & Order: Trial by Jury if it was still on. Hm... Bebe Neuwirth....