Yesterday, we did good.

Yesterday something happened in the U.S. Senate that would put smiles on the "Founding Fathers, and Mothers" faces. Citizens got so involved with their government to change what the Senate had in mind. This is how our Founding Fathers intended our government to work, an aroused citizenry affecting the making of their law.

Yesterday, for most of the day, I had my T.V. tuned to C-Span2 to listen to the Senate debate the FISA bill. I fully expected to see a knockdown drag out for the next few days ending with the bill passed and Sen. Dodd, and others, battered and bloody on the Senate Camber Floor. To my everlasting pleasure and surprise this did not happen. I was disappointed, but not surprised when one of my Senators (Sen. Feinstein) voted for closure. I have a fair understanding of how the Senate works and knew that this was just round one.

On a personal note, I was also looking forward to hearing a "vigorous" debate on the FISA issues and this what this first vote would lead to.

When the vote was over my wife and I decided to get involved and sent off two emails, one congratulating one of our Senators and the another saying she had lost our support for her vote. I'm sure that by itself our email did not influence either Senator, but with all of the others that we now know came in something happened. Senator Feinstein publicly changed her position for unconditional support of the FISA bill, to conditional. When I heard Sen. Feinstein say this I told my wife that something was "happening".

This change in Sen. Feinstein position, coupled with the defeat of the 60 votes to amend (a unanimous consent motion if my memory servers me correctly) I thought that bill was loosing support. While I have no supporting evidence at this time, I have been told that the Senate was being bombarded with emails, blogs, and other communications almost from the start of the debate on Monday morning. So I say once again, the "Founding Fathers, and Mothers, are Smiling" yesterday, their heirs did good.