Patriot Act Extension Passes on Simple Majority Vote

The Freedom Fighting Republican idea to read the Constitution on the House Floor to jump start their new Permanent Majority was nothing but a media ploy. Yesterday Republicans passed an extension to some of the most controversial parts of the Patriot Act with 275 votes, 65 coming from Democrats.

From my calculations there are only 144 Members of Congress who care one bit about civil liberties and upholding the Constitution.  Even that estimate is probably way too high.  And not surprisingly, the tea bagger caucus largely voted in favor of the extension.