Glenn Greenwald expresses this much better than I can.

Today, the Democratic-led Senate ignored those protests, acted to protect the single most flagrant act of Bush lawbreaking of the last seven years, eviscerated the core Fourth Amendment prohibition of surveillance without warrants, gave an extraordinary and extraordinarily corrupt gift to an extremely powerful corporate lobby, and cemented the proposition that the rule of law does not apply to the Washington Establishment.

I actually expected this to pass. Both parties seem agree that the US should become a police state, with corporate interests and government paranoia trumping constitutional rights. I am particularly disappointed in Sen. Obama's performance. I had started to buy into his rhetoric about positive change and the idea that he was a different kind of politician. I'm old enough to know better, but hope springs eternal. I have reverted to my usual level of cynicism about politicians and consider Sen. Obama just another one, like the others.

The ACLU plans to fight.

In other news: The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. Coincidence?

I don't usually agree with Fox News, but they got this right:

But there’s a reason why this Congress is such a failure–it’s because they don’t care, are obsessed with irrelevant petty squabbling, and apparently have contempt for the American people. If they didn’t, out of simple respect for the people, all Democrat and Republican leadership in the House and the Senate would apologize and resign en masse.