Home Run (H Run): This Congressperson took a stand for the American people. +10 points

AWOL: This Congressperson was AWOL when the American people needed him/her to take a stand. -5 points

Strike (STR): This Congressperson voted or agreed to an outcome harmful to the American people, freedom and/or democracy. -10 points

STRIKE PRESENT (STRP) and HOME RUN PRESENT (HRP): PRESENT is usually a protest vote.  When the protest vote would make a difference (or if a combination of the AWOLs and PRESENT votes added together would make a difference, as was the case on 1/6/05), it will be counted the same as a strike.  When it is a protest by individuals who know that they are outnumbered and are simply standing up and saying they will not vote on the bill at all, we will give them the home run points.  However, from looking at the vote column, you can see whether the home runs or strikes were voted as a PRESENT.  In 2005, we counted PRESENT votes as zero. We believe that by taking into account the effect  and the intent of the "present" vote on the 2006 chart, it will give a clearer picture of the voting records of the individuals who use take this action.  However, if a Representative has more than one or two HRPs, the readers should wonder why this individual doesn't  take a clearer position on the issues.  

Human Rights Percentage or HR%: Current percentage of Representative on all votes related to human rights issues in which that Congressman/woman voted in support of human rights in 2006.

Perfect scores and bad leadership: At last recorded vote, the only perfect scores were Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermot and Pete Stark.  Subtractions for both the minority leader and minority whip included votes for two pieces of legislation clearing the way for war with Iran and legislation giving $513 billion to war profiteers.

Other votes:  (1/6/05-4/28/05)  (5/5/05-6/9/05)  (6/15/05-7/20/05B)  (7/20/05C-7/28/05C)  (9/14/05-9/29/05D)  (10/07/05-11/09/05B)  (11/17/05-12/19/05A)  (12/19/05B-12/19/05C)  (2/1/06-4/26/06A)  (4/26/06B-5/25/06B)  (6/07/06A-6/22/06B)  (6/29/06-7/28/06)   (7/29/06-9/26/06C)   (9/27/06-12/8/06D)

Votes counted this page:

2/1/06:  This was the vote on the reconciliation bill on the budget.  The super rich got a huge tax break while thousands of foster kids were thrown onto the street in this budget.

2/16/06:  H Con Res 461 was the vote for the first step towards war with Iran.  It condemned the government of Iran and backed Bush's plan to moved the matter of Iran through the first step of going to the Security Council.  This is the same course the war with Iraq took.  The interesting thing is that Iran isn't an agressor.  Even in the worst case scenario, the government of Iran is not planning to do anything the governments of United States and Israel are not already doing.  Is this the course which will be followed against every nation Bush doesn't like?  Note the names of the House members with the Home Runs: Kucinich, McDermott, Paul and Stark. These are the leaders of  the opposition to the war with Iran.  The leadership of  both parties supported this first step to war with Iran.

3/7/06:  The vote on S2271 was the last chance to say no to the USA PATRIOT Act.  This was theUSA PATRIOT Act Sununu Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act .  The House had passed HR 3199 in 2005 - although they passed the Sununu Amendment first.  This was the critical vote that resulted in the signing of the new terrible provisions of a PATRIOT ACT that was worse than the original.

3/8/06:  This was the vote on the National Uniformity for Food Act (HR4167) that prohibits states from warning people about dangerous levels of mercury and lead in food that could result in birth defects and deaths within their state.  The federal standards are more lax than the standards of more concerned states and this prohibits the states from protecting their own people.

3/14/06: This was the vote to allow military recruiters on campuses.

3/16/06:  This was the vote to give war contractors another $72 billion of the next generation's money without the consent of the next generation.  This money will be used to continue the cycle of pointless killing in the Middle East.

3/30/06:  HR 609 was the vote on a bill that failed to improve access to college, failed to make college affordable but did cut the oversight of proprietary schools which (prior to the bill) faced a number of controls and regulations to protect taxpayers and students from abuse.This bill placed student aid programs at greater risk of misuse by the institutions.

4/05/06:  Roll Call 88 involved the passage of campaign reform mostly aimed at harming cthe right of citizen groups to contribute  while not stopping corporate contributions.

4/25/06:  Roll Call 101 was sthe vote on the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act (which though not comprehensive enough) theoretically provides some protection to Americans. 

4/26/06A:  Roll Call105 is the vote on HR 282 a bill aimed at leading the United States into war with Iran.  Only 15 Democrats and 6 Republicans had the courage to oppose this step towards war.