WHAT'S THE PARTY VOTE BREAKDOWN?

David Morris of AlterNet points out that it's way past time to start delineating the differences between party votes.

Our political parties don't want us to know how they vote on specific issues. And our media don't want to tell us how they vote.

This is bewildering and distressing, and something should be done about it. In a two party system, information about how each party voted should be in every wrap-up story. Yet only the Associated Press, to its credit, commonly includes roll call votes. And newspapers that carry AP stories rarely include that part of the feed.

The good news is that such information is readily available at the Thomas webpage.
...
In late July, a gun bill exempting gun sellers from lawsuits passed the Senate. An amendment requiring the installation of a child safety lock when a handgun is sold was passed by a wide margin, 70-30.

But 100 percent of the Senate's 44 Democrats voted in favor while 55 percent of Republicans voted against. I think Americans would like to know that. Shouldn't we let them know?

I wasn't familiar with Thomas until reading this article, but it's really easy to use -- I recommend it highly.