WTF, Senate?

January 31, 2011 12:00 PM

Filibustery, making the filibuster — and the proposals in the U.S. Senate to reform it — more understandable.

Note The Lab, where subsequent episodes will be previewed and viewer feedback sought.

posted by carsonb (5 comments total)

Filibustery - and the proposals in the U.S. Senate to reform it
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:20 PM on January 31, 2011

I am surprised that I cannot find a single filibuster-pun-titled pornographic video.
posted by GuyZero at 12:49 PM on January 31, 2011

I am surprised that I cannot find a single filibuster-pun-titled pornographic video.

Google tells me that The Filly Buster is a Washington, D.C., area strip club in the TV show American Dad.
posted by gurple at 12:54 PM on January 31, 2011

Thanks for this; I'd always wondered why it's so rare for the majority to force "live" read-from-the-phonebook-all-night filibusters when "stealth" filibusters are so common. Episode 1 of this series does an excellent job of explaining things, to the point where it makes me wonder why it took so long for things to get this way. Maybe Episode 2 will help with that as well.
posted by Dr. Eigenvariable at 7:12 AM on February 1, 2011

As far as reforms go, I like the idea of having cloture require 3/5ths of the Senators present instead of 3/5ths of the total Senators. This allows the minority to continue to filibuster things that they consider important, while making it costly to them to do so.
posted by jefeweiss at 7:24 AM on February 2, 2011