Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Breaking news!

Chuck Hagel has been confirmed!

Loopy Lindsey Graham and crabby, increasingly senile John McCain wail and gnash their teeth, while the tea party fool Ted Cruz grandstands.

Winning is nice. Another filibuster bites the dust.

From etymonline:
filibuster
1580s, flibutor "pirate," probably ultimately from Du. vrijbuiter "freebooter," used of pirates in the West Indies as Sp. filibustero and Fr. flibustier, either or both of which gave the word to Amer.Eng. (see freebooter). Used 1850s and '60s of lawless adventurers from
the U.S. who tried to overthrow Central American countries. The legislative sense is first recorded c.1851, probably because obstructionist legislators "pirated" debate. Not technically restricted to U.S. Senate, but that's where the strategy works best. Related: Filibustered; filibustering.

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