Links and Minifeatures 07 11 Wednesday

Debunking some left-wing pravda over at Big Lizards

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Q and O on the benefits and drawbacks of the virtual filibuster in the US Senate.



I think the filibuster is a good thing to have, but to use it to thwart the desires of the majority should be an extraordinary act, and should be made sufficiently difficult and obvious as to render it political suicide for all but the most noble of reasons. In order to filibuster, you should be forced to stand there while the rest of the senate is in session and actually talk. Put the C-Span cameras on your ugly face and watch you stop the deliberations and the business of the senate on national TV. I'd wager that it would set the bar just about high enough to discourage the practice for all but the clearest and most sincere issues of morality. There's still a stench attached to those who filibustered the Civil Rights legislation back in the sixties, something that those involved richly deserved. Here's a scary thought: With the Senate rules in effect today, the civil rights filibusters would likely have succeeded. We wouldn't have the Voting Rights Act, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or for that matter the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which started it all.