The Massachussettes Election

So about a zillion dead Kennedys are rolling over in their graves, and the Democratic Party has completely self-destructed... ironic that I'm currently watching the fifth season of the West Wing on Bravo. But that is not what I am writing about.

I've been reading a little bit about what this means for current legislation in the Senate, and the filibuster issue kept popping up. I've been reading a little bit exactly about how filibusters work, and I was stunned to discover that you no longer actually have to filibuster to filibuster. That is, you don't actually have to stand up there and talk for hours and hours on end. You can just say, "I want to filibuster" and that can stop movement on a bill indefinitely and the Senate can move on to other bills. What a fucking joke! One of the few cool things about the US Government (and the entire basis of the season 2 episode of WW, The Stackhouse Filibuster) and you don't even have to do it anymore!