Bell Ringer! Mar. 7, 2013

1.) Yup, read the articles

2.) Define the terms 'Fillibuster' and 'Cloture'.
The term filibuster means, the act of excessive speech to hold off or delay the progress of the legislature for example, voting.
The term cloture means the act of ending a debate by the floor holder by a vote. At least 60 senators have to vote in the favor for the debate to be concluded.

3.) The History of the Filibuster
Filibusters have been around now since the mid- 19th century and continue to be used in today's senate as a way of "stalling." The act of using a filibuster is to simply speak for as long as you want about whatever you want in order to draw attention to something you feel needs more consideration before a vote. Researchers have found that the practice of using a filibuster was even used in ancient Roman times as a way to take the legislature "hostage." the first US filibuster was used in 1841 over the issue of firing the senate printers. Since then, senators have used the filibuster to take up time which can go on for days. It's a tactic that's been used in order to draw attention to something someone doesn't agree with, thus causing more time to be taken before a vote, to which the issue will be looked into in more detail. The cloture act wasn't put into play until 1917, which gave the senate the choice to stop the continuous talking if enough of them agreed to it.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1933802,00.html

4.) Did You Know?
     1.) Senator first started to use filibusters in the late 1800's
     2.) The longest filibuster was used by Senator Strom Thurmond
     3.) The word filibuster comes from a Dutch word meaning "pirate"
     4.) 60 voted are needed to put a cloture into effect
     5.) It takes 41 senators to just mention that they intend to filibuster in order to stop a bill.
     6.) The number of times that the word "drones" were mentioned in Senator Rand Paul's
     filibuster was 468.
     7.) The cloture rule was put into effect on March 8, 1917 after Wilson had sat through a 23 day
     filibuster against his proposal to arm merchant ships.
     8.) The House of Representatives stopped using filibusters in 1842 because of it's growing size
     9.) Cato the Younger, was an ancient Roman politician who is known as one of the world's
     greatest filibusters.
     10.) During the time a filibuster is being given, the filibuster cannot leave the floor for anything.