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The Golden Age of Piracy

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

According to Wikipedia the term filibuster comes from an early 17th century word dervived from the Spanish or Portuguese labuage for pirates. "Filibusteros" or, "one who held ships hostage for ransom." At the US Senate website the following definition for a filibuster is posted: informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, we look into the history of the filibuster and we weigh its murky future on the floor of the US Senate.

Filibuster Fundamentals

Robert Bennett Law professor at Northwestern and a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School, author of Talking it Through: Puzzles of American Democracy (Cornell University Press, 2002)
- explains the history of the filibuster
» Brooklyn Law School

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Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Kim Gandy president of NOW
» National Organization for Women
and
C. Boyden Gray chairman of the Committee for Justice - on the federal court nomination of Priscilla Owen
» Committe for Justice

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Mind the Gap

Lisa Belkin, New York Times "Life's Work" columnist and author, Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
- on her recent column about the generation gap at the workplace
» New York Times

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Sometimes in April

Dina Temple-Raston City Hall Reporter for the New York Sun and author,Justice on the Grass : Three Rwandan Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes and a Nation's Quest for Redemption (Free Press March 9, 2005)
- discusses the trial of three radio journalists in the genocide in Rwanda ...

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Grey Matters

Listeners
- weigh in on the Grey Areas of political life

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