The always-excellent Matt Yglesias has written a post about how the filibuster has become a routine piece of Senate business, and how wrong that is. It's good to see this because I've been confused as to why the press is now referring to cloture votes as if they are the actual vote on a bill. Only 50 votes are needed to pass a bill; it's just that the obstructionist Republicans will attempt to block every single Democrat-written bill, I guess. This is all the more reason why we need to get Al Franken seated ASAP.