[Editor's Note — In the original posting, Strom Thurmond was identified as a Republican senator when he made his record-setting filibuster in 1957. However, he was a Democrat at the time and didn't switch parties until the 88th Congress in 1963.]

Picture if you can US senator Harry Reid donning the garb of a swashbuckling buccaneer in the anticipated volley on the Senate floor between Democrats and Republicans over President Bush's judicial nominations. To a 19th century Mexican or Nicaraguan, it might make sense.

It's a stretch, but here's why.

Senate Majority Leader Frist and a fleet of Republicans are squaring off against Reid and the Democrats who are setting up ramparts in a battle over senate procedure at the least, if not the interpretation of the Constitution itself.

The Democrats’ line of defense is the "filibuster," a long-standing Senate privilege allowing virtually unlimited floor debate usually in the hopes of killing legislation, or, in this case, blocking the approval of Bush's nominees to the bench.

In the mid 1800s, according to the Senate Historical Office, “filibuster -- from a Dutch word meaning 'pirate' -- became popular in the 1850s, when it was applied to efforts to hold the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill."

There’s a little more to the definition, though.

The United States, officially only a little over 50 years old by then, had an ever-growing population and territory. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson had paid France the equivalent of $193 million in today’s dollars for over 828,000 acres of land west of the Mississippi—the Louisiana Purchase.

As often happens, expansion brings conflict, and the United States is no more immune from it than other nations. The larger the territory, the larger the national interests, and so as US governments and their presidents sought to secure these lands, the people who felt their own entitlements to it often felt differently.

Enter "filibuster."

The word filibuster comes directly from the Spanish filibustero, itself from the Dutch Vrijbuiter, or freebooter, plunderer—a pirate. “It was used,” says Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to Congress “to describe US military adventurers who in the mid-1800s fomented insurrections against various Latin American governments.”

With some irony,

The first parliamentary use of the word is said to have occurred in the House [of Representatives] in 1853, when a representative accused his opponents of “filibustering against the United States.” Ten years later, “filibuster had come to mean delaying action on the floor, but the term did not gain wide currency until the 1880s.

Again—unlike in the House—the filibuster tradition has allowed senators essentially unlimited debate. Which means talking. You can employ other techniques requiring parliamentary skills and knowhow, but, says the CQ guide, “The most important tool of the filibusterer, once control of the floor proceedings is gained, is continued talk.” Lots of it.

So who holds the record? In August of 1957, in an a failed effort to impede passage of the civil rights bill, a Republican senator from South Carolina, Strom Thurmond, held the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes. Non-stop.

Also . . .

House and Senate Rules of Procedure: A Comparison (Congressional Research Service, via Senate.gov)

Everything you wanted to know about the "nuclear option (Salon.com)

With a Potential Supreme Court Nomination At Stake, Questions of The Filibuster's Constitutionality Linger (FindLaw.com)

Can the Senate Bind Itself So that Only a Supermajority Can Change Its Rules? (FindLaw.com)

"Filibuster and Cloture": an interview with former Senate parliamentarian Floyd Riddick (Senate.gov)

Senate leaders to break bread on Sunday(TheHill.com)

Rove Guided Career of Judicial Nominee in Filibuster Fight (New York Times)

On Monday April 4, 2005 Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith became the 3,460th recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Mr. Smith “distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty,” one year ago to the day for action in Operation Iraqi Freedom, which “saved the lives of at least 100 Soldiers, caused the failure of a deliberate enemy attack hours after 1st Brigade seized the Baghdad Airport, and resulted in an estimated 20-50 enemy soldiers killed.”

The history of the Medal of Honor goes back to December 9, 1861 when an Iowa senator introduced a bill that would distribute the “medals of honor” to “promote the efficiency of the Navy.” By the end of the month the bill was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. Over half a year later, in 1862, he signed a new law that would create an equivalent award for the Army.

The medal—among scores of military service medals given since 1862—is the highest given to military service personnel in the United States, and covers conflicts which include the Civil War (1,522 awardees), the “Indian Campaigns” (426), World War II (464), and Vietnam (245). Over 600 medals have been awarded posthumously, the bulk of the awardees have been from the Army, nine have been given to unknown recipients, and as of February 7th of this year, there were 127 living recipients.

And while the Civil War figure above is the highest of all the conflicts to date, it only represents medals given to Union soldiers of the northern states and does not include those from the Confederate Army who made similar sacrifices, even if for different reasons.

It has also been awarded to only one woman in its over 140-year history. Mary Walker was a Civil War “assistant surgeon” who was awarded the medal for actions during the Battle of Bull Run in July of 1861. However, in a purge about 40 years later, her medal was revoked due to her civilian status—a distinction, until her medal was restored in 1977, she would share with five others, including Buffalo Bill Cody. Cody’s was restored in 1989.

According to the Encyclopedia Americana, The Purple Heart, probably the most widely known medal in US history, was established in 1782 by George Washington and designed by Paris-born Pierre Charles L’Enfant, also the designer of Washington, D.C. It was created for Revolutionary War service and was originally called the Badge of Military Merit. It wasn’t until nearly 250 years later that it was resurrected and has been in use ever since.

Also . . .

Medal Of Honor FAQs (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)

Medal of Honor citations (US Army)

Recommendation Process (US Army)

What are the guidelines for which the medal could be awarded? (CMHS)

Civil War Medal of Honor awards (Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service)

The passing of Pope John Paul II has led to an analysis of his place in history.  As the third longest-reigning pontiff, he held the office for a little over 26 years. 

The EWTN / Global Catholic Network offers a list of the longest-serving pontiffs, as well as other information on papal topics on their See of Peter web page.   

For a definition of the Holy See, refer to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the 1913 15-volume reference book whose entries were volunteer-compiled by contributors all over the world in the late 1990s. 

A new report released this month alleges that public colleges, receiving fewer federal dollars for education at a time when they are trying to attract better and brighter students, are making infrastructure investments such as laboratories and new technology, and passing the costs to the students.

Adding to this is an increased emphasis on accountability for all public institutions that receive public funds, and it is moving beyond elementary education to state universities such as the SUNY system of New York State, which has proposed raising tution to hire more instructors, in order to raise graduation rates.

All of this can make a public university education seem increasingly unaffordable.  Yet there are many ways to finance a college education, and a recent Monitor article asserts that many students and their families do not fully investigate the financial aid options, and makes some helpful suggestions.  Some are as easy as filling out a single form known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Unfortunately, the formula for Pell Grants is being changed, which may cut off eligibility for many students.  With state universities raising their tuition, a few hundred dollars can make a difference between attending or not.

With challenges come alternatives.  A bill that is moving through the Arizona legislature would make community colleges eligible to offer four-year degrees, and carry the same weight as a degree from the state system.

Global inequity, by some measures, is diminishing. Yet it is a sobering sort of success, because sometimes it is people who live on less than one dollar per day have decreased, either that their incomes increase to, perhaps, two dollars per day, or that they are dying off.

This is the subject of a Monitor article Thursday. The story is accompanied by a photograph of a beaming child in Malawi, eating an ear of corn grown by her father, with the help of an aid program.  Corn is not native to Africa, and crops get decimated when weather is bad.  Aid, too, is subject to changes in political and economic climates.   

This past week, a United Nations report suggested ways industrialized countries could halve world poverty by 2015, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it completely by 2025. The report recommends a multi-pronged approach that includes rich nations stepping up their financial support of of nations that show development promise. The report also says poor countries should do their part to meet these goals, while wealthy nations should open their markets.  Agricultural markets especially matter to struggling, pre-industrial economies, but laws protecting European Union and United States farmers often serve to push these countries out of markets.

Market demands and new customers might bring about change faster than policy shifts, however. This past November, it was reported that the US's agricultural trade balance for the first time in 50 years would be zero.   More countries are producing wheat, produce and other commodities.  In addition, trends toward fresh and exotic products, and new demands for these products created by cultural diversity in this country, are cited as factors.

The more products that rich nations buy from poor countries, this improves the standard of living in the developing world. In turn, emergent countries often want more of what the developing world has to sell - like electronics, cars, and education.  That could be good for everyone.