Favorite Video Games

It seems to be destiny requiring that my first blog entry right after college finals to be about video games. Ever since Facebook added the ability to add favorite games and of course the advent of The Loading Bar, I couldn't wait for my finals to be over with so I could talk about my top 5 favorite games. Now keep in mind that I haven't played every single video game known to man, but I have been playing video games since I was young. The point of this blog isn't really just to talk about my favorite video games, but more of what I consider to be a great game. So with that said, here we go.

5.) Halo

For those who have been living under a rock for the past decade, Halo follows Master Chief who is a human super soldier called a Spartan. While Master Chief isn't in all of the games, the Halo universe revolves around a fictional future where humans are in a desperate struggle to survive in the war against the Covenant. The story is a long one, so if you are interested click on the title link.

In the first Halo, Master Chief awakens only to find that the ship he is on is running away from the Covenant. Unfortunately, they can't escape, but fortunately, they find an artificial ring world called Halo and escape to it. Master Chief along with the other humans fight against the Covenant while also discovering the dark hidden secrets of Halo.

So one of the common themes that you'll find in most of my favorite games is that they have a great single player campaign. This is perhaps the most important factor in deciding which video games are my favorite. This is the main reason why I chose the first Halo game in my top five games versus the other games of the series. Now most people when talking about the Halo series, always talk about the multiplayer. Now I will agree that the first Halo game probably has the weakest multiplayer out of all of the games, but there are two things to remember. One, the multiplayer in the first Halo is still pretty awesome which compliments a fantastic single player campaign. Second, there is no online play. The multiplayer found in Halo 2 which I consider to be the best out of the entire series does have online play. The funny thing about the multiplayer in Halo 2 is that now the servers for that have been shut down thus disabling online play. If a game relies on online multiplayer, it doesn't impress me especially because of things like a server shutdown. Plus if you ever play online, the other players are insanely good and/or complete disrespectful jerks. Halo has two types of multiplayer: your typical player versus player and cooperative campaign. Player versus player was fun, but for me cooperative mode was the best part. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was my first experience with cooperative mode, but it was terrible and pointless. Halo was the first game where cooperative mode actually enhanced the experience. Cooperative mode was just like the single player campaign except you have a meaningful partner aid you in your journey which was really cool. Plus being able to exploit glitches in cooperative mode was coolio.

Now cooperative mode made the campaign twice as cool, but I think I should talk about the single player campaign. Unfortunately, the passage of time has made the graphics look worse, but despite that the look and feel of the levels can be only be described as epic. Then just to add icing on the cake, the soundtrack to the game was phenomenal. Variety of play was another great aspect. While it had some unique weapons, the use of vehicles and the variety of the types of vehicles added a lot of new caveates that created the illusion of little repetition. All of these elements just made the entire experience epic and the ending left you satisfied.

4.) Sonic Adventure

Oh how I miss the good ole Dreamcast days. Sonic Adventure came out at a time where I was in love with everything Sonic the Hedgehog. I loved the Sonic games back in the 2-D side scrolling era, the cartoons, and even the comic books (which I still collect to this day). A lot of the things that I liked about Halo, I felt Sonic Adventure did a lot better. Now it is hard to judge the game play between the two because obviously one is a shooter and this is a platform game, but Sonic Adventure just wins hands down when it comes to the ambiance.

Sonic Adventure stars Sonic the Hedgehog as he tries to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from destroying the town of Station Square. To accomplish his goal, Dr. Robotnik needs all seven chaos emeralds in order to awaken an ancient monster, Chaos, to its full destructive potential. To aide in Sonic's latest adventure are Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and others.

When the game starts you are treated to what I consider one of the most awesome cut scenes ever. You see a city becoming engulfed by water, and then you see a godzilla-water monster and then Open Your Eyes starts playing. It turns out that this monster is a creature released by Doctor Robotnik (let me repeat ROBOTNIK not EGGMAN!!!!). Even cooler, this game gives a history and story to why Knuckles was on the Floating Isle and the origin of the Master Emerald. Besides these new back stories, the stories within Sonic Adventure are just awesome and can even be touching. As you play throughout the game, whenever you run into a particular character, you unlock their campaign which have different play styles. You start playing as Sonic, but you can eventually play as Tails (another platformer), Knuckles (treasure hunter), Amy Rose (platformer but you are also constantly running away from a mean botnik), Big the Cat (fishing), and E-102 Gamma (third person shooter). I don't want to spoil anything, but beating all of the campaigns then unlocks a final level which is a super cool ending.

I don't know why, but the Sonic Adventure games have the best music of all video games. I already mentioned Open Your Heart, but there are other pieces of music throughout the game that just compliment the visuals perfectly (want to make a specific mention to the egg carrier).

Another neat game play element was the addition of the chao. Unlike other 3D Sonic games, the chao are actually important to the story of the game. Besides that though, the chao were just another different game included in this already amazing game. The chao are essentially like a virtual pet which can become very addicting. The different campaign play types and the chao's are the perfect example of how important variety is to me when I play a game. Sometimes playing a game becomes like work because I just want to beat the game for the story. Having so much variety actually made me sad when the game ended because I never got bored. I wished the game could go on forever.

One more thing that I want to say about 3D Sonic games. Sonic Adventure 2 was the last great Sonic game. My theory behind this is that Sonic Adventure 2 was the last game that mentions the surname Robotnik. Sonic Adventure was the last game that actually had Dr. Robotnik refer to himself as Doctor Robotnik. I didn't mind Sonic and friends insulting him as Eggman, but when Robotnik adopts it, it gets stupid and I blame the downfall of the Sonic franchise on this fact. His name is ROBOTNIK!!!!!!

3.) Gears of War 2

I really can't judge this game fairly unlike my other games. The main reason why this game is so high on this list is because my best friend from college and I would play this game obsessively. We would quote the dialog constantly and play through the campaign multiple times usually in increasing difficulty. Gears of War 2 added a particular game mode which I found to be even more fun than cooperative campaign. Horde mode. The reason why I think I judge this unfairly is because I have someone who I could always play Horde mode with whereas other games I don't have this ability. I honestly do believe that if it weren't for him, there is no way this game would be so high on my list; however, I don't know if there are any other games that could do this. Cooperative campaigns end. Horde mode could theoretically end, but considering that there are fifty levels to each map (which there are 19) and four levels of difficulty, there is a seemingly endless amount of Horde to play.

Like Halo, the different weapons and enemies do add a lot of variety, but while not as "free" as Halo, the vehicle levels do add to the variety. Being able to not just ride tanks, but also the Locust vehicle-animals were really different. Also improving from the previous Gears of War game were the inclusion of more boss battles which except for Skorge were essentially fighting against the environment (the leviathan for example). It's kind if hard to explain, but for a game which is a duck-cover-shoot game, the levels are extremely unique. Rarely do I feel the game be repetitive (except for certain instances that we have to repeat over and over because my partner and I get separated and can't revive each other). I can't say the music for Gears of War 2 is anything special, but it certainly puts you in the correct mood when playing.

My favorite aspect to the campaign that I've alluded to earlier but want to specifically mention is the characters. The dialog and way the characters interact with each other make the campaign an unforgettable experience. Classic lines like "Cole Train Baby" just make this game really stand out. The variety with the game play is important, but the attention to making this a cinematic experience with witty humor and banter as you play really is a nice touch.

2.) Super Smash Bros. Melee

The greatest multiplayer game of all time. Nothing more needs to be said, but I'm not getting paid to write nothing (wait a sec, I'm not even being paid at all to do this ...).

Super Smash Bros. Melee has no real story. It is basically all of your favorite characters from Nintendo who try to smash their opponents out of the level.

What makes Super Smash Bros. stick out as a multiplayer is the camera. It is really cool that four players share the same screen instead of hogging a fraction of the screen. This simple game play element makes the experience so much more fun and feasible. It can get very frustrating if you don't have a large enough screen to see what your character is trying to do, but Super Smash Bros. takes care of that problem completely.

Unlike some multiplayer games where you have to master the controls and memorize certain button sequences in order to do all of the moves, Super Smash Bros. Melee has a very simple control scheme. You basically just press the A button or the B button in sync with a direction and voila a move. Granted there are more advance moves like dodging, but their execution is still simple just requires a good reaction time.

Granted Melee is more fun with another person, but I've been able to entertain myself for quite a while collecting trophies and unlocking new features. I've even been able to entertain myself by just practicing against the computer-controlled characters. This is very important because a good game really should be enjoyable by just yourself. Also just trying to play as new characters adds a lot of variety that makes even single player fun and can make multiplayer even more fun.

The reason why Melee is number two on my list and not the other Super Smash Bros. games is because I believe Melee is just the best balanced of the three games. The original Super Smash Bros. has the fewest characters and is even missing a move (left/right + B) which the later additions correct. Also that game can feel sluggish at times while fighting. Brawl is just a mess. Some characters' moves are useless, and they even had the audacity to remove characters. Yes Brawl added new ones, but they didn't need to get rid of Mewtwo!!! (and others of course). Brawl too felt sluggish at times with characters movements. There are other complaints too like weapons and levels, but these are the main things for me when playing them. Melee was always so fluid when playing and while some characters were clones (Ganondorf and Captain Falcon), they were still different enough for me to realize they were different (Ganondorf being slow but strong, and Falcon being fast but not as strong).

1.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

While all Zelda games are awesome, this one stands out to me mostly because of its story. This was easily the greatest single player experience ever. The music, the environment, the emotion, and just everything else you could want in an experience is practically perfect.

For the poor souls who have never heard of this game before, a boy named Link finally gets his fairy, Navi, and leaves his village for the first time onto the greatest adventure ever. From fighting giant spiders to skeletons to twin witch sisters, Link encounters all sorts of danger to save Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf (my favorite villain).

I've been clamoring about variety throughout this entire blog, and I don't think you will find more variety than this game. Every dungeon is different. There are multiple ways to solve puzzles given the kind of weapons/equipment you have. The world is so captivating, and every location is different too, even when you have to revisit certain areas later in the game.

Aside from the incredible amount of stuff you get to do in just playing through the game straight, there is so much more you can do whether it be fishing, side quests, or even just exploring the land of Hyrule. Musical people may also just like fooling around on the ocarina (anyone figured out the Simpson's theme yet?).

I really could go on and on about how awesome the Zelda series is, but Ocarina of Time has the best story of all of them and a cinematic final boss fight that still gives me goosebumps.

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Well those are my top five favorite video games. As you can see variety and a great single player experience are really what make a great game to me. Please share your top five favorite games or any comments about mine in the comments section.

The Brave and the Bold

I have been wanting to write about this for a few days now, but due to the constant stress of college, I have had to put it on hold. So for the few of you who have been wondering why I only update about once a month, there you go.

Let me first start things off with a wonderful discovery of mine:

This is from the newest Batman cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I have ignored the show since I wasn't too impressed with the little that I had seen. I personally felt it was too childish since it was based off of the Silver-age, Adam West Batman. This changed after fate forced me to purchase the latest DC animated DVD, Superman/Shazam! - The Return of Black Adam. I especially enjoyed this purchase because I have been missing out on most of the DC shorts since I have only been buying the regular DVD's of their great movies.

On just about all of the DC animated movies that I have purchased, Bruce Timm selects a few episodes from his cartoons that relate to one of the characters in the movie(s). Now this one was different because it contained an episode from Batman: The Brave and the Bold (which I had never seen) and involved the Spectre who I was first introduced to in Crisis on Infinite Earths (a definite must-read). I know very little about the Spectre, and I was curious to see what kind of adversaries he would team up with Batman to fight. Unfortunately, that didn't happen in the episode. What did happen though was my greatest surprise in quite a while. Batman was tempted by the Spectre to take revenge upon Joe Chill, the man who murdered Bruce Wayne's parents.

Seeing this whole episode actually made me like Batman Begins less because the way they handle Joe Chill in this cartoon is WAY more awesome than how he is handled in the aforementioned movie. In the movie, Bruce Wayne gets "cheated" out of murdering Joe Chill instead of being able to make a choice about how to avenge his parents. Being robbed of this choice has made me change my top five movie list:
1. The Matrix
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Boondock Saints
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
5. Batman Begins

Now I still love Batman Begins, but after seeing the above Joe Chill scene, I just don't really care for all of Batman Begins any more. With that said though, I have to repeat that I still love the movie, and if you have seen the Dark Knight and not Batman Begins, then shame on you.

Polish Sausage Incident

This happened April 2006, and I have been doing everything in my power to immortalize it.

Funniest Story in the World!!!

My friend Kent and I were at Western in the food line while they were giving out food for free. I said to Kent I'll probably get a polish sausage, but Kent said that he wanted it and since it was the last one, I said ok. I was going to get nachos until we saw that there were two left, but I thought I'll just get nachos anyway.

Then a fat, nerdy kid wearing a popped collar came up behind us complaining about how poor he did in Fine Arts. Kent took a polish sausage and then the fat, nerdy kid said with all seriousness, "Oh my God, I can't wait to get a polish sausage." Noticing there was only one left he anxiously shouts, "Nobody had better not take the last one."

Now of course my mind was already made up to get nachos, but I thought "what the hell" and then I took the last polish sausage. The kid behind me yells, "NOOOOOOO, NOT MY POLISH SAUSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I quickly grabbed my food and sat at our table. Kent, my brother, and I sat around the table talking and laughing about the incident. Then as I took my first bite of the polish sausage, the fat, nerdy kid came up to our table complaining, "How dare you take a MORBIDLY OBESE fat kid's POLISH SAUSAGE! I've only had three already." Holding in our laughs, the kid leaves and then we all explode in laughter.

As our competition came to an end, Kent and I were looking for the kid and we finally saw him. To our luck the kid's bus was adjacent to ours. Kent noticed this and started shouting "POLISH SAUSAGE!!!!!!" I cried from laughter. The entire bus ride home we talked about the fat, nerdy kid, polish sausage, and of course killing bears.

The only regret is that there is no video evidence of this, unless you witnessed it first-hand, you just can't possibly comprehend how funny this event was.

Note that none of this was exaggerated, this is 100% true!

Star Wars

If you haven't seen Star Wars or Batman Begins, go to your local movie store IMMEDIATELY and watch them.

***Spoiler Alert***

The Star Wars trilogy is probably the greatest film trilogy of all time. One of my favorite movies is in fact Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It probably would have been one of my top five if it didn't end on a cliffhanger. No matter how great a movie, if it cannot stand on it's own, it is not great to me. That's pretty much tells you how awesome Empire is. Even though it ends on a cliffhanger, I still consider it a great movie.

Now to be clear, Batman Begins does end on a cliffhanger but not really. At the end of Batman Begins, Batman goes to Lieutenant Gordon and is told that the Joker murdered some people and robbed a bank. Batman and Gordon say some cool lines and then Batman flies off to fight crime. The difference between this cliffhanger and the one in Empire is that the main story in Empire is not resolved while in Batman Begins it is. The Batman Begins ending was just kind of a fun way to say that Batman's adventures have only just begun, and I am satisfied that he stop Ra's Al Ghul from destroying Gotham. Empire ends on an incredibly emotional moment where Leia may never see the man she loves again. The problem with this ending is that - while it is beautiful - it is essentially just a set-up for the third movie.

Actually now that I think about it, The Matrix did the exact same thing as Batman Begins. Hopefully, you get my point though.

Star Wars: A New Hope changed film making even more than The Matrix although I think I may be happier if I stopped seeing the bullet time effect being used so much unnecessarily. But aside from its use of special effects; the mythology, story, and characters within Star Wars is what makes it stand the test of time. It is now at this time where I feel compelled to tell you what I liked and disliked about each movie including the prequels. I am going to start from The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi so I have a better taste in my mouth at the end.

Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Let me first say that RedLetterMedia has produced an epic review of The Phantom Menace that I implore you to watch. With that said, I'll kind of sum up what I liked about The Phantom Menace and what I didn't like (excluding what Mr. Plinkett points out here).

What I liked:

• I thought that the overarching plot of Senator Palpatine manipulating our heroes and villains into getting him into the position of Chancellor of the Galactic Republic was a pretty cool idea.
• Having Anakin Skywalker as a kid didn't really bother me that much and I thought the pod races and even the star ship battle at the end were fun to watch.

What I disliked:

• Qui-Gon Jinn really should've been Obi-Wan Kenobi except for the dying at the end. It would've justified The Phantom Menace more (I'll explain in Episode II).
• Where did the Trade Federation blockade go when they returned from Coruscant?
• How did they get through the blockade when they left Naboo? (Maybe that's why the ship's left, they were useless).
• The lack of emotion in all of the lightsaber duels especially between just Obi-Wan and Darth Maul.

What I hated:

• Jar Jar Binks ...
• Queen Amidala is supposedly a fourteen year old, democratically-elected queen! I don't know how she got elected (nevermind why she is called a queen), but this is more likely a bull**** retcon so that Anakin can have a love interest when he gets older without having to create a new character.
• Why the Trade Federation was risking everything to conquer Naboo didn't make any sense. I understand that they were upset about taxes, but while I did kind of understand the blockade, the invasion didn't make any sense. George Lucas really needed to establish why the Trade Federation was taking orders from Darth Sidious since that was THE ENTIRE PLOT OF THE MOVIE AND THE OTHER PREQUELS!
• Anakin is like ten years old and is too old to be trained as a Jedi!?!
• Midi-chlorians ... Why is this even in the movie!?! The Force was a mystical and mysterious force that flows through all life, not bacteria in your blood.

Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the ClonesLike with The Phantom Menace, RedLetterMedia also has an awesome Attack of the Clones review.
One thing to note about this movie is that the way it is set-up pretty much makes The Phantom Menace an unnecessary movie. Palpatine's rise to chancellor could've been cut out. Anakin and Obi-Wan became "friends" before this movie which could've been avoided if Obi-Wan was the main character of the first movie instead of Qui-Gon Jinn.
This movie is an abomination to the entire Star Wars series, so I'll spare you my rant and just tell you what I liked about the movie.

What I liked:

• The fight between Jango Fett and Obi-Wan on Kamino was pretty cool.
• Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme fighting for their lives against the three monsters in the the Geonosian Arena was exciting.
• Anakin finding his dead mother was emotional and showed his path down the dark side.

What I disliked:

• Padme not showing a little horror for learning that Anakin committed genocide.

What I hated:

• Everything else

Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
The first PG-13 Star Wars movie, how exciting. I will say that this was certainly the best of the prequels, but I don't understand why people thought this was a good Star Wars movie. The beginning of the movie was pretty cool, fun, and fast paced; but as soon as they landed Grevious's ship, the movie dragged for me. Probably the only thing that kept me awake was John William's orchestra playing

What I liked:

• As I said earlier, the whole beginning scene was a pretty cool way to start a movie.
• On the lava planet, Anakin describing his ambitions to Padme and then force-choking her was pretty cool (even though the reason was pretty lame).
• Yoda verses the Emperor. I really hated Yoda using a lightsaber (this is especially true in Episode II), but when they stopped using lightsabers, it reminded me of why Luke said Yoda was a great warrior as well as a master of the Force.
• Order 66 was pretty dark and cold.

What I disliked:

• The Anakin verse Obi-Wan fight at the end lasted quite a bit too long. While it did just end on a hill, I thought that was actually the best part of the whole fight.
• Anakin had to be told by Palpatine that Palpatine was a Sith. Between the clone army's suspicious origin and Obi-Wan being told by Count Dooku in Episode II that the Senate was being controlled by a Sith Lord, I thought they could've put two and two together.

What I hated:

• I was really angered that the whole finding a clone army commissioned when Palpatine became chancellor was totally ignored. Why this wasn't explored further in Episode II or in this movie really bothered me.
• Grevious really disappointed me. He was so cool in the microseries Star Wars: Clone Wars, but while he did show some awesomeness, the movie portrayed him more as a coward than someone who even the Jedi feared.
• Padme's death was the most bull**** thing ever. She lost the will to live!?! I guess having twins wasn't a good enough reason to live. Thank goodness Luke and Leia never met their mother. This is nit-picking, but how did the medical droids diagnose that she lost the will to live? I would've totally bought a heart condition, but this is just pitiful.
• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope
Ahh now that we have survived through the prequels, we can enjoy the good Star Wars movies.

What did I like:

• Everything

What did I dislike:

• Nothing

Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strike Back
George Lucas's masterpiece.

Star Wars, Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi
This was probably the weakest of the trilogy which isn't saying much because the first two were so coolio. That said, this is still leagues better than the prequels.

What I liked:

• Everything that I don't mention below

What I disliked:

• The Empire still losing at the end despite having a huge fleet of ships. I think this movie would've been a thousand times more awesome if the Emperor had died first, then the rebels disabled the field generator. This is a hind sight idea, that was spawned by Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic videogame where they introduced the idea of battle meditation. For those who haven't played the game, battle meditation was a Jedi ability which basically made soldiers fight better. Emperor Palpatine using battle meditation and then the Imperials losing that when he dies would've made the Imperials loss seem more plausible to me.

I do want to point out that I am not referring to the things added in the special additions. The originals on VHS which I watched when I was younger is the version I remember best. I hope you enjoyed my review of the entire Star Wars series and may the force be with you, always.

What if the Riddler was in Batman 3?

After the Dark Knight was a huge hit, everyone began speculating on who
was going to be in Batman 3 especially since Heath Ledger couldn't
reprise his role of the Joker. Well you couldn't go to an internet forum
without hearing people theorize that it's going to be the Riddler
because of Mister Reese - get it - 'mysteries'. Even though the Riddler
was always called Edward Nygma unfortunately Chris Nolan succumbed to
the peer pressure of the Internet and is putting Riddler in his next
movie. He could've had a great movie like the one I try to describe here,



















but instead he was forced to add in the Riddler and now it's going to look more like this:

Batman meets Selina Kyle and they fall in love. One day Bruce Wayne fires
Mister Reese for making up fraudulent reports. Next Commissioner Gordon
makes a new discovery in the murder of Batman's parents revealing that
Joe Chill never shot them, but it was actually the actor Basil Karlo.
Basil Karlo is on the run and accidentally falls into some kind of
research lab where he turns into Clayface. Batman's new mechanized suit
gets a virus in it causing him to lose his mind. Bruce starts walking
down the streets of Gotham sporting a popped collar. In reality this
virus was caused by Mister Reese now known as the Riddler. After Batman
nearly kills Clayface in a subway station, he flies on top of a church
and claws his way out of the suit. Riddler seizes the suit and
refashions it for his own purposes. Now the Riddler and Clayface team up
to take down Batman. They kidnap Selina Kyle and connect her to a
Riddler device on top of a building under construction. Batman tries to
take down a gigantic Clayface but is nearly killed as a television
reporter comments on it. Then out of nowhere Scarecrow comes in the Bat
plane and fires fear bombs at Clayface. Clayface gets scared and runs
away. Then Scarecrow and Batman team up to take down the Riddler.
Riddler seems to be holding his own until Scarecrow gets stabbed by a
Riddler trap. Selina comforts Scarecrow as Batman takes down Riddler by
trapping him in his own puzzle. Riddler refusing to go to jail,
activates a self destruct sequence in the Riddler suit destroying him.
As Scarecrow dies, Clayface appears and apologizes to Bruce Wayne for
killing his parents. Batman forgives him and then Clayface says that he
is going to go find and take care of his daughter. Batman and Selina get
married and then the movie ends.
















How adorable, I wish they would just die.

But even if Batman 3 resembles this, it would still be a thousand times better than a movie version of Batman R.I.P. ... of course I would still be there opening night.



Update: Chris Nolan has announced that Batman 3 would be called Dark Knight Rises. While the title may not be the greatest (but can you blame him for putting Dark Knight in the title?), he did confirm that the Riddler will not be in the final (which has me greatly excited right there) Batman movie.

Plot Twists (SPOILER ALERT)

Plot twists can be sometimes the most interesting part of the story or the most disappointing part of the story. I'm going to talk about the most interesting below, but a good example of a disappointing plot twist is the whole flash-sideways in Lost being revealed to be a sort of purgatory. Not only did this not make sense, but it was definitely a disappointment. Another note about this article is that there are a lot of plot twists that are so well known that I knew about them before I've seen the movie (Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes), these are the ones that surprised me.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I thought that the plot twist in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series was one of the best in television. Throughout the first season, the turtles faced off against the Shredder several times. Their first encounter ended in Splinter making a water tower fall on Shredder. For all intents and purposes, Shredder should be dead, but his hand rises from the rubble. This could have been explained by cartoon physics, but the second time after a climatic battle, Leonardo managed to slice off the Shredder's head. At the end of season one, Shredder's body rises out of the flames and picks up his head and walks off screen. Now this second occurrence cannot be explained by cartoon physics. While the plot twist isn't revealed yet, we do know that the Shredder is clearly not human -or at least not a normal one. After the turtles return from their adventure with the Fugitoid, the Utroms explain their history using a virtual reality machine. In the machine, they are introduced to an evil Utrom named Ch'rell. Now for people who have watched a lot of television or maybe were playing close enough attention probably made the connection by now. But it was not till the end of the epic trilogy with the Utroms that we see that Oraku Saki is in fact an evil alien Utrom within a robot body. This revelation made the Shredder an incredibly awesome character. He was not merely the archenemy of the ninja turtles, but he was seen as a much greater threat to the world and the galaxy.

Knights of the Old Republic was a video game that I played on the Xbox. It takes place about a thousand years before the first Star Wars movie, and boy does it have a doozy of a plot twist. Throughout the game you play a simple Republic soldier who later shows affinity for the Force. Everything seems pretty straightforward, you go around and seek out the Star Forge and the main antagonist Darth Malak is trying to stop you. You also team up with a Jedi named Bastilla, and Darth Malak tries to capture her for her special force ability. While playing the game a second time, it is clear that the game does indeed hint at this, but it is very subtle at revealing the huge plot twist. Towards the end of the Leviathan mission, it is revealed that your character in the game is in fact Darth Revan who is Darth Malak's master and the true lord of the Sith. Apparently, Darth Revan did not die, but was in fact captured by the Jedi and had his mind wiped. The game was fun, but this brilliant plot twist made KOTOR game of the year.

Now everyone knows the plot twist in the Empire Strikes Back, so I was not too surprised to learn that Darth Vader was in fact Luke's father. What was surprising occurred in Return of the Jedi. It was in the third movie that we learned that Luke and Leia are in fact siblings. Now this has led to a lot of incest jokes at Star Wars' expense due to the multiple times that Leia kisses Luke, but it did end the supposed love triangle between Luke, Leia, and Han Solo. This wasn't near as dark as the revelation in Empire, but it did make the duel between Luke and Vader in the second Death Star much more important and emotional.

Until Batman Begins, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was my favorite Batman movie. This movie introduces a new origin for Batman. This origin mostly revolves around a girl who Bruce falls in love with. He almost gives up his vigilante life, but when his love unexpectedly rejects his marriage proposal, he then becomes Batman. In the current timeline, Batman is mistaken for another vigilante who - as opposed to Batman - kills criminals. This vigilante known as the Phantasm is supposedly Bruce's love's father. At the beginning of a climatic battle with the Joker, it is revealed that the Phantasm is actually Bruce's love. She became the Phantasm in order to avenge her father by killing the men responsible for his death. The Joker was the last one on her list. This is was probably the first plot twist I was ever introduced to.

The greatest plot twist in movies has to belong to Fight Club. I literally was yelling at the screen in utter shock when it was revealed that Edward Norton's character is in fact a split personality of Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden. The cool thing is that there are subliminal hints throughout the beginning of the movie, but you can't really notice them unless someone points it out to you. The other cool thing is that the second time you watch the movie knowing about the twist ending, the movie is completely different.

Not quite as great as Fight Club's twist, but the first Saw movie had a twist that made me yell at the screen as well. The movie takes place in a bathroom with a dead body in it. Throughout the film, the film teases you with the identity of the serial killer Jigsaw. You're led to believe that Zepp is in fact Jigsaw, but at the very end it is revealed that he was just another pawn. The real Jigsaw was a cancer patient of Doctor Gordon's who happened to be the dead guy in the bathroom. When Jigsaw rose to his feet, I couldn't close my jaw for an hour.

With respect to The Prestige, the twist that Christian Bale's character was using his twin brother for his teleportation magic act wasn't as great as the fact that his twin brother was in fact his engineer Bernard Fallon. It makes perfect sense after the revelation scene, but it was still surprising and tragic.

Now a running joke but during the first season of 24, the revelation that Nina was a mole in CTU was very surprising. Every season it seems that there is always a mole, but they first made you think that they got all of the moles in CTU when Jaime supposedly killed herself. Then towards the end, it is revealed that Nina was in fact a mole all along which was hinted at the very beginning of the season. This was very emotional for it also led to the death of Jack Bauer's wife.

Just to prove that I also do read books once in a while, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations had a twist that was certainly a shock to me even though I was reading it. For most of the book, Pip believes that Miss Havisham was his mysterious benefactor. When it was revealed that it was instead the convict that he had shown kindness to at the beginning of the book, I thought it was a charming twist that I will always remember as my favorite twist ending from a novel.

What are your favorite twist endings? And what was your reaction?

Mini Reviews for Toy Story 3 and The Last Airbender

Toy Story 3

I personally think that this movie has the potential to be the best of the year. There are some similarities with the story compared to the previous movie, but this movie actually deals with the issue of growing up as opposed to the eventuality of growing up which I think makes this a better movie. The really cool thing with this movie was that it seemed to be made for those who grew up watching the original Toy Story. I don't know if I could necessarily recommend this movie to the youngest audiences because this movie does deal with issues like death which are probably not appropriate for a very young audience. For those slightly more mature and older, you will definitely love this movie if you liked any of the others. I nearly cried at the end of this movie. While I am confident that Batman 3 might surpass this as best movie of the decade, Toy Story 3 has certainly raised the bar very high. I give this movie my highest recommendation.

The Last Airbender

This movie was a disappointment. I have never seen the TV show, so I think this gives me a fairly unique perspective. For those who have never seen the show like I have and heard how good it was, I would definitely recommend a one time showing of this movie. Throughout the movie I was very intrigued in learning the story, and this movie delivered that. However, upon further reflection that was the only thing that kept me motivated in watching this movie. Except for the Prince and General characters, I thought they did a poor job with the other characters. They did practically nothing with the two main characters that we are introduced to and they really didn't do much with the Avatar character except show him training to control water. The Avatar didn't want to be the Avatar because it would mean sacrificing what he wants which I thought would've made an awesome movie, but they only introduced the concept and forgot about it. The special effects are pretty good (note that I didn't see this in 3-D which I heard is much worse), but the action sequences were disappointingly dull. As I think about it more, if it wasn't for my pure interest of learning the story behind The Last Airbender, I probably would've been bored.

**Update**
After watching just one episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I completely understand why fans of the show hated this movie. The television show has way better characters. Now I truly understand why my brother (who was a fan) was bored throughout the movie.

Batman Fan Fiction

My philosophy with regards to the next Batman movie is that if the third is the last one, it should relate to one of my favorite movies, Batman Begins. I thought Bane of the Demon, Legacy, and Knightfall were great stories and should be used as inspiration for the next movie. Now the story posted here is only if the next Batman movie is going to be the last Batman movie by Chris Nolan although this plot works best as a follow up to Dark Knight. Since the chances of Nolan seeing this story idea is as likely as me winning a foot race, we can wait and see how close my story is compared with the upcoming movie (July 2012, supposedly).

The Caped Crusader

A prison escape occurs at Arkham Asylum. Many of Batman's rogues makes appearances. Gordon and his police force arrive and try to contain the situation. Batman watches the situation from afar and notices a grocery store nearby getting robbed. It turns out to be none other than the Scarecrow who is making a hallucinogen with some chemicals that he has been collecting. Batman quickly subdues him, but the Scarecrow sprays his chemical concoction onto Batman. Batman knocks Scarecrow out, but the fumes from the chemicals make Batman hallucinate making him see Rachel crying out for help. Batman is able to snap out of it and retreats. He recoups and heads to the asylum. He avoids the police and investigates the hole in the wall. He notices no blast marks and suspects that some kind of machine had to be behind the break out. A policeman notices Batman and a group of cops go after him, but Batman escapes using his grappling gun.

Bruce Wayne watches television at Wayne Manor and we see his television screen depicting a new politician declaring Batman a cop killer and a crazy vigilante. Alfred enters and asks what's wrong. Bruce tells him that he still can't stop blaming himself for Rachel's death. Alfred tries to cheer him up by saying, "Maybe I'm starting to agree with that politician calling you crazy." After some other exchanges, Bruce enters the Batcave. Alfred asks what he is working on. Bruce informs him that he must track down all of the escaped patients from Arkham before they can cause Gotham any more harm. Alfred informs him that first he must meet Wayne Enterprises' newest client.

At the police station the new politician talks with Gordon on starting a crusade to bring in the Batman. Gordon says that we should focus on the Arkham escapees. The politician counters by saying that Batman is responsible for most of these psychos. There's some more exchanges, but then Gordon decides to focus on the psychos and the politician goes after the Batman.

At Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne meets Talia Head at a meeting. After the meeting, Talia goes out with Bruce for lunch. Here we learn about what happened in Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. Talia expresses her admiration for Batman, but she reveals that she is also engaged with a man named Antonio Diego who happens to also be the president of her company. Despite that, Talia notices that Bruce is sad, so she reaches over to hold Bruce's hand. Bruce notices a bruise on Talia's arm and suspects that Antonio is abusive.

As Batman he investigates the company. As he is looking for the security system, he finds a weapons lab. There he finds caches of illegal weapons, but there is one weapon in particular that catches his eye. He uses some kind of scanner, but it can't recognize it. Batman notices a label covered in dust that reads, "Venom, Santa Prisca". Then Batman gets attacked by some security guards. He handles himself until a big guy wearing a mask enters. The masked man proves to be too strong, so Batman grabs the venom and retreats.

For three months, Batman studies the venom. He fights Arkham escapees while evading the police. He also begins going on business meetings with Talia that start turning into dates.

--------

Actually you know what? Just read Knightfall and Legacy. They are GREAT Batman comics and do a great job of exploring Batman and maintaining the realism that Nolan has done his best to establish. I keep changing my mind on the story and probably need a team of writers or a lot of free time to sort all of the cool ideas of mine. You have my initial set-up, so go from there. The title 'Caped Crusader' refers to Batman's crusade to lock up the Arkham escapees. the twist will be that this was all a masterstroke by my second favorite Batman villain, Bane (Ra's Al Ghul will always be my favorite). And even greater twist is revealed that Bane is Ra's new heir. Talia Al Ghul will be another twist, but she does serve as Batman's legitimate love interest. Those are the only plot points that don't change, and I think it would make a really good movie.

Batman is my third favorite superhero (Superman and Green Lantern), but Knightfall and Legacy are just great stories which I feel are some of the greatest stories from DC. Whatever the next Batman movie is going to be, I am sure that it'll be great, and I'll be there opening night.

Comment on how you would make the next Batman movie.

Happy Memorial Day '10!

I am currently training to join the US Army and am going to enlist soon, so before I do, I felt compelled to write a blog in salute for our troops.

While I am not a fan of war unless it is in self defense, I still have nothing but respect for our soldiers. Even in self defense though, war sucks. It is just a fact of life. No matter what people die, people get hurt, and families get ruined. The fact that our men and women are willing to risk their lives to protect us have my upmost respect.

Politically, I do have a lot of issues with our foreign policy. Currently, we are fighting three wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Korea. Let me explain Korea first since that one may not seem obvious. Contrary to popular belief the Korean War never really ended. What happened was that a ceasefire was made so that the North and South Koreans cannot cross the 38th parallel. We still have a reasonable presence in South Korea.

The invasion of Afghanistan was a result of the Taliban offering amnesty to Osama bin Laden. Allowing the leader of the terrorist group responsible for the greatest terrorist attack on our country was not the smartest move of the Taliban. The problem with Afghanistan is that we started another conflict before we could finish the fight and we diverted resources from Afghanistan to Iraq.

The Iraq conflict is definitely the most controversial decision of the Bush administration. At first it did seem like a lost cause, but fortunately with the brilliant decisions by General Petraeus and the 'surge' strategy, the end to the Iraq War does seem imminent. General Petraeus has certainly earned himself a spot in my list of people who I aspire to be like (probably the main reason why I want to be in the Army). But anyway, my understanding for the rationale for the invasion of Iraq was that the Bush administration bought into the neoconservative philosophy of preemptive war and that Iraq was believed to be an imminent threat. This foreign policy became very attractive after 9/11. The justification for believing Iraq was an imminent threat was that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. While it turned out that there weren't any, to the administration's defense other intelligence agencies besides the CIA claimed they did. Even still people forget about this, but that is not the point. If you are going to exercise preemptive war, you can't have any errors. The lack of weapons of mass destruction is kind of a big one.

Well I hope these active conflicts end soon, and again, thanks to all of the men and women out there who are serving or have served in our armed forces. I salute you.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

So Michael Bay's next project could be a reboot of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie. [1] Honestly, I don't really have any presumptions about this news. I know that Transformers 2 was a terrible movie, but I think that is more the fault of the story than the director although I could be wrong about that. The only thing I know for certain about this movie is that there are going to be a lot of explosions. This announcement does make me reminisce about one of my favorite television shows.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is definitely one of my favorite television shows of all time. It was undoubtedly a show for children, but it was mature enough that I can still appreciate it. I started watching a few episodes when I was in high school, but it wasn't till this past year when I was able to watch them in order and their entirety. Probably at this point I should emphasize that I am referring to the 2003 series as opposed to the 1987 series.

The 1987 series was indeed for children. Until the show became way too silly, the show was fairly entertaining. This series was actually a poor adaptation of the comics, but one of the big things that this show did was make the Shredder a major enemy of the Turtles. In the comics, the Shredder only appears in the first comic. Imagine nowadays a Ninja Turtles adaptation without the Shredder. While I cannot deny the significance of the 1987 series, I honestly cannot watch this series anymore after watching the 2003 series (except to listen to that unforgettable theme song).


The 2003 series up to season five was just great. Probably my favorite aspect of the show was that the villains seemed credible. Not only was the Shredder a scary guy, so was every other villain. There are more villains, but these are the main ones.

• The Shredder. He was easily the most memorable thing about the show. The Shredder's story was one of the most original and interesting stories that I have ever seen on television. What makes it especially cool is that the Shredder's main enemy and concern isn't even the turtles - they are just an annoyance. The Shredder's real foe is a group called the Guardians who guard the Shredder's most hated enemies, the Utroms. There is also a secret about the Shredder which is easily in my top favorite plot twists of all time (hmm that sounds like a good idea for another blog).
  
• Baxter Stockman. More true to his comic counterpart in this series, this guy was an evil genius who 'worked' for the Shredder. Actually except for the first time, he only 'works' for the Shredder out of fear or in order to plot against him. This made Stockman a very dynamic and unpredictable character.
• Hun. Created for the show, he is Shredder's most powerful and loyal henchman. Hun is actually the leader of the Purple Dragons street gang, but for some reason he is incredibly loyal to the Shredder doing whatever is necessary to earn his favor. His loyalty makes him a very cool character.
• Karai. The adopted daughter of the Shredder. Aside from the fact that this makes the Shredder an even more awesome character, Karai struggles between keeping her honor and obeying her father. In season three, this character dynamic is very interesting as she is an ally of the turtles, but in the end she is still a villain. Season 4 is even more fascinating when she takes up the mantle of the Shredder. Her devotion toward her father despite also keeping her honor makes Karai one of my favorite characters. She is very similar to Talia Al Guhl from the Batman cartoon.
• Agent Bishop. A government agent who is pretty much the leader of an MIB-organization. His main motivation is the protection of Earth and humanity from all threats. What makes him a villain is that he is very machiavellian in that he doesn't care how he protects mankind. He is even okay with the idea of a couple billion people dying since he thinks that a lower population would be better for humanity. The other cool thing is that he is actually two hundred years old and can hold his own against the turtles, Hun, and even Karai all at the same time (too bad we never see him and Shredder go at it).

While the villains were amazing, the heroes were just as great. The turtles just seemed more human in this series compared to the original. They aren't just cracking jokes the entire time, and you can actually feel a sense of love and family among them and Splinter. Leonardo was very cool and serious. Raphael was very headstrong and tough. Michelangelo is the comic relief of the show and made a lot of references to pop culture like Star Trek and Aliens. Like his original series counterpart, Donatello is good with machines. I also really liked April O'Neil and Casey Jones who are truer to their comic incarnations.

This is kind of a side note, but one thing I really hate about genius characters is that they are too smart. I can accept the idea that April O'Neil can hack and do other computer tasks because she was a programmer for Dr. Stockman. Donatello like many other genius characters just serve as a means to introduce deus ex machina devices or create new gadgets. There is no way that Donatello could be smart enough to create or reverse engineer technology that is much more advance than what society knows. A great example of this is when Leonardo asks Donatello if a trans-dimensional portal is possible (from Turtles Forever). There is no way a person could know how to build a trans-dimensional portal on the fly. I think that the only reason that this bothers me is because I am an engineer and know how difficult some of this technology is to produce (not talking about the trans-dimensional portal, more like microchips and advance mods to vehicles).

As mentioned before, I only like this show up until the end of season five. Season five ended with a really beautiful ending. The last two seasons felt forced (especially the last one). Season six involves the turtles going into the future (lame), and season seven has them return but face the most ridiculous villain, the Cyber Shredder. The Cyber Shredder is defeated by a Decompiler Ray (what more is there to say?). Season five just did a really great job at wrapping up the series. It gave the series an epic feel, and showed how everything in the series was connected.

Within the five seasons, I hated just about every episode that dealt with the superheroes of the universe. I won't deny the plausibility of superheroes in a universe of teenage mutant ninja turtles, but I felt that they took away focus from the turtles. I mean how can I believe that the turtles are necessary when they have the Justice League (they have some other name) who can come in and save the day. I feel that this was a really bad decision by the creators. The only other vigilante should have been Casey Jones who the series did do a great job with.

The only other thing that disappointed me with the series was that while the Utroms had a great three-part episode, they were kind of forgotten until the end of season 3. Considering the Shredder's origins as well as the turtles, I really wish that the Guardians could have had more screen time.

The fifth season was a complete change of pace for the series. Until this season minus a few episodes, everything was science fiction. Now we are in total fantasy although they also do a magic-tech thing which is pretty cool. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the ending to this season was so satisfying and happy. This season was a complete tangent from the previous four seasons, but they were able to connect everything that brought not only closure for everything but gave the turtles a greater sense of purpose.

Overall, this series was just really fun to watch. I could really get into the story, and the characters were interesting. Some episodes were terrible, but most of them were great. Oh I forgot to mention my favorite episode of the series. Note that there are huge spoilers of the early series in this episode, but you'll be okay to at least see the special opening. With that said, this episode is so awesome that someone named Yoraee made a special introduction to this episode.

Well I hope you enjoyed my favorite episode. Unfortunately, you cannot download these episodes from iTunes (as far as I can tell). If you see the DVD's, I give you my highest recommendation to buy them.


References:

• Fleming, Mike (2010, May 27) Platinum Dunes Steers 'Turtles' Relaunch. http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/platinum-dunes-steers-turtles-relaunch/

The Filibuster (Part 4 of 4)

Defense Against the Filibuster

It is only appropriate when talking about the filibuster to mention the tools used against it. While it could come to a simple battle of wills, more often than not there are tactics that are employed to stop filibusters.

If a filibuster is being employed or threatened to be employed, there is only one thing the majority party can do to directly stop filibusters. By invoking Senate rule 22, the debate has a cap of thirty hours. Enacted in 1917, cloture requires a super majority of three-fifths which in the current Senate means sixty votes. This cap of thirty hours does include the time spent on quorum calls, voting on amendments, as well as debate. [1] The debate seems obvious, but what is really important is that cloture effectively stops all forms of filibuster that were mentioned in the previous section. the minority can still obstruct all they want, but it only acts a disservice to themselves. The best the minority can do is to use the time wisely in order to draw public attention to issues or maybe even persuade the majority although the latter is much less likely. The other great thing about cloture is that if it fails the first time, the majority can try as many times as they wish. [1] Due to the partisanship in the Senate, cloture votes now average fifty-two per Congress [1] which is why the Senate is sometimes called the 'Sixty vote majority'.

Oddly enough the filibuster can be stopped by forces outside the Senate. If the House passes a budget bill through reconciliation, then the rules change for the Senate. A bill cannot be filibustered, for the time limit is twenty hours which is ten hours less than the cloture motion. Also amendments proposed to the bill must be germane and deficit neutral. The other great aspect of reconciliation for the majority is that it only requires a simple majority in order to pass. [2]

The last defense tactic that will be discussed is - oddly enough - a filibuster brought forth by the majority party! The following video demonstrates what is called "the reverse filibuster".


The great irony with this event is that the filibuster has always been the sword of the minority. Taking place in November 2003, the Republican Majority was fed up with the Democratic Minority constantly filibustering Republican President George Bush's lower court nominations. This filibuster served two purposes: bring to light what the minority party was doing and - if the majority was really lucky - wait for the minority to fall asleep or stop paying attention, so they can quickly confirm the nominees. [3] Unfortunately for the Majority, this failed on both of its goals. No judge received a single vote and there was no public outcry. The reverse filibuster was seen simply as theater between the two sides. [4] It is unlikely that the majority will use this tactic ever again.

Conclusion

The filibuster is without a doubt the most unique and powerful tool in the Senate. From its early days in the Roman Senate to today, the power of the filibuster has had an astounding impact on the political world. Granting the minority such power to rival the majority has prevented good legislation, stopped bad legislation, and even provided a few laughs. Giving the Senate defense tactics to use against the filibuster has only further intrigued the political process. It is safe to say that without the filibuster, the United State of America would be much different from what we know today.

Previous

References:

1. Sinclair, Barbara (2007). Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 67 - 69)
2. Oleszek, Walter J. (2007) Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 68-69)
3. Associated Press (2003, November 12) Senators Prepare for All-Night Judges Marathon. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102813,00.html
4. Smith, Steven S., Roberts, Jason M., Vander Wielen, Ryan J. (2009) The American Congress. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (pp. 327)
   

The Filibuster (Part 3 of 4)

How to Filibuster

As explained in the previous section, whenever a piece of legislation arises that a senator wants to delay, modify, or defeat; the senator’s best option is to filibuster. There are several ways to filibuster, but the first action the senator should take is to threaten to filibuster. The Majority Leader who has limited time to work must take any credible threat of a filibuster as a filibuster itself. [1] This is actually the most common form of filibuster and happens on an almost weekly occurrence. If the Majority Leader is unsuccessful in finding sixty votes (needed to make a cloture call which will be discussed in the next section), then there is a very good chance that the Majority Leader will effectively drop the bill. [1] This is the best possible outcome because the filibuster is silent and doesn’t waste the minority’s time.

In the event that the Majority Leader does not take the threat of a filibuster seriously, then the senator must prepare to filibuster the unwanted legislation. The senator will have to gather allies and as much information over the issue as he can get. It may be necessary to prepare physically. When Senator Thurmond filibustered for over twenty-four hours, he spent a few hours in a sauna in order to avoid having to use the restroom. [2] In order for a filibuster to be truly successful, the filibuster must outlast the majority’s patience. Even though Senator Thurmond filibustered for over twenty-four hours, no one else was able to take his place and the Civil Rights Act of 1957 passed. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 – while still a landmark achievement – had to be modified before a super majority could be obtained in order to end the over fifty day filibuster.

Once all of the preparations have been made, now it is time to filibuster. While holding the floor for an indefinite amount of time is the most famous way of filibustering, there are several tactics that can be employed in order to further obstruct the process. There are several parliamentary procedures besides the debate that can be obstructed in order to further sidetrack the bill.

Quorum calls and objecting to unanimous consent are fairly easy methods of obstruction that while are easy to defend against can be quite a nuisance especially if there are many other senators that join. The following video demonstrates just how much time a quorum call can take.



Another brilliant aspect of these tactics is that it is almost impossible to tell if these tactics are being used for the purpose of obstruction or not. Senator Rick Santorum (R-P.A.) may have supported the amendment but wanted a quorum call for some other purpose than obstruction. There are several other motions like these that do nothing more than cause an annoyance, but when combined with the annoyances of other senators, these can become an effective filibuster.

The Amending Process is another venue to try a filibuster. Unless dispensed by unanimous consent, every measure can have an unlimited amount of amendments added to it. The Senate cannot dispose of any filed amendments before they are called up for floor consideration. [1] Similar to extended debate, this method is a battle of wills and is often threatened.

Lastly, the most famous version of the filibuster is the extended debate where a senator tries to talk for a very long time. While this is a tool of obstruction, it can also be used a last resort to rally more senators to the minority’s cause and also to bring attention to issues and concerns that the minority has with the bill. The extended debate does not have to include relevant material. Many of the famous extended debates involve senators reading Shakespeare, cooking recipes, and even legislation completely irrelevant to the bill being filibustered. [1] The main problem with this approach is of course the amount of time and physical fortitude this process can take. In the end, what matters is how many supporters the minority has and who is willing to give in first. Senator Thurmond was able to filibuster for over twenty-four hours. No one else came to his aid, so two hours later, the bill he was trying to filibuster still passed. The great irony is that while the filibuster does give any senator leverage over another, it is only a viable threat if a senator is able to form a large enough minority in order to be a true threat verses an annoyance.

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References:

1. Oleszek, Walter J. (2007) Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 217 - 240)
2. Associated Press (2003, June 27) Thurmond Holds Senate record for Filibustering. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,90552,00.html
   

The Filibuster (Part 2 of 4)

Reasons For Filibustering

It is often said that the House of Representatives favors the majority whereas the Senate favors the minority. The reason why this is true is because of the power to filibuster. Every senator is practically equal in power, so even one senator has the power to subvert legislation favored by the rest of the senators. This is also the reason why the filibuster will never truly go away. If the majority tries to change the rules to where senators do not have the freedom of unlimited debate, then any senator can even filibuster that motion. [1] In describing this power in the minority, political scientist Richard E. Fenno Jr. once said, “Every member of the Senate has an atomic bomb and can blow up the place. That leads to accommodation.” [2]

Before the reasons to filibuster are discussed, it would be wise to take a look at the Senate minority. When thinking of the minority in the Senate, one would typically think of the minority party. While this can often be the case, it can embody any like-minded senators from across the aisle as shown in the following video.



In the video, Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Alfonse Marcello D’Amato (R-N.Y.) teamed up to filibuster for over fifteen hours in an effort to amend a tax bill to the current legislation that would hopefully prevent a typewriter company from moving eight hundred seventy-five jobs from Upstate New York to Mexico. The company wanted to do this in order to bring down wage costs. While Senator Moynihan doesn’t speak in this clip, it was important to point out that both senators were behind this tax bill amendment demonstrating a bipartisan minority.

There is a greater significance to a bipartisan minority. Some people believe that the prerogative of extended debate was to prevent change. This myth was perpetuated by the belief that this reflected the framers intent. [4] The constitution was created to be a living-document - or in other words ‘allowed to change’. It seems apparent that the actual intent of this prerogative was to further give voice to any minority regardless of party affiliation. The filibusters against the 1964 Civil Rights Act were led by Democrat and Republican senators from the South. [5] Also from the clip, both senators were from New York. Good or bad, unintended or fully-intended; the filibuster actually encourages bipartisanship and forces senators to reach across the aisle in order to ensure the passage of legislation.

Another interesting note about the video is that this filibuster was not intended to prevent the legislation from passing. It was employed in an effort to modify the legislation. Too often people think of a filibuster as simply stopping the passage of legislation like in Frank Capra’s 1939 classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Some would argue that Senator D’Amato was trying to put on a show in order to win a tight reelection that year (which he did by ninety thousand votes compared to the six million cast) [3], but regardless if he had legitimate concern for the workers of the typewriter factory, the point is that the filibuster was not used to simply prevent passage. Even though the senator’s plan failed, it did serve a purpose by trying to highlight the issue in the public spotlight.

The most famous example of what people mostly believe a filibuster is used for is the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This act like every other measure faces the possibility of two filibusters: one on the motion to take up the legislation and the other on the consideration of the bill itself. [2] This act alone consumed sixteen days on the motion and a staggering fifty-seven days on the passage. The 1957 Civil Rights Bill was no different for Strom Thurmond’s (D-S.C.) filibuster lasted over twenty-four hours straight! Senator Thurmond like several other senators opposed the Civil Rights Acts because they believed it infringed on state’s rights. [5] The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did eventually pass, but it had to be modified in order to get enough votes for a super majority. This event also demonstrates the extremes a minority may be willing to go in order to prevent passage; furthermore, this is why a threat of filibuster alone can halt legislation.

For the exception of the civil rights legislation before the 1970’s, the use of the filibuster was incredibly rare reserved only for issues of grave national importance. Recent decades have seen an increase in the overall number of filibusters and threat of filibusters from both sides of the political spectrum. The threat of a filibuster has even become a weekly occurrence and for as trivial reasons as a senator’s travel schedule. [2] This has been happening for several reasons. New senators tend to have an agenda of there own and with the increase of partisanship, this has only made the need for bipartisanship that much harder. Unlike the Civil Rights Act of 1967, a lot of issues aren’t that extremely important, and with the limited time that senators can afford, any indication of a filibuster can exercise significant leverage. Interestingly, political scientist Richard F. Fenno Jr. believes that these political entrepreneurs coupled with high media visibility are afraid to compromise and only have incentives to obstruct. Since obstruction is very easy to accomplish, if any senator doesn’t get their way, it is seemingly in their best interest to obstruct. In fact with party cohesiveness at an all time high, full-scale party-backed filibusters become even more of a threat. This is why - except for in some cases when a party commands a super-majority – bipartisanship is very important. Party leaders try “shuttle diplomacy” – which is diplomacy using an intermediary – between the two parties in order to avoid the possibility of a full-scale filibuster. [2]

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References:

1. Smith, Steven S., Roberts, Jason M., & Vander Wielen, Ryan J. (2009) The American Congress. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (pp. 45)
2. Oleszek, Walter J. (2007) Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 10, 238-240)
3. The United State Senate. Old-time Filibuster Revived. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/old_time_filibuster_revived.htm
   
4. Sinclair, Barbara. (2007) Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 6)
5. The United States Senate. Civil Rights Filibuster Ended. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm
   

The Filibuster (Part 1 of 4)

Introduction

One of the most famous yet often misunderstood tools of the United States' Senate, the filibuster has been responsible for shaping events in the history of the United States while also frustrating both sides of the political spectrum. The term 'filibuster' originates from the anglicized Dutch word for 'free-booter', so a 'filibusterer' was a pre-colonial pirate. [1] Today's usage of the term 'filibuster' simply refers to a moment when a legislator (almost always a senator) delays the legislative process on a bill in order to achieve some political goal. While to some it may seem obvious as to how a filibuster has changed from a pirate to a senator speaking for a very long time, no one really knows for sure how the term evolved. One of the first documented usages of the term in the political sense was when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was filibustered in 1854 [1], so the political usage of the term is relatively new.

Typically, most people think of a filibuster as a senator talking for a very long time in order to prevent a bill from passing. According to page two hundred thirty-seven in his book, Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, Oleszek writes, “a filibuster in the fullest sense employs every parliamentary maneuver and dilatory motion to delay, modify, or defeat legislation.” What this means is that speaking nonstop is only one way to filibuster a bill and that the filibuster isn’t solely employed for the purpose of defeating a bill. More importantly, it is difficult to determine when extended debate becomes a filibuster, for no one actually declares a motion to filibuster. Nowadays the threat of the filibuster is more prevalent than the actual implementation. Since the threat of a filibuster alone can create havoc for the Majority Leader, the filibuster can be considered ‘silent’. [3]

The reason why a filibuster even exists is because when the rules of the Senate were adopted in 1789, the Senate’s small size permitted the freedoms of unlimited debate and opportunity to offer amendments – germane or not. [4] Now with a Senate of one hundred members, a filibuster is a much greater threat; however, in 1917 Rule XXII – the cloture rule – gave the majority some power over threat of filibusters although unrestricted debate was of much less concern during the nineteenth century. [3] There have been other measures since then to combat the threat of filibusters including help from the House of Representatives with the passing of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 [2], but they are still one of the greatest bargaining chips any senator has in the U.S. Senate.

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References:

1. Smith, Steven S., Roberts, Jason M., & Vander Wielen, Ryan J. (2009) The American Congress. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (pp. 224)
2. Sinclair, Barbara. (2007) Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp.196)
3. Oleszek, Walter J. (2007) Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press (pp. 237)
4. The United States Senate. (2010, April 10). Senate Legislative Process. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/common/briefing/Senate_legislative_process.htm