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What was noteworthy about Rand Paul's filibuster yesterday wasn't that he held up the confirmation of John Brennan to the CIA, but that he spoke. As a procedural move, the filibuster is extremely common, but rarely does anyone take to the floor and prevent the flow of Senate business. Paul's "talking filibuster" was the first in over two years, and at nearly 13 hours, the longest since South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond's filibuster of the 1957 Civil Rights Rights Act.
Unlike Thurmond's filibuster, or the vast majority of filibusters through history, Paul's was for a good cause-to press the Obama administration for more information on drone strikes, to object to the use of drones in the United States, and to spark a conversation about the administration's overall drone policy and use of targeted killings, which has gone unexamined in official Washington.
For actual information on the subject, I recommend reading posts from Mother Jones' Adam Serwer, The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf, and Marcy Wheeler (aka Emptywheel).
If you'd like to read Senator Paul's filibuster-or at least, skim through it-I can help you out. Below are links to the first seven hours hour of the filibuster. The first three hours are the most informative, but the entire thing is worth skimming through if you have the time.
You can also watch the whole thing, if you're so inclined:
