帖子“大米博士”講述在美國民主中，如何利用拖延時間來阻撓議事。

該文舉美國九一一調查委員會成員，前參議院議員凱瑞在國會質詢美國國家安全事務助理大米博士為例。凱瑞提出了一個美國政府應對恐怖襲擊的問題。大米博士從美國反恐歷史談起，用冗長的回答耗費凱瑞的時間。凱瑞發現被套住，抗議說自己只有十分鐘的時間，要求她停止回答該問題，轉入另一個問題。大米則堅持回答此問題。在凱瑞提高了抗議強度，說“不要阻撓我議事，這不公平” (don't filibuster me, that's unfair)的情況下，大米仍然堅持回答。凱瑞硬招不行，又採取哀兵策略，說"我對你很禮貌謙恭"( I have been courteous )，請求大米停止浪費時間。大米則無動於衷，說她來這就是回答問題的，她有回答的權利。最後，凱瑞無奈，只得任由大米博士“強行回答”了這個問題。

這個唇槍舌劍過程的英文，見於本文的附錄。大米是明顯的勝者。因為，她成功地耗費了凱瑞的時間。這絕不僅僅凸顯了她性格的強硬，而且還介紹了一個議會鬥爭的重要概念，阻撓議事(filibuster)。用拖延時間的合法手段，小可以殺掉寶貴的十分鐘，大可以阻撓法案的通過。這叫做talking a bill out。

該帖子的結論是“民主是一個規則的戰場，誰能最好地利用規則，誰就把握更大的勝機。而規則之內的勝利對所有的人都是公平的。民主是一個魔女，若沒點風流本事，你還調戲不了”。例子是正確的，結論也是正確的。網上抄襲剽竊的和罵髒話的帖子堆積如山。肯在這樣骯髒惡劣的環境之中，捏着鼻子，寫這樣網文，雖然不是英雄，但也很仗義了。

有些人投入大量時間，考證帖子中無關宏旨的細節出入。十分愚蠢。淮南子談九方皋找千里馬，找了三個月，說找到了。秦王問是什麼馬，他說是黃色的母馬。結果牽過來一看，卻是一匹黑色的公馬。秦王抱怨說九先生本領不行。伯樂卻說，“得其精而忘其粗，在其內而忘其外。見其所見，不見其所不見；視其所視，而遺其所不視”，這裡頭包含的道理，又遠高於相馬本身啊。

看質詢和做政論的道理，跟挑選千里馬是一樣的。要“視其所視，而遺其所不視”。政論不是新聞報道，它是闡述道理的。研究它說的道理，才是讀政論的正辦。揪光了頭髮，研究是公馬還是母馬，是黃馬還是黑馬的，都還不懂得怎樣讀政論。

=== 附錄：凱瑞和大米對話英文原文

MR. KERREY: Let me move to another area.

MS. RICE: May I finish answering your
question, though? Because this is an important point.

MR. KERREY: No, I know it's important.
Everything that's going on here is important, but we got -- I get 10 minutes.
So --

MS. RICE: But since we have a point of
disagreement, I'd like to have a chance to address it.

MR. KERREY: Well, no, actually, there's going
-- we have many points of disagreement with Dr. Clarke that we'll have a chance
to --

MS. RICE: I think --

MR. KERREY: -- we'll have a chance to do in
closed session. You can't -- please don't filibuster
me. It's not fair.

MS. RICE: Do you mean --

MR. KERREY: It is not fair. I have been
polite, I have been courteous. It is not fair to me. (Applause.)

MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: (Boos.)

MR. KERREY: I understand that we have a
disagreement.

MS. RICE: Commissioner, Commissioner, I'm here
to answer questions. And you've asked me a question, and I'd like to have an
opportunity to answer it.

MR. KERREY: No, it --

MS. RICE: The fact is that what we were
presented on January the 25th was a set of ideas --

MR. KERREY: Okay.

MS. RICE: -- and a paper, most of which was
about what the Clinton administration had done, and something called the
Delenda plan, which had been considered in 1998 and never adopted.

MR. KERREY: Okay.

MS. RICE: We decided to take a different
track. We decided to put together a strategic approach to this that would get
the regional powers -- the problem wasn't that you didn't have a good
counterterrorism person. The problem was you didn't have approach against al
Qaeda because you didn't have an approach against Afghanistan, and you didn't
have an approach against Afghanistan because you didn't have an approach
against Pakistan. And until we could get that right, we didn't have a policy.