gistfile1.txt

>>> db_cluster_list = ["has foo in it", "doesn't match", "has bar in it", "also doesn't match", "also has foo in it", "nothing to see here"]
>>> cluster_ignore_list = ("foo", "bar")
>>> filter(lambda x: [y for y in cluster_ignore_list if y in x], db_cluster_list)
['has foo in it', 'has bar in it', 'also has foo in it']

this short circuits:

>>> def found(x):
...     for item in cluster_ignore_list:
...         if item in x:
...             return True
...     return False
... 
>>> filter(found, db_cluster_list)
['has foo in it', 'has bar in it', 'also has foo in it']