Worst Offenders List Improvements

I though I'd take some time out to let you know about the ongoing updates to this website.

You'll notice that the Worst Offenders list has changed. Specifically, the numbers next to the worst offenders themselves have become larger. This is because I have now included cosponsorships in the offender totals. Typically, these stupid resolutions have a sponsor and a number (often a large number) of cosponsors. Well, I blame cosponsors just as much as the principal sponsors for wasting the government's time, so now they won't be off the hook.

Also, you'll notice that the time wasted statistics are no longer multiples of forty minutes. The method I was using to determine time wasted usually cited the official time allocated for a debate in the House of Representatives (forty minutes) and not the actual time spent in debate (if you can call it debate). I've now come up with a method of more accurately determining the time spent on these resolutions that doesn't involve twelve-hour C-span marathons, so my statistics are now much more representative of actual time wasted.

So now the Worst Offenders list is more complete and more accurate. I'm still working out minor bugs here and there, and there will be an error or two due to the fact that I had to do some of the data entry manually, but those won't take long to fix. Once that is complete, I will start on the section that will allow you to search stupid votes by the sponsors' states and by date, among other things. Enjoy!