The 62 Project: #’s 20 and 42

The 62 Project: #’s 20 and 42

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John Kowalko's pluses: A true progressive, unafraid to take unpopular stands, willing to be a public gadfly when needed, almost always a dependable vote for progressive principles, and a willing sponsor for progressive legislation. Bob Venables' pluses: A good Bond Bill chair who understands that capital investment in roads and schools is a good thing, first to really blow the whistle on the cost of prison expansion and minimum mandatory sentences, a genuinely nice person.

Tuesday Open Thread [5.27.14]

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That's a real sign, not a fake one you often see on the Internet. An Anglican priest from Australia put up the sign in response to the conservative government in Australia. In America, support for marriage equality has increased yet again in the Gallup poll to 55%. Meanwhile, we have some new Senate polls that paints an optimistic picture for the Democrats.
The 62 Project!

The 62 Project!

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Yes, it still exists, although it's been in limbo for awhile. For those of you who were too young and/or didn't read this blog religiously or atheistically at the time, the 62 Project is/was designed to rank all of the legislators based on their effectiveness, accomplishments, and progressive principles. These are/were career rankings, not simply snapshots of a given period. Clearly, those with longer careers have more of a track record, for better or for worse, and are less subject to major changes in the rankings. I now realize that there's no way that I can continue to write the type of extensive profiles I've been doing, and complete this project by (my newest deadline) the September primaries. So, I will write shorter profiles that I hope capture the reason for each legislator's ranking. Let's first recap those I've already ranked.....
Is a demographic solution to American gun mayhem inevitable?

Is a demographic solution to American gun mayhem inevitable?

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Twenty years ago it would have been hard to imagine the our country's present acceptance gay marriage. In 1994, the year in which The American Medical Association first opposed treatments intended to cure homosexuality, if you had predicted that homosexuals would be a protected class and that it would be illegal to fire a person for being gay in 2014, you would have sounded like a crazy person. But times have changed. Old, angry a-holes die off by the day and they are replaced by younger people with, by and large, a more mature and less terror-filled world view. So it is fitting to wonder what might our gun mayhem situation be like 20 years from now.
What happens when you’re in a Twitter ‘spat’ with Chip Flowers and don’t even know it?

What happens when you’re in a Twitter ‘spat’ with Chip Flowers and don’t even know it?

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According to Jonathan Starkey over at the News Journal, I was in a Twitter spat with Chip Flowers over a tweet I sent on Sunday about one of his challengers, Sean Barney, getting a choice spot on msnbc while the network scrambled to cover President Obama's surprise visit to Afghanistan. Apparently, Flowers wasn't too keen on my innocent joke that he was "pissed" at Barney's free airtime (or, in true Flowers fashion, one of his employees was pissed, since he blamed the now-deleted tweet on an unnamed staffer). According to Flowers, Memorial Day is "above politics."