Elected Officials Flunk Government Quiz

Elected Officials Score Lower than the General Public

The ISI civic Literacy survey was not designed to test the civic knowledge of elected officials, but it did discover evidence of an interesting pattern that may merit further exploration.

All survey respondents were asked whether they have ever engaged in any of 13 different political and civic activities. These included, for example, registering to vote, signing a petition, contacting a public official, publishing a letter to the editor, and whether they have ever been elected to a government office.

Among the 2,508 respondents, 164 say they have been elected to a government office at least once. This sub-sample of officeholders yields a startling result: elected officials score lower than the general public. Those who have held elective office earn an average score of 44% on the civic literacy test, which is five percentage points lower than the average score of 49% for those who have never been elected. It would be most interesting to explore whether this statistically significant result is maintained across larger samples of elected officials.

The elected officeholders come from the ranks of Democrats (40%), Republicans (31%), Independents (21%), and those who say they belong to no party or indicate no affiliation (8%). None were asked to specify what office they held, so the proportion in which they held local, state, or federal positions is unknown.

Not all officeholders do poorly, of course. Some elected officials rank among the highest scorers. But the failure rate on the test among those who have won public office is higher (74%) than among those who have not (71%). Officeholders scored lower on all sub-themes of the test: political history, cultural institutions, foreign relations, and market economy.

In each of the following areas, for example, officeholders do more poorly than non-officeholders:

• Seventy-nine percent of those who have been elected to government office do not know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the U.S.
• Thirty percent do not know that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.
• Twenty-seven percent cannot name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.
• Forty-three percent do not know what the Electoral College does. One in five thinks it either “trains those aspiring for higher political office” or “was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates.”
• Fifty-four percent do not know the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Thirty-nine percent think that power belongs to the president, and 10% think it belongs to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• Only 32% can properly define the free enterprise system, and only 41% can identify business profit as “revenue minus expenses.”

On some questions, Americans who have held elected office do better than Americans who have not. They are a little more likely, for example, to recognize the language of the Gettysburg Address (23% to 21%) and to know that the question of whether slavery should be allowed to expand into new territories was the main issue in the Lincoln–Douglas debates (25% to 20%).

Officeholders and non-officeholders find it equally difficult to identify the three branches of government. Only 49% of each group can name the legislative, executive, and judicial.

TAKE THE QUIZ HERE

Obama Ectasy Finally Hits Street

Obama Ecstasy pills hit the streets

Funny, the media has had them much longer.

The Climategate Hypocrisy As Exampled By Barbara Boxer

Yep, she shows her transparent support of her personal agenda and that she's dumber than a boxer of rocks.

Boxer: Climategate Email "Theft" Is A "Crime"

SEN. BOXER (D-CA): "I've been looking at these e-mails, even though they were stolen, they are now out in the public and we are now out looking through these e-mails...This is a crime, and I would ask unanimous consent to place into the record section 1030 of U.S. Criminal Code:

'Fraud and related activity in connection with computers having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization' it goes on, calling it a crime, so part of our looking at this will be looking at criminal activity"

Babs can really work herself up sometimes, especially when an ox she supports gets gored. Oh, show'em some rightous indignation Babs. Unfortunately, Babs isn't consistent.

History of Military Whistleblower Protection Act

Recap: It's only a crime when Mizzzzzz Boxer says it is a crime. Otherwise not.

What The Health Care Bill Has Become

Living in Manhattan, I would walk to and fro to work in the dark, very late or very early, and would come across huge swaths of posters attached to any available surface.

Sometimes they were ads for products such as Lancôme, sometimes for clothes, sometimes for bands or clubs such as Blondie, the Ramones or CBGB's and Max's Kansas City and some political or appealing for support for some issue.

They became even more art when graffiti was added though some thought them an eyesore.

The mindset behind the process and application is back with Planned Parenthood posting cityscape applications on web sites. The effort is telling because CBGB's posters sold revolution and the de jour band was just the conduit, fashion sold sex through clothes and graffiti bought turf through urban art. All messages within messages.

Health reform has become abortion retention because of endangered specie members such as Stupak. Planned Parenthood is using abortion to support government health care and a vehicle to codify abortion as a fait accompli though government health care. Even without the graffiti these visual vehicles sell and retain as the physical swathes come upon in the dark and do have a cerebral impact in a historical as well as current sense.

It is telling.

Al Gore's Internet Spreading The Truth Of The Lie Of Which He Preache$

Doing 360s or what goes around comes around.

JON STEWART: “Poor Al Gore: Global Warming Completely Debunked By the Internet You Invented.”

What are the chances he'll spend his green billion to set the record straight? 0%

Govt Help/Media Doomed

With friends like this, who needs enemies.

Govt will need to help shape U.S. media: Waxman

A top Democratic lawmaker predicted on Wednesday that the government will be involved in shaping the future for struggling U.S. media organizations.

I trust that to save the media, they will have to kill the media. And then hand it over to the unions.

This should enable the government to control the media more easily.

AGW Fraud Spreading Faster Than STDs

The pandemic of fraud was passed by man through England to America to Australia and now to Denmark.

Denmark Rife With C02 Fraud.

At this point it is believed that the CDC will not have the time to gestate enough doses of reality to save the North American population from Congress. There is a hope spreading world wide that it will start snowing and continue through the rest of 2009 preventing Congress from convening and voting on this fraud. When faced with reality, Congress has voted exactly wrong almost always in the modern era.

Jesse Ventura Bribed By MSNBC

Yep, the same station that has such luminary black holes such as Keith Olbermann.

Ventura says MSNBC nixed his show for not supporting Iraq War
When you live in Mexico, your houses all have names. I almost named my house Casa MSNBC because they bought it. I was paid like a professional athlete, and I got very wealthy. For doing nothing.

I would like to see a smackdown between Ventura and Olbermann. They could both wear pink spandex, tin foil hats and large orange boas. Afterwards they could reflect together on a Mexican beach sipping Pina Coladas. With little umbrellas. And magic sparkly dust that shows them truth, justice and the American way. In Mexico.

Complete Review Of Obama Speech At West Point

The Sandstone Quarries at Aquia Creek

Aquia Stone

L’Enfant had been hired to design and plan the new seat of government, the District of Columbia, and he chose to use the sandstone from the Aquia quarry. The quarry became known as Public Quarry and the island (actually a peninsula) became known as Government Island. (It was also known as Wiggington Island for reasons unknown).

Forty boundary stones, made of Aquia freestone, originally marked the four sides of the diamond-shaped square of the District of Columbia, North, South, East and West. The stones were square with a pyramid shape at the top and were laid out, each stone a mile apart, by Benjamin Banneker and Major Andrew Ellicott between 1791 and 1792. On the sides facing the states, the names of the states were inscribed. On the opposite side were the words "Jurisdiction of the United States." These boundary stones are the oldest federal monuments in the United States.

The White House was built using Aquia sandstone but the stone was painted white. After the War of 1812, when the White House was burned, the structure was washed and cleaned but more of the Aquia freestone was brought in to restore the building.

Parts of the Capitol building are built with Aquia sandstone including the original gatehouses which can now be found at Constitution Ave and 15th and 17th Streets in Washington. The stone is unpainted and the original color can be seen.

Fact Challenged WH Trods On Head Down

650,000 jobs, sullied research? No matter, we are the champions. Yeah, but of what?

Gibbs: Despite research dispute, 'climate change is happening'

Facts, never a strong suit for Obama, his cronies and this administration, can be stubborn things, especially when they seem to laugh at your conclusions for desired results.

Looking at the main objectives of the Obama administration, Cap and Trade, government health care, the Stimulus and Iraq/Afghanistan, one has to ask just how inept is this administration. Breaking it down more, economic policy, war policy, climate and health care policies, one has to notice that in all areas this administration appears to not know what to do nor how to do it.

But they will not let facts get in their way.

Howard Dean Socialism AND Capitalism In USA

Maybe Howie is thinking of the communist China economic model which should make all Americans happy, eh? That Howie, always thinking, but unfortunately, he was thinking out loud. Always dangerous for Howie. And America.

Breitbarttv

Onerous Ohio Taxes On Everything

I just got a friendly reminder from the Ohio Department of Public Safety about the need for me to renew my license pkates.

Ohio now taxes every thing one does and taxes it at usuary rates.

Special plate fees $25.00
State license tax $31.00
Local/county tax $10.00
Service fee $ 3.50
Postage $ 0.37

TOTAL $69.87

Of the 50 states, Ohio now ranks as the 8th most taxed state, according to the Census Bureau, of all the United States of America. When I left for Washington, DC all those years ago, Ohio was, as I remember, the 42nd most taxed state in the United States.

In terms of state and local taxes, in 1977 Ohio ranked 45th in the country for the amount individual tax burdens. By 2008 Ohio had moved to 7th in the nation.

It's time for all this tax stuff to stop. We can't just blame Strickland because there was Taft Jr., Gilligan, Celeste, Voinovich and legislatures that bought votes and monuments to their dim status as legislators. Nothing puts gravitas to a career as much as having pretty much every building, bridge and pig pen named after you.

It is obvious that having one's name attached to great deeds is a good way to be remembered, but cutting the size, scope and impact of government probably won't have a building with a big bureaucracy in it to do such a deed, ergo, nobody gets to put their name on it by legislating huge sums of money to something to cut huge sums of money. Wait a minute, I think this has already been tried.

Anyway, I'll pay for the new tags, but I'm tired of it all.

Demos Say "It's A Fool's Errand" To Free 50+ Million People

The Democrats may have found a way to slice the Gordian Knot that is vexing their plans to control business, industry and health care here at home while furthering the erosion of confidence in America abroad. That 50 plus million people will feel the sting of betrayal and harsher new rulers matters little to the Demos.

War tax proponent Obey calls expected troop surge a 'fool's errand'

That some Democrats want to abandon Afghanistan is well known. What the Democrats don't want debated is that the 'cut and run' they want in Afghanistan will echo though out the Middle East, especially Iraq and terrorist camps world wide emboldening dictatorships, weakening hope for freedom and stability and make America into a country that cannot be trusted.

A win-win-win for Islamofascists, Democrats and other despots.

Best Banned Ad

Didn't VW have a Kennedy car ad about floating?

Climate Change Dissenter's Fraud

Here in East Anglia, where a simple look out the window shows that it is a blistering 70 degrees, we are contemplating our next move to save polar bear cubs from the wrath of capitalism and its scourge of man made global warming.

It must be stated clearly that our community should invite open debate concerning global warming, our models for projecting said destruction of our planet and, most importantly, just how stupid the deniers are and their inability to see that we are right and accurate in our ability to foresee the total destruction of civilization just so these losers can enjoy transportation and their smug and warm cozy little cottages.

Our esteemed colleague, Joe Goebblins, has placed before the Committee of Scientific Excellence a suggestion that we "prove" to thermometer companies that their measuring devices are at least .o6 degrees cooler than the actual temperature we have calculated. A second was made and furthered that a mechanism such as a COLA should be incorporated into their future models reflecting the warming of ambient temperatures worldwide. Said COLA would use our accurate modeling to indicate just how much the "real" temperature will rise in any given year based on the increased funding necessary to fend off the nearing Apocalypse Soon our earth is facing.

It is our belief that the above stated goals and our "open" and "honest" debate with dissenters will not only win them over with an added bonus that every time a dissenter is proven batshat crazy the media will spread the word, thus placing our "science" in the proper perspective for the world to see and feel awe that their scientific community has once again stepped up to the plate of saving human salvation.

Yours in brotherhood,

Wanker the Weatherman

PS Tell those clowns in Colorado that if they muck this up again that they WILL NOT be allowed to publish their rubbish in the next edition of "Can't See The Climate For The Weather". That should shut their yaps. Just make sure the emails are deleted this time, capiche?

Giving Thanks For Our Security

Yep, the Commander in Chief sets the tone, but it's his VP that is in charge of our national security.

Here he is checking out potential threats. Atta boy Joe.

Thanks Be To God For Our Country

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Similarities

Taliban leader rules out talks with Karzai

Pelosi refuses to talk to Republicans

Mother, May I?

"Is your gown Armani?"
"Pelosi shot her a disapproving stare and rolled her eyes a bit," says the pool report. She also refused to answer Givhan's follow up question, "What was that look?!"

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Mother, may I? "Are you serious?"

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Stupid questions require stupid responses. It's the law!