Pop Quiz!

by hilzoy

Over at Next Hurrah, emptywheel proposes pop quizzes for legislators. Some of emptywheel's sample questions:

"1. The terrorist group Al Qaeda is overwhelmingly made up of what kind of Muslims?

a. Shiite
b. Sunni
c. Kurds
d. Nation of Islam

2. The known nuclear proliferator, AQ Khan, comes from which country?

a. North Korea
b. Iran
c. Pakistan
d. Libya
e. Iraq

3. Which of the following countries is known to have nuclear weapons?

a. Israel
b. Iraq
c. Iran
d. Libya

4. Which of the following leaders was elected in an election deemed to be fair by outside observers?

a. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
b. King Abdullah of Jordan
c. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
d. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan"

There are more, though I think that if the aim is to ensure that lawmakers aren't completely clueless, some of them are probably too detailed. However, a few additions:

h1. which of the following have war powers under the Constitution?

a. The President
b. The Congress
c. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals
d. The President and the Congress

h2. Fill in the blank: According to the Constitution, the Congress is _______ to the Executive.

a. Subservient
b. Coequal
c. Inferior
d. Wait -- the answer is 'craven, cringing, and utterly dependent', so why is the next word 'to'?

h3. Fill in the blank: According to the Constitution, the role of the Executive is to:

a. Execute the laws passed by Congress
b. Make all the important decisions
c. Decide who will be on the Supreme Court
d. Throw the first pitch on opening day

h4. If the President disagrees with an existing law, the Constitution gives him the right to:

a. Ignore it
b. Override it
c. Ask a legislator to introduce legislation to change it, just like anyone else
d. Quarter troops in people's houses during peacetime

h5. According to the Constitution, who can the President decide to imprison without due process of law?

a. Anyone he wants -- he's the decider
b. Enemy combatants
c. Enemy combatants who are not US Citizens
d. No one

h6. To whom does the Constitution give some legal rights?

a. Troops quartered during peacetime
b. United States citizens
c. All persons
d. Campaign contributors

Anyone have any more suggestions?

Comments

[Andrew]

At the risk of being asked to serve as next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has Israel formally acknowledged the existence of its nuclear weapons, or is that still an open secret?

[Phoenician in a time of Romans]

Before the President can appoint ambassadors, judges of the Supreme Court, or federal judges, the Senate must:

a, Cheer him on.
b, Advise
c, Advise and consent.
d, Provide a rubber stamp to make it official.

The President must:

a, Write law to suit himself.
b, Take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
c, Negotiate with Congress to rewrite laws.
d, Ignore the law in matters of national security.

Waterboarding, beating people to death, or placing someone in solitary confinement without charges for three years until their mind snaps is:

a, Necessary to prevent them from escaping justice.
b, The plotline for the next season of "24".
c, Cruel and unusual punishment.
d, Good clean fun.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

"Which of the following countries is known to have nuclear weapons?"

Trick question for various definitions of 'known'. :)

[Katherine]

Fill the blank with the correct answer. There has never been a ...... detained as an enemy combatant in Guantanamo Bay:

(a) prisoner over the age of 70
(b) Catholic
(c) woman
(d) prisoner whom Osama Bin Laden has accused of assassinating him
(e) prisoner who has confessed to spying for the CIA and Mossad

[Katherine]

oops, (d) should be "attempting to assassinate him."

[Bernard Yomtov]

h3 is ambiguous. Both a and d are correct. (d is covered under the little-known Doubleday Amendment)

[Jesurgislac]

The Iranian head of state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa against ____ in July 2005:

a) the US

b) the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons

c) the US's invasion of Iraq

d) al-Qaeda

e) President George W. Bush

[Anarch]

Andrew: I had exactly the same objection.

To hilzoy et al.: there are some other great questions buried in the comments on that thread. Which is about the only time I've ever recommended reading through a dKos thread, now that I think about it.

[Katherine]

I had to look up the answer to Jes's...I think mine's easier, but just in case, the correct answer is (c).

[hilzoy]

Anarch: is it a dKos thread too? I found it on Next Hurrah. Silly me.

[Anarch]

It was originally a Next Hurrah thread but emptywheel ported it over to dKos here. There's a certain amount of sneering gliberalism in the thread, but I think many of the questions in there are really good.

[KCinDC]

I think we need some pop quizzes for journalists as well. The most embarrassing example of ignorance for a "mainstream" media personality (as opposed to someone like Bill O'Reilly, whose entire stock in trade is ignorance) in recent years might be Tom Brokaw's repeated use of the phrase "Nation of Islam" to mean "Islamic nations" while moderating a debate.

[SomeOtherDude]

You should only vote for people you can imagine having a beer with.

[Jay C]

Excellent post and list of questions, hilzoy: I mean, I got them all correct, but then, as a regular reader of Obsidian Wings, I should have... ;)

But however, it does remind me of that hardy perennial of ironic polling, where the pollster circulates a thinly-disguised (or in some cases, verbatim) version of the Constitutional Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10): and invariably, a sizeable percentage of respondents will reject them as "too radical" a set of notions to be enacted into law.

[liberal japonicus]

You should only vote for people you can imagine having a beer with.

if they are buying, that doesn't exclude a lot of people for me...

[hilzoy]

My personal favorite is h4 d ;)

[magistra]

You should only vote for people you can imagine having a beer with.

Rather rules out Muslims as political candidates in the US, doesn't it?

[Jesurgislac]

I suppose that a Muslim could just have beer present as a kind of American tribal totem, like the Bible, without actually drinking it. ;-)

[Slartibartfast]

1) What Andrew and Sebastian said. That aside, I don't think there's much in the way of question whether Israel has at least one nuke, and I think the rest of the world treats them as if they are so equipped, so it makes no difference to what degree we know their nuclear capability.

2) I think emptywheel's questions set the bar way too low. For instance, who of us doesn't know what AQ Khan is known for? Shouldn't committee heads be at least as well-informed as your average blog commenter?

2a) I mean, you could set it really low and ask them if they know who Grover Norquist is. [/selffunpoking]

[bril]

We could ask some questions about right versus wrong. Delay atleast had the dignity to resign... but Pelosi seems to be online to let these corrupt Dem's continue.

After Mr. Mollohan's finances made the front page of The Wall Street Journal in April, she initially defended him by accusing Republicans of casting "aspersions on the independent and distinguished ranking member" of the Ethics Committee. But later she backtracked. After the New York Times editorialized that Mr. Mollohan should step down from his post on the committee, Ms. Pelosi promptly placed a phone call to him. Hours later he submitted a "temporary" resignation from the committee.

I guess having him in charge of the same people investigating him isn't really a problem for Pelosi. Funny, how after the campaign she seems unable to distinguish right from wrong. Reminds me of some other people.

[Ugh]

h7. The United States is attacked by terrorists flying planes into buildings, do you respond by:

a. Contining reading a children's book.
b. Invading a country that had nothing to do with the attacks.
c. Throwing U.S. citizens in prison without a hearing or charges.
d. Kidnapping and torturing innocent civilians.
e. Violating the laws, Constitution and Treaties of the United States.
f. All of the above.

[Slartibartfast]

Again, bril, as if you were ever paying attention: this isn't news. And hilzoy has already condemned Mollohan, if perhaps not as much at length as you'd prefer.

Which you'd know, if you were paying attention.

[liberal japonicus]

Delay atleast had the dignity to resign

But not so much dignity as to not become a blogger.

[Anderson]

I suppose that a Muslim could just have beer present as a kind of American tribal totem, like the Bible, without actually drinking it. ;-)

I'm seeing this great ad campaign where the Prophet downs an O'Doul's, but it would probably get some people killed, so maybe not.

[Slartibartfast]

Um...holy crap, how the hell did this happen?

A top Air Force lawyer who served at the White House and in a senior position in Iraq turns out to have been practicing law for 23 years without a license.

Col. Michael D. Murphy was most recently commander of the Air Force Legal Operations Agency at Bolling Air Force Base in the District.

He was the general counsel for the White House Military Office from December 2001 to January 2003, and from August 2003 to January 2005. In between those tours, he was the legal adviser to the reconstruction effort in Iraq, an Air Force spokesman said.

You'd think that in positions like those, a security clearance would be involved, in some way. Possibly even an EBI of epic, nay: proctological nature. But apparently not:

He was relieved of his command at Bolling on Nov. 30 after the Air Force learned that he had been disbarred for professional misconduct in Texas in 1984 but hadn't informed his superiors, according to Air Force Times, an independent newspaper that first reported the action. It said that his status was discovered in the course of an unrelated review.

No Orwell jokes, please.

Link via TPMmuckraker.

[liberal japonicus]

I'm seeing this great ad campaign where the Prophet downs an O'Doul's

By the beer of the Prophet!

[Ted]

LJ, shouldn't that be "Buy the beer of the Prophet!"?

[Ugh]

LJ, shouldn't that be "Buy the beer of the Prophet!"?

Nope, it's a "By the power of Greyskull!" kind of thing.

[Ugh]

Off topic - all you ever wanted to know about Thomas of Bizarro World in one short sentence:

Pinochet's death is actually a loss for us all.

[cleek]

Bizarro World commenter, CJB68, on South America:

Maybe we should be thankful that the non-stop revolutions that resulted have thus far prevented Latin America from becoming a significant power in its own right.

yes, it far better that they abduct, torture and kill each other than challenge us in any way. we must not be challenged!

[Ugh]

cleek - they deserve what they get for not being clever enough to be born in the U.S

[spartikus]

More Thomas:

Pinochet is probably directly or indirectly responsible for ten thousand deaths; how many would Allende have inaugurated?

And how many kittens would Allende have killed? Hmmm? One can only wonder.

[FL]

You should only vote for people you can imagine having a beer with.

Bush's status as a recovering alcoholic made this polling question deeply weird. I mean, if you'd like to have a beer with a guy who's trying to resist his addiction, you're pretty terrible.

[John Thullen]

SLART: "Um, holy crap, how the hell did this happen?"

Once I get beyond a certain thrilling admiration for folks who manage this sort of smirking fraud for decades, I think to myself that the prevalence of and, indeed, the preference for the non-credentialed in the Bush Administration has got to be a part of the religious/libertarian revolt against the elites that the Republican Party has been ginning up over the past 35 years.

There is Bush himself, of course, whom I expect to perform major surgery on himself any time now, because the voices in his head have told him the medical profession is just a pesky, elite, over-educated special interest. Remember, them IOUs in them thar file cabinets over at Treasury are just scraps of paper, people.

The amateurs recruited to run Iraq from the Green Zone were chosen based on how little they knew about everything.

Now, this guy Murphy, who fulfills the libertarian, Milton Friedman goal of doing away with all licensing and credentialing AND embodies the revolt against the legal profession demagogued in recent years. "Well, we can't hire an attorney for this post because our base would disapprove, so let's hire a guy who stayed at the Holiday Inn Express last night."

I feel like I'm watching a bizarro combination of the early Pol Pot and the young George Plimpton --- let's get rid of the Poindexters with eyeglasses because they must obviously be highly trained professional elites, and while we're at it, I think we can quarterback the Chicago Bears to the Superball. What could be so hard about throwing a football while nearsighted?

Of course, now we have various Democratic Congresspeople who wouldn't know a Sunni from a research tax credit. (We'll see if Bril reads the whole thread.)

I blame me. Every two and four years I get mad and elect my citizen peers: folks who don't know squat, which is their most attractive qualification. We need outsiders in Washington, who know nothing, just like me.

I might vote for Bril next time. It knows LESS than squat, which is what the Founding Fathers intended.

"Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity" George Bernard Shaw

[Gromit]

Another choice quote from the T-man:

The real tragedy is that the judge who indicted him in Spain wasn't shot on the spot, for discouraging dictators from doing what Pinochet did, which is to say, relinquishing power.

It appears that Thomas is actually quite a fan of Pinochet's style of governance.

[KCinDC]

Perhaps we should go beyond merely not discouraging dictators from relinquishing power and start encouraging them to do so. Say, set up a new government fund to provide $1 billion to each retiring dictator, along with Secret Service protection. After all, if we're going to say dictators shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, why not go all the way?

It seems that Thomas isn't interested in discouraging dictators from becoming dictators in the first place.

[Slartibartfast]

I think to myself that the prevalence of and, indeed, the preference for the non-credentialed in the Bush Administration has got to be a part of the religious/libertarian revolt against the elites that the Republican Party has been ginning up over the past 35 years.

There's that, of course, but I was referring to the fact that he'd perpetrated this fraud on the United States Air Force for a large number of years that, needless to say, spanned more than one administration.

More here:

Murphy's professional problems apparently began before he joined the service. As a civilian attorney in 1981, he was late in filing an appeal for a client convicted of burgulary charges. The state of Texas sued him the following year, and as a result of that suit, his law license was suspended for seven years. Murphy apparently lied on a subsequent application for admission to the Louisiana bar, stating that he had never been sued, nor the subject of disciplinary action. When the earlier suspension came to light, both Texas and Louisiana permanently disbarred Murphy in 1984 and 1985 respectively. Colonel Murphy joined the Air Force in 1983, while his law license was suspended in Texas, but before being disbarred by either state.

It is troubling that Murphy's problems went undetected for more than two decades, while his JAG career moved along swimmingly. According to the Times, Colonel Murphy held a number of high-profile assignments in recent years, serving two tours as general counsel to the White House military office, and a six-month stint as Commandant of the AF JAG school. In his most recent position at the Legal Operations Agency, Murphy was responsible for administration of the Air Force's civil litigation and military justice programs.

Not funny:

“We are an integrity-based organization, and so we trust our people when they assert that [they are qualified],” said Lt. Col. Lisa Turner, a spokeswoman for The Judge Advocate General of the Air Force. “Prior to this we did not have a system that called for people to prove … their status, although we have that now in place as of this moment.”

.
.
.

Related to Murphy’s dismissal, Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, The Judge Advocate General of the Air Force, sent a memo Tuesday instructing all Air Force lawyers to certify by Dec. 31 that they are members in good standing of a state or federal bar association.

[cleek]

It appears that Thomas is actually quite a fan of Pinochet's style of governance.

makes me wonder if he regrets Saddam being asked to step down.

[Ugh]

I do like how Thomas' style of argument neatly parallels the "at least we don't chop off their heads" excuse for our torture policies (i.e., Allende would have been worse).

[John Thullen]

"the Superball"?

"Superbowl" would be the correct title, but it was thought up by a bunch of know-it-alls, and we know what they are up to!

Gromit:

"It appears that Thomas is actually quite a fan of Pinochet's style of governance."

This is deeply unfair to Pinochet. He'd have consulted with the Chicago Boys and opted for taking the judge up in an airplane, slicing his belly open, and tossing the chum to the fishes in the ocean.

I think Thomas' modus operandi is more along the lines of al Qaeda is Spain --- assassination of the judge or perhaps blowing up the train the judge is on.

I knew this weekend upon hearing of Pinochet's death that someone at Red State would take time out from monitoring Castro's condition, via voodoo doll, to rationalize the General's ugly job that somebody had to do.

It's like the Stalin/Mao versus Hitler debate. Yeah, but "your" guy Stalin murdered more humans than "our" guy Hitler, to which I say, true, but like Avis finishing second, what I love about Hitler is he tried so hard to make up lost ground.

Plucky sort, Hitler.

[Steve]

There seems to be a disconnect between the "we shouldn't negotiate with bad people" and "we shouldn't do anything to discourage dictators from stepping down" positions urged by conservatives.

[Jesurgislac]

Not at all. When dictators are US allies, they are not bad people. QED.

[hilzoy]

testing...

[hilzoy]

Hallelujah! Typepad has let me comment again!

Now I've forgotten what I originally wanted to say, other than: curse you, Typepad!

[Typepad]

curse you, Typepad!

that's not very nice.

[Ugh]

What Typepad said. ;-)

[Katherine]

Not just RedState; also recent members of the National Security Council who think Pinochet "sav[ed] Chilean democracy".

[Phoenician in a time of Romans]

I'm seeing this great ad campaign where the Prophet downs an O'Doul's

Well, Islam only forbids alcohol. You could make the case that American beer is more like making love in a canoe, which I don't think Islam frowns on.

[spartikus]

O'Douls in de-alcoholized beer, I believe.

[Slartibartfast]

Lacking an open thread, Kate Ziegler < ahref="http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/12963.asp">took down Janet Evans' last SCY distance freestyle American record last Friday, shaving nearly two seconds from a 16-year-old record.

Nice achievement, at 18 years of age.

[Slartibartfast]

Well, that was embarrassing.

Link, for those who like to click them.

[KCinDC]

It's amazing what people will do for lack of an open thread.

[matttbastard]

Andrew:

At the risk of being asked to serve as next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has Israel formally acknowledged the existence of its nuclear weapons, or is that still an open secret?

Someone must've forgot to let Olmert in on the 'secret' part:

[T]he Prime Minister's Office denied there had been any change in Israel's long-standing policy of nuclear ambiguity, after Olmert appeared to admit that Israel had nuclear capability in an interview with the German television network SAT 1.

Regarding Israel's alleged nuclear capabilities, during his television interview, Olmert became agitated when asked if the fact that Israel possessed nuclear power weakened the West's position against Iran.

"Israel is a democracy, Israel doesn't threaten any country with anything, never did," he said. "The most that we tried to get for ourselves is to try to live without terror, but we never threaten another nation with annihilation. Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they [Iran] are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"

Pay no attention to the warheads behind the curtain.

[matttbastard]

For sh*ts and giggles, I present the Top 10 Conservative Books of 2006, courtesy Human Events Online (Ann Coulter came in at number two.)