Politicians are fucking idiots - it's official.

[Seshmeister]

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.

OF THE 2,508 PEOPLE surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions. This table shows the “knowledge gap” for each question: the difference between the percentage of common citizens who answered correctly and the percentage of officeholders who answered correctly.


Check the link

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2008/additional_finding.html

This is like getting your plumber and you both sit down to take a plumbing exam and finding out he knows less about plumbing than the average person in the street.

[ThrillsNSpills]

Sarah Palin took the test and on the essay question she wrote

"well let me go find out and I'll get right back atcha"

[jhale667]

Sarah Palin took the test and on the essay question she wrote

"well let me go find out and I'll get right back atcha"

"You betcha!" :lmao:

[FORD]

Politicians are indeed often idiots, but I can't exactly take findings by the ISI all that seriously. Backed by Regnery Publishing (right wing propagandists - they publish Coulter, Beckkk and other such idiots) I'd love to see the list of questions they actually asked, just to see how they spun the results to present the picture they wanted.

[Seshmeister]

Not only can you look at the questions you can take the test yourself, I answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 % and I'm not American or a politician. :)

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

[fifth element]

and now they all have decided that they don't get paid enough...$174,000 a year and perks is not enough for the job that they do....
over 22,000 comments on that ALREADY!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/members-congress-paid-enough-165641960.html


Are members of Congress paid enough?

Everyone complains about their job now and then, and members of Congress are no exception.

A few lawmakers have suggested in recent months that despite a $174,000 annual salary, generous health care and pensions, and perks for things like travel and mail, being one of the elite 435 ain't always what it's cracked up to be. And when you calculate the hours they put in, the pay isn't stellar either, they say.

The Florida Capital News reported last week on a speech Steve Southerland, a Republican representative, gave to a retirement community in Tallahassee in which he complained about some of the parts of his new job:

"He said his $174,000 salary is not so much, considering the hours a member of the House puts in, and that he had to sever ties with his family business in Panama City. Southerland also said there are no instant pensions or free health insurance, as some of his constituents often ask him about in Congress.

"'And by the way, did I mention? They're shooting at us. There is law-enforcement security in this room right now, and why is that?" Southerland told about 125 people in an auditorium at the Westminster Oaks retirement community. "If you think this job pays too much, with those kinds of risks and cutting me off from my family business, I'll just tell you: This job don't mean that much to me. I had a good life in Panama City.'

"...He added that 'if you took the hours that I work and divided it into my pay,' the $174,000 salary would not seem so high."

Southerland, a freshman, ran a family funeral home business in Panama City and earned about $90,000 before joining Congress in January.

His sentiments were not unlike those expressed by Sean Duffy, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, when he said in March it was a "struggle" to pay his mortgage and student loans with his congressional salary. "At this point, I'm not living high on the hog," Duffy, a father of six, said. (Compared to his colleagues, Duffy is one of the least wealthy members of Congress.)

At the height of the debate over a possible government shutdown last spring, Linda Sánchez, a Democratic representative from California, said during an MSNBC interview that she was living "paycheck to paycheck" on her congressional salary. And she wasn't the only one. Renee Ellmers, a Republican representative from North Carolina, was asked if she would forgo her pay in the case of a shutdown. Ellmers declined, saying, "I need my paycheck."

Are times really so tough that even members of Congress are struggling to get by? The numbers suggest otherwise. A recent analysis of congressional pay found that members of Congress earn about 3.4 times the salary of the average American worker. Using that standard, members of Congress are among the highest paid legislators in the developed world.

This talk probably won't help Congress' approval rating. The federal government is the worst-rated industry in the country, viewed favorably by only 17 percent of Americans, according to a new Gallup survey.

..

[fifth element]

Not only can you look at the questions you can take the test yourself, I answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 % and I'm not American or a politician. :)

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

i'm not as good as Sesh, but got 27 of them...82.8%

[hambon4lif]

I got a 27 also. I knew of 4 I felt I had wrong before I submitted, so I'd do bit better if I re-took it.

Not too bad. Anything under 20 and I would've had to thump a bible and spout hillbilly jibberish.

[Seshmeister]

and now they all have decided that they don't get paid enough...$174,000 a year and perks is not enough for the job that they do....

Since research shows on average they spend 6 hours a day on the phone raising campaign funds they should have their salaries tied to that of charity call centre operators.

[Nitro Express]

Since research shows on average they spend 6 hours a day on the phone raising campaign funds they should have their salaries tied to that of charity call centre operators.

That of phone solicitors in India who view working in an air conditioned building a luxury and work for pennies.

[Nitro Express]

Sarah Palin took the test and on the essay question she wrote

"well let me go find out and I'll get right back atcha"

Not before she shoots a moose and fucks a lumberjack.

[Seshmeister]

Or vice versa.

[Seshmeister]

I got a 27 also. I knew of 4 I felt I had wrong before I submitted, so I'd do bit better if I re-took it.

Not too bad. Anything under 20 and I would've had to thump a bible and spout hillbilly jibberish.

A lot of the questions are badly worded, I probably relied more on my law school training than my political nerdery.

50% of political office holders hadn't heard of the Cuban missile crisis though FFS.

There have been countless documentaries and movies about that even recently. What is that quote about those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it?

[Nitro Express]

If Sarah is going to run she better get at it. Her base is tiring of her and Bachman is on stage now. A better freak show than Palin ever put on.

[Little Texan]

I got 25 out of 33...still alot better than the politicians.

[Seshmeister]

If Sarah is going to run she better get at it. Her base is tiring of her and Bachman is on stage now. A better freak show than Palin ever put on.

Palin is probably waiting for next time hoping your daily predictions for the next few years come true so she can walk in as the Hitler style saviour in 2016. That then gives her 3 years in office to take us to a Blade Runner world on schedule. :)

[Nitro Express]

A lot of the questions are badly worded, I probably relied more on my law school training than my political nerdery.

50% of political office holders hadn't heard of the Cuban missile crisis though FFS.

There have been countless documentaries and movies about that even recently. What is that quote about those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it?

All my statistical training says you can say anything with a poll. Garbage in gargage out. It's all dependent on how the sampling is done. It takes a lot of work to do the sampling right. A lot of sloppy research going on these days. Just like the journalism.

[Little Texan]

and now they all have decided that they don't get paid enough...$174,000 a year and perks is not enough for the job that they do....
over 22,000 comments on that ALREADY!

..

Not to mention all of the under the table special interest money they're getting paid, which probably bumps that figure up to more than a million per year.

[Nitro Express]

Palin is probably waiting for next time hoping your daily predictions for the next few years come true so she can walk in as the Hitler style saviour in 2016. That then gives her 3 years in office to take us to a Blade Runner world on schedule. :)

She hungers for money and fame. Maybe she is more interested in being a media figure more than a politician? I really can't figure out her strategy. Maybe she's as delusional as Obama is and thinks she's such a superstar, she's got it made already.

[Seshmeister]

I genuinely think she's mentally ill which is a good thing.

Like Hitler invading Russia, her mental state is our saviour.

The worry is that a slightly less nuts one appears.

[Little Texan]

She hungers for money and fame. Maybe she is more interested in being a media figure more than a politician? I really can't figure out her strategy. Maybe she's as delusional as Obama is and they think they are such superstars they don't have to be at it as hard.

I think she's a narcissist that revels in all of the fame, attention and adoration that her fans and followers bestow upon her, and she's laughing all the way to the bank with her book deals and speaking engagements. She has sure milked that cow of her 15 minutes of fame for all it's worth. She should have just faded into obscurity after the last election, but to her credit she has managed to keep her name in the spotlight and in the conscience of the American public since then (unfortunately).

[Nitro Express]

You have a point there. I think people with narcissistic issues are attracted to politics. They love the attention and a narcissist even loves being leader in a crisis because more attention is on them. They have no empathy for the suffering of others. I think Michel Bachman, Sarah Palin, and Barrack Obama are all clearly narcissists. Not the type of people you want in office.

A narcissist needs their attention and power fix. They don't even care if it's negative attention. Sometimes they get off on the public hating them.

[hambon4lif]

A lot of the questions are badly worded, I probably relied more on my law school training than my political nerdery.

50% of political office holders hadn't heard of the Cuban missile crisis though FFS.

There have been countless documentaries and movies about that even recently. What is that quote about those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it?To tell you the truth, I don't look for it to get any better, it will steadily decline.

Out of curiosity I was thumbing through my nephews 7th Grade Social Studies textbook, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, The New Deal, and a few other major chapters in our history are nowhere to be found in them at all. And what is in there is written from a very left or right slant. Regardless of how good of a student they might be, these kids don't have a fair chance, and history will repeat itself through no fault of their own, it will repeat itself because it's not being taught correctly at all.
We at least had the opportunity to learn these things and given the chance to come to our own conclusions, these kids today are being molded and programmed before they even get out of the gate.

It's all fucked up.

[FORD]

Not only can you look at the questions you can take the test yourself, I answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 % and I'm not American or a politician. :)

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

Shit.. guess I missed the link before. I think I've taken this quiz before. Probably even posted a thread about it here. I'll have to take it again later, when I'm posting from a real computer and not this piece of crap notebook with fucked up page formatting.......

[Nitro Express]

To tell you the truth, I don't look for it to get any better, it will steadily decline.

Out of curiosity I was thumbing through my nephews 7th Grade Social Studies textbook, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, The New Deal, and a few other major chapters in our history are nowhere to be found in them at all. And what is in there is written from a very left or right slant. Regardless of how good of a student they might be, these kids don't have a fair chance, and history will repeat itself through no fault of their own, it will repeat itself because it's not being taught correctly at all.
We at least had the opportunity to learn these things and given the chance to come to our own conclusions, these kids today are being molded and programmed before they even get out of the gate.

It's all fucked up.

I see it separating. The people who are the take charge of their destiny types no longer want to be grouped with the unmotivated types. People are too angry to put up with it any longer and the politicians no longer can pacify the masses because the situation has declined too far. Some people are going to have hell to pay. I don't see a political solution short of a constitutional convention where the states take control of the federal government. It will be see what happens in 2012. If that's a failure it will be a push for a constitutional convention, if that fails you will have groups wanting to succeed. The the US will have a big revolution probably.

The thing is you need to do some teaching at home. See what the schools are leaving out and teach that at home. The school doesn't care as much about educating your child as you. They can't do everything.

[binnie]

I'm not too sure that the ability to answer that survey is indicative of whether or not one is an 'idiot'.

I got 32 out of 33, yet Mrs binnie informs me I'm an 'idiot' on a a daily basis......

[Seshmeister]

You could be a lucky idiot. :)

[Nitro Express]

Some idiots went into rock and roll and fortunately never made it to Washington.

[SunisinuS]

You answered 28 out of 33 correctly — 84.85 %


I Lied on Two of them is because!

*a laptop. Come on Dude......let's not chikenfoot now!

HEHE. We can't a FORD for you to miss this!

[kwame k]

Got 31 out of 33........I'll try harder next time:ashamed:

[knuckleboner]

not really what i'd call a good, unbiased civics quiz by any means.

so if the sheboygan dogcatcher didn't quite do as well as kwame, i'm not too worried.

(though, how'd you think the OTHER kwame did, k? no questions on the penal system would've hurt his score, no?)

[kwame k]

The real Kwame would of hired someone to get to the people who wrote the test and persuade them that his answers were correct..........

It's a Thug's Life, anyhow:)

[Little Texan]

I started to create another thread regarding this YouTube clip, but since we're on the subject of idiot politicians, I believe this fits in perfectly here. Besides all of the birther stuff he believes in, pay particular attention to what he says around the 2:48-2:50 mark of the clip.