MSNBC News Quiz

[Adam's Apple]

1. Whom was Army Spc. Thomas Wilson addressing when he asked, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?”
a President Bush
b Dick Cheney
c Donald Rumsfeld
d Ayad Allawi

2. The U.S. Consulate in which city was attacked by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaida?
a Jiddah
b Amman
c Khobar
c Sanaa

3. What part does President Bush play in the controversial celebrity Christmas Nativity scene displayed at Madame Tussaud’s waxworks in London?
a Wise man
b Joseph
c Jesus
d Shepherd

4. What country is home to Lenovo, the technology company that acquired a majority stake in IBM’s PC business for $1.75 billion?
a China
b Portugal
c Singapore
d Brazil

5. Who said, referring to elections in Iraq, “Honestly speaking, I cannot imagine how it is possible to organize elections under the conditions of occupation by foreign forces”?
a Vladimir Putin
b Mohammed Khatami
c Jacques Chirac
d Vicente Fox

6. Which performer received the most Grammy nominations?
a Usher
b Ray Charles
c Kanye West
d Alicia Keys

7. Jim Nicholson, the decorated Vietnam veteran who was named by President Bush to run the Veteran Affairs Department, was previously the U.S. ambassador in which city?
a Hanoi
b Nairobi
c Dublin
d Vatican City

8. The Supreme Court in which country said the government was permitted to legislate in favor of same-sex marriages?
a Norway
b Cuba
c Denmark
d Canada

9. “Totally unjustified and very, very wasteful” was the description by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., of what?
a President Bush’s vow not to raise Social Security payroll taxes
b The $388 billion spending bill signed into law by President Bush
c A top-secret spy program included in the new intelligence spending bill
d A Pentagon decision to award a new Iraq reconstruction contract to Halliburton

10. Voters in which state rejected an amendment that would have erased unenforced language from its constitution that required segregated schools and poll taxes, originally designed to keep blacks from voting?
a Alabama
b Mississippi
c North Carolina
d South Carolina

For answers, go to www.msn.com

 

[Merlin1047]

10. Voters in which state rejected an amendment that would have erased unenforced language from its constitution that required segregated schools and poll taxes, originally designed to keep blacks from voting?
a Alabama
b Mississippi
c North Carolina
d South Carolina

For answers, go to www.msn.com

Adam, I'm going to risk hijacking your thread, but I cannot leave this item unchallenged. This is an excellent example of how the news media distorts the facts and continues to promote their own biases.

The truth is that we have a governor (Riley) who is a liberal Democrat in Republican clothing. Last year, he attempted to pass a huge tax increase of 1.2 billion dollars. He used scare tactics, claiming that state government and the school system would shut down if the increase were not approved.

The increase was SOUNDLY rejected and guess what - nothing has shut down and the school system has "found" money they claim they didn't know they had. Right. Damn liars.

But Riley, a pawn of the teacher's union, was not to be deterred. He figured that if he could not get his tax increase honestly, he would do it through the back door. That is what amendment two was all about. Here's the truth -
============================================
http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/1204/192064.html

Amendment Two would have erased unenforced language from Alabama's constitution that required segregated schools and poll taxes, which were used to keep blacks and poor whites from voting. It also would have removed language added in 1956 that said there is no constitutional right to an education at public expense in Alabama - a change that foes of the amendment said could lead to huge, court-ordered tax hikes for schools.

The last provision drew criticism from some fiscal and religious conservatives. State Christian Coalition President John Giles and former Chief Justice Roy Moore, ousted from office last year for refusing to move his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of
the state judicial building, were among the leaders of the fight against its passage.

Supporters included Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who said other provisions in Alabama's constitution would block any court-ordered increases.

Riley said Friday he will ask the Legislature in its February session to approve a version of Amendment Two that would remove only the constitutional language on segregated schools and poll taxes. That's what he originally wanted this time, but the Legislature decided to expand his recommendation before presenting it to voters in the Nov. 2 election.

"Despite the defeat of Amendment Two, I'm confident the vast majority of Alabamians support removing segregationist language from our constitution. It's disappointing a change made to Amendment Two caused enough concern and confusion that resulted in its loss," Riley said.
==================================================

Riley is now tap dancing to cover his complicity in this shell game. He will be a one-term governor. I'll vote for a Democrat before I vote for this sleazy slimeball again.

Here's what happened - A bill was introduced in the Alabama Senate to remove racist language from the state constitution. The sections which would have been removed dealt with segregated schools. Now had the Senate left the bill in it's original form, it would have passed. Not only would it have passed, but it would probably have passed by a margin of 90 - 10 percent. The fact is that these provisions of the constitution had already been superceded by other amendments. Despite what yankees think, racial discrimination and separate schools have not been legal in Alabama since the sixties. So while it was a good idea to remove the remaining language, the amendment actually had no effect whatever since the restrictions were no longer legal anyway.

But sometime during the process, the bill was amended to include the removal of language which stated that the language in the constitution could not be used to infer that a person had a "right" to a state sponsored education. Suddenly the Senator who had sponsored and authored the amendment withdrew his support. That alone should tell you something. If the purpose of this amendment was to remove racist language from the constitution, then why was this other paragraph also included for removal, especially since it had nothing whatever to do with discrimination or segregation?

The reason that this measure was defeated was that voters feared that the motive behind inclusion of the non-related paragraph which stated that there was no implied "right" to a state sponsored education would open the door to massive litigation. If this were allowed to stand, the governor would have his tax increase handed to him by the courts instead of the voters.

Subsequent events lead me to believe that this measure was the spawn of an unholy alliance between radical black politicians, the teacher's union and the governor.

So the reason this measure met defeat had nothing to do with racism. It was due to the fact that the Alabama voters are one hell of a lot smarter than that sleazy bastard of a governor thinks we are.

You can have your thread back now.

Sorry, but I couldn't let that one pass.

 

[Adam's Apple]

Thanks for the explanation. Actually, I missed that question on the quiz as well as a few others. The quizmaster tactfully told me I should spend more time reading about current events.