Got the Census today.

[Archae]

Time it took me to fill it out: 4 minutes.

Oh, and it asks if I'm white or Hispanic or whatever.
To Michelle Bachmann: What the hell is the big deal?

[Rambis]

1. Michele Bachmann's Census Theories Too Much For Glenn Beck

:crazy: :wow:


Three Republican congressmen have publicly chastised fellow Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for declaring that she would not fill out her census form.

"Boycotting the constitutionally mandated Census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country," said Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) and John Mica (Fla.), members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives in a statement Wednesday.

Even conspiracy-theorist Fox News host Glenn Beck found Bachmann's anti-census stance baffling.

[sakabatou]

5. If it's illegal to not fill out, how come Bachmann has not been eyed by the law?

[Sugarcoated]

2. Me, too.

I don't remember the last time I got one and filled it out, I guess my husband usually did it. Is it every 4 years?

[Archae]

3. Every 10 years.

[Love Bug]

4. I got mine, too

I miss the old ones that used to ask stuff like how many toilets you had in the house.

The race questions made me roll my eyes and I was sorely tempted to pick several but decided to stick to the boring truth: white. *sigh* I don't get why that is so important when it comes to deciding the # of representatives a state gets or how school taxes are allocated.

[nickinSTL]

6. Got mine too.

Seemed like what took the most time was looking over the form after I was done, at the Person 3 through Person 12, to see if there was anything more I needed to fill out.

There wasn't.

Only 2 people in the house, lots of blank space.

[pokerfan]

7. Be a good citizen and complete the census

Why fill out the form?

1. It's federal law
2. It's important
3. It's easy
4. Failure to return the form requires a visit by a census taker

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1079462.ece

The Questions:
1. Number of people at this residence?
2. Are there any additional people living at this residence?
3. Is this residence owned with/without mortgage, rented or other?
4. What is your telephone number?
5. Name?
6. Sex?
7. Date of Birth?
8. Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?
9. What is Person X's race?
10. Does Person X sometimes live or stay somewhere else?

[femmocrat]

8. Do you have to give your telephone number?

Ours is unlisted!!

[pokerfan]

9. Technically, yes

We ask for a phone number in case we need to contact a respondent when a form is returned with incomplete or missing information.

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/text/text-form.php

I guess not filling in the telephone number would be considered an incomplete form.

[progressoid]

10. The questions are too complicated for her.

She's going to need someone to interpret it for her.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Is there a "long form" again this year?

That's what I got stuck with last time.

[gmoney]

12. Don't think so...

I think they now hire out the long form survey questions to a private firm that does ongoing research for demographic purposes and stuff.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. No. They took the questions off the long form and call it...

The American Community Survey. About 250,000 are mailed out around the country randomly. It's still run by the Census Bureau and you still have the same obligation to fill it out or someone will ocme knocking at your door.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

23. That's sneaky.

All that blowback against the long form last time about it being so invasive so they fix it by spinning it off into it's own survey. I bet there's a court test with people saying it's not the census anymore so it's not required to complete.

[TreasonousBastard]

24. You would lose that bet...

And it was not sneaky, just sensible.

"It is constitutional to include questions in the decennial census beyond those concerning a simple count of the number of people. On numerous occasions, the courts have said the Constitution gives Congress the authority to collect statistics in the census. As early as 1870, the Supreme Court characterized as unquestionable the power of Congress to require both an enumeration and the collection of statistics in the census. The Legal Tender Cases, Tex.1870; 12 Wall., U.S., 457, 536, 20 L.Ed. 287. In 1901, a District Court said the Constitution's census clause (Art. 1, Sec. 2, Clause 3) is not limited to a headcount of the population and "does not prohibit the gathering of other statistics, if 'necessary and proper,' for the intelligent exercise of other powers enumerated in the constitution, and in such case there could be no objection to acquiring this information through the same machinery by which the population is enumerated." United States v. Moriarity, 106 F. 886, 891 (S.D.N.Y.1901).

In 2000, another District Court agreed and found that it there is no constitutional limit on collecting additional data, when necessary for governance. That court also said responses to census questions are not a violation of a citizen's right to privacy or speech. Morales v. Daley, 116 F. Supp. 2d 801, 809 and 816. (S.D. Tex. 2000). These decisions are consistent with the Supreme Court's recent description of the census as the "linchpin of the federal statistical system ... collecting data on the characteristics of individuals, households, and housing units throughout the country." Dept. of Commerce v. U.S. House of Representatives, 525 U.S. 316, 341 (1999)."

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/why/constitutional.php

At any one time the Census Bureau is conducting up to a dozen different surveys-- all authorized by Congress and all US residents are required by law to complete the surveys. I'm constantly amazed at the confusion amongst the Left that would let the government have complete control over our health care, but won't let it have the basic statistics necessary to manage the country.

(Just wait 'til you have to sit through an hour of the American Housing Survey...)

[LibDemAlways]

29. If you are interested in the kinds of questions asked on the

survey, take a look:

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest05.pdf

[Silver Swan]

13. The official census date is April first.

Why do they say to complete the form as soon as possible, when many of the questions specify April first?

Do you know for certain whether you will still be alive on April first?

(Just to be safe, and honest, I'm waiting.)

[orleans]

17. the letter they enclosed is dated march 15th and it says to fill out the

form and mail it back "today"

yet question 1 asks: how many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on APRIL 1, 2010?
question 2: were there any additional people staying here APRIL 1, 2010 that you did not include in question 1?

and in the directions: "if someone who has no permanent place to stay is staying here on APRIL 1, 2010, count that person. otherwise he or she may be missed in the census."

but the letter, dated march 15: PLEASE COMPLETE AND MAIL BACK THE ENCLOSED CENSUS FORM TODAY

so i filled it out. if i mail it tomorrow will i be in trouble if i have a visitor staying with me in two weeks that, as of now, i am unaware will be coming to stay?

are we all supposed to be PSYCHIC?

do they really want these back BEFORE april 1st?

will they start calling us if we mail them on april 1st and they don't have it by that date?

questions/questions/questions...

[gmoney]

15. OMG! MY PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY HAS BEEN ENCROACHED!

Or some shit.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. My dear Archae!

I only glanced at the return envelope...

At first, I thought it said: 2010 Census Data Rapture Center!

Good grief.

:blush:

:rofl:

[gimama]

18. I applied for 1 o' them there census j-o-b's..

I was told if I was hired, I would not be allowed to be involved in anything political.
crap!
a j-o-b..or a LIFE?!?:shrug:

[TreasonousBastard]

21. You were told wrong- Census personnel can't get involved with...

anything political while on the job.

Your free time is still your own.

(And it only lasts a couple of months.)

[gimama]

22. Thanks for clarifying that!

Cuz my REAL LIFE is ..(ahem!)
"political"! ;)
I figured I could go cold-turkey a few months,
if I *had* to..

but I am relieved to know I can BE ME,
after hours,if I'm hired!
Thanks!
:hi:

[LibDemAlways]

19. Bachmann's beef is with the American Community Survey, a lengthy

questionnaire sent out by the census bureau to thousands of households each year. It does, in fact, ask lots of intrusive questions and the return rate is low. Of those who fail to return the thing, a percentage are selected for a campaign of follow up phone calls and unannounced visits by census bureau personnel. There are web sites where targeted individuals have described their experiences.

Bachmann is a certified whack job, but in this case she isn't entirely wrong. She's just failed to spell out what the hell she's talking about.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. She is entirely wrong, and hasn't noticed that...

the ACS was authorized by Congress as the alternative to the long form where the problem was that the information got older every year.

The Supreme Court back in 1870 ruled that the Census Bureau can ask pretty much anything it wants to, and there hasn't been a serious challenge since-- a few District Court decisions recently alluded to the older SC rulings and haven't been successfully appealed.

[LibDemAlways]

25. Bachmann's concern is that with the ACS the census has gotten off track

from its purpose of providing for a head count once a decade into the realm of gathering personal data. Asking about the mental health issues of respondents is just one example of the intrusive nature of the questions. Just because it's sanctioned by the government, doesn't automatically make it right - and it's certainly not proper to wage a campaign of harrassment against individuals who refuse to fill the thing out.

[TreasonousBastard]

27. Nonsense! It's been doing this almost since the first one when...

there was a huge Congressional argument over just what questions should be asked.

Kindly explain why it's "wrong" to amass impersonal statistics on the population.

The various Census surveys are used for everything from highway planning to the current healthcare debate, and are often the only reliable sources of information.

[LibDemAlways]

28. Since when is asking a person's name and following up with

questions such as whether or not that named person has trouble dressing or bathing or remembering "impersonal"? That sounds very personal to me.

You can defend it all you want, but people will continue to consider it unwarranted government intrusion into their personal lives and will continue to deposit it in the circular file.

[TreasonousBastard]

30. The statistical reports are impersonal. The individual answers...

and information are never released. They are impossible to find, actually, and everything is encrypted with stuff you never heard of.

Everything, from IRS audits to traffic tickets and real estate assessments are considered unwarranted intrusion by some people. Should policy be driven by ignorance?

Again, I am fascinated by the alleged liberals and progressives on this board who, while often demanding the government have control over our healthcare, consider the government collecting basic statistics on the population for assistance in policy formation to be an "intrusion."

[caitxrawks]

26. omg i lawled so hard.

When everyone over on CafeMom freaked because of the census.

"OMG THEY'RE GOING TO RAISE OUR TAXES OMGGGGGGGGG"

Then it came, and it took me like 5 minutes to fill out. Me, my husband, and our daughter. GASP, SHOCKING. Whenever I bring it up (it's a highly conservative forum and it sucks) they're like "OMG STFU U LIB"

>:(

[Bossy Monkey]

31. And when was the last time you got to send mail to a Data Capture Center?

Oh, right, ten years ago. But still!