There are times to be concerned about the ultra-progressive agenda of Obama and the Donkeys, and times to take a chill pill. I do believe that, in this case, Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) has gone a bit overboard. Not quite in Dennis Kucinich’s league, and she certainly hasn’t compared our troops to Nazi’s, Pol Pot’s troops, or Saddam Hussein’s real torture squads, but, a bit wacky
Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she’s so worried that information from next year’s national census will be abused that she will not fill out anything more than the number of people in her household.
In an interview Wednesday with The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News,” the Minnesota Republican said the questions have become “very intricate, very personal” and that she feared ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire for its voter registration efforts last year, would be part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s door-to-door information collection efforts.
“I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home,” she said. “We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”
Shelly Owe, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is “misreading” the law.
She sent a portion of the U.S. legal code that says anyone older than 18 who refuses to answer “any of the questions” on the census can be fined up to $5,000.
It is well and good to worry about the influence and inclusion of ACORN in the census, but, the vast majority of the questions have been around long before Obama was even born. And the law does state that all questions must be answered, and answered truthfully. There is no provision in the Constitution to not fill it out. It’s all perfectly legal.
If anyone involved with the census violates a person’s privacy, fines can be levied up to $5,000 per occurrence, as well as jail time up to 5 years. One interesting aspect is that, if ACORN is involved with the census, then they will be considered government employees. Perhaps someone could file some FOIA requests to find out how ACORN operates.
As far as the questions go, there are a few new ones as of 2010. They include asking about health insurance, marital status, and VA service disability rating. These were all made part of the census prior to Obama becoming president.
Speaking of Obama being born, I wonder how he will answer the questions on place of birth and citizenship? OK, OK, let’s not go there, just a bit of silliness.
Anyhow, we need to take our own folks to task when they get a wee bit out of control.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
Speaking of Obama being born, I wonder how he will answer the questions on place of birth and citizenship? OK, OK, let’s not go there, just a bit of silliness.
I love bringing this up. If you want to see smoke come out of a lefty’s ears, ask them about Barry’s birth certificate. I drive my in-laws crazy doing this.
I will say that I do believe BO is perfectly eligible to be the POTUS, but I pull the crazy right-winger attitude with my in-laws just to hack them off. Nothing does it better than saying that Barry isn’t even a citizen and if he is why hasn’t the original birth certificate been released to the press? Man, talk about bat-sh*t crazy… you should see the reactions. It cracks me up.
The reason the topic of Obama’s eligibility to be our president drives you leftists mad, is because you don’t know the Constitution. YES YES YES YES YES Obama is a US Citizen. You leftists think we conservatives are questioning his citizenship. Tell all your friends: YA Gotta be NATURAL BORN CITIZEN not a natural-IZED US Citizen to be eligible to be
“POTUS”. http://RussAlan.blogspot.com
I guess I am wondering why it is “moonbattery” to believe a thug organization like ACORN would not use personal information to harass people they do not agree with. Also, where do we draw the line at census questions? In 1990 the form I filled out was 1 page and pretty much stopped at how many? male or female? By 2000 it had balooned to a small booklet, but the questions were pretty benign. I saw a preview of the 2010 census form and I have to say that it is no ones business what type of bathroom I have, my sexual orientation or what time I leave for work and what route I take! Maybe you and yours are confident that the type of control that BHO seems to be going after “just can’t happen in America”, but I am a world history teacher at a small college and I can tell you that republics are never conquered, they simply cede power to a central government that then is eventually conquered from outside, or it turns into the inevitable dictatorship.
ManBearPig most lefties tht I know just break out into laughter when some rightwingnut brings up that one again. Really are there any wackos left that still think he was not born in Hawaii ?
I am pretty sure Obama is a natural born citizen, John and MBP. My own little conspiracy theory is that he was actually born earlier, so he is protecting his mom from having him out of wedlock. But, yeah, I like to post some of the Birther stuff as traffic and comment bait, can often be really fun.
Howard, while there is certainly reason to worry about ACORN and the census, I don’t think as much as some are making it out to be. Usually, they will be deployed when people haven’t returned the forms. But, most of the questions have been on there for decades if not hundreds of years. So, I think Bachmann is going a bit overboard.
Test
I agree that BO is most likely hiding the original document to protect something he doesn’t want to get out (such as the possibility that he was born out of wedlock) but that he is a natural born US citizen. It still fun to bring it up just to see how crazy you can make the the die hards. John, do you mean the kind of laughter that the rightwingnuts would break into when lefties were constantly badgering Bush about his service record?
That is an interesting point about ACORN being considered government employees. I suspect that if ACORN is used someone in the administration would do something so that we wouldn’t be able to see their books.
More interesting would be the distribution of the population and the shifting of representation between states and, more importantly, the redrawing of the districts in each state. Remember a few years ago when the Republican controlled legislature in Texas redrew their districts to favor Republicans? If I remember correctly, they had their redistricting challenged and thrown out.
I live in a heavy Republican community/region, but my congressional district is one freaky shape. The Democrats got control of both houses of the legislature and the belief is that when the districts are redrawn, they will be done in a way to break up the heavy Republican voting block in the region of the state so that the precincts will favor Democrats. If there is anything to worry about regarding the upcoming census, that’s it.
Maybe you and yours are confident that the type of control that BHO seems to be going after “just can’t happen in Americaâ€, but I am a world history teacher at a small college and I can tell you that republics are never conquered, they simply cede power to a central government that then is eventually conquered from outside, or it turns into the inevitable dictatorship.
maybe this is the perfect example of the old phrase “Those who cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat it”. It has proven true time after time.
If you read the part in the Constitution that enumerates the powers and speaks specifically to the census, you’ll see that she is correct. “Census” provides for an accounting of “numbers” of people. Not how many toilets or what your skin color is or degree of education.
I’m not certain why you’re so cavalier about ACORN having access to people’s private information. Theoretically, they can be prosecuted for misusing this information. In practice, if Black Panthers weren’t prosecuted for voter intimidation by the Obama DOJ, do really expect anyone in ACORN to be? In fact ,with the recent IG firings, it appears that any whistleblower would end up being punished.
Let me put it this way: most of those questions were in there long before Obama came to power. Now, I am just as much against his domestic policies, and I do not like ACORN, the money that the gov’t keeps giving them, nor that they are become more and more involved in the federal government. But, I really do not think they can do much damage, if any. Census folks will rarely go door to door unless someone has failed to fill out the survey.
In this case, I tend to think that Bachmann is going overboard, regardless of any ACORN involvement. Civil disobedience is one thing, but, the census is important.
I think that You’re ALL Nuts if you disagree with Congresswoman Bachmann! She is Smart, and protecting her freedoms. If you are stupid enough to believe that big-fat Dishonest-Liar in D.C.(“District of Criminals”), and go along with that computerized fake ‘certification of live birth’ print-off, then you’re an Idiot! If you cannot see that B.H.O. is refusing to surrender the Long-Form actual birth certificate, because he was actually born in Africa, just like his own Grandmother had said, therefore isn’t even eligible to be President of the U.S., but is acting as a fake & usurper, then you’re an Idiot! If you refuse to take into consideration all of the hungreds-of-thousands of dollars that he is spending on legal representation to keep all of his records closed&hidden&quiet so he won’t be found out, then you’re an Idiot! Get a clue you Knuckleheads, Acorn is a part of his civilian-power that he was referring to as being equal to or larger/stronger than our military. His personal little Acorn-Army is his ‘Nazi’ brownshirts ‘SA’ organization, or the Storm-Section ‘SS’. Why is it they will be armed with a GPS to mark coordinates of every house front doorstep in the country for the 2010census? The U.S. has never done that before. Who knows, will they be armed with weapons, and paddy-wagons to haul people off if they don’t comply in the near future like the Nazi’s did the Jews and Christians?? Open your eyes people!! This will surely be the beginnings of the ‘USSA’. Get ready to see the USA become Socialists/Communists, and Europe to become Capitalists. Your Freedoms are on the brink of being taken away, and you refuse to see it coming. WAKE UP AMERICA!! These Goons are attempting to ruin OUR country for the worst! “WHERE’S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?!?!”