Fill out the stupid census, Stupid!
By JR Hoeft | Monday, April 5th, 2010 | PolicySo, you’re going to disadvantage the state and hamstring your own representation by not filling out a census form, which is the least intrusive since 1790, because you’re afraid of black helicopters?
Morons.
If you believe in having representation in Congress, you need to fill out this form…not just part of it. And, by not filling it out completely, you increase costs to the government…which makes matters even worse!
Fill out the damn form. It’s your Constitutional duty.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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25 Responses to "Fill out the stupid census, Stupid!"
J.R.,
On NPR (National Public Radio) I heard a census spokesperson claim that not answering every question would result in the government having to send out someone to knock on your door. She stated that there were some (I seem to recall they numbered four) important questions that had to be answered or follow up was required. She declined to identify just which specific questions these were, I guess because she was hoping the majority would just answer every question.
My advice to those convinced the government is out to get them is to answer each and every question so they do not end up having the feds knock on their door trying to conduct a follow up interview. Even if you refuse to answer your door, they’ll come back again and again until the requisite number of attempts (I believe it is ten) have been made. After they give up, they knock on your neighbors’ doors to see if they can provide the information. What will the neighbors think? With all of these visits, and if you have something to hide, who knows what they’ll discover? Next thing you know, a SWAT team is beating down your door all because you failed to answer the ten easy questions by mail (grin).
Go, Jim! Well said.
I agree with Jim. Obama isn’t going to destroy America. He isn’t the Anti-Christ. He’s not run by some Jewish Conspiracy (Rev. Wright) or by Muslims (Truthers..). He’s just your typical liberal who believes in big government answers to peoples problems. He’s just plain wrong, not evil, not out to get you, but just wrong.
We have 2010 and 2012 to send our message. No one man can destroy America folks. Do your duty fill out the census and be done with it, but also do your duty and Vote in November this year and in 2012.
Number of persons at the residence – that is required, NOTHING ELSE! And don’t give me this dog and pony show about not being represented, all they need to know for me to be represented is that I live there, not my race, phone number, type of house, blah, blah, blah. What raises red flags for me about this, vs the one I filled out 10 years ago – Sen. Gregg’s refusal to take the commerce department job in part because Obamba wanted to give control over the census to Rahm Emmanual – who is nothing more than a two-bit Chicago ganster.
And since I have a MAJOR problem with gerrymandering districts by race, they don’t need to know mine. In all likelihood, the rest they can get from the IRS anyway.
Then you, Govgirl, are a moron. Thank you for wasting taxpayer money and taxpayer time. Got a problem with it? Fill out the form and then yell at your Congressman because the Census asks unnecessary questions. Have the Congress take away their appropriations….that’ll get their attention.
But your “boycotting” the form only hurts Virginia and hurts taxpayers.
J.R.-You’re right on track here. There’s nothing “intrusive” on the form at all, depite Govgirl’s “hey-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn” fretting.
As much as I don’t trust this POS census, I’ll fill it out. Do I think Obama is evil and such, yea but the census can ultimately only help us gain representation. Are the questions intrusive and mostly unconstitutional; of course… but for God’s sake people just turn the damn thing in and the feds will leave us alone.
Did I say I wasn’t going to fill it out? Since when did you become all into the Nanny State JR – those establishment R’s getting to you? I have commented on previous posts that I will return my census form, but I may not answer every question the WAY they want me to, but I will answer them.
And remember — nobody can second-guess your belief that you are “multicultural.” And nobody need be what Shelby Steele called a “race-holder,” like our “post-racial” President. Typical black person?
Makes me laugh, all this bickering back and forth about a stupid form. Because districts will be redrawn, and the paranoid among you will lose out. I’m hoping to jeebus that Cantor’s district (ridiculous in scope, last zoned in 1933??!?!) can be divided up somewhat.
I agree with you Eng and, like JR, urge all my conservative friends to submit the form. If you’ve not looked at it, people, it doesn’t ask for much objectionable info. And the “race” question can be finessed with ease, and in a way that helps eliminate government discrimination by race. It’s about taking our country back.
$15 an hour for someone to knock on your door to ask 10 questions. The paranoid are helping with the economic recovery, by way of government created jobs. You go, nutjobs!
For what it’s worth, i’ve received a postcard to warn me the census was coming, the actual census a week later, then a postcard reminding me to fill it out, and then a 2nd census form, even though i mailed mine in on the day i received it. My postal carrier is hating life!
@Eng Esch – remember the 2011 Congress is the one that gets to redraw them – it probably won’t look like it looks now, so I am not worried about redistricting, this is a matter of principle
That’s right. The principle to live your life and expect the country to be governed based on tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. You’ve got a constitutional right to be nutjob, so stand up and be proud. Write that in as your race on the census form.
Sorry to disappoint you Steve – not a nut job, in fact most of those types would consider me a RINO. But, on the race question, still a matter of principle, and I would do the same no matter who was president – they do not need to know race to draw district lines. In fact, they don’t need to know 9 of those questions to draw district lines.
The government doesn’t need my race, so they can accept it as I wrote it in. Otherwise, not filling out the census is a failure in one particular way that you noted (the rest is a misuse of the census, but we can say that at the ballot box and through communication with representatives), and that is in establishing how representation is to be distributed. The last thing anyone who dislikes the Obama administration should do is not send in their form, unless they are content to let people who are Obama supporters to have a greater share of the say in who represents the American people.
I sent ours in. But, like everything else the Government does, it’s wasted a ton of money already on this concern. We have received a total of three mailings, one before, the actual cencus, and then a follow up letter explaining the census has already been sent.
I guess they feel the USPS can’t be trusted in mailing out all of the census forms or, they feel spending a lot of money on this will stimulate the economy. Oh, and let’s not even get started on the ads that are running on TV. I believe the budget for the census is somwhere in the neigborhood of 14 billion. Of course when the money belongs to someone else, the feds seem to not have an issue with spending that much just to count people.
The mailing are not a waste of money, they increase the level of returns, thus reducing the number of peopel the census needs to knock on doors, which is more expensive.
Not that the census hasn’t wasted money, that Super Bowl ad, which continues to received play, is a huge waste of money, since it delivers no actual information about the census.
Yes, everyone just get in line for the government handouts so that you and your state get your fair share.
I had a couple of issues with the simple census, my race. I answered it as Native American. The simple truth is, color is not a race. The other was home ownership, why? Why does the Government need to track home ownership? I thought the census was to count people.
Interesting tidbit to pass on to those of you in favor of the Guv’s recent proclamation declaring April “Confederate History Month”:
160,000 citizens existed in VA in 1861. Secession wasn’t unanimous: 22% of the states 69% white males voted “no” even at the highest point of tensions.
Glorifying the shameful, disturbing past in this way is what led me and many like myself to vote against the GOP. It is completely ass-backwards.
Continuing this “tradition” will only see numbers for the GOP get smaller and smaller.
By explicitly not mentioning slavery, the Guv is glossing over one of the absolute worst parts of our history.
I hope that Bearing Drift picks up on this bit of shameful glorification and actually stands against the Guv in this instance. I really do.
eng esch, Your righteous indignation at the GOP is ignorant or you are trying to upchuck reprocessed political correctness. Your wrong about the population of Virginia in 1861, the Slave Census of 1860 for Virginia alone was 1,421,661 of which 472,528 were slaves and the rest were “Free” (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-maps/slave-census.htm ). Abraham Lincoln who was of the GOP, signed the Emancipation Proclamations (including special orders) which was finally abolished slavery and he fought to keep us from breaking into separate countries.
I noticed responses in the press to McDonnell’s proclamation of “Confederate History Month” where an army of commentators, civil rights leaders, writers and bloggers are politicizing and shrieking at this like they were attacking the “Right Wing Tea Party Extremists” last week. For the Governor to mention “Slavery” would be like throwing red meat to a herd of hyenas and jackals who would be pointing, screaming and shouting “racism” and every other cultural four letter word they could look up or invent. I commend the Governor for bringing this back, if not as a symbol of the struggle we are now in with the Federal Government again for our rights and freedoms.
“Confederate History Month” is a reminder of many things including states rights, individual rights, unfair taxation and slavery which crossed all of those factors. As what led up to the Civil War, we are starting to replay history again with the Government taking more control of our liberties and passing laws that are trying to “level” American society. The parallel to the Civil War is that the Federal Government is trying to aggressively assert itself against States and individuals and we are trying to assert our rights under the Constitution.
As you read through the letter of Henry Clay in 1850 (“The Union must be preserved”), the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Lincoln’s inaugural address, Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address in 1861 and the Alabama Letter (“The South has the right to secede from the Union”), much of the same emotion is resurging and there are many parallels to Constitutional questions about individual rights, state’s rights and the authority of the Federal Government.
History leading up to the Civil War Confederacy has wisdom which can help frame emotions that are welling up as anger in many people today. Our media is full of those who are trying to divide us against ourselves by spewing agenda hate-based political nonsense that has parallels in our history 150 years ago. I just hope that we are reminded that those divisions ended up as a war against ourselves in which our country survived but at a horrible cost to generations of Americans and the consequences which are still with us today.
Tim J, As a history buff I think you are right on! The Constitution doesn’t have anything written about secession and the best thing that occurred during the War Between the States was the end of Slavery. The worst thing was nearly a million lives lost. I include Civilians mostly in the South that starved to death. Between Sherman and Sheridan, Civilians paid a heavy toll.
Was leaving the US Constitutional? Was fighting the several States to “preserve the Union”, Constitutional? The answer is NO on both questions. What was Jefferson Davis convicted of after the War? BTW Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America and was imprisoned for years after the War. Jeff Davis was never charged or tried; one day when his health was failing they just released him. Jeff Davis had the perfect defense and Govt. Lawyers knew it. Many folks wanted Davis hung after the War but without a trial they could only hold him in jail. Had he been tried the whole War could have been declared unconstitutional, leaving the North paying for all damages!
We can all learn from the past, April is Confederate History Month!
Its sad when the people of the United States have to rely on a federal government so much so that this kind of thing seems normal. Anything that comes of this, you all deserve it for buying in so naively. And to those of you who knew better but did it anyway, you are pathetic for selling out your values.
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