Free Republic

It says it is REQUIRED by law - but there is no way I am doing this. It's 28 pages of invasive, nanny state interfering that would shock our founding fathers. Most of the questions have to do with my health or my insurance. It wants info on each person, and then "What is your health insurance? Do you have disabilities? What is your job? What is your income? How much money did you make? Were you self employed? Really invasive questions - a nightmare - It's awful! Even a liberal would freak out!

Home phone. Why we still have one; I don't know. If it rings while we're home - we ignore it and let it go to the machine. I never ever even check the ansering machine, but Mrs. R2 does. And this weekend she told me that the Census Bureau jas been calling and leaving messages. They want a call back. (Insert suspicious red flags going up here) Anyway the call back number is 1-888-817-2153 and I have a case number. And no, I haven't returned that call. And yes, I Googled it. It is the Census Bureau and there are...

One in five married households has at least one spouse who was born outside the United States, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Immigration trends have contributed to the growing number of foreign-born Americans, and the Census Bureau found 21 percent of married households in the U.S. in 2011 had at least one foreign-born spouse. In California, Nevada, Hawaii and the District of Columbia, at least 12 percent of the married households included one American-born spouse and another foreign-born person, which the Census Bureau calls "mixed-nativity." The national average is 7.4 percent.....

Using Census data, we've figured out that half of the United States population is clustered in just the 146 biggest counties out of over 3000. Here's the map, with said counties shaded in. Below the map is the list of all the counties, so you can see if you live in one of them. And here's the whole list of counties that are shaded in. Los Angeles County, CA Cook County, IL Harris County, TX Maricopa County, AZ San Diego County, CA Orange County, CA Miami-Dade County, FL Kings County, NY Dallas County, TX Queens County, NY (rest of list...

School segregation remains a reality: “74 percent of African Americans still attend majority nonwhite schools, compared to just over 76 percent in the late 1960s,” writes The Nation‘s Greg Kauffman. But there’s a demographic reality to consider, responds Matthew Yglesias in Slate. U.S. schools are running low on white kids. Non-Hispanic whites were 54 percent of the under-18 population in 2010, compared to 74 percent in 1980, according to the Census Bureau. Furthermore, among kids under the age of 5, non-Hispanic whites are a minority. [...] We can’t integrate our way to better school performance, agrees Sara Mead. That includes...

The IRS has been credibly accused of targeting conservatives as a way to minimize their participation in the 2014 elections. But there is a mirror image to their suppression in the last cycle; the Obama campaign's utilization of Big Data to bring liberal partisans to the polls. It was something that the press writing of admiringly both before and after the election, for example: Time: How Obama's number-crunchers helped him win Businessweek: Google's Eric Schmidt Invests in Obama's Big-Data Brains Other outlets have confessed to some trepidation: Gizmodo: How the Obama Campaign Uses Your Personal Information to Get Your Money...

A state analysis of U.S. Census data released today shows Hawaii has by far the largest share of Asians and the smallest share of whites in any U.S. state's total population. The research division of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said the data shows 56.9 percent of Hawaii's population identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more races as of July 1 last year. That's by far the highest share of any state, with California ranked second at 15.8 percent. Despite a population of just under 1.4 million, Hawaii ranks fifth in the...

I was talking with my brother today about all that's going down and the NSA whisleblower, etc. He reminded me of Rahm Emanuel's White House power grab of gathering the Census data back in 2009. Does anyone have detailed info on this? His speculation was that that was the groundwork, with all its detailed snoopy questions, for things to come. No one has brought this up out in the blogosphere. Rush needs to talk about this tomorrow and bring it out in the open. I bet the boys in Congress would sure be curious to connect the dots. Let's roll!!

White, non-Hispanic kids will no longer make up the majority of America's youth in just five to six years, according to Census Bureau projections released Wednesday. Those projections, which include four different scenarios for population growth, estimate that today's minority ethnic groups will soon account for at least half of the under-18 population, either in 2018 or 2019. "This is going to start from the bottom of the age distribution and move its way up," said William Frey, demographer and senior fellow for the Brookings Institution. "All of these projections show we're moving to greater diversity in the United States."...

It was reported the other day on an inside page of the Pioneer Press, and without nearly enough fanfare, that more than six out of 10 women who give birth in their early 20s are unmarried. That is census data, from census demographers, from the very government that then becomes responsible for many, if not most, of those unmarried women and children. If that isn't an astonishing statistic, it should be. Why, to any logical person's way of thinking, it explains everything in terms of government at all levels bloating out of control. Supposing that even angels might fear to...

I cannot sit silently after reading “Census Calling on Kaua`i” (April 29, 2013). The article is counter to my personal experience and I feel compelled to share my experience with you. In the article the statements made by Mr. Gene Henry of the American Community Survey are counter to fact. This is not a letter representing one party or another. It is not an attempt to sway you to opt out of the American Community Survey. It is simply a recitation of fact. In 2010 my wife and I received a letter demanding that we participate in the ACS. The...

The issue of "who's minding the kids" is now taking back seat to "who is having the kids." The just-released Census Bureau Report, "Social and Economic Characteristics of Currently Unmarried Women With a Recent Birth, 2011," (SECCUM) describes for the first time the demographic details of non-marital childbearing -- and it is not a pretty picture. The report reveals dramatic increases in non-marital births and is the first Census Bureau report showing the relationship of non-marital births to geographic variations and educational attainment. It is depressing yet unsurprising that with median age of women at first marriage approaching 27 years...

I just received a Census form (yes I know it is 2013)and I am wondering just how much information I need to give the government. I thought that the Census was required every 10 years. Why are they now asking MORE questions? They want name, age, marital status, race, type of house, when built, how many rooms, how many bedrooms, computers, what kind of internet service, utility usage, monthly rent... the list goes on. My question to all you Constitutional Scholars: How much information am I REQUIRED to give?

First time I've tried initiating a post, hope I'm doing this correctly (apologies if I am not!). I have received an American Housing Survey Worksheet in the mail from the U.S. Department of Commerce (second census I've had in two years) asking for very private information (how much I pay in utilities, total real estate costs, how much I put down to purchase my home, how much I still owe, etc.). I am really getting upset by these intrusions. Is it legally expedient for me to answer these questions? I feel that my civil liberties are being invaded. I do...

What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth?Answers come from comparing the Census Bureau’s just-released estimates of metropolitan-area populations in July 2012 with the results of the census conducted in 2010.The focus here is on the 51 metro areas with populations of more than 1 million, where 55 percent of Americans live — most of them, of course, not in central cities but in suburbs and exurbs.Two growth champs stick out — Austin and Raleigh. A half-century ago, neither of them amounted to much.The counties now in metro Austin had 300,000 people in...

What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth? Answers come from comparing the Census Bureau's just-released estimates of metropolitan area populations in July 2012 with the results of the Census conducted in 2010. The focus here is on the 51 metro areas with populations of more than 1 million where 55 percent of Americans live, most of them of course not in central cities but in suburbs and exurbs. Two growth champs stick out -- Austin and Raleigh. A half-century ago, neither of them amounted to much. The counties now in metro Austin had...

A record number of U.S. counties -- more than 1 in 3 -- are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere. New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The areas of natural decrease stretch from industrial areas near Pittsburgh and Cleveland to the vineyards outside San Francisco to the rural areas of east Texas and the Great Plains. A common theme is a waning local economy, such...

WASHINGTON — After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word "Negro" to describe black Americans in surveys. Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels "black" or "African-American". The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch, said in an interview.

I received this in the mail the other day. The front of the envelope reads: "U.S. Census Bureau Form Enclosed. YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Please complete and return by February 12, 2013. I knew the Census is part of the Constitution but a business census? They have pages and pages of forms they want filled out. They want to know how many employees, all my financial numbers, (sales and types services and products offered). First, is this Constitutional? Second, doesn't the IRS have most of this information already?

PHOENIX -- Members of the Independent Redistricting Commission want a federal court to block them from being questioned about the legislative maps they drew. In legal papers filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for the five commissioners said their actions are protected by "legislative privilege," a legal concept that generally prevents lawmakers from being questioned or sued about how they reached a decision. And they want a three-judge panel hearing the case to preclude lawyers for the challengers, from being allowed to ask them about it in pretrial depositions. But Joe Kanefield, one of the commission's attorneys, said this is...