A: Who's there?
Q: Control Freak. Now you say, "Control Freak who?"
Posted on 04/10/2009 3:20:26 PM PDT by djf
OK so I'm making a pot of coffee and somebody knocks on my door.
So I open it up, and here's this chubby dude who has a badge hanging aorund his neck and quickly says "US Census Bureau".
He then uses the standard "Is this XXXX YYYY Street" or whatever, and I say no.
Furiously using a little handheld of some sort, he asks me "What is the address here?". So without really thinking, I reeled off my address quick, but it's kinda long and convoluted, so he starts playin with his handheld and asks "Can I get that again?"
Now I had just woke up from a short nap (that's why the coffee) and I was getting clearer by the minute so I ask him "Am I required by law to answer?".
He says "Yes", and hands me a flyer printed by the Census Bureau. I started reading it, and he asks again about the address.
My first inclination was to slam the door. But I resisted that one and looked a bit more at the flyer. Then I said to him "Look, I got a laptop sitting right there connected to the Internet, and I'm gonna look up these USC Citations listed on your flyer before I answer anything"
Dude wasn't happy, and keeps playing with his handheld, after a few minutes he says "I found it", and wanders off my porch.
Relevant sections of the flyer say: You are required by law to provide the information requested. These federal laws are found in the United States Code, Title 13 (Sections 9,141,193,214,and 221), and Title 44)Section 2108).
I went and read all the sections. There is only one that defines any penalties for people who ARE NOT employees of the census bureau. It is USC 13 Sec 221, which reads as follows:
(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100. (b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body.
So.... bottom line... $100 fine for refusal.
Might be worth $100 to tell somebody from the government to bite me!
Anyways, he wandered off and harassed my neighbors. But I think I learned a good tactic. If somebody hands you a piece of paper and it starts rattling off all sorts of USC numbers, etc., you are TOTALLY ENTITLED to look those up before doing anything.
I guess if I had to do it again, I could have even said "Get back to me after I get a chance to go to the law library and look these up".
You can look up relevant US Code Sections here:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/
not this government
Yeh right!
My point is that I don’t have to take his word for it that it IS the law. If he wants to hand me a piece of paper with 500 USC Citations on it, I’m perfectly able to read them and decide what I’m gonna do. The original intent of the Census was for enumeration for Congressional apportionment.
If he doesn’t know where he is, I still don’t believe I’m required to tell him my address. A futile point, maybe, because all it takes is 30 seconds with Google maps to find my address exactly.
I DO NOT believe I have to tell them if I have running water, or electric heat, or any other thing than “How many people live here”.
I shoulda asked the guy how many illegal aliens he interviewed today...
Thugs pretending to be census agents, getting a peek into your house.
False documents being requested with all sorts of requested info.
Etc...etc...etc....
Yep! They are not from the Gov’ment da be from ACORN!
There won’t be anyone comming to knock on my door. My dogs make sure of that!
I agree. I will be dodging these census guys too. When my government puts the same tick mark up for a criminal Mexican National that it puts up for me, they can KMA! It’s also the law that you must be a U.S. citizen to vote. I don’t see anyone getting all huffy over what happened last November. This year’s census is a farce and a fiasco. Obama and his ACORN census hustlers can kiss it.
“Enumeration” hardly requires the BS they ask today.
A: Who's there?
Q: Control Freak. Now you say, "Control Freak who?"
So, do they get paid less if people don't answer the questions or come to the door at all? Chill.
What has happened it that has slowly become more politicized, such as ‘guesstimating’ the size of certain populations in order to increase representation in government.
I know we are getting knee-jerk against almost ANYTHING the government does these days, but somethings are supposed to be there.
The fact that there are 5 - 10 - 20 or however many God only knows millions of illegal aliens in this country MAKES A COMPLETE SHAM of the “census”.
That’s the rub!
There is controversy about the number of questions and personal information areas they now try to go into.
Here’s a couple web sites discussing different aspects of the “mandatory” Census questionnaire.
http://www.gao.gov/decisions/other/289852.htm
http://www.save-a-patriot.org/census/census.html
http://cxliv.org/2006/02/03/american_community_survey.php
If a legitimate census taker asks, I will provide my address and number of people residing there. Nothing else.
Sweet .....great job !
Nice job!!!!
I looked through some old census records to find my grandparents in the 1920 count. It had their address, my grandfather's name and the age and birthday of each person in the household. All neatly, very neatly, handwritten in a ledger type book.
Well, I’m somewhat perturbed by the fact that I asked him if I was required.
Then he hands me a sheet of paper with a litany of USC numbers, only ONE of which even applies to me, who is not a member of the bureau.
He could have very easily cut to the chase and said “Yeah, $100 fine if you don’t answer”, but they don’t work that way, they’re trying to bombard you with info and make it sound all official like, and somewhat life-threatening.
There is a certain element of intimidation and harassment to it, no matter which way you slice or dice it.
Priceless
That’s the thing: if we’re mad about the “guesstimating” that occurs (and it does), then we shouldn’t make it easier for the government to tell us that “guesstimates” are necessary.
yeah well...working at McDonald’s is a crappy job too. Expect to deal with your customers as they see fit.
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