Posted on 09/21/2006 9:42:09 PM PDT by 60Gunner
My daughter was assigned a laptop this year for school, and she does a better job of taking care of it than a paid government employee. File this one under "P" for "Pathetic."
If the person who was assigned to tail me for several years was any indication, the Census Bureau recruits primarily from homeless shelters and dumpsters.
Those computers were likely converted into crack or Thunderbird.
Doesn't the census hire a lot of temps every 10 years for the big count...
Why was someone assigned to track you?
I'd want one of these, since they are so uncared for by their keepers, but they're are undoubtedly PCs. I'm a Mac fan.
Speaking of PCs, maybe they threw them away?? :D
They have this program where they follow certain people for several years to get additional demographic information. It was a real pain. They interview in person every six months and ask a series of annoying personal questions.
My family got the honor of this extended examination during the 1990 census with the virtual threat of federal charges if we ducked the Census people.
I actually called the Census Bureau on one of their "trackers" -- I didn't appreciate, as a free citizen of the United States, to be threatened with hard jail time if I didn't drop everything I was doing right then and there that day to answer the invasive questions.
It didn't seem like America that day.
That many laptops don't just disappear. They've been handed out to friends and family members as "gifts."
Where I work, quite a few people have laptops. But it's always the same ones who keep "losing" them. Someday, maybe I'll do a graph of the frequency of these "losses" against the proximity of birthdays and Christmas.
There's only one thing for it: GET RID OF THE @#$@! COMMERCE DEPARTMENT.
"Oh, by the way, in the past 5 years, a couple hundred laptops a year have been misplaced, broken, stolen or conveniently forgotten about by employees who want to let their kids watch DVDs in the car..."
WELL LOOKEE HERE....
Turns out ol' Recovering_Democrat is right on the FREAKIN' MONEY! From the front page of the Commerce Department web site:
Based on the review in response to the public inquiry, the Department determined that within its 15 operating units for the years 2001 to the present, out of over 30,000 laptops within the Department's inventory over that time period, 1,137 were either lost, stolen or missing. Of these laptops, 249 contained personally identifiable information (PII), although access passwords, complex database software, systemic safeguards and/or encryption technology significantly limit the potential for misuse of data on the laptops. (Emphasis added by R_D!)
Later, on the same page:
"We have an obligation to be good stewards of public property and government data. The amount of missing computers is high, but fortunately, the vulnerability for data misuse is low. While we know of no instances of personal information being improperly used, we regret each instance of lost material and believe the volume of lost equipment is unacceptable," said Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. "All of the equipment that was lost or stolen contained protections to prevent a breach of personal information, and we are moving to institute better management, accountability, inventory controls, 100% encryption, and improved training."
So there you have it:
The "1,100" number and the entire story is nothing but an attempt to hype and create fear by the ASS press.
Hmmm sounds to me like there was some commerce goin on in the old justice dept!
People shouldn't type before the crack of noon!
Federal charges for what? Not telling them how many toilets you had?
The Census Bureau has some spooky people working for them. I participated in one of those two week cost of living surveys and then saw the guy nosing around my neighborhood at 10pm one night a few weeks later.
It is against the law not to participate if you are chosen...under threat of jail time.
Me. You.
And on that note, can you tell me whether or not the morons who "lost" these laptops are still employed at the Commerce Department? When they get their arses fired, I'll be appeased.
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