Posted on 04/06/2010 10:00:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
President Obama's politicized, profligate U.S. census drive is so desperate for positive press that it has now recruited former Bush senior adviser Karl Rove to do public service announcements. Rove pleads on video: "Please answer the 10 easy questions. They're almost the same ones Madison helped write for the first census back in 1790." Message: If you don't join the census bandwagon, James Madison will have lost!
Sorry, Mr. Rove. Playing the Founding Fathers card isn't going to quell conservative criticism of how the Obama administration has exploited the census boondoggle for both economic and ideological gain.
For the record, I have no beef with the constitutional mandate. I complied by filling out my census form and sending it back -- with "American" in the blank for race/ethnicity to register my opposition to government racial classifications. Despite apocalyptic suggestions by census officials and some Republican politicians that conservatives are recklessly boycotting the decennial head count, analysis by both the right-leaning Daily Caller and left-leaning Plum Line websites shows that return rates from conservative counties are in line with national averages.
So, what makes the Obama census campaign different from other census programs? First, its naked, left-wing special interest pandering. The White House is championing a "Queer the Census" movement by pro-gay marriage groups, for example, and the Commerce Department is working with open-borders leaders who want to use the census as leverage to stop all immigration raids.
The electoral stakes are high. Some $400 billion in federal funding and, most importantly, the apportionment of congressional seats are up for grabs. Instead of straightforward enumeration of the American population, Obama and the left's identity politics-mongers are turning the $1 billion, taxpayer-subsidized census public relations drive into a government preferences lobbying bonanza.
More galling: the White House manipulation of census worker employment to goose the jobless rate. Last week, the government touted employment figures bolstered by the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. The Census Bureau anticipates it may add nearly 750,000 workers to its payroll by May. Liberal economist Heidi Shierholz exulted in The Hill: "This is the best-timed census you could ever dream of." And Team Obama plans to milk it for all it's worth.
Over the past several weeks, I've received e-mails from census workers across the country describing the directive from their managers to slow down, stall, waste time and stretch out their work unnecessarily. As a counter-public service announcement, I'm reprinting some of their letters:
-- "…I have been working with the census for two weeks, and every day I shake my head at the blatant inefficiency and deliberate misuse of taxpayer money. Specifically, we have been doing enumeration for those who do not have a home, the homeless in shelters, soup kitchens and in targeted non-sheltered outdoor locations, such as parks, subway stations, etc. I personally have been sent to check on shelters that were already determined to be day programs during the preceding round of quality control, yet they pay me the mileage and hourly wage to go back and make sure that they are still only day programs. I walked through parks and parking lots looking for homeless people to enumerate, not even by talking to them, but just by observing their race, sex and approximate age. …
"…The way the process has been set up by government bureaucracy is so backward and prevents a person who is industrious and efficient from being able to work freely… This is the first job where I am encouraged to be slow and inefficient."
-- "Last summer I participated in the 'address canvassing' (AC) project. What this entailed was walking around a neighborhood, literally door to door, with a little handheld computer. My job was not to enter addresses so that these people could receive their form, but to make sure that the addresses that the first wave of people put into the system and appeared on the computer were actually there… Mostly, it was me getting paid $15.25/hour plus mileage to take my dog for a walk and push a few buttons.
"In an average suburban neighborhood where the houses are somewhat close to each other, it was no problem to do about 35 to 40 addresses per hour once you learned how to quickly enter data into the computer. The census said that I should be doing about 12 to 15 per hour. My direct bosses told me that I should NOT be doing 35 to 40, because it was making them and other people look bad. So instead of walking at a snail's pace, I just did my 35 to 40/hour and doubled my time when I submitted my hours. Again, sorry for the tax dollar grab, but I was told not to be so darned efficient or else I'd be cut!"
-- "I had the great pleasure of working for the address canvassing last spring. I was hired in early April for a job that was to be completed by the first week of July. I have a military background and a background in human resources, and the whole process left me with blood squirting from my eyes… I worked in the field for four days so that I would know what to do. The remainder of my time was spent sitting in a McDonald's to have a daily progress meeting with each of the enumerators. I was paid from the time I left my house to the time I got home … plus mileage. I was told to pad the time or mileage to cover my McDonald's food, since I was camping in a booth all day. For all that, I was paid $11.75 an hour. …We had a really good crew and were done by the second week of May... Philadelphia was going nuts because our region was getting done so fast, but there was nothing we could do to slow it down another two months.
"… I never saw such a mismanaged outfit in all my life. I just shook my head in total disbelief. Our work could have been done with half the people. We did have those that quit right after training, to the tune of $800 spent on nothing. I earned approximately $3,000. I will say, to be quite honest, it was the easiest money I ever made. On the exit interview, I was asked if I wanted to be called back for further work. I wrote 'NO' in big letters. I didn't want to take any further part in what I saw to be a racket."
What would Madison think now?
I never got the census form either. I did get a card saying”you should have received your form by now blah blah” Well no I havent. I am not inclined to call and ask about it.
No form, no reminder, etc. Of course our mailing address is a rural post box number and the house in which we live is several miles away from the box, behind a locked gate...on a working cattle ranch in SE AZ.
sounds like most gubermint union jobs
Really Karl? Madison wanted to know about the hispanic status of each citizen?
Stooge.
The taxpayer funded commercials stating that the reason for the census is to make sure you get your slice of the Gov’t pie really tick me off. The intent of the census was to determine the make-up of the U.S. House, not to dole out Gov’t revenue looted from the citizens.
The guy probably appreciated you arguing with him, after all, he was getting paid while you were arguing with him.
I did address canvassing and all one has to do is spot the location on the closest area outside of your property line. That is what he should done if you objected to him coming on your property.
The pay is based on the cost of living in the part of the country you live in. It could be $22.50 in one area and $11.50 in other areas. But, the Census does pay 65 cents a mile and it is all tax free.
It doesn't pay be efficient. You merely lose work and money if you are. My group finished our work within a month when it was estimated to take two months. We got a praise for being efficient and were out of work.
He said that he had driven to the gate at our property line last week. That would have sufficed?
Absolutely. That is where he should have spotted your location as soon as your objected.
Are you serious? That had to be the easiest test I've taken since Kindergarten! Of course, they went to today's publik skools.
But I’d seen a video report on boston.com. They are particularly trying to find workers who match the demographics of various city neighborhoods and were having difficulty finding workers in minority neighborhoods who could pass the test. So what do they do a couple of weeks later, but publish the test!
Thanks, EdReform, for the heads up.
Just for your reading.
I ‘exed’ out all the blank spaces for additional people so that after it was opened a helpful census worker didn’t add on a few illegals, or whatever population they are looking to pad the numbers with.
I received in the mail yesterday an invitation from the Census Bureau to apply for a job! They must be having a hard time hiring if they are sending out notices at this late stage.
I got one, as well...there aren’t a lot of people who want to go door to door asking people personal questions...not with the outrage over ObamaCare and out of control spending still hanging in the air.
Sickening!
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