Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann, Fear Mongering on Census

The BS continues.

I’m very tied up today with some political issues, practicing my Klingon, and a writing project.

But I still have time to briefly point out what is going on with Bachmann.

Bachamann wants her constituents to believe that if they fill out any details at all on the US census form that they will some day be rounded up and tossed in a POW camp. The reason she wants this idea out there is simple. She is linking a fearful thing, a thing that if true we really should be afraid of, with Obama, Democrats, Liberals, etc. In her racist, sexist, anti-gay congressional district, this is fairly easy to do, since the President is black and we all know that Democrats are gaylovers and feminazis.

The current issue regarding the census is Bachmann’s concern that the census does not ask if a person is a US citizen. She makes a good point they should, dammit!

Oh, and they do.

She is misreading the fact that a large number of people in her district are actually centrist labor-oriented Democrats who aggree that her machinations regarding the census are nothing other than repetitively boring wingnuttery. They will not be voting for her in a year and a half when she comes up for re-election, if the DFL party puts up a reasonable candidate. Which should not be hard.

Ken Avidor has the raw data for you, Think Progress is covering it, and Ed Brayton is discussing it.

Comments

#1 Rob Jase
July 3, 2009

Its continued wingnuttery like this that makes me wonder if rounding such folk up into camps might not be a bad idea.
#2 Mike Haubrich, FCD
July 3, 2009

We don’t need the census, anyway, when we round them up. We just need to parachute into the MegaChurches when everything is in place.

Whoops! Said too much.. tell my children I…
#3 dean
July 3, 2009

The complaints about the long form don’t apply this time anyway – all the forms are “short forms” in the coming census. As I posted at Ed’s blog:

2010 Census is Different
The Census Bureau has changed the way it conducts the national count.

Goodbye Long Form

In the past, most households received a short-form questionnaire, while one household in six received a long form that contained additional questions and provided more detailed socioeconomic information about the population.

The 2010 Census will be a short-form only census and will count all residents living in the United States as well as ask for name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure – taking just minutes to complete.”

This is from
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/about_2010_census/007622.html
#4 John McKay
July 3, 2009

Bachmann is upset because she thinks the census does not ask if a person is a US citizen. She’s also said she’s only going to tell the census how many people like in her home, because that’s all the Constitution says he has to answer.* Therefore, Bachmann is upset because she thinks the census doesn’t ask a question that she would refuse to answer if they asked her.

* I hope no one tells her that the Constitution doesn’t say she can’t kill people.
#5 Nathan Myers
July 4, 2009

Census wingnuttery is a good thing. If they aren’t counted, their representation goes down, they have fewer votes in congress and control fewer electoral votes.