Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Congresswoman From Crazytown, Redux

U.S. Constitution: "[An] Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."

Rep. Michelle Bachman, (R-Pluto): "If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up."

Rep. Bachmann indicated, as she had before, that she does not intend to answer questions on the Census.

This raises so many questions:

(1) I thought, to the wingnuts, the internment of the scary non-white people was a good thing, and in fact, was to be the model for the forcible internment of today's scary non-white, non Christians in the name of national security. When did that change?

(2) Did Rep. Bachmann refuse to answer the last Census? Or is it only censuses conducted under Democratic administrations that cause Bachmann to put on the tinfoil hat? Is the census, like everything else the wingnuts abhor, OKIYAR?

(3) Since a US Representative, I assume, takes an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and, since the Census is mandated by that Constitution, shouldn't Rep. Bachmann step down if she intends to resist the Census?

(5) Just how crazy does this woman have to act before Minnesota's had enough?

7 comments:

Dana King said...

"Did Rep. Bachmann refuse to answer the last Census? Or is it only censuses conducted under Democratic administrations that cause Bachmann to put on the tinfoil hat? "

Uh, sorry, JD, but the last census was conducted by a Democratic administration. Clinton was still in office in 2000.

What happened to Number 4?

Overall, you're right about Bachman. She's definitely the rep from Pluto. How a state like Minnesota elected her is a mystery to me. Must be the pods.

Gerard said...

I think she has that "crazy chicks are hot" vibe going for her. Maybe that's why she gets elected.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of what the Representative said, the census was adopted to be a head count and nothing more.

I am not comfortable with the answers that we are require to give for either the short form or the long form. Most of the information is "none of their damn business."

I plan to give them only a head count of my household and whether that person is male or female. All they need are these numbers.

Celine said...

Russ worked for the 2000 Census, as an IT tech/manager. He knows all the procedures which are in place to prevent your personal information from being "handed over" to anyone, and how scrupulously they are followed. I seriously doubt that Bachmann can say the same.

At the point when your information is entered into the computer, all personally-identifying information is removed from it, and there is no system ID of any kind added. They can tell you, for example, how many people there are who self-identify as being of Asian ethnicity in any given zip code -- but they can't tell anyone who those people are.

The Census Bureau doesn't give a rat's ass who you are as a person. They're only interested in you as a statistic, and they've gone head-to-head with a lot of politicians who wanted it otherwise, and never backed down. They are the public librarians of the Federal government.

Anonymous said...

So Representative Bachmann (R, Padded Cell on the Right) refuses to fill out the Constitutionally mandated census.

Isn't this the same Representative Bachmann who also wanted to essentially resurrect HUAC (not in those exact terms)?

Methinks Bachmann gets reelected because she's great freakin' entertainment. And she makes Sarah Palin look like Golda Meier.

JD Rhoades said...

But..but ACORN, Celine!

ACORN!

ACORN!

Hart Johnson said...

*snort* Pluto indeed. Certifiable NUTjob. Though this paranoid libertarian thing isn't so anti-Minnesotan, so I bet it flies pretty well there. Minnesota as a state has an enigmatic record of pro-human rights (healthcare and such) but EXTREME privacy.