Census crew leader to WaPo: "only 2% who are trouble makers"

I'm a Census Crew Leader with 15 enumerators working under me in Michigan and I read your post and link to the WaPo with great interest. I guess your main question is, is this another example of people being fed up with an overly intrusive government. Here is my take.

80% of questionnaires have been returned by households in our state. Of the remaining 20% half are not returned because they went to unoccupied homes. That leaves 10% of which 7% to 8% cooperate and are pleasant and helpful. That gives us only 2% who are trouble makers. This is only anecdotal and speculative information on my part but my guess is this last two percent is made up of the criminal, antisocial, mentally ill or uninformed parts of our society (you would be shocked to learn how many people have no concept what the Census is).

Yes we do get people who want to speak to me as a supervisor to express their concerns about the intrusive monster we have made the Census operation. But guess what? These people are the easiest to work with. They just want to put in their two cents worth. The WaPo article seems to want to paint anti-big government types as always on the verge of violence while in this specific case my experience tells me the bad behavior is just the usual suspects acting as they always do.

Revised look at jobs report: By paying more, Census added workers who could have gone to private firms for lower pay

Last week's disappointing report on the job market may not be as dreary as it appears.

Some economists say the addition of 411,000 temporary Census workers in May didn't just mask a poor showing by the more critical private sector — it could have been a big reason for the bleak numbers.

Many unemployed workers who otherwise would have taken permanent jobs at private firms instead likely opted for higher-paying temporary Census jobs, economists say. That could have left fewer good candidates for private-sector jobs and prompted employers to put off hiring, says Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist for Federated Investors, an investment firm.

In fact, a similar dynamic was at work in each of the previous four censuses, Deutsche Bank said in a report.

"Faced with the opportunity of making an outsize amount of money and not working terribly hard as opposed to taking a more challenging position for half the money, people said, 'Let's make some additional money now,' " Orlando says.

The private sector added 41,000 jobs in May, vs. 158,000 in March and 218,000 in April. May's dismal report helped drive down the Dow Jones industrial average by 323 points Friday.

Census takers, who visit households that haven't completed their surveys, can earn about $18 an hour — vs. the $12 to $15 pay of many retail and hotel-service workers, according to figures from the Census Bureau and Labor Department.

Many Census workers normally would work in fields such as retailing and hospitality, says economist Peter Newland of Barclays Capital. A drop in employment by those industries is another sign Census hiring could have siphoned off private-sector additions, Newland says. Retailers trimmed a net 6,600 jobs in May after adding 18,500 in April. Similarly, the leisure and hospitality industry added just 2,000 jobs in May, vs. 35,000 in April.

Newland says the effect of Census hiring was "significant," drawing tens of thousands of potential hires from private firms.

If this is a snapshot of Obama's America, it will be a horror show

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% via the introduction of 431,000 non-farm jobs. We all knew that census hiring would pump up the the employment stats a bit, but we were expecting it would account for about 80% of the total. Hah! How do you like 95%!!

Being white doesn't pay; being nonwhite does

...liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias recently proclaimed: "My guess is that in the future the vast majority of people descended from immigrants from Asia or Latin America will be seen as white."

Yet, why in the world would they want to be white when they win money and prizes from the government for being legally nonwhite? You get more of what you pay for. And the U.S. pays people to consider themselves non-white.

Thus, since the 1960s, all the movement has been away from being seen as white. For example, Indian immigrants used to be officially white. But South Asian businessmen successfully lobbied the Reagan Administration in 1982 to have Indians reclassified from Caucasian to Asian category so that they could get on the gravy train for low interest SBA minority development loans and minority preferences on government contracting.

When you stop and think about it, it’s bizarre that Indians, the highest income recent immigrant group, receives legal preference over native-born U.S. citizens from the U.S. government. But it’s considered in bad taste to suggest that Indians should give up their racial privileges.

Dems block GOP bid for census citizenship inquiry

Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen.

The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens. A separate survey already collects the data.

The plan fell after a 60-39 procedural vote made it ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.

La Raza will help Census count U.S. citizens

When ACORN was shelved from 2010 census duty - not for its contributions to tax fraud and prostitution, but rather for getting caught - many Americans breathed a sigh of  relief.

Now they have a new reason to sigh.

The list of organizations that will help the U.S. Census Bureau conduct the national count is out. It is heavy with leftist labor unions, teachers organizations, grievance groups and advocates of statist solutions to societal problems.

Bear in mind that these organizations will have a hand in determining who is, and who  is not, a U.S. citizen. The bureau's final counts will determine whether congressional districts and states gain or lose representation in the U.S. House.

One of the groups is the National Council of La Raza, whose position is that the entire southwestern corner of the United States still belongs to the hispanics who initially settled it.

Let the enumeration of illegal immigrants, the revival of people long dead, and the legal challenges begin.

The list:

AARP
A. Phillip Randolph Institute
AFL-CIO
American Federation of Government Employees
AFSCME
American Federation of Teachers
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Community Action Partnership
Families USA
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Labor Council for the Latin American Advancement
League of Women Voters of the United States
National Black Justice Coalition
National Council of La Raza
National Education Association
Pride at Work
Rainbow Push Coalition
Service Employees International Union
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
United Workers