Yesterday, Page A12 and A13 of the New York Times were full of stories revolving the US Census Count.  One on the difficulty of counting the vote in the Rural South, another on the difficulty of counting in urban immigrant populated New York City neighborhoods, and another on the complete and utter ease of counting in the sparsely populated Prarie Belt.  I have this image of Alex Jones waving these pages about and ranting, focusing on this oh so thick Government Propaganda, sarcasm reigning when he gets to this.:

When it did, Kyle and his mother, Laura, filled it out together, then mailed it back almost immediately. “That’s just what you do,” Ms. Yoder, a nurse, said with a shrug. “You get it done. It’s not even a question.”

AND

“One important thing to remember is to always offer them the freebies,” Mr. Choi said before the volunteers headed out on Monday night, their bags stacked with can openers and pens bearing the 2010 census logo.

“Yes.  Trinkets.  Just like the White Man gave to the Native Indians when they arrived, as they started the long process of destroying their way of life and culture.”

The Anti-Census sentiment is represented in Congress by the likes of Michele Bachman, shuffling it as a Great March toward Socialism — and, naturally, Ron Paul.  An emerging theory coming from this anti-census sentiment is that, egged on by Bachman to the slice of populace that represents her national constituency, this will translate into decreased congressional representation for broad stretches of this “Real America” — which, come to think of it, might just simply balance off the problems the Census has in getting to various pockets of poor immigrant and minority (Democratic leaning) Americans.

I remember around about 1995 or 1996, the Census was a topic of political debate, and Bob Dole was on a Meet the Press type show holding forth against debated changes in Census counting.  Statisticians were universally arguing for various statistical sampling to round the numbers around, saying it would give a more accurate number in better reflecting some of the hard to reach pockets.  Raw partisan concerns would not abide this.  But it is interesting to note Bob Dole’s statements against this, coming out in the oh-so-common sense mid-west smash the egghead bean counters approach.  “What a Census is is just getting everyone to poke their head out, and you count them.”  I suppose the logistical details are lost in this approach, though it does slide Bob Dole away from the Bachman / Jones Black Helicopter concerns and into the “Everyone in North Dakota’s filling out the forms” line.

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