Bear with me on this, because I'm going to ramble a bit. A postcard reminder from the Census Bureau was delivered to my house today. The postcard is dated March 22, 2010, and advises that if I haven't already responded to the census questionnaire, I need to do so as soon as possible. Well, the actual census survey inquires about people residing at my address on April 1, 2010. It seems rather silly to chastise me for failing to report a condition that will not transpire for another week and a half. Perhaps they are anticipating a peaceful act of civil disobedience on my part and felt it necessary to reiterate to me that, "Your response to the U.S. Census Bureau is required by law."
Yes, I know; Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, in regards to the composition of the House of Representatives, states:
"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual 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. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three."
I got a personal visit about a year and a half ago, with several follow up phone calls, as part of the Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey (ACS). I was basically cooperative, but declined to answer a number of questions that I deemed beyond the scope of governmental authority to ask. Eventually, I had to block the phone number. Should that ever be necessary?
The problem, as I see it, is that under the right set of circumstances the Census Bureau could become our worst nightmare. In fact, it became so for some people in our relatively recent history. Data from the 1940 Census was used to identify Japanese, Italian and German Americans for internment during World War II. Beyond providing geographic information to the War Department, the Census Bureau released a wealth of personal information to the Treasury Department on Japanese Americans, in response to an "unspecified threat" against President Roosevelt in 1943.
While the Census Bureau assures us that Title 13 requires them to keep our information strictly confidential, I hold that assurance to be highly suspect. Of course, the release of "strictly confidential" data was perfectly legal during World War II, under the Second War Powers Act, and more recently in 2001 and 2003 under the terms of the Patriot Act (extended by the Obama administration) when the Census Bureau turned over information collected on Americans of Arab decent to the Department of Homeland Security, these are not the types of exceptions that the Bureau likes to publicize.
In preparation for the 2010 Census, nearly 150,000 people were tasked with collecting GPS coordinates for the front door of every household in the nation. If that doesn't make you uncomfortable, I don't know what would. This kind of information sure would simplify locating (and rounding up) anyone who might pose an "unspecified threat" to national security. Think, for a minute, about the fact that the terrorist watch list has exceeded one million. Exactly what would the Obama administration consider to be a "terrorist" these days anyway?
