I pit Obama and what he is doing with the census

Less than three weeks in office and Obama is already screwing us over.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41986&dcn=todaysnews

The audacity of this blatant attempt to take over the census so that it can be manipulated in secrecy is worse than anything the libs ever claimed Bush did.

If the census remains in Commerce, its procedures and guidelines are open for review by Congress. By pulling it into the White House, Obama has insured that there will be no accountability, no review and no accuracy.

Here ya go, folks. You got what you voted for.

That’s a nice change from what we’ve seen in recent years.

[Sorry - don’t want to go there, but you left it wide open.]

The Census Bureau should be transparent. I’m not sure why it’s part of the Commerce Department, but I guess it has to be somewhere. I’d like to know if it’s true that minority voters have been historically undercounted, however. If true, that needs to be fixed.

Why do you assume there will be no accuracy?

Oh man! If the next census isn’t accurate I’m moving to somewhere else with real family values, and a dependable census.

Yeah, moving a program to a different department is way worse than causing the deaths of perhaps a couple hundred thousand innocent people.

You do a disservice to the wise turtle who’s name you drag through the mud. Also you’re a fucking loon.

Since Humpy won’t return, maybe we can turn this into a productive discussion. Are there any plausible reasons why the Commerce Department would be more open to accountability, review, and accuracy than the White House?

His contention was that Commerce has to answer to Congress and the White House doesn’t.

I just wanted to quote this for the pure laugh value.

Cite that the move from commerce to the white house is so that “it can be manipulated in secrecy”? Or is this simply paranoid delusional ramblings?

And I claim that Bush presided over an unprecedented increase in your national debt, to over 10 Trillion dollars. That’s pretty bad, don’tcha think. (or to re-phrase, “don’tcha think?”)

From the article you cited:

Cute conspiracy theory, but you should have read a little further down the article you cited.

Isn’t the Census just a database of statistics? Useful and constantly accessed statistics, but not really anything to get too excitable about, I would’ve thought.

I have to admit that I don’t know what that means. Do you? The staffers working on the census can be called in congressional hearings whether they work in the White House or some other building.

One of the claims is that he can use this power to do a sort of unoverseeable gerrymandering, as far as I can tell.

No, I don’t. I guess the difference would be an oversight committee, but for practical purposes I don’t know why it matters. The rest of the OP is so over the top ludicrous that I’m not sure Clothahump knows either. If there’s a real issue with undercounting, the president SHOULD get more closely involved.

While there’s an argument to be made about Obama making a poor move on this, this statement is either really fucking stupid or you’re a troll.

Take your pick.

Worse than anything Bush actually did? I suppose that depends on your partisan leanings.

Worse than anything liberals ever claimed Bush did? No matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, I think you should admit that’s rather hard to believe.

If Obama’s reason for doing this was so he could conceal the evidence that he was a serial killer, it still wouldn’t be worse than some of the things Bush did.

I think the biggest stupidity is the assumption that manipulation of statistics to suit an agenda is the motivation behind this.

Statistics are manipulated by default, that’s their role. No matter who’s in charge, they get bent into any shape required of them.

I can’t see that this is any different to how it’s always been.

Why can’t it be both? That seems more logical to me.

I suppose that’s an argument, but it’s a bad one. The Commerce department generally has a reputation for honesty and independance. But thre’s simply no reason at all for Obama to have anything to do with this, any more than if he suddenly announced that the White House was going to oversee tax returns this year. It injects politics into a carefully balanced situation and can do no good.

Well, it’s already done some good. It’s made the vein on Clothahump’s left temple throb like a Keith Moon drum solo.

And that’s good enough for me.