A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
Seems that Glenn Beck might be having a Census worker coming to visit his home.
What does Beck think is a "Constitutionally acceptable" question?
I filled out my 2010 Census and didn't feel that my privacy, my rights, had been infringed upon. I even filled out the part telling the Census Bureau I was "white" ( GASP! )
So what happens when a person, regardless of political stripe, doesn't completely fill out their Census form? A Census taker is likely to come to your house to ask you the remaining questions. And guess what, that costs money - taxpayer money. Glenn Beck isn't the only one who's causing this money to be spent.
The congressman refused to answer questions about the sex and age of occupants, ancestry, or whether he lives in a rental or owns. “That’s none of their business,” Broun said in a recent phone interview.
“The Constitution requires the federal government to count the number of people in this country every 10 years,” the congressman said. “It doesn’t require them to ask a lot of personal information. People are very concerned about an invasion of privacy, and I have those same concerns.”
The outrage and paranoia from people like Broun and Beck doesn't seem to be resonating with their base like they had hoped.
Reps. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Ron Paul (TX) have also said that they would be answering only how many people live in their household. Luckily, it doesn’t seem that many people are taking the conservatives’ advice so far. Census director Robert Groves said that so far, he hasn’t seen any evidence of a large-scale boycott of the Census; just “1 or 2 percent of the 10-question forms returned so far have been incomplete.”
We all should know by now that not completely filling out your Census or ignoring it all together is not only illegal, but detrimental to receiving Federal funding for a vast array of needs your state/district/city may have. There could even be loss of Congressional seats.
So not that Beck and company have only partially filled out their Census, and will likely have a Census take come to their home, I wonder what they are going to say once they have been paid a visit. I don't think Beck would go so far as to shoot at somebody, but he'll likely fabricate some elaborate conspiracy that this person was doing "surveillance" of his home. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Seems that the population within conservative counties across the country are returning their census forms at a higher rate than anyone else.
Here’s how we did our (somewhat unscientific) analysis. We took the 20 most conservative counties on this list compiled by the Daily Caller, which uses a variety of criteria, including voting patterns, legislative history, and local culture and tradition. We then looked at the percentages of households in those counties that have returned their census so far and compared them to the national average return rate, which is 56% right now.
Result: Of that 20, only six are returning their census forms at a rate below the national average. Thirteen are above, some by significant margins, and one is tied.
This leads me to question whether or not people like Michelle Bachman and Glenn Beck are going to spin this or simply ignore it. After all, these are the two loudest voices in the "anti-Census" movement. Surely, Michelle Malkin and Erick Erickson have their own loony points of view when it comes to the Census, but my question is still this - this is the same form we all filled out 10 years ago. Where was the paranoia of the conservative movement then?
I'm actually surprised that she said this - allegedly.
Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.
Yep, that's it, and not even a ghostwritten screed on Facebook. But what did you really expect her to say to Rush Limbaugh.
This is s perfect example of how much power Rush Limbaugh has over people in the Republican party. He could have raped a 12 year old boy live on air and people would have said it was "taken out of context" yet "in poor taste" when he was rebuked for it by Democrats.
While some are chalking this up as wise political move by Scott Brown due to how Palin is largely viewed in Massachusetts, I think there' more to the following statement than people are willing to admit.
Well, sure, I mean she’s been a mayor and a governor and has a lot of a national following. But the more people in a presidential race, the better. The caveat to that is I’ve never met her, she’s never contacted us and vice versa.
Considering Brown's victory was no referendum against Obama's healthcare agenda, as over 60% prefer Universal care and Brown himself voted for the Romney bill, and his post election claim that the GOP shouldn't expect him to be a blind followers, I'm curious as to whether this is the start of something bad for the Tea-Baggers that are calling him one of their own?
Aside from the continuously unfolding tragedy in Haiti, it's wall-to-wall Brown on television. But here's something odd that caught my eye over the weekend.
At first blush, it would appear that Brown is attempting to coddle to his religious Right base by doubting the "out of wedlock" status of his birth, though it is well documented that his mother was married at the time of his birth. But you'll notice at the end, he says that it's more important to focus on Obama's mother's age at the time - 18. So why are either of these important in the broader landscape of Obama as, at the time this clip aired, candidate for President? The answer is they aren't. This is almost a devalued concept as the original "birther" allegations.
Now, Brown is attempting to claim this is all fabricated by Martha Coakley:
He doesn’t believe that. This is more desperate campaigning from Martha Coakley. When she isn’t calling for higher taxes, she’s making things up about Scott Brown.
So if he doesn't believe it why did he say it? Sure, this was over a year ago and he may have changed his mind, but that doesn't change the fact that he said it to begin with with seemingly no validation. What does Obama's mother's age at the time of his birth have to do with his ability to hold higher office?
- With the ever growing anger fueled by ignorance and fear of being proven wrong, the alleged "Climategate" non-story has taken on a more interesting tone as another break-in at the Canadian Centre For Climate Modeling. But an even more darker turn, as no reported by anyone in the mainstream American press - that's including you Fox"News' - is that the Russian Secret Service may be behind the initial hack/theft from England.
- In another example of how Senate Republicans are not taking the healthcare debate seriously at all, they have now introduced an amendment that would require the President, his staff, and all members of Congress to be part of the Public Option should it pass. Obviously stemming from the debunked theory that language in the initial legislation would not require any member of Congress or the President and his staff, Republicans thought they had won a small victory until they were called out on their trickery by Al Franken.
- Even after some of her most specious claims have been proven to be either false of severely misleading, I'm still aghast at the fact that so many conservatives are willing to follow this Sarah Palin. Her "book tour", nothing more than a chance for her to rebuff some of her critics in the media and those within the McCain campaign who are finally able to let the world know what it was like to work with her. Not once have we heard any sort of substantive policy argument from her, as she is literally nothing more than a talking-point vomiting puppet. Should she excel to the level of Presidential candidate, we are going to see such a divide within the GOP like we have never seen before, and it's already getting worse as the months go by.
If there is one thing about social networking sites that aids the socio-politcal movement in modern America, it's the ability to see each wave as it breaks. Strategies are built and torn down within days or even hours based on how people view or react to certain topics and trends. However, it also affords people the opportunity to spin their own position to either play the role of victim or agressor.
The modern conservative movement isn't one that is particularly tech savvy. This isn't to say that young conservatives lack the ability to use the internet to their advantage, but the people that they follow in the political realm are as knowledgable of the inner-workings of the internet as I would be to iron smelting.
So, as the latest round of obstructionist-laden "tea-bagger" nonsense has been underway for several days, you can see how the more visible members of the conservative movement are reacting to what they are doing, how they are being received, and what the Obama administration has to say about them.
And what conservatives are seeing, they like - as far as it is merely what they think they are seeing. They belive in their "grass-roots" meme with such vigor that they don't seem to realize that it is being funded by some very powerful lobbying groups as well as being actively promoted ( much like the April 15th shouting fests ) by conservative media outlets - most notably Fox"News".
So what do you think happens when progressives, liberals, Democrats, and the Obama White House are attempting to dispell many of the myths perpetuated by the obstructionist "tea-baggers"? They whip out the victim masks and cry like little children.
Here's a new ad from the DNC that shows the "tea-baggers" aren't so much concerned about healthcare as they are in simply shouting down any opposition with not facts, but abject ignorance and hatred.
Needless to say, conservatives are not happy with this ad, at all.
But isn't that what happens when shown the true face of the conservative movement. This isn't an ideology that is grounded in helping the many, but rather a movement that is more concerned with the few, or more importantly, self. It is certain that people like Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Malkin, or Glenn Beck will present themselves as concern citizens of the Republic, but when it comes down to it, they are the ones encouraging the mob?
And speaking of Michelle Malkin, she isn't pleased that the Obama administration is doing its best to prevent misinformation and lies surrounding healthcare to spread.
Jeff Emanuel at RedState calls attention to the new push by the White House to summon Obama-bots to monitor blog postings and “casual conversations” of health care takeover opponents — and then report them to the White House.
To call this a "snitch brigade" is not just simply over-inflammatory rhetoric, it perpetuates the meme that the Obama administration is actively spying on people and their blog postings. Here is what the actual statement on the White House website reads:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
This is a great tool for the White House to address the concerns of the public as much as they can. This is in no way a vehicle that is going to be used to track peoples movements, statements, or actions. But this is exactly how conservatives like Malkin and Jeff Emanuel ( whom I have had rather hilarious twitter conversations with ) are going to frame this. They need to paint this administration as severely corrupt and willing to do anything against the "real Americans" that they claim to represent. And the problem is, that it is working.
This is what happens when your base is compromised primarily of people that are willing to accept any and everything you say as fact. This makes them more succeptable to fear - even if that fear is completely unfounded and not grounding in anything closely resemgling reality.
There are even people being brought in to inflate the numbers of the opposition to make it look like certain communities have a larger, more conservative, base that is against healthcare reform.
Last night, Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) hosted a rowdy town hall meeting to discuss health care reform. Fox’s local Houston affiliate reporter, Duarte Geraldino, reported that he talked to the participants and found that “some attendees admit they don’t live in the district.” How did they get there? Geraldino noted “an internet campaign” by far right activists urging their allies to attend and heckle Democratic Representatives. Geraldino then aired a clip showing one participant acting disrespectfully towards Rep. Green. “Pay close attention to the man behind the congressman,” Geraldino says in this clip, “he seems to have forgotten the part about respect.”
Also, the "grass-roots" meme is continually being debunked on all front. As Greg Sargent points out on the Plum Line blog:
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, the operation that’s running a national campaign against a public health care option, is now publicly taking credit for helping gin up the sometimes-rowdy outbursts targeting House Dems at town hall meetings around the country, raising questions about their spontaneity.
CPR is the group headed by controversial former hospitals exec Rick Scott that’s spending millions on ads attacking reform in all sorts of lurid ways, a campaign that’s being handled by the same P.R. mavens behind the Swift Boat Vets.
In response to my questions, a spokesman for the group confirmed that it has undertaken a concerted effort to get people out to the town hall meetings to protest reform. The spokesperson, Brian Burgess, confirmed that CPR is emailing out “town hall alert” flyers, and schedules of town hall meetings, to its mailing list.
Conservatives hate when they are outed for who they really are - obstructionists and misinformers of the highest order.
Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Rep. Patrick Henry
Have any more doubts that the GOP are nothing more than obstructionists that don't care about what really matters?
