US Census Community Survey Interrogation

[Newmexican]

Rvrything you have ever wanted to know about the census. This is easier to read from the link.

https://www.checkpointusa.org/Census/Census.htm

The U.S. Census Bureau's
American Community Survey Interrogation


"We're from the government and we're here to help... "


On this page:
Summary Commentaries News Articles Corporate Involvement Documents

Defective, dependent, or delinquent...
After being delayed several years due to budget shortfalls, one of the largest invasions of our privacy is now in full swing, compliments of the U.S. Census Bureau and a cadre of Department of Commerce corporate partners. In the past, the American people only had to put up with this unconstitutional nonsense once every ten years. A time frame frequent enough to be annoying but not frequent enough to evoke formal resistance. With the advent of the misnomered American Community Survey however, circumstance have changed dramatically. U.S. Census bureaucrats have somehow misinterpreted clear constitutional guidance regarding a simple head count once every 10 years for representation purposes as a mandate to invade America's privacy on a recurring monthly basis.

Below you will find a discussion of this unconstitutional program along with links to commentaries, news articles, corporate involvement, and government documentation that highlight this newest invasion of our homes and privacy along with general information regarding the decennial census.


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250,000 homes are now being targeted every month by the Census Bureau and its corporate lackeys to comply, under threat of prosecution, with a survey demanding answers to over 70 privacy invading questions. Questions, that as Congressman Ron Paul and others have pointed out, are none of the government's business.

This new program will cost taxpayers well over $150,000,000 a year and is envisioned by Census Bureau personnel as a permanent fixture to the new American police state. It was developed and implemented by unelected career bureaucrats at the Department of Commerce in close consultation with other government interests including but not limited to the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security. In addition, the Census Bureau relies heavily on strong support from corporate interests to collect, scan, archive, and conduct follow-up work related to surveys unwittingly filled out by individuals under the false pretense that their responses will be kept 'strictly confidential'.

Indeed, the Census Bureau and its contracted help will all tell you that your responses are protected by statute and any unauthorized disclosure is punishable by severe fines and prison time. What they don't tell you is that the number of 'authorized' disclosures is expansive and corporations and individuals working with the Census Bureau have unfettered access to your personal information while under contract with the Bureau. You also wont find a list of individuals or organizations that have been prosecuted or sanctioned by the federal government for disclosing your personal information. After all, when the chief executive officer of the country can thumb his nose at the Constitution and federal statutes with impunity in order to spy on American citizens, it's no great leap of logic to realize so-called census privacy protections are in reality non-existent.

Some of the commercial interests associated with this new attack on our privacy are highlighted below but the list is by no means exhaustive. A close look at several corporations such a Lockheed Martin and Evolver, Inc., shows a strong connection to other government agencies such as Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and various Intelligence agencies. Additionally, Lockheed Martin has not only been a major player in previous decennial census efforts in the United States but has also been a major contractor for National Census efforts in other countries such as Canada and England. In the case of Canada, Lockheed's participation resulted in an uproar from the public that is still being heard today.

The malfeasance isn't limited to corporate involvement however. A GAO report from 2002 verifies that the majority of questions on the survey don't even originate in the Census Bureau but rather from other special interests within the federal government:

"The questions to be asked in the 2003 ACS reflect justifications - specific statutes, regulations, and court cases - provided to the Bureau by federal agencies." - GAO Report, p2

"The 20 questions justified by mandatory programs reflect the provisions of seven statutes: One statute justifies 13 questions for providing information to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to enforce the Federal Affirmative Action Plan. Another statute justifies 6 questions for providing information to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce the Voting Rights Act. A Department of Commerce (DOC) statute justifies 1 question for providing information for legislative redistricting. The other statutes relate to programs of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), DOC, and HHS." - GAO Report, p16

What this means is that federal agencies are using the Census Bureau as their front for mandating responses to questions that individual agencies or departments aren't authorized to mandate from the general public on their own.

What's even more surprising however is a GAO finding that contrary to assurances given, the Census Bureau fully intends to provide federal agencies with DIRECT access to ACS data while working with these agencies to develop more targeted and specialized follow-up surveys based upon responses to the American Community Survey:

"In addition to providing federal agencies with DIRECT use of ACS data for program needs, the bureau has announced that it would conduct special surveys for them, based on ACS responses." - GAO Report, p16

The GAO found that the Census Bureau conveniently left these facts out of instructional materials provided to individuals contracted to conduct the survey:

"...we also did not find any mention of this notification in the information provided to the staff conducting the ACS testing." - GAO Report, p16

And if this wasn't enough, the Census Bureau has admitted to conducting experiments on the American people to test compliance and privacy attitudes with specially worded surveys to see how individuals would respond to different information demands:

"About 21,000 American households received a census form asking respondents for that all-important nine-digit number, in addition to the typical inquiries on race, gender and age. It was a little-noticed experiment conducted by the Census Bureau to see how Americans would respond to being asked for the figure..." - Sun Sentinel

"Voluntary materials and methods will be used for all phases of data collection....The overall objective of the test is to identify the effect of changing the survey from a mandatory one to a voluntary one on response rates, quality, and cost. A small control panel will receive materials by mail that retain the mandatory wording." - ACS Operations Plan, p. 51

While researching this issue, I wanted to find out exactly what authority the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau thought they had to force sovereign individuals to lay bare their private lives to any federal bureaucrat or their contracted help with a clipboard and a badge (they haven't been issued guns...yet). What I found was more disturbing in some ways than the invasive questions on the survey itself.

It turns out the federal government considers all of us to be either defective, dependent or delinquent and Congress has specifically authorized the Department of Commerce to classify us accordingly. Don't believe me? Check out 13 U.S.C. 101:

13 USC 101 - Defective, dependent, and delinquent classes; crime:
(a) The Secretary may collect decennially statistics relating—

(1) to the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes; and
(2) to crime, including judicial statistics pertaining thereto.

(b) The statistics authorized by subsection (a) of this section shall include information upon the following questions, namely: age, sex, color, nativity, parentage, literacy by race, color, nativity, and parentage, and such other questions relating to such subjects as the Secretary deems proper.

(c) In addition to the decennial collections authorized by subsections (a) and (b) of this section, the Secretary may compile and publish annually statistics relating to crime and to the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes.


In other words, all those invasive questions having nothing to do with a decennial enumeration for representation purposes are authorized by federal statute in order to determine what class of individual you are - defective, dependent, or delinquent.

Not a big deal you say? The government would never abuse this database or the information it unconstitutionally collects on its citizens. You may want to ask the Arab-American community whether or not it's a big deal or the millions of Americans who had their personal information disclosed to NASA by the Census Bureau regarding a program to assign terrorist threat levels to all individuals traveling in the United States. If this isn't enough for you then perhaps the story of hundreds of thousands of American citizens rounded up during World War II and placed in concentration camps by the federal government will be more persuasive. Individuals identified in part from the 1940 Census that they willingly filled out as part of their so-called 'civic duty'.

While all this sounds pretty daunting, there's a simple solution to this particular issue. We all know from Civics 101 that the federal government only has such lawful authority as is specifically granted to it under the Constitution. A quick reference to the 4th, 9th and 10th amendments should be all that's necessary to remind you that your right to privacy is still fully intact and nosy, snooping federal bureaucrats demanding access to the intimate details of your household and life are about as un-American and un-patriotic as it gets.

As such, the American people should heed the words of Congressman Ron Paul:

"The founders never authorized the federal government to continuously survey the American people. More importantly, they never envisioned a nation where the people would roll over and submit to every government demand. The American Community Survey is patently offensive to all Americans who still embody that fundamental American virtue, namely a healthy mistrust of government. The information demanded in the new survey is none of the government's business, and the American people should insist that Congress reject it now before it becomes entrenched."

As such, when the Census Bureau field rep. comes knocking on your door in order to invade your families privacy, you may want to gently remind him of the principles associated with private property ownership and point him in the direction of the shortest path OFF your property.




Commentaries:
Title: Description: Source:
None of Your Business! "You may not have heard of the American Community Survey, but you will. The national census, which historically is taken every ten years, has expanded to quench the federal bureaucracy’s ever-growing thirst to govern every aspect of American life ..." Congressman
Ron Paul:
Texas Straight Talk

Does the census bureau have the right to search your home? Today a lady from the Department of Commerce came here cause I would not fill out the census form except for my name.. she came with an Government ID and asked to be let in.. I told her no.. she said I had to and I refused again Daily Paul

The American Community Survey "Guess what? I've been cordially ordered by the federal government to fill out the American Community Survey, a truly nosy, non-census-year census form. Obviously, we are not going to send it in, as I'm very eager to help shrink the size of our government..." Rational Jenn

American Community Survey Makes Me Uncomfortable A blog entry from an individual who recently received the ACS for the first time and found the questions to be highly personal and the Census Bureau's attempt to collect the surveys highly invasive. Technology & MSG

What kind of government harasses an 86-year-old woman? In other words, law breaking has begotten law breaking. It also has given federal agents an excuse to delve into the personal lives of 86-year-old women and frighten them with threats. Freedom's Phoenix

Civics Lessons in the Census "The first civics lesson of the census is that privacy is of little concern to political elites; your personal business is their business. The second lesson is proclaimed loudly by the Census Bureau. The information is necessary so political elites can redistribute wealth and limit liberty according to their vision of a 'good' society" The Cato Institute

The Federal Leviathan is Counting on You "American history shows that when the government starts asking about your race, it's time to get concerned." The Cato Institute

The Census Has Grown Beyond Its Bounds While the Patriot Act and National Security Agency wiretapping have received enormous attention and criticism from the mainstream media, another federal agency has been quietly gathering far more personal information about U.S. residents than those laws ever can. And this unreported project affects thousands more people. Phyllis Schlafly

The Thought Police and the American Community Survey "Everywhere we look these days, we are either being watched, taxed or some bureaucrat is placing another bit of information in our government files. And now with the American Community Survey ..." The Rutherford Institute
Census Bureau: A Threat to Freedom "And, considering the Census Bureau’s dark history, people have plenty of reason to fear that their answers could be used against them." James Bovard

Snooping Census "Every ten years, the federal government conducts a census based upon a constitutional requirement. But the word 'census' doesn't appear in the Constitution. Instead, the Founding Fathers chose the term "enumeration," a word meaning nothing more than 'count.'" The New American

The Census and Privacy "The census forms the most inclusive federal database of American citizens. The information it contains is protected under law from disclosure, yet with the advent of technology many of the traditional legislative protection are inadequate ..." Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Department of Homeland Security Obtained Data
on Arab Americans From Census Bureau "On July 23, 2004, EPIC obtained documents revealing that the Census Bureau provided the Department of Homeland Security statistical data on people who identified themselves on the 2000 census as being of Arab ancestry." Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Don't Trust the Census "When the US Government rounded up Japanese-Americans in 1942, they used the "supposedly private" census data to tell the soldiers how many Japanese lived on each block. Perhaps they didn't hand out these families' census forms, but the data needed to put them into prison camps certainly came from the "strictly confidential" census..." John Gilmore, Entrepreneur and Civil Libertarian

The 'race' question on the U.S. census is racist An analysis of the history of the 'race' question on the Census and now the ACS as well. Also - lots of good links related to problems with the Census Bob Curtis
Census Bureau abuses personal info of prospective employees Evidence that the Census Bureau misused federal databases in violation of the Privacy Act regarding prospective employees Politech: Politics and Technology

The Census Scam "The census is the largest remnant of the spoils system remaining in the federal government. All high-level census officials are chosen by the White House. Middle - and lower - level officials are chosen by Congressional offices." LewRockwell.com
Lockheed Martin Census An online blog where Canadians speak out against Lockheed Martin be awarded a contract in Canada to collect census data for the Canadian government CanadianContent Community
Census Question Alarms Privacy Advocates, Congress "It turns out the most personal question the U.S. Census Bureau asked this year might not be the number of toilets in your home. It might have been your Social Security number." Sun-Sentinel.com
Stop the “American Community Surveyâ€

[domack]

The last Census they sent me a questioner with questions like what time do you leave for work, etc. They sent a person to the house I told them it's none of their business but, I would gladly fill out the regular forum.

[cayla99]

In 2000 my neighbor received the "long form" I kid you not, she showed me where one of the questions was asking how often she had sex in the past year. She lied, she wrote down 10000 times. Her husband says it wasn't an all out lie, that is how many times she had a headache when he approached her with the subject lol

[redpony353]

I just ran across something very interesting about the "American Community Survey" that the Census says we are required to send it. I am not talking about the regular Census, but about the really long survey that some are getting. Well it seems that it says at on the back of it: "Respondents are no required to respond to any information collection unless it displays a VALID APPROVAL number from the Office of Management and Budget. This 8 digit number appears in the bottom right on the front cover of this form." Ok....so in this other chat room someone said they had looked this up and the NUMBER IS EXPIRED!! So, I looked it up and IT DOES SEEM TO BE EXPIRED!! Here is the exerpt and link. If you go to the link, it is a very long list....it is about halfway down under the bold heading "Bureau of Census." OK...here is the link:


http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/rewrite/l ... MERCE.html

OMB NO: 0607-0810 EXPIRATION DATE: 05/31/2008
RESPS:3,160,610 HOURS:1,917,410 COSTS(000):$0
The American Community Survey
FORMS: ACS-1 ACS-1SP ACS-1PR ACS-1PR(SP) ACS-290 ACS-1GQ ACS-4GQ