I don't understand the whole census thing...

[cags]

I don't understand the problem, please excuse my ignorance on this subject but what is the issue here.

Census counts people, how could anyone use that for political purposes?

I don't get why the repubs are upset.

[marmar]

1. A thorough Census might show a dramatic increase in the non-Republican voting, nonwhite population..

....... a truly terrifying prospect for Repugs. :scared:

[NMDemDist2]

2. 'pukes don't want to count all the brown people

Dems do.

based on the 2010 census numbers Congress will get new seats and those numbers are used for re-districting

[Fluffdaddy]

5. The Obama people better not cave on this

[Kahuna]

8. Cave on what? Give me a break. nt

[Fluffdaddy]

13. Cave on the census . Don't you even read the thread you posting in?

[Kahuna]

19. I can read. But your whole premise about Obama caving" is disingenuous

to put it politely. If he was prone to cave, gregg wouldn't have withdrawn. Get it now?

[Clio the Leo]

3. They use the census to establish congressional districts....

..... when the GOP had power, they were able to gerrymander (redisctict) Georgia in a way that many cite it as the reason why Georgia has become such a solidly red state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymander

[Fluffdaddy]

7. That's the way the game is played. Obama better not cave on this

[Clio the Leo]

9. Part of the reason why Gregg took his balls and went home....

.... was because the President was going to take total control of it away from the Commerce Dept.

He ain't stupid.

[Thrill]

12. If Obama was going to cave on it. Gregg would still be Commerce Secretary

[Fluffdaddy]

15. I hope you are all right..............Screw this bipartisanship crap

[Uzybone]

4. Because they want to count non whites as 2/3 people

[Fluffdaddy]

6. Oh stop it

:evilgrin:

[laureloak]

11. Racist anti-white blather. Just stop it! n/t

[Uzybone]

17. Its a fucking joke FFS

geez. At least fluffdaddy got it.

[Javaman]

10. redistricting is done, usually via the results of the census, unless you live in texas.

when the repukes decided to redistrict before the next census was taken. thus making it illegal but since the repukes are in charge here...

:banghead:

[customerserviceguy]

14. Censuses are way more than a simple head count

They ask questions about income, race, and even ones that hint at wealth. If I had a look at your census form, I could make a pretty good guess about your voting record. I could dump all that information into a computer that could gerrymander Congressional districts to favor one political party over another.

Ask yourself this: If Dick Cheney wanted to control the census from his Vice Presidential office, without any outside supervision, would you feel comfortable with that? What the repubs are saying is that they don't trust President Obama any more than we'd trust Darth Vader.

[dkf]

16. I don't get it either.

I don't understand why we have to estimate the number of people that are missing. Doesn't that mean our census efforts are lacking?

And surely we can't count people if we have no idea as to their citizenship.

I guess I wouldn't want a Republican in charge just in case that person deliberately made a bad effort in Dem areas and made super special efforts in Repub areas, but other than that, the census shouldn't be manipulated by either side.

[iamthebandfanman]

18. i dont either since they arent all that accurate

i mean i know they decide congressional districts with it .. but whats it matter if half the people fabricate the results anyway?


to me it sounds like the whole process needs to be revamped before anybody cares about it.

[grantcart]

20. The Republicans want to use a strict count the head only approach

The Democrats want to use a statistical projection that takes into account people where everyone in the household is working and no one from the Census bureau was able to actually talk to them and also include projection on homeless people.


The Democratic formula is considered more accurate from a statistical point of view but also includes more lower income people who are harder to track down, thereby increasing Congresspeople from poorer districts.


Gregg's concern on this however is laughable because he would have had a lot more impact on it as Secretary of Commerce than as a sitting Senator, so it is a nonsense issue.

[WeDidIt]

21. THINK!

The Census is the basis upon which all redistricting is performed.