Note to Bachman About Census Bashing: It Has Real Consequences

[Joanne98]

It's still unclear if the murdered census worker with "fed" written on his chest was killed because he was a census worker, but the bashing of the Constitutionally-mandated census by Michelle Bachmann and other conservatives is having an effect--and not a good one (italics mine):

>
I work in the field for the Census Bureau in western North Carolina, deep in the mountains. There are certainly meth labs and grow ops in the areas where I've worked, but the greatest fear for my team and myself comes from the angry and the ignorant.

The overwhelming anger is directed straight at the President. No question. Fear and racism at the core that has manifested into anti-government radicalism. We're threatened and intimidated almost daily, just for trying to earn a days pay and uphold the Constitution. I've been called an "employee of president nigger" and team members have been bitten by dogs and threatened with shotguns.

The Glenn Becks and Michelle Bachmans give these nutjobs legitimacy and a voice. They're bringing this madness into the mainstream fold of our society and stoking the flames of misguided fears.
>

I realize that movement conservative leaders don't believe that words actually have meaning, but someone is going to get killed over this, if it hasn't happened already.

http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2009/09/note_to_bachman_about_census_b.php

Well isn't that interesting.

[damntexdem]

1. Fine if it keeps the RW idiots from responding to the Census, so undercounts them.

Wonderful when the time comes to reapportion districts.

But a real threat if Census workers are attacked, or killed, as the one in Kentucky may have been.

[Greenpeach]

2. I don't think a reminder means shit...

to Bachman, or that she has any qualms about consequences. In fact, aren't those dire consequences exactly what they are consciously trying to provoke? They're killers and evil to the core.

[paulsby]

3. free speech is dangerous

it always has been and always will be

[louis-t]

4. Backwoods people hate them 'revenuers'.

Repugs sure love killing people.

[clear eye]

5. You may be underestimating the blowback from the ACS

If you are only assigned to do the regular census you may not have even read the ACS. You may not be aware how intrusive and inappropriate-sounding the questions are or that it asks for info on specific individuals that could be obtained about them as a group from other sources. Or don't know that recipients who don't return it are harrassed by phone and in person including being followed whenever they leave their homes for a month and having their neighbors questioned, all the while being threatened w/ prosecution and jail. It seems inevitable that such experiences give people as dim a view of the census as anything Ms. Bachmann could say.

[Kievan Rus]

6. I don't think a winger did this

Makes more sense if a guy running a meth lab did it, IMHO. The census taker found his base and he killed him to cover it up. I initially thought a winger did it, but a shady guy with a still or meth lab makes more sense.