John McCain’s Pork Roll: Or the GOP War Against the U.S. Census

[McCamy Taylor]

roll Definition.

v. tr.

15. Games To throw (dice), as in craps.
16. Slang To rob (a drunken, sleeping, or otherwise helpless person).

n.
1. The act or an instance of rolling.



Intro. Republicans Hate the Principle of One Citizen One Vote

I might as well write water is wet . Norm Coleman has provided an object lesson in how the votes of some matter more than the voters of many others---and the lengths Republicans will go to in order to ensure that the many others are not heard in Washington.

Remember 2000, when conservatives battled to keep the Clinton administration from doing anything to correct the problem inherent in U.S. Census of under sampling certain populations---including some minority populations? Like Latinos who might not read English or who might be afraid of INS? Or other groups who might fear that the IRS would obtain their information?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/401548_censusonline27.html

Before the last census, a host of scientific associations came out in support of statistical sampling. The American Statistical Association argued that "statistically designed sampling" is "a valid, important, and generally accepted scientific method for gaining accurate knowledge about widely dispersed human populations" and that "properly designed sampling is often a better and more accurate method of gaining such knowledge than an inevitably incomplete survey of all members of such a population," further noting, "There are no sound scientific grounds for rejecting all use of statistical sampling in the 2000 census."

Well, they are at it again. Now, they want to cut funding for the next Census, on the grounds that it is wasteful, pork barrel spending. And they have enlisted the aid of a man who knows all about pork, John McCain, to lead the attack.

II. Earmarks Are In the Eye of the Beholder or Sen. Mike Enzi Calls Census Funding Pork

Senator who?

First, I want everyone to notice that there is some sleight of hand---or maybe I should call it sleight of Senator going on here. Senator Mike Enzi (R, Wyoming) a conservative puppet of coal that no one would listen to was the one who first called Census funding pork.

"While this bill does not include traditional earmarks, we should all understand that there are earmarks in this bill," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. "There is $850 million ... to bail out Amtrak, a $75 million earmark for the Smithsonian, a $1 billion earmark for the 2010 census."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/62614.html

The whole Republicans are not the party of pork media circus did not get its show on the road until they drafted Sen. John McCain to take over as the magician who pulls the rabbit out of the hat for his adoring journalist fans.


First, when members of the press like Chris “Tweety” Matthews tell you that McCain never asks for earmarks, they are repeating an old wives’ tale of the DC press corp. McCain is very good at getting money for his state while pretending that he is not getting money for his state, but sometimes the best con men slip up. Scroll down the page to learn more.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/one-two_punch_for_gop.html




The same Republicans who gorge themselves at the federal tax coffers like pigs at a trough ( see my recent journal about how red states get up to twice as much money back from the feds as they contribute in taxes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5137567 )

are now pretending to be shocked that they have counted $5 billion in sortof earmarks in the budget up before Congress. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this compares favorably to the $26 billion in actual honest to God earmarks which the last Republican controlled Congress voted for corporate welfare kings back in 2006. However, the GOP functions on the assumption that it is ok if a Republican does it . That means if a GOP politician molests a strange man in a public restroom or pays a whore for kinky sex or engages in insider trading it’s just droit du seigneur ---white man’s privilege. So, even if the last two Republican Congresses (from 2003-6) added $100 billion to our deficit, they still have every right to pitch a fit over $5 billion----

Hold on a second. Did I write $5 billion? According to the McClatchy article $850 million is scheduled to go to Amtrak . While Amtrak happens to be a pet project of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas (Republican), it crosses the entire United States. Even if the improvements will be on certain lines or terminals, those upgrades benefit all riders who may be traveling across the country. That is federal spending. Let’s subtract that one.

And the $75 million for the Smithsonian? DC does not even have a Senator. How are they supposed to get pork? Again, the national museums are owned by the whole country. We are down to about $4 billion in earmarks---

Huh? The Republicans claim $1 billion to try to help the U.S. Census get ready for next year is an earmark?

Did they really think that no one was going to call them out on that?



Kindof sortof maybe earmarks $3 billion. Republicans definitely zero.

II. The Bush Administrations Other Other War: “If We Do Not Count Them, They Don’t Count”

CBS News has a story today about how badly mismanaged the U.S. Census has been under Bush-Cheney. It is called Census In Peril

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/05/national/main4844659.shtml?tag=topHome

With the 2010 census fast approaching, computer glitches, operational missteps and ballooning costs could overwhelm the government's ability to conduct the once-a-decade count of the nation's population, congressional investigators said Thursday.

Reports released by the Government Accountability Office show critical preparations for the 2010 census are behind schedule and the Census Bureau has no clear strategy for improving the count of hard-to-reach minorities.

The reports are the latest to highlight difficulties for the census, which now costs $14 billion and has been beset by partisan bickering.

I have to interject something here. Why does the press call every Bush administration atrocity "partisan bickering"? That is like saying if Democrats object to torture, they are "nagging". Which is like saying Bush can't stop torturing now, because he would look like a pussy whipped husband giving in to his nagging wife. Can't some things just be right or legal instead of always having to say This is the Republican position and this is the Democratic position, and we have to give both sides equal time? Did Charles Manson get equal time?

Ok, back to my journal. How did the Census, which has been doing its job for centuries, armed mostly with pen, paper and a fleet of college students and retired folks get into this mess? I believe that the Bush administration and the Republicans have been waging war against the agency, because they do not want an accurate count of the number of people---especially minority people---who live in various parts of the country. A lot depends up these numbers. Congressional districts, federal funding----these are some of the things which could change drastically if the 2010 Census showed a major shift in demographics, such as an increase in Latinos in various parts of the United States. Like Arizona.

If you were the kind of Republican administration that rubber stamped illegal Texas redistricting that diluted the voting power of Latinos in Texas, you might also want to hamstring the U.S. Census in advance of 2010. Here is how you might do it.

III. How Harris Corp of Florida, Chaired By Howard Lance Took $3 Billion from the U.S. Census and Set Them Years Behind In the Process

Check out this memo from 2004.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/2010_census/001782.html

The Census announced that it would replace reliable, cheap pen and paper with hand held computers, presumably because some Bush crony wanted to build them. The contract was awarded to Harris Corporation in Florida. A couple of years later, in 2006, Bush would name its chairman, Howard Lance to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

http://www.harris.com/view_pressrelease.asp?act=lookup&pr_id=2025

Note that Howard Lance likes to donate money to Bush, McCain and most especially to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/howard-lance.asp?cycle=08

We know that Harris Corp is capable of doing good quality work, since

The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards

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

The Emmy Award was not given for the technological excellence demonstrated by Harris Corp in building the U.S. government’s new Census equipment. But maybe the Bush appointment was. Four years and $3 billion later ($2.5 billion of that in cost overruns), in 2008 the U.S. Census was facing a deadline to begin the preparation work for 2010 and it still did not have its new handheld computers.

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080403_9574.php

In 2006, the Census Bureau awarded a $595 million contract to Harris Corp. to develop more than 525,000 handheld computers that enumerators would use to collect data from Americans who did not send in their census forms. The handhelds would replace the millions of costly paper forms and maps that enumerators must carry when going door to door to visit Americans who did not mail in their census forms. Since awarding the contract, the project has experienced constant setbacks, including changing system requirements that led to increased costs and missed deadlines. Reports by the Government Accountability Office, the department's inspector general and Mitre Corp. all issued warnings that the handhelds were at risk of not being ready by 2010 and may not work as planned.

The Census and Harris have each accused the other of being at fault. Congress says there was a breakdown in communication. I believe neither side had any incentive to make this project work. Harris wanted the money, but it knew that it would not be punished if the Census came to harm because of its failure to maintain open channels of communication with its customer. Indeed, harming the Census would likely win Harris favor with Bush and the GOP. The Census knew that the administration did not want an accurate count. It just wanted plenty of cost overruns to pad the expense account of a big Republican donor. Both sides were just going through the motion, throwing more tax payer money into the ravenous maw of another GOP corporate pig eater. Note that in 2008, the Census was supposed to start using the handheld computers to do field work to prepare for 2010 in my own Dallas/Fort Worth region. That work had to be put on hold. I wonder how far beyond they are in the rest of the country.

IV. We Are Now Paying Billions to Get the Census Back to Where It Was in 2000

Grover Norquist does not like to see his corporate clients pay taxes, but he likes them to get federal handouts. That’s why he said he hoped that Bush would increase federal spending so much that he would eventually bankrupt the U.S. government so that it could be drowned in a bathtub.

We can only pray that Norquist will be in that tub.



In the same nextgov report from 2008 cited in the last section

Gutierrez said reverting to a paper-based census, in addition to other costs not associated with the handhelds, is expected to increase the cost of the 2010 census to between $2.2 billion and $3 billion through fiscal year 2013. That would bring the total cost of the 2010 census to between $13.7 billion and $14.5 billion. He said the bureau would need an increase of $160 million to $230 million for fiscal 2008 to cover costs associated with returning to paper, with an additional $600 million to $700 million for fiscal 2009. Gutierrez added that the majority of the cost increases would occur in 2010.

Pay attention to that last part. Back in 2008 they decided that they would let the 2009 Congress---and the new president---pay for the mistakes made by the previous president, Census Bureau and Congresses. What Republicans like Mike Enzi and John McCain and their media puppets are calling “pork” for the U.S. Census is really catch up money that everyone always knew that we would have to spend, because the agency has been mismanaged for the last decade.

Only now the Republicans are trying to axe that funding.

Statistical sampling? Hell, we will be lucky if we don’t have to sample by Ouija board
this time.

V. McCain Is a Weasel as Well as a Liar

If pressed, John McCain will insist that he never called necessary U.S. Census funding pork . This is because he is a weasel, who squirms his way out of controversial situations rather than standing up and fighting like a man.

In fact, John McCain has been enlisted to spearhead this effort, because the Republicans hope that the members of the press will just blindly accept that anything the War Hero says must be true, and therefore they will not analyze any of the facts that are peripheral to what McCain is saying----like the assumption that there actually is $5 billion in pork in the bill currently before the U.S. Congress and that $1 billion of it is US Census funding.

Here is a challenge to all the admirers of the Mac. Come on Tweety. Tell us that the U.S. Census does not need any funding. Tell us that counting U.S. citizens and residents so that we can allocate necessary services and plan for the future is wasteful, pork barrel spending of the worst kind.