'I'm Incredibly Disappointed With the Obama Administration in Their Efforts to Promote the Census'

Considering we've spent $14 billion on the 2010 Census and the airwaves have been saturated for months urging people to spend five minutes filling it out, you have to wonder what planet this guy is living on.

From the first link:

Census Director Robert Groves estimated that between 46 million and 49 million households did not return questionnaires. Temporary census takers hired by the agency will hit the streets starting this week and will visit those addresses up to six times to get answers. The agency will further outline those plans at a news conference Monday.

Groves said he anticipates critics will question why this year's results only matched the 2000 response rates despite a multimillion-dollar advertising and outreach campaign, but he called this year's results "unbelievable" because survey response rates have dropped significantly in the past decade.

Socioeconomic concerns rather than race or ethnicity appeared to drive lower response rates, Groves said. Less-educated, lower-income households appeared to respond less. The nation's foreclosure crisis also contributed to the lower rates, he said.

So despite idiotic suggestions it would be Republicans refusing to participate, it appears the base of the Democratic Party--the less educated--are the ones who were too lazy or stupid to participate. They also mention lower income, and since we know Republicans are all rich, it couldn't be them.

Now, on to the fun part. Guess which two ultra-blue Democratic states appear to wind up being the biggest losers when it comes to redistricting? Why, New York and California, of course.

Of the five states on the cusp, the biggest potential losers are California and New York, which could have a net loss of one and two House seats, respectively. Texas may end up gaining just three House seats instead of four.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said he was concerned about some skittish Latinos who may refuse to answer their doors, particularly given Arizona's new immigration law.

Sure, let's blame a law enacted just five days ago and now to take effect for nearly three months with the low response rate among Latinos over the past several months. That makes sense. Just a thought: Maybe if they really want to become Americans thought ought to participate in the process. I know, I know, I'm a racist, fascist Hitler clone for merely suggesting that, but it had to be said.

For comic relief:

"I'm incredibly disappointed with the Obama administration in their efforts to promote the census," Vargas said, citing the government's failure to halt immigration raids during the count as it did in 2000. "It may have the impact of shooting people in the foot if Arizona ends up losing out on a House seat."

It's not often I'll defend Obama, but it's just not humanly possible to promote the Census any more than he did. Did this clown even watch television the last four months? Has he checked his mail? Did he not notice the series of alerts, not to mention the actual Census form itself?

And in supreme irony, the home of the evil Michelle Bachmann had one of the highest response rates.

States such as Minnesota and Oregon are next in line to pick up seats. Minnesota had the nation's second-highest mail response at 80 percent — a clear boost in its effort to avert the loss of a seat, even after Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., made clear her view that the 10-question census was an invasion of privacy.

North Carolina, which snatched a seat from Utah in 2000 when overseas missionaries were excluded from the count, also remains in play to gain a seat.

"It would be a bit ironic if Minnesota ends up a winner," said Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a Virginia-based firm that crunches political numbers. "With the immigration concern, that's going to have an impact. Both New York and California are in the position of losing seats, but they haven't done as much as they could in spending to improve on outreach."

So maybe we can have another Bachmann and another conservative representative from North Carolina while shedding some dead weight from New York and California.

Of course the Democrats will surely be creative when it comes to re-drawing the districts, so don't get your hopes up.