Right Reading Round-up 2-21-10 at Maggie's Notebook

Have you received an American Community Survey (ACS) from your government? Snarky Basterd at Feed Your ADHD has. This is not the census, but he is ordered to fill it out and return it. The survey asks how much your rent or mortgage payment is, your retirement or pension amount and when you last married. There's much more, including a $5000 penalty if you do not comply. Read what Snarky plans to do, the message he plans to send, and let me know if you were also selected ordered to complete an ACS.

Daniel Greenfield, writing for CanadaFreePress says There is No End to Jihad, and the assault is not coming only from Islam. This is a hilarious and incredulous look at the mess we are in today, beginning with Joe Stack's attack on the IRS and the Tea Party movement, to the Atlanta Progressive News which fired a reporter for displaying objectivity in his writing, to Mitch Romney's 'vulcan grip" on the rapper, Sky Blu, and how a Palestinian official's sexual escapade is blamed on Israel.  And then perhaps the most important piece of news: the attempted corrupting of a U.S. Congressman by the White House. You can also read Daniel at his own blog, Sultan Knish.

Ron at TOTUS has an incredible video of Steve Reicher, a Marine sniper, who made a kill shot from over one mile away and takes out a terrorist. The History Channel recreated the important story.

Ms Sparky pays homage to Sgt. Klayton Thomas and his short and fatal struggle against lung cancer. His death occurred just two weeks after the military acknowledged a "probable link" between Iraq's "burn pits" and various respiratory illnesses shared by far too many of our military. Photo at right is Sgt. Thomas and his wife Mia in happier times.

Whoa! An Ol' Broad's Rambling says former Democrat Congressman, James Traficant, from Ohio plans to run for office again as an Independent. With a 7-year prison sentence behind him, he wants to get into your business yet again. Kate also has a fine essay up on the Second Amendment.

Reaganite Republican has a complete commentary on today's most important issues...through cartoons. James always has the best Sunday Funnies...and they always speak to reality. Instead of reading and weeping, you read, nod wisely and belly laugh. While I often link to this site's pithy work, I was honored this week to be The Reaganite Republican's Featured Blogger - complete with my very own beloved Liberty Bell Banner. Thank you so much, James.

Carole at No Sheeples Here warns of Obama's "rope-a-dope" strategy, and contrary to Carly Fiorina's famous campaign video, Carole shows us the real "demon sheep."

America's Watchtower reports on Harry Reid's miniaturized jobs bill, which he plans to force cloture on...then add back in, all the left-out, still-wanted Liberal measures to later bills. Deception by spreading it all out in several bits of legislation. This is happening tomorrow!

American Power points to The Narrative, which keeps Republicans "stuck in rearguard actions," and asks four tough questions. Here's one: Do Republicans actually disdain an ideal of justice that conjures up an image of well-fed and well-tended sheep?

Debbie at RightTruth caught Colin Powell resurfacing. The General is in defensive mode. She has a suggestion for him.

J.D. Longstreet, writing at FaultlineUSA warns that our tough times haven't yet arrived. Are we on a "primrose path" to destruction?

...I foresee a complete collapse of the American economic system. Something, I feel, that will be much, much, worse than the Dot-Com Crash back in 2000, or even the Sub Prime Credit Crash in 2008. No, what I feel is coming will be worse than both these two former crashes added together. In fact, it has, I believe, already begun.

Friend and contributor to Maggie's Notebook, Karen, The Lonely Conservative, went to CPAC for the first time this year. She invited me along, and for various reasons, I couldn't make it - DANG! Next year will be different. Anyway, reading Karen's coverage, I see she is as distressed as I that Ron Paul won the straw poll. She got a good shot of Newt Gingrich, and says after his speech, she might to able to forgive him for the "Dede Scozzafava debacle...at least for the day." Good coverage here with Andrew Breitbart videos. Scroll through The Lonely Conservative for more.

Smitty at The Other McCain interviews Katherine Jenerette, a GOP candidate for the U.S. House from South Carolina. Browse through the Other McCain for full coverage of CPAC. From Smitty:

She’s an Army vet, mother of four, and sounds like more of what the country needs. This blog supports tough veterans in the fight to reclaim the country from the clutches of Progressivism.

ChicagoRay has some excellent analysis on the media's "reverse psychology" on conservatism's chances in November 2010, along with a video of Rick Santorum's CPAC comments to FOXNews' Brian Wilson (my favorite new guy).

J at Uncoverage.net (thanks to The Other McCain for the introduction) has some great coverage of CPAC. This page for Day 3, in particular. Read the Ann Coulter one-liners and her closing remark: "You've been a great audience, you're all paid shills for the insurance companies, Keith Olbermann is a girl and GOD BLESS AMERICA.

DaTechGuy has video of the Tea Party Reagan Award winners. Here's your chance to put a face to one of your favorite bloggers. Look around at his many posts on other Reagan Ward Winners, and watch for coming CPAC posts, which he says will be coming this week.

Watch Andrew Breitbart confront Max Blumenthal - tell him he's a "punk" and says "racist" is the worst thing you can call someone. Larry O'Connor at Big Government finishes the con-versation.

Census Audit: Census Prep Wastes Millions: Ten Thousand Census Workers Got Paid $3M for No Work

An audit of the U.S. Census Program shows preparations, alone, have cost taxpayers millions, including 10,000 payments to temporary workers who received $300 each for doing absolutely nothing - no work at all - for a total of $3 million. Others over-billed for travel expenses.

 

U.S. Census Bureau

That's not all the bad news however. Once the audit is completed, we are "cautioned" that...

excessive charges could multiply once the $15 billion headcount begins in earnest next month unless the agency imposes tighter spending controls, according to excerpts of a forthcoming audit obtained by The Associated Press.

Do we think "tighter spending control" will be a part of this census? Nah...of course we don't. $15 billion in excessive spending!

One million temporary workers will be hired, and is part of Obama's plan to put America to work... counting, specifically, "Democratic-leaning minorities" and "the poor," because Democrats desperately need their voting base.

According to the audit to be officially released next week, we've already spent $88 million over the original estimate of $356 million - not of the entire cost of the Census - but simply a program using 140,000 temp workers to walk neighborhoods for the government's "address-canvassing operation - so we could get started on the actual Census

--More than 10,000 census employees were paid over $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were otherwise let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million.

--Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training, and then worked a single day or less. Cost $1.5 million.

--Twenty-three temporary census employees were paid for car mileage costs at 55 cents a mile, even though the number of miles they reported driving per hour exceeded the total number of hours they actually worked.

--Another 581 employees who spent the majority of their time driving instead of conducting field work also received full mileage reimbursements, which investigators called questionable.

Notice the U.S. Census headquarters in the pic above. It was built in 2006-2007. You and I built this mammoth facility at a price tag of $400 million:

Government buildings are often boxy, cheap, and boring, designed more for the efficiency of those constructing them than for the people who have to work in them.

The new headquarters of the U.S. Census Bureau is different: Clad in "blades" of a local native wood and no taller than eight stories, the vast complex was designed to blend into the surrounding woodland preserve.

Extensive facilities on every floor create an inviting environment that's a huge improvement over the previous World War II-era headquarters. On the ground floor, a thoroughfare known as Main Street runs the length of 11 football fields and contains facilities such as a fitness center, cafeteria, credit union, and stores, allowing people to meet for coffee or run errands. 

I'll have more on the U.S. Census later. Can't wait to see the questions.

Michele Bachmann Rejects Census, ACORN: Constitutional Revolt!

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn-6th) will reject the premise of the census for several reasons, one of which is the involvement of ACORN in collecting data, another is the personal nature of the questions asked of each household, but most important, she says the census, in its present form, is not constitutional. Maybe this is a first step to a Constitutional revolt! Maybe this is our clarion call. Bachmann said she will "not fill out anything more than the number of people in her household."

I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home," she said. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Rep. Bachmann told the Washington Times' "America's Morning News" that the questions have become:

...very intricate, very personal" and she also fears ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire for its voter registration efforts last year, will be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts. They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public," she said. "This is very concerning."

U.S. Census Bureau attorney Shelly Lowe said that Bachmann is misreading the law, stating that the U.S. legal code says anyone over 18 years of age who refuses to answer "any of the questions" on the census can be fined up to $5,000. More when available...because believe me, there will be more. The claws and clacking tongues love to bash Bachmann and this lady is always up for the fight. I must say, I love to see our Representatives and Senators staunchly deferring to the U.S. Constitution. I only wish it happened more often. This is a good start.