...It Hit The Ground Like a Hot Bag of Census

There was quite a bit of scrutiny directed toward the U.S. Census Super Bowl commercial. I didn't really pay much attention to it until now. I actually watched to commercial.

I can't believe that the government spent 2.5 million dollars on this commercial.

No this is NOT a joke, that was really the 2.5 million dollar commercial for the census.

Let's take a closer look at what's really going on.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Big worries for the nation's first high-tech census should have been obvious when the door-to-door headcounters couldn't figure out their fancy new handheld computers.

Now, officials say, technology problems could add as much as $2 billion to the cost of the 2010 census and jeopardize the accuracy of the nation's most important survey.

A congressional agency says the census is at "high risk" of producing an expensive yet unreliable count, and lawmakers are planning hearings.

Census officials are considering a return to using paper and pencil to count every man, woman and child in the nation.

This was to be the first truly high-tech count in the nation's history, with census-takers using handheld computers to track and tally the millions of Americans who do not return the census forms mailed out by the government. The Census Bureau plans to hire and train nearly 600,000 temporary workers to help.

But interviews, congressional testimony and government reports describe an agency that was unprepared to manage a $600 million contract for the handheld computers that will be vital. Census officials are being blamed for a poor job spelling out technical requirements to the contractor, Florida-based Harris Corp.

The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.

At more than $11 billion, the initial cost of the 2010 census was already the most expensive ever. Officials now are scrambling to hold down costs while trying to ensure the count produces reliable population numbers — figures that will be used to apportion seats in Congress and divvy up more than $300 billion a year in federal and state funding.

"What we're facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

"Will they leave this mess for the next administration?" asked Maloney, a member of the House committee that oversees the census.

It would appear that the problem is not with the general public, but with the Census Bureau itself.

I have just a few things to say here.

- Why in the world is the government spending 2.5 million dollars on a commercial that is completely pointless? Honestly, did you learn anything from that commercial?

- How is the commercial going to help in facilitate the census?

- Why not spend 2.5 million dollars training the temporary workers hired to take the census? Then they can work the 646 million dollars worth of computers purchased to tabulate the census!

It gets even better though, check it out!

Over the next few months, it will be hard to escape hearing about the 2010 Census.

The Census Bureau unveiled a $133 million advertising campaign Thursday that urges people to mail back the questionnaires that will be sent out in mid-March. The ads, in 28 languages, aim to save taxpayers' money by reducing the need for temporary workers to survey people who don't return their forms.

Some ads will be featured on high-viewership television shows such as the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday and the Super Bowl in early February. But more than half of the budget has been set aside for media outlets that target groups undercounted in previous censuses, including African Americans, Hispanics and others that have many recent immigrants who may not speak English.

"We're proud of this," Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves said of the campaign's multicultural focus.

The paid advertising is part of a $340 million campaign to promote the once-a-decade count. The money will also pay for census material for schoolchildren, a traveling road show of census buses at parades and festivals around the country and partnerships with groups that can get distribute give-away trinkets and placards.

Am I in the Twilight Zone?! A traveling road show of census buses at parades and festivals around the country? Give-away trinkets and placards? Get a load of some of the languages mentioned.

Hundreds of ads have been drafted in a United Nations of languages, including Tagalog, Yiddish, Hmong, Khmer, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and two dialects of Chinese.

The emphasis in the message varies with the audience. Several ads geared toward Spanish speakers, for instance, mention that the census is confidential and that the bureau cannot divulge their immigration status.

Since when does the Constitution say that people who are NOT legal citizens are to receive congressional representation? If immigration status is not an issue, why not just count the entire Northern Hemisphere, or the world?

Could this make any less sense?

Tip: Steal the identity of an illegal alien, never pay taxes again!

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