Census spending we almost do NOT want to know about

Multiply this story from Denver by, oh, just say 10 for starters, and you can find a whole lot of wasted money.

Thousands spent on unused census swag

by Jace Larson

DENVER - The U.S. Census Bureau spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotional items used to convince more people to mail back their census forms, but a 9Wants to Know investigation found thousands of the items were dropped off, unused, at a local high school.

- Colorado's Census participation below average

The leftover items, such as backpacks, cloth grocery bags, hats, pins, magnets and business card holders, were dropped off at Lakewood High School last month.

"We probably had, between the backpack style [bags] and the shopping bag style [bags], over 1,000 dropped off," Lakewood High School Principal Ron Castagna told 9Wants to Know.

He estimates more than 1,000 posters printed in different languages were also dropped off at the school.

An unknown Census worker walked into the school in mid-April and asked the principal if she could leave the items. She did not ask the school to distribute them.

"[She] said, 'We have extra stuff. We're wrapping up the Census and we just want to distribute the materials,'" Castagna said.

It did not sit well with him.

"Wait a minute, times are tough and I'm sitting in a position where we've got a school district that's done everything the right way and yet we're still going to face budget cuts," he said.

Among the many boxes of posters the Census worker left at the school, were more than 300 promotional posters printed in Farsi. Farsi is the language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.

9Wants to Know reviewed the U.S. Census Bureau's numbers from 2000 and found 360 people spoke Farsi in all of Jefferson County at that time.

Castagna says he hopes to let students use the backs of the posters in art classes.

There is more here.

The Democratic Party Plan to Keep their Power

From Gateway Pundit:

Here It Is… Team Obama Unveils Comprehensive Immigration Strategy

Friday, November 13, 2009, 3:04 PM

Jim Hoft

After they ruin the economy Democrats have a plan to keep their power…
And they outlined it today.
Democrats will give citizenship to the 10-30 million illegal aliens residing within the US borders.
Perfect.

We all need to read this. So click that link.

Census Bureau Letter to ACORN

From Fox News

The US Census Bureau on Friday severed all ties with controversial community organizing group ACORN. The reason? The bureau said ACORN's conduct and sour public image threatened to taint the bureau's execution of the 2010 census.

In a letter to ACORN, first obtained by Fox News, the Census Bureau informed ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) President Maude Hurd that the group's image has become too hot to handle.

The Full Letter:

September 11, 2009

Ms. Maude Hurd

President

ACORN

739 8th St SE

Washington, DC 20003

Dear Ms. Hurd:

The goal of the U.S. Census Bureau’s partnership program is to combine the strengths of state, local, and tribal governments, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, schools, media, businesses and others to ensure an accurate 2010 Census. While not (sic) Census bureau employees, partners are advocates for census cooperation and participation. They serve a trusted voices within their communities and are critical to our strategy to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place.

The Census Bureau has established criteria for partnerships, which are listed on our Web site at <www.census.gov >, and reserves the right to decline partnership or to terminate an existing partnership agreement with any group that 1) may create a negative connotation for the Census Bureau; 2) could distract from the Census Bureau’s mission; or, 3) may make people fearful of participating in the census.

To that end, and in keeping with the standards we shared with your organization and others who volunteered to partner with the Census Bureau to help promote the 2010 Census, we are today terminating our Partnership Agreement with ACORN.

Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with the 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts.

While not decisive factors in this decision, recent events concerning several local offices of ACORN have added to the worsening negative perceptions of ACORN and its affiliation with our partnership efforts.

We do not come to this decision lightly. It was our original assessment that your organization could be helpful in encouraging cooperation with the 2010 Census among individuals who are historically hard to count, including renters, low-income residents, the linguistically isolated, and others. As of today, we have close to 80,000 partnership agreements with national and local groups – many of whom are trusted voices and serve these same populations – and we will be relying upon those groups to continue our outreach in the communities you serve. The full participation of those populations remains of utmost importance to us.

Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices. For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership.

Respectfully,

Robert M. Groves

Director