the danger rests in not knowing exactly how the government plans to use this vast amount of highly personal information --- the reward is giving the gov the information it needs to find terrorists and illegal immigrants that are a clear and present danger to our nation
those who ignore security will soon lose their privacy and liberty On Mar 5, 7:34 am, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Big Brother Wants to Know All About You: The American Community Surveyby John > W. Whitehead“This is Big Brother at its worst.” --Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) > Over the past several years, I have been barraged with emails from Americans > expressing their dismay over the American Community Survey, the latest census > form to hit randomly selected households on a continuous basis. Unlike the > traditional census, which collects data every ten years and is now underway, > the American Community Survey is taken every year at a cost of hundreds of > millions of dollars. And at 28 pages (with an additional 16-page instruction > packet), it contains some of the most detailed and intrusive questions ever > put forth in a census questionnaire. These concern matters that the > government simply has no business knowing, including a person’s job, income, > physical and emotional health, family status, place of residence and intimate > personal and private habits. > As one frustrated survey recipient, Beth, shared with me:When we first read > through the American Community Survey, we thought it was an ID theft scam. I > showed it to a lawyer friend of mine. She had never heard of the survey and > warned it could be a scam. She said if she’d received this, she would call > her congressman and senator to find out if scams such as this were happening > to warn others. So I called Washington DC. They in turn told me to call our > senator’s office in my state – which I did. I was referred to the Justice > Department, who then referred me to my county representative. When I called > my county representative, my call was shifted to a Census Bureau employee > placed in their offices to field questions about the survey. The Census > Bureau representative told me the survey was not a scam. She could not tell > me whether or not to fill it out, but said if we chose not to, there could be > hefty fines and jail time associated with not doing so. She was no help at > all and was evasive in answering my questions.As Beth found out, the survey > is not voluntary. Answering the questions is not a polite request from the > Census Bureau. You are legally obligated to answer. If you refuse, the fines > are staggering. For every question not answered, there is a $100 fine. And > for every intentionally false response to a question, the fine is $500. > Therefore, if a person representing a two-person household refused to fill > out any questions or simply answered nonsensically, the total fines could > range from upwards of $10,000 and $50,000 for noncompliance. > While the penalties for not answering are outrageous, the questions, as Rep. > Ron Paul (R-Texas) has said, are “both ludicrous and insulting.” For example, > the survey asks how many persons live in your home, along with their names > and detailed information about them such as their relationship to you, > marital status, race and their physical, mental and emotional problems, etc. > The survey also asks how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have in your house, > along with the kind of fuel used to heat your home, the cost of electricity, > what type of mortgage you have, the amount of your monthly mortgage payments, > property taxes and so on. This questionnaire also requires you to detail how > many days you were sick last year, how many automobiles you own, whether you > have trouble getting up the stairs and, amazingly, what time you leave for > work every morning and how long it takes you to get there. When faced with > the prospect that government agents could covertly enter your home and rifle > through your personal belongings, do you really want the government knowing > exactly when you’re away from home? > As if the survey’s asinine questions and highly detailed inquiries into your > financial affairs weren’t bad enough, you’re also expected to violate the > privacy of others by supplying the names and addresses of your friends, > relatives and employer. And the questionnaire stipulates that you provide > such information on the people in your home as their educational levels, how > many years of schooling they completed, what languages they speak and when > they last worked at a job, among other things. > Americans being ordered by the government to inform and spy on your family > and friends? It’s not too far off from the scenario George Orwell envisioned > in his futuristic novelNineteen Eighty-Four. “The family,” writes Orwell, > “had become in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by > means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who > knew him intimately.” > Granted, some of the questions in the American Community Survey may appear > fairly routine. However, the danger rests in not knowing exactly how the > government plans to use this vast amount of highly personal information. For > instance, if the financial information you provide on the survey does not > jive with your tax returns, whether such a discrepancy was intentional or > not, could you be flagged for an IRS audit? Given the increasing amount of > collusion taking place between government agencies in recent years, I > wouldn’t rule it out. > Another concern with this intrusive questionnaire is that it signifies yet > another inroad into the establishment of a permanent surveillance state. > Everywhere we look these days, we are either being watched, taxed or some > bureaucrat is placing another bit of information in our government files. Now > with the American Community Survey, the federal bureaucracy is thrusting its > expansive tentacles toward us in an attempt to invade every aspect of our > lives. > This survey also hints at a dangerous wedding of governmental and corporate > interests – a merger that inevitably results in personal data collected on > hundreds of millions of Americans being shared with private corporations. > Needless to say, with the Obama administration poised to hire an additional > one million census workers, data collecting on American citizens will be > intensified over the next several years. > Clearly, this is not what the Founders intended. As Article I of the U. S. > Constitution makes plain, the census is to be taken every ten years for the > sole purpose of congressional redistricting. The Founders envisioned a simple > head count of the number of people living in a given area so that numerically > equal congressional districts could be maintained. There is no way that the > Founders would have authorized the federal government to continuously demand, > under penalty of law, such detailed information from the American people. > However, the Founders did not anticipate the massive and meddlesome federal > bureaucracy we have today or the daily onslaught of media images and > governmental scare tactics designed to keep the modern American distracted > and submissive. Sadly, most Americans do not seem to care that their freedoms > are being whittled away or they see no point in resistance. Either way, the > reaction is the same: they submit to virtually every government demand, > including the highly intrusive and patently unconstitutional American > Community Survey. > Thankfully, there are still some Americans out there who value freedom and > recognize that it is time to stand up and fight back using whatever peaceful, > nonviolent means are available to them. As Beth concludes in her email to > me:As an American loyal to my country, we have no choice but to stand against > this unethical intrusion into our lives. I have called and written to many > people. No response. No one seems to be listening. No one seems to care. I > intend to vote for those who do > care.http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/whitehead9.1.1.html -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
