"Hi, this is Miss C with the Census Bureau. I just want to verify that you are the operator of the Politics Alabama blog. Please call me back when you can."
I'm sure you can understand why I was intrigued. Does the Census Bureau really try to tie websites to people in the census count? Maybe this was a back-door censorship attempt. I tried, I really tried, but I couldn't think of a SINGLE benign reason why the Census Bureau might make a call like this.
So earlier today, I called Miss C back, and I discovered the truth.
It turns out that Miss C was calling to get a snail mail address so that they could send a thank-you letter to me.
"Thank you for what?" I asked.
"For helping us promote the Census and encourage people to participate."
"But I didn't do that," I said.
"You didn't? Well, maybe you blogged about the Census?"
"Yes," I replied, "but my posts weren't really supportive, you know?"
She murmured a polite dismissal and hung up.
At that point I could contain myself no longer and I collapsed in laughter.
Do you SEE why am less than entranced by the possibility of government controlling and/or regulating every aspect of our lives? They can't even keep track of who supports and who opposes their activities!
I am assuming that nobody from the Census actually READ any of my blog posts... because if they HAD, then they'd be total IDIOTS to put me on a list of supporters. It's more comforting to assume they just made a mistake... though I don't understand how they made it.
Oh, and did you notice that this implies the Census Bureau was actively coordinating with bloggers to promote the Census? Is our government SUPPOSED to be conspiring to make us think and behave how they'd like us to think and behave?
So, we have a government actively trying to make us like what they're doing, and they can't even remember who SUPPORTS their efforts and who OPPOSES them. This isn't exactly encouraging, you know.
That's very interesting - the truth be told - we know the Census is after a great deal more of personal information then just a head count by county, state and zip
ReplyDeleteI know... they had to see the blog, look at my profile, and use the name to look me up in the white pages to try and get a phone number.
ReplyDeleteThat's an AWFUL lot of effort, you know?
There is another interesting item in that they would SPEND MY MONEY to send out snail mail thank you notes (plus the man hours for research and calling) for supposed political support of a government activity. That is misappropriation of funds, if you ask me! Haven't they spent enough money already on the census?
ReplyDeleteYup, there is that, Paul and Ellie. They spent time and money to encourage people to support the Census, and now they're doing the same to thank those people for the help.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this administration has no problem paying for propaganda to make their policies look better, even if Federal law says they can't. More on that later.
I think the episode was a totally bogus call. I can't imagine a reason why the Census folks would do something like this. It was probably some Democratic operative who wanted to get your blood pressure up.
ReplyDeleteWell, I got her voice mail when I first called her back, and it said "Census" on it... though in her voice, so it could have been faked. Fairly elaborate, though...
ReplyDelete