I Am On the Bandwagon

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OK, my gentle snowflakes, CENSUS time.

If you have not filled out and mailed back your 2010 Census form, do it NOW!

I know, I know, you have been bombarded by letters and postcards and follow-up postcards. But this is a really important thing.

How many representatives your state has in the US Congress is at stake. Just how big--geographically--do you want your personal Congress Critter to have to cover?

And how about your state representative and senator? How many square miles will your state congress person have to cover to see his/her constituents? Will she/he know just how bad your roads are if he/she never has to drive over them? How will the pleas for better roads get made with no knowledge of the problem?

This all is affected by the count made during the census.

And then there is the invaluable information that will be left to your descendants.

As an old genealogist, I can tell you the census records are the best! As a genealogist, I wish there were more detailed questions on the forms. Through the census records, I learned that a great-great-grandfather of an ex-husband was a cooper in Ohio on the Great Lakes. That means, he was a ship worker--not a barrel cooper. The family never knew this about this man.

So, get those forms in the mail. Fill them out as completely as possible. Your great-great-grandchildren will thank you.
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Health Care, the Census & An Inauguration Inspiration

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Only a single, government-financed system can eliminate the administrative waste, unfairness and economic burden of our current health insurance scheme. Timidity is no longer an option.

NY Times has an interesting opinion piece about the health care mess.

• Fundamental health care reform would also stimulate more consumer spending, as previously uninsured families would no longer need to save every extra penny to cover a medical emergency. When the federal government expanded Medicaid in the 1990s, ... research has shown, the newly insured significantly increased their spending on consumer goods.

And now, one more thing to add to the list of Bush presidency incompetence: the census.

• The most plausible explanation, beyond incompetence, is that the administration aimed to make it even more difficult than usual to count hard-to-count groups, like minorities, immigrants and the poor, who tilt Democratic. Their numbers, if accurately gauged, could reshape electoral maps.
  
• The White House, with the early support of a Republican-led Congress, shortchanged and delayed financing for the Census Bureau. The administration left top bureau positions unfilled for long stretches and allowed political judgment to dominate bureau management, which damaged morale and impaired performance.

But this will make you proud. "A Virginia businessman ... wants to bring to the inauguration disadvantaged people, terminally ill patients, wounded soldiers and others down on their luck."

It was the "JW Marriott's $1 million 'build-your-own-ball' offer. You get 300 rooms, four suites, $200,000 worth of food and drink, and a primo site overlooking the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route."

Amazing. Awe-inspiring. Wonderous.
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