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Rep. Michele Bachmann Cites War-Time Internments in Her Crusade Against 2010 Census
Just days after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told the world (or at least whoever reads The Washington Times) that she would not be completing her 2010 Census questionnaire in its entirety, she has decided to cite as rationale incidents from World War II, when the Census Bureau released confidential information to the Roosevelt administration to aid the government's effort to round up Japanese-Americans into internment camps.
Yes, the Census Bureau committed a major error during the 1940s. One assumes that such egregious offenses and violations of personal privacy wouldn't occur today. Right?
A better argument for Bachmann to make would have been to cite the Census Bureau's disclosure of Arab-Americans' demographic data to the Department of Homeland Security in the post-9/11 era (Wouldn't that be a great coalition: The Arab American Institute Foundation, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Rep. Michele Bachmann?)
As if the 2010 Census didn't already have enough problems of its own, the continued politicization of this process will only be a greater detriment to the American people.
Bachmann, for your viewing pleasure:
Why would one assume that?
One assumes that such egregious offenses and violations of personal privacy wouldn't occur today. Right?
Excuse me Mr. Morse, but... WRONG!
Our Bill of Rights has been shredded since WWII, under a variety of justifications.
McCarthyism.
Cold War.
War on Drugs.
War on Terror.
With our new President siding with the previous administration's heavy-handed tactics, (which include, but are not limited to warrantless spying, denial of habeas corpus and right to trial) and has been defending those tactics in court, give me one good reason why a sane person would assume any such thing.
Bachmann reads too many Philip K. Dick books
Come on now Doubting Thomas, let's be realistic. Of course it's natural to be suspicious of our government when they've been spying on us with satellites, tapping our phone and email communications, and so forth. But Bachmann's rationale, taken in context with the many other paranoid fantasies she entertains, reveal delusions of grandeur that are symptomatic of borderline schizophrenia. She probably thinks the FBI digs through her garbage and that those DHS satellites are beaming pink lasers into her brain with messages from God who happens to have been exiled to another planet by Satan and is attempting to use her as a vessel for His Divine Invasion.
Read Again, Please
My comments had nothing to do with what Bachmann thinks, probably thinks or doesn't think.
My dispute is with the author of this article's assertion that:
One assumes that such egregious offenses and violations of personal privacy wouldn't occur today. Right?
You clearly think such faith in the government is misplaced as well.
We can hammer and ridicule politicians all we like. Both our major parties provide ample fodder for such. But let's not try and sell the story that our government should be trusted to abide by the Constitution and the integral Bill of Rights it's officials all swear their oath on, because it obviously shouldn't.
However Bachmann went about saying it, and whether or not she's a loon, she's right. Gov't can't be trusted not to misuse census data, and they have a history of misusing it in ways that oppress selected groups in our society, and the author admits as much, while insinuating that she's a nazi.
Her underlying point is well worth keeping in public view.
Healthy distrust vs. paranoia: There is a difference
Doubting Thomas, the point I was trying to make in a humorous way is that there is a difference between healthy distrust of government vs. irrational paranoia. I do agree that it is foolish to assume violations of personal privacy "can't" happen as the author suggests, but it is equally foolhardy to assume that they "will" happen simply as a matter of consequence. It's also naive not to question the motivation behind Bachmann's comments, esp. when taken in the larger context of her steady diet of "fear the evil Obama fascist regime" propaganda.
Bachmann never said crap about privacy or the 2000 census when Bush was president, or about the DHS request for data on Arab-Americans that the author points out, but now all of the sudden she's a privacy advocate? Really? Come on now. You are obviously capable of critical thinking in that you've questioned the author's assumption; all I'm suggesting is that you dig a little deeper. There is a Republican movement against social services and the implementation of what they view as a "socialist welfare state", and they use a barrage of fear-mongering tactics in an attempt to influence public opinion. Bachmann may be a loon but her talking points are quite calculated. If she is truly concerned about misuse of census data, then perhaps she should do her damn job and introduce oversight legislation instead of making irresponsible public comments.
Not to go off on a tangent, but I am much more concerned about the egregious violations of privacy and misuse of personal information that occur at the hands of corporations in this country. Where do you think the government goes when they want information about you? The census? No! They ask AT&T. Or Jet Blue. Or Yahoo. And let's not forget companies like ChoicePoint, a "data broker" that unwittingly sold people's personal information to the mafia. Not to mention all the healthcare organizations that are steadily building up a cache of bioinformatics about you and me.
We as Americans trust corporations to manage our personally identifiable information in a way that people in most other developed countries do not. Our data privacy and protection laws are completely inadequate when compared to every single country in the European Union, as well as many leading nations in Asia and even South America. Meanwhile, our banks have lobbied against data privacy legislation while obtaining "special permission" just to trade financial data with banks in the EU.
These companies wield a considerable amount of power and have far more information about you and me than the government could obtain through the census, and they are not held to even the most basic levels of accountability. There is ample evidence to demonstrate systematic abuse and negligence, right here, right now, on the part of corporate america when it comes to our privacy, whereas the abuses that Bachmann alludes to happened a long time ago and I don't see her bringing up any fresh evidence that census data was misused in the 1980, 1990 or 2000 census. It was Stephen Morse, the author of this article, who reminded us of these more recent abuses, even if his other comment belies a sense of naivety. So when you criticize the author's point, consider taking it in balance of all the information presented. Just a suggestion.
Balance?
Balance This:
None of those corporations can deprive me of life, liberty or property without going through the mechanisms of government to do so.
The government, on the other hand, does so in many cases without even a nod to the Constitution's requirement for Due Process. (See: Drug War Asset Forfeiture, Military Tribunals of Non-Military Personnel, etc. for more recent examples than the one Bachmann used)
Also keep in mind that it's the very same government who regulates those financial institutions, and gives them their authority to collect and use our personal information "as permitted by law", as the privacy statements always read.
I see a vast difference in the relative powers of the two types of organization, though you apparently see them in reverse from the way I do.
Cencus issue..
Rep. Bachmann i think has a point there about this cencus information.I hope the cencus error happened during world war II will not happen again..this is really an interesting and informative article .thanks for sharing this one..
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This may be the first time I
This may be the first time I find myself agreeing with her...
Being Real
surely the Govt spies on its citizens in the name of national security, very sure too that when a Bachmann like minded President, full of righteous holy shit that it will get worse, but in a country were before you get 20 cent credit from a bank or credit card company you are required to write them your whole damn biography and every body do even Bachmann, a country were the commonly used electronic can be monitored and traced legally by the Govt, Ms Bachmann reasoning scope is extreme childish
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