Too stupid to breathe: Jay Wolff

Occasional Blast Off! commenter D.P., Clearwater Wingnut has brought my attention to today's letters to the editor in the Naples Daily News. The letters, which actually were posted last night, led off with a really odd missive about how they can't speak freely in Uzbekistan and so they wouldn't have a health care debate. Um, okaaaay ...

But what really caught my eye was this unhinged screed by one Jay Wolff of Naples, who unflinchingly spewed forth wingnut talking points in this classically fact-free letter:

Editor, Daily News:

The Obama administration has, indeed, moved the Census Bureau from the Commerce Department — where it was since it was created — into the White House.

The president signed the order on Jan. 27, in his first week. I wondered why.

I wondered why he put the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in charge of the counting of the census.

July 30, on its own Web site, the Census Bureau announced that in the 2010 census it would count every resident of the United States, citizens and noncitizens. The count will control the apportionment of congressional districts for the 2010 elections.

If they include illegal aliens in that count, I understand why.

— Jay Wolff

Naples

Two assertions highlighted above: first, that the Census Bureau has been moved to the White House from Commerce, and second, that ACORN will be doing the counting. Now, how can I put this ... oh, I know: WRONG and WRONG.

It took me all of five seconds to go to the Census Bureau's website and see the link at the bottom to the U.S. Department of Commerce. But just to make sure, I dug a little deeper and found this:


What's that, Mr. Wolff -- a liberal conspiracy on the website? Or maybe, just maybe, you're a dumbass. You make the call ... (Also, I can't figure out what January 27 order Mr. Wolff may be referencing. Odds are he -- or Fox News -- just made that up, too.)

Turning now to ACORN ... okay, this took a little longer than five seconds to track down. More like twenty seconds:

Q: Is ACORN providing workers for the 2010 census?

A: No. ACORN employees will not be taking the census. The group is one of more than 30,000 "partners" that will help publicize the event.

The article continues:

We’ve received questions about ACORN’s activities in connection with the headcount ever since a Fox News story, headlined "ACORN to play role in 2010 census," appeared in March. As retold by and filtered through blogs and chain e-mails, the news left some people with the impression that ACORN, the liberal community organizing group whose voter registration activities became an issue in last year’s presidential campaign, would be a big player in running the census effort.

ACORN "will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public," said Rep. Michele Bachmann in mid-June. "This is very concerning." Saying she was worried about ACORN’s supposed involvement in gathering census data, the Minnesota Republican announced that she won’t participate in the census beyond answering how many individuals reside in her household, "because," she maintained, "the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that." Actually, the Constitution, under Article 1, Section 2, simply requires that an "enumeration" be done every 10 years to apportion the members of the House, but that it be done "in such manner" as Congress "shall by law direct." And Congress has seen fit to require everyone to answer truthfully whatever census questions they are asked, under threat of a $100 penalty for failure to answer and $500 for lying.

And Bachmann is flat wrong about ACORN going door-to-door and gathering data. Being "partners" with the Census Bureau doesn’t entail as close a relationship as one might think. For the most part it involves getting the word out that it’s important for everyone to participate in the decennial event that helps determine where federal money goes and how House of Representatives district boundaries are redrawn.

Michele Bachmann wrong? Who could have thought? Obviously not Jay Wolff, who, by virtue of his fawning reliance on the propaganda broadcast (and likely invented out of whole cloth) by Fox News, also is indisputably, inarguably, immutably wrong.

Which, in turn, makes Jay Wolff, according to Blast Off!'s rigorous standards, too stupid to breathe.

Utter non-Census

Well, Florida, the fix is in for 2010.

I'm not talking about the election. I'm talking about the U.S. Census, on which so many political decisions, from the number of electoral votes to the drawing -- gerrymandering? -- of congressional districts, will be based.

Yesterday, Gov. Crist chose 45 Floridians to serve on the "2010 Sunshine Census Complete Count Committee," and it includes some very notorious names indeed.

Besides [committee chairman Orange County Mayor Rich] Crotty, the list also includes longtime Miami-Dade lobbyist Ron Book, former Ocala legislator and current Christian Coalition of Florida director Dennis Baxley, and Florida Association of Broadcasters President Pat Roberts.

“The diversity of Florida’s cultures, backgrounds and experiences is quite possibly our state’s greatest strength, and we must do all we can to ensure an accurate count of every Florida resident during the 2010 Census,” Crist said in a statement.

The release said the panel members "represent Florida’s diverse geography and population, as well as many organizations throughout the state."

First and foremost, why in the name of all that is good and decent hasn't Dennis Baxley been marginalized right out of any kind of authority whatsoever yet? He's the guy who sponsored "shoot first, ask questions later" legislation in the state House and who is a vehement opponent of academic freedom. Putting him on a committee to oversee accuracy of the Census is like asking Alex Rodriguez to test urine samples. And a millionaire lobbyist deserves to be on the committee exactly why? Oh, and don't even get me started about Pat Roberts, whose anti-tax, hyper-fundamentalist ways just ooze bipartisanship and accuracy in the Census ... (/sarcasm)

But wait ... there's more ...

One of the legislators who will serve as a delegate to this committee is none other than state Senator (and Blast Off! favorite*) Mike Haridopolos (R-Indialantic), who pretty much lives off of wingnut welfare ... and he's not even out of office yet!

Come on, Charlie! I mean, didn't you learn something about bipartisanship from supporting President Obama's stimulus? Even if half the committee members are Democrats (and, I admit, time prevents me from reviewing every name on the list), the batshit-crazy quotient still is off the charts when you include nutcases like Roberts, Haridopolos, and (blecch!) Baxley. Having folks like that in charge is the very definition of "the fox guarding the henhouse." It pretty well guarantees that the Census won't be fair or accurate in Florida next year, and that as a result Republicans likely will retain their undeserved hegemony in this evenly-divided state for another decade.

Sure, I know you're a Republican, Charlie, and that you want to stack the deck for your team, but at least don't claim this is an extraordinarily balanced or diverse group. To put it a bit more bluntly: you can't polish a turd.

Anyway, the whole list is here, if you have the notion -- or the strong stomach -- to go through it in greater detail.

---

* By "favorite," I mean "utter douchebag."