-By Warner Todd Huston
History is not an easy subject. It takes decades, sometimes hundreds of them, for historians to come to a full understanding of what happened in any particular era. Sometimes, in fact, the truth is lost forever and only conjecture is left for the living to ponder. Still, it takes long, hard study and painstaking detective work to ferret out what really happened in the past, even the recent past.
Consequently, history isn’t something that your average journalist should attempt. This maxim couldn’t be proved out better than by a recent effort by Eve Conant of Newsweek. Conant so badly garbled the facts in her piece about America’s “anti-census sentiment” that one wished she’d take up writing cook books instead of articles based on historical facts. She didn’t even get current sentiment right, much less that of history.
Conant begins her discussion of historical American anti-census sentiment by confusing the suspicion of census workers with that of the revenue agents that plagued backwoods moonshiners of the 1940s and 50s. She assumed in her piece that census agents were hated simply because they were from the government. Of course, it was Treasury Dept. Agents that were hated, not census workers. People may mistrust the government, but no one is up in arms about the census itself.
Naturally it only took until the second paragraph before Conant blamed conservatives for fearmongering when she scolded that “this time around, that fear may be reaching new levels.” The reasons she gives are less than satisfying — for instance, conservatives are not saying the census is unconstitutional, they are saying that ACORN, the corrupt organization that Obama is trying to use to collect the data, is the problem — and even worse she uses this murder in Kentucky as an example of anti-census worker sentiment.
Last month poor Bill Sparkman, a census worker, was found murdered and hanged from a tree in rural Kentucky with the word “fed” scrawled across his chest. Like so many others, Conant assumes without any proof at all that Sparkman was murdered because he was a census worker. “..and, for the first time in recent memory,” Conant worries, “census season has been kicked off not with a mailing, but a possible murder.”
Like many another hyperbolic left-winger, Conant is keen to shoe-horn her assumptions of “anti-census sentiment” into Sparkman’s murder even though there isn’t a shred of proof to confirm why the man was murdered. Amusingly, Conant proves her own hyperbolic point is off base by citing the fact that even the extremely left leaning Southern Poverty Law Center cannot find any real anti-census sentiment anywhere saying, “… the SPLC sees little evidence of hate groups targeting the Census Bureau…” This after three paragraphs where she worries that there is, indeed, such sentiment abounding.
Conant also garbles some Constitutional interpretation.
The Census Bureau just announced its largest advertising campaign ever—some $300 million—to urge Americans to do their constitutional duty and take part in the nationwide headcount.
No, Eve, there is no “Constitutional duty” to take part in the census. There is a Constitutional duty to implement one, but there is no corresponding duty to participate. No one is forced by order of law to participate in the census.
Conant goes on to discuss the political football that the census always becomes. But, once again, this does not describe any anti-census sentiment. It describes the political problems of the day that the census naturally is applied to.
But then comes the only real reason she wrote her piece, her attack on conservatives. Conant details one census controversy after another coming from the right side of the aisle. Conant describes such incidents as Minnesota Republican Representative Michelle Bachman’s claim that she won’t fill out the detailed questionnaire and will only tell the census the number of people living in her home, the worry that illegal aliens and gay marriages will be counted as legitimate census data and other such controversies over the census. The problem is that Conant presents all this turmoil as “anti-census” sentiment. But it isn’t.
Conservatives are not generally saying that they are against a census. What they are against is the illicit use that census data will be used for. They are also against corrupt bargains with shadowy “community organizations” like ACORN getting federal funding to carry out the census. Finally, they are worried that census data will be used to redraw federal representation to reflect liberal agendas instead of to actually count legitimate Americans and legitimate statistics. But few if anyone on the right are against the census itself. Yet Conant’s entire story presents the right as anti-census, regardless.
Of course, the worst thing is Conant’s blaming of Mr. Sparkamn’s death on conservatives. It is outrageous to say that conservatives want census workers dead and linking Sparkman’s death to the right is irresponsible, especially since there isn’t a single fact known about the motives for his murder.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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Its likely there is going to be a nasty battle ahead over comprehensive immigration reform? My thought is that instead of starting from scratch, like the open border insane society is demanding we should fabricate amendments into the 1986 Simpson Mazzoli bill. First and foremost the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), was full of loopholes. Its main content was to legalize guest workers, whose labor was mostly spent in agriculture. The problem that once legalized, they vanished from the fields and orchards, taking jobs on Main Street, stealing jobs from Americans. The numbers of illegal aliens escalated, because the perforated borders and limited border patrol agents led to floods of more foreign nationals skirting our national border.
Farmers, agriculturists and businesses had to seek more workers once again, so the borders remained intentionally open thanks to Democrats and Republicans. So instead of the estimated 3.5 newcomers the actual figure was more like 5 million, with more crossing the inept border incessantly. Most of the new entrants lied about their period of residency and produced utility bills and other bogus documentation, including fraudulent affidavits. So the prior (INS) Immigration & Naturalization Service couldn’t attempt to handle the overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants applying? Now President Osama and his Democratic happy faces want to swamp us yet again, with an estimated 20 plus illegal immigrants already squatting here? Even today the doors remain wide open, because the political parties under funded the real border fence, originally drafted by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California. His short 50 mile fence in San Diego, California is double tiered, with a no-mans-land between for border patrol vehicles to make their inspection tours.
The fence that crosses America is–ONE STRAND BARRIER–and in many places doesn’t exist at all, except for ailing cameras, sensors and other vehicle barriers? Now if the powers in Washington had any brains, they could amend the (IRCA) law? First is agriculture that wants Guest Workers to pick fruit and vegetables, they must be issued a special visa limited to a specific time. They cannot work outside that boundary and must return to their country of residence after the document expires. If they want at some point in time to qualify for permanent legal status, they must apply like all new immigrants through their embassy. There fingerprints and other data should be recorded just in case they disappear from the workplace and placed on an arrest list by ICE.
Other amendment to the (IRCA) law can be added, but the majority of public opinion demands no path to citizenship or BLANKET AMNESTY. Leave America and apply for an immigration entry visa like honest potential immigrants have for years? If you live in America previously without THE PEOPLES PERMISSION, you will be subject to fines, but not necessarily exempt from an entrance visa. Criminal aliens and anarchists obviously must remain–persona none gratis. A points system must be enacted similar to countries in Europe and even Australia. Points are observed for special highly skilled individuals, specialty engineers, scientists and computer specialists and other equally outstanding credentialed labor.
The deterrent for smuggling yourself and family members into a sovereign country, with no longer is a civil offense. Every business within the jurisdiction of these United States and its territories and islands will be instructed to install E-Verify permanently. A mandatory directive will include criminal penalties for not operating the E-Verification application in all employment. No working person shall be exempt including those who have been on payroll for twenty years or more. New immigrants cannot access any welfare or government subsidies, unless under emergency status. A new stage 2 E-Verify modified to check the persons right to health care, drivers licenses, car insurance, real estate including home purchase. E-Verify could also be adapted to vet a persons voting status in coming elections to halt violations of the law. Within the local Social Security administration those who have remained in limbo, can be verified for any number of irregularities.
In time as E-Verify and its innovations are upgraded, with biometric and photo recognition improvements, the system will certainly pay for itself. Chances are in the coming months rogue politicians whose immigration grading can be viewed on NUMBERSUSA, will try to weaken or drop E-Verify for the favors they owe the US Chamber of Commerce and the nausating special interest groups? Just as they are accomplishing breaking down 287 G, police immigration questioning. ICE raids and other enforcement tools. As I have said before this is all about ECONOMICS. ITS about deteriorating infrastructure, its about the Census bureau stating that in the year 2050, the nation’s population is projected to increase by nearly 130 million people — the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California. Understand about this physical nightmare at CAPSWEB. In conclusion, there is much more information about the corruption in our political parties; not just immigration at the JUDICIAL WATCH site.
A mandated law must be authored that renegade businesses who employ illegal entrants, must be held accountable for the huge bills that hospitals and taxpayers get stuck with?
PAY ATTENTION to the fact that the present Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger is currently endorsing San Francisco’s–Sanctuary City–Liberal/Socialist Mayor Gavin Newsom for the new Governor of the State. This would be an absolute atrocity to the legal communities, when Newsom allowed ID for illegal aliens and refused to put young illegal immigrant gang members in the hands of ICE? Indirectly the sanctuary policy that was indifferent to Federal law, was an accessory in the June 22 slaying’s of Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew. There is already a mayor in Los Angeles who supports the illegal immigrant invasion, so you definitely don’t want Gavin Newsom giving bogus identification or welcoming millions more illegal families to extract subsidies from the already cash-strapped Californians.
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