RW CNN contributor Erick Erickson will pull 'shotgun' over Census

[sabra]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35338.html

CNN contributor and prominent Republican blogger Erick Erickson is threatening to pull out a "shotgun" to scare away census workers.

Erickson — the founder of the conservative blog RedState — said on his Macon, Ga.-area radio show Thursday that if a census worker carrying a longer American Community Survey form came by his house, he would "pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."

"They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying," Erickson said, in a recording by the liberal media watchdog Media Matters. "The servants are becoming the masters. We are working for the government. We are becoming enslaved by the government."

On his blog, RedState, Erickson wrote Friday that he was being "misconstrued."

"ACS Surveyors are getting belligerent," he wrote, "and have showed up on people's doorsteps to harass them and threaten jail. I said if some ACS person showed up on my doorstep to try to arrest me for not wanting to tell the government how often I flush my toilet, I'd get out my wife's shotgun and get them off my property. Naturally the left is out today saying I was on the air advocating killing census workers."

[joeybee12]

1. Let's everyone write CNN and include this...n/t

[roguevalley]

26. what incredible pussies these guys always are.

[Maru Kitteh]

32. +1

[jefferson_dem]

2. I'm a good-natured person but my patience is running thin.

I'm really starting to hate these scumbags. Someone...talk me down.

[Bitwit1234]

3. So this is they type of person CNN hired. AND

if you threaten a federal worker isn't that treason. I wish I worked for the census, I would walk right up to his house and if he did, call the police and make them march him right out in handcuffs. What I can not for the life of understand is why the FBI is ignoring all these threats. Are they waiting for someone to get killed and then so, oh well, they are a democrat they deserved it.

[bluedeminredstate]

4. He isn't used to the scrutiny.

Now that CNN has hired him - rightfully confusing and pissing off reasonable people, attention is being paid to what he is saying. He "apologized" to Howie Kurtz for calling Justice David Souter a "goat fuc*ing pedophile" among other charming things he said but of course he didn't mean it.
He can try to blame this on the left, but he said it and it's not unlike what other rightwing kooks are saying about the census. The fact is this kind of stuff is offensive to say the very least, and he knows that when these kind of remarks see the light of day it doesn't reflect well on him - Mr. Bigshot-CNN-Blogger-Commentator.

[Posteritatis]

5. Man, the next redistricting is going to be AWESOME. (nt)

[n2doc]

6. Rob Rogers Toon from today

[krkaufman]

34. A slight tweak (hope the artist doesn't mind)

[Odin2005]

7. MORAN!

[Catshrink]

8. I feel cheated.

My census form didn't ask how many times I flush my toilet. It didn't even ask about my dog. Seriously, this isn't the year to be a census canvasser.

[RavensChick]

9. This dude is an idiot!

Then again, sadly with GA being a red state I'm not surprised. He was "being misconstrued"? Yeah, right. He's showing his true colors--redneck RED!!!

[jberryhill]

10. Obviously he doesn't flush his toilet enough...

...he might lose his mind that way.

[theothersnippywshrub]

17. He is so full of shit that there is no need. n/t

[damntexdem]

11. By all means, don't count him and others like him.

Their states don't need any more districts, nor even as many as they have.

;-)

And if the cops shoot the nutcase for threatening a federal worker with a gun, then it doesn't matter that the nutcase wasn't counted, anyway.

[unblock]

12. mrs. unblock was was a census worker in the earlier phase and was threatened in upscale connecticut

all she did was knock on the door and they guy opened the door and threatened to feed her to his doberman.

why doesn't it occur to some people to just not answer the door or to politely decline to answer the questions?

no, they gotta go straight to murder. :wtf:

[Xenotime]

13. Hey asshole. They have a legal right it's in the Constitution.

[pinboy3niner]

14. Stop making things up

" . . . try to arrest me for not wanting to tell the government how often I flush my toilet . . . ." FACT: For the first time since 1940, the census this year does not use a long form. This time it's the very basic short form only. So, if anybody comes around to ask about your toilet habits, it's not census workers. More likely it's the Palinista teabagger loyalty police.

[LiberalFighter]

19. More likely whoever claims they received the long form is lying.

[ThoughtCriminal]

21. The American Community Survey is different

from the Census that is conducted every ten years. It is on-going and includes many questions, not included in the Census (it does however, not ask how often you flush).

Census workers do provide a privacy notice to residents explaining that their answers are confidential and not shared with any other agency. The same notice explains that their participation is required by law, but under no circumstances would a Census worker threaten anyone with arrest, They are strictly prohibited from doing that.

[eShirl]

15. WTF is he so scared of anyway?

He and all the other paranoid whackjobs that come out of the wood work everytime there's a Democratic President.

[newspeak]

16. I say let the morans not fill out the census

let their state go with less money, and less electoral votes. Come on all you wackos, don't fill it out--those red states could go blue.

The census has been around for well over two hundred years and now we got the truly fearful, gullible clueless. It shames me that this country has become home of the truly ignorant. When I worked at SSA, we used the census records to verify claimant's birth, when they had no other proof of age. It's what got them their benefits.

And, some of these ignorant hate spewing knuckledraggers are given airtime, and I want to know why? Who in the hell are the ones behind really inciting the ignorant? There's a reason for this fear mongering and hate, and I want to know who benefits from it all? We've had corporate hate media for well over twenty years, and I'd say this isn't by accident. There are those that want us divided-that gain by our division-and the fools they play don't even realize they're being played.

[John Kerry VonErich]

29. Keep a closer eye on the blue states

That's their target

[walldude]

18. "For not wanting to tell the government how many times I flush my toilet"

This guy is on CNN? He certainly is "misconstrued" people mistook him for someone with a fucking brain. The only thing the census asks is how many people are in your house, what ages and races they are. Thats it!! He's going to chase someone away because they want to get an accurate count of how many people are in America?

[Shallah Kali]

20. Why do the Right Wingers hate the US Constitution?

Census workers are doing a constitutionally mandated job. If he doesn't love the Constitution why doesn't leave?

Also does this legally constitute criminal threatening? He says he has a weapon and wants to scare someone with it...

[John Kerry VonErich]

22. This is teabaggers attempt

to get the more progressive states underrepresented by a nation wide census boycott.

[ShadowLiberal]

23. If he does go through with it then he's breaking the law and can go to jail

I don't mean the not filling out the census part, I mean pulling out and a gun and pointing it at the census worker to scare them away. That's illegal.

[arcadian]

24. The Census is mandated by the US Constitution.

Anti-American little dipshit.

[MadHound]

25. Erikson will then go to jail, directly to jail

You don't get to wave guns in the faces of Census workers, you go to jail, directly to jail.

If I were a census worker assigned to his address, I would pull this tape, take it directly to the local police and have them accompany me to do my job. See if the guy gets all trigger happy then.

[John Kerry VonErich]

28. I believe

it's $100 fine for not participating

[MadHound]

38. Yeah, but making threats against individuals involving firearms

Is generally a jailtime offense in virtually all the states. Erikson pulls a rifle on a census worker, he's looking at jailtime.

[csziggy]

27. The American Community Survey is required by law, the same as the census

Though it does ask many more questions than the regular census. Here is the form: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/ACS-1(info)(2010)%20Stateside%20English_web.pdf (since it messed up the link, you can download the PDF from http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/acs_2010.htm )

These "long form" census questionnaires are a nuisance - we got one in 1980 - but they provide valuable information to the government so that funds are properly distributed and used.

The census worker assigned to visit this idiot should inform the local FBI office and request an escort to visit his home.

[Nikki Stone1]

30. The government is trying to get some detailed statistical information about the country

I don't think they really care about the individuals who fill out the extended form.

The regular census is a simple 10 questions. A few minutes and it's done.

[Subdivisions]

31. They'll reap what they sowed. Then they'll blame everyone but themselves. n/t

[chollybocker]

33. CNN is worse than Fox

...because they pretend they're not. The thin veil is again lifted.

[Daphne08]

35. +1

[muffin1]

36. That fucker needs to be fired.

How many teabaggers are going to decide this is a great idea? These people are fucking sick puppies.
I don't ever remember such ridiculous controversy over the CENSUS. Shit, I could use extra money by being a census worker, but it isn't worth the risk. Can you imagine wondering if an armed teabagger is on the other side of the door at each house you approach?


Will email CNN today!

[ck4829]

37. Cranking up the crazy

[struggle4progress]

39. Link to ACS sample pdf:

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/acs_2010.htm

[Rectangle]

40. Attn Teabaggers: The census is in the f''ing CONSTITUTION-- that you use for toilet paper!!!!!!!!!!

In Article 1, Section 2, the Constitution includes the phrase:

Enumeration (Census) shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

Congress first met in 1789, and the first national census was held in 1790.


Why do the Teabaggers hate America, and it's constitution?
:shrug:

[Initech]

41. God how dumb are these people?

"They don't have the legal right..." Well guess what dipshit? The fucking census is defined in the god damned constitution! Shut up and read that document for once! :argh: