Fresh Loaf

U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., recently said she’d protest the upcoming census survey by only filling out the number of people who lived in her household. (Bachmann said ACORN, which is a census “community partner,” wanted to eat her home. She was wrong. Earlier this week the Libertarian Party’s DeKalb County party issued a press release in support of Bachmann’s stance.)

U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Uppity, and some fellow elephants are asking their cosmos-dwelling colleague to come back to Earth.

From the Washington Post’s Federal Eye blog:

Republican colleagues have now called her boycott illogical and illegal.

“Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census. To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement. The trio is members the House Census Oversight Subcommittee.

They argue that her boycott only increases the likelihood of political interference, because Census staffers and volunteers would have to visit her home to do a followup interview.

“Anyone who completes and returns their census form will remove any need for a census taker to visit their residence,” the group said.

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Andisheh visited the government megacomplex of Candler-McAfee — aka fastest dying/best small city in America — and was able to get a copy of its official seal. He sends it along:

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Does it even exist? Andisheh once again opens our eyes to the ridiculousness that exists right under our very noses. Yesterday, he pointed me to some monkey business.

On another one of Forbes’ entertaining-yet-useless list-icles (this one’s titled “America’s Fastest Dying Places”), a Georgia “city” in DeKalb County by the name of “Candler-McAfee” is listed. It’s ranked no. 2, actually. Go team!

Yet from looking at the map, as Andisheh points out, this isn’t a city — it’s a census designation. Or is it? Some website that appears to show you where you can rent white water rafts nearby calls it a city. And another list-icle, this one by CNNMoney, includes it on a list of the best small cities in the nation.

And as Andisheh points out in his e-mail:

Except, it’s not actually a town. It’s not even a neighborhood.

It’s a 7 sq. mile section of unincorporated Dekalb County south of the City of Decatur, north of I-20.

Here it is on a map. Gotta say it’s kind of unfair for Forbes to knock the place when all it’s doing is looking at census information. What is this place? Do people list their address as “Candler-McAfee?” Or does Forbes need to stop trolling census information for easy-to-write articles and start picking up the phone?

(Screenshot courtesy of Forbes)

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There’s an old cliche that a Democrat governor will promise (and sometimes deliver) to leave the citizens of a state better off than when he took office. A Republican governor measures success by whether he is better off. Certainly Gov. Sonny Perdue, with his Florida land deal, plays to type.

And it appears poor Georgians are feeling the pain. Census Bureau information released Tuesday shows 13.5 percent of Georgians were poor, compared to 12.4 percent in the 2003-2004 period, and 12.5 percent in the 2000-2001 period, when the state was in a recession (and when a Democrat was governor).

Alan Essig, executive director of the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, points to even more discouraging news from the Census. About 17.6 percent of Georgians did not have health insurance coverage in the 2004-2006 period, giving Georgia the 10th highest uninsured rate in the country, according to Essig’s review of the Census data. Nationwide, the number of uninsured was 47 million (15.3 percent), up 2.2 million since 2005. An additional 600,000 children nationwide were uninsured in 2006 compared to 2005.

“Despite American families’ continued struggle to afford health insurance for their children, some of Georgia’s representatives in Congress continue to oppose legislation that would extend health insurance to millions of uninsured children across the country,” Essig said in a statement. “As they return to Washington, Georgia’s leaders should rethink that position,” said Essig.

The Census Bureau data shows that 470,000 of Georgia’s children were living in poverty in 2006. The 2006 related child poverty rate was 19.7 percent, up from 15.7 percent in 2001. Child poverty was unchanged as compared to last year.

Essig said it is particularly disappointing that five years after the recession, child poverty rates in Georgia are not improving.

In 2006, median household income in our state stood at $46,832. This was not a statistically significant change from the 2005 level, but was still $1,566 below the 2001 level in inflation-adjusted terms. This shows that despite five years of recovery since the 2001 recession, many low- and moderate-income households have not regained ground lost during the downturn.

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