Counting population: Census road tour begins
Road trip!
The Census Bureau on Monday launched the “2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour” to reach out and convince everyone living in the United States to be counted in its once-a-decade population survey, which can alter political districts and affect where billions of dollars in federal funds are spent.
The tour set off from New York City and will include 13 vehicles visiting about 800 events around the country over four months, including the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.
Vehicle updates can be followed on Twitter @2010Portrait and on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube.
The 10-question survey will be mailed to every home in America in March with a return deadline of April 1, regardless of the resident’s citizenship. If the questionnaire is not mailed back by late April, then Census Bureau surveyors start knocking on doors to try to get the information face-to-face.
“That’s a very expensive thing for us to do,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves told Reuters in a telephone interview.
For every one percentage point of the population that returns the survey, the government saves about $85 million, he said. “So it’s really important to turn that in, if you’re worried about the federal deficit and things like that.”
The First Draft: Reviews flood in after Obama’s Cairo speech
He’s been preparing for this moment since long before he came to the White House, so President Barack Obama might wonder how his Cairo speech to the Muslim world went over. He wouldn’t have to wait long — within minutes after he ended his address, the reviews started flooding in.
The Washington Post said Obama did well, but basically, talk’s cheap: “Perhaps today’s words, from the son of a Muslim, will be viewed as a welcome olive branch. But it’s still just a speech. And even stirring words can’t paper over the seemingly intractable differences in the Mideast.”
The New York Post got a bit snarky: “If world peace is attained by complimenting those on the other side into submission, he made some serious progress. Obama really buttered them up in Cairo.”
The Drudge Report noted how long the speech was: the Web site showed a photo of Obama speaking, over the line “6,000 words”.
In Iran, there was a sort of pre-emptive review, issued even before Obama spoke: Iran’s supreme leader said United States was deeply hated in the Middle East, and warned Obama that “beautiful” speeches alone would not improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world.
More reviews are definitely expected to trickle in, since Obama’s speech was a multimedia event. If you missed the live broadcast, you could also see part or all of the speech online at Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. The White House ran the speech live on its website, and the State Department streamed it as part of a live chat – and the chat continued long after the speech ended.
One comment found there sounded like a rave: “Barack Hussein Obama is definitely an ”Elevation” leader that makes one vibrate while listening to him!”
the americans have been isolating iran for decades and put them in lotsof truble ,even they have been engaged in activities that could harm iranian nations and helping irans enemies in the past.how come all of the sudden they try to be friendly with iran by congracualations to iran?this wont work for them. becuse its the fact that they still seeking for their own advntages, and i think today,americans should negotiate with iran over the neclure issue and be prepared to accepet the fact that iran is also entitel to have neclure power.also they should relaize that iran is still far a way from devaloping the wapen.
