It’s actually a bit more disturbing than that.

This year will mark the introduction of a specialized census tool called an FDCA (Field Data Collection Automation) hand held device built by Harris. It’s kinda kool as it will record and transmit it’s own GPS location every time a street address is typed into it’s keypad and it has a resolution of 40 feet or so. That means that when Johnny or Jill the census taker stands in your driveway, the GPS coordinates for your front door are painted into the system. You can’t make a phone call on it but it can recognize fingerprints, an odd feature for a census counting device.

So anyway this new massive data collection system is in place and ready to roll for the upcoming census at a cost of around 600 million of our tax dollars.

But wait, there’s more! The US census website estimates that the cost of the 2010 census will be in the 1 Billion dollar range yet the fine folks over at the GAO say the number for the life cycle cost of the 2010 census might range between 13.7 Billion to 14.5 billion when all is said and done. Call me old fashioned, but that’s a hell of a lot money to count noses so we can figure out how many US house of Representatives a particular state is entitled to.

Like any other government program you could name, there are lots of other oddities in the 2010 census. Since about 10% of you are currently unemployed, why not dig around the internet a while and see what turns up? Oh, and by the way, ACORN is a “partner” with the 2010 census. It’s a good fit as they have a stellar reputation for doing things by the book and always getting accurate results.