Posted on 06/17/2009 1:10:20 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
At a campaign rally in Colorado Springs last July, that former community organizer, Barack Obama, grandly told an enraptured audience: "We've got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded" as the U.S. military. Now, understand, he wasn't talking about a "security" force in the sense of an armed militia. He was talking about a network of social service workers. When I first heard that, I wrote it off as a politician's extravagant, feel-good campaign rhetoric. After all, the Department of Defense includes about 3 million men and women — active duty, reserves and civilians — and will spend an estimated $675 billion in 2009.
Little did I know he was serious. The first step was the passage of HR 1388, "The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act," originally titled the GIVE (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education) Act before the Senate renamed it as a tribute to the "Lion of Liberalism." It triples AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000. The second step is HR 1444, not yet passed, which would establish a Congressional Commission on Civic Service. The commission would "address and analyze" the effects on the nation and on those who serve "if all individuals in the United States ... were required to perform a certain amount of national service" and "whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all young people could be developed."
Whoa! It's one thing, out of clear necessity and for purposes of national survival, to have a military draft when our nation is at war (hot or cold). But mandatory community service of up to two years? This is a preposterously intrusive notion and one that is surely unlawful under our Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits "involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime." What crime have these young people committed?
The "audacity" — to use President Obama's favorite expression — of such a sweeping mandate is a direct contradiction of our founding principles as reinforced in the Bill of Rights, which emphatically restricts the powers of government over the lives of individuals. The camel's nose under the tent that has led some people to regard national mandatory community service as respectable public policy is no doubt the imposition of a similar requirement on students as a condition of graduation in our public schools.
What message does that send to American students? That government owns their life? I understand that attendance in school is compulsory but that can be satisfied in a private school or a home school. Should government, then, be allowed to reach into your home or to private schools and mandate involuntary community service for students in those venues?
It's one thing for public schools to dictate how their students spend their time while under their supervision. It's quite another to tell these young citizens how they must spend their own time outside of school. This is social engineering, not academic instruction. There's already too much of that kind of thing in public schools and it's invariably oriented toward the liberal agenda. I'd rather the students spend any additional time, if there's to be some, in the classroom on basic academics.
Whatever the virtues of community service, it's far more rewarding when undertaken voluntarily. The theories and wishes of do-gooder educators notwithstanding, most of the kids I've talked to resent the assignment as just another task that robs them of their leisure time. Many look for the easiest way out and just go through the motions. For them, the psychic benefit ranges from little to negative.
How ironic that forced community service is meted out as a punishment for petty criminals. It's an inappropriate sentence for schoolchildren and would be an outrageous government assault on individual liberty as a national mandate.
What would Adolph do?
There are a lot of times I wished this excrement filled satanic finger puppet was lying!
“Comments?”
How does anyone combat a populace that is promised FREE everything for doing nothing?
This sounds like the communist model, block captains and someone to monitor every single person in the nation.
This IS NOT good. Armed or not, these folks will be able to ruin your whole day.
Once he’s got this in place, he’ll have his fingers in every single citizen’s business.
whats up with leftists and their desire of a personal private army. Lets call them Nightwatch
Run by the Department of Peace
ACORN coming to a suburb near YOU.
Watch for JROTC at High Schools be replaced by obambidiot force.
I got two words for ZerO and they ain’t HAPPY BIRTHDAY...
Nothing would surprise me. Nothing!
Remind me: Were the Chinese, Cubans, North Koreans, Poles, Russians and Vietnamese people armed when communism took over their respective countries?
When the North Vietnamese swept south they beheaded the mayors of towns, hamlets and villages. The more ruthless side wins.
I would suspect no. I also know what our military is capable of, and I don’t think the armed private citizens would stand a chance against a president like this.
Every weapon at the disposal of our military would be used on US citizens in a heartbeat.
The same dumb Republican leadership that stands by with it’s thumb firmly implanted, would be standing by then too.
Widespread strikes and protests would be about the only option available. We’ve seen how those turn out with brutal dictators at the top.
Obama has no clue, what he shouldn’t do. He’s a loose cannon.
For later...
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."
Fleet Admiral Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy
I don't understand how so many people could have disbelieved Obie when he laid out what he was going to do and who he was going to do it to.
He made it all very clear. I believed him.
Here's the deal: If a politician tells you that he is a wonderful person, it may be good to be skeptical. If a politician tells you that he is a racist totalitarian, he is telling the truth. Simple, right?
Labor corvees were a millennial feature of the old Egyptian temple system, as was cross-assignment of responsibility as a management tool: If group A doesn't get it done, the bind falls on group B.
The Roman Emperor Diocletian, sojourning in Egypt for an extended period, observed this system in operation and extended it to the Roman Empire generally. In due course, in the Western Empire, it became serfdom, which lasted in Europe until the late 19th century -- sixteen centuries of darkness of mind.
Discourage bad habits. You never know how long it will take to get rid of them.
Bluff,,,ya’ couldn't get these lil’turds to pick up trash
on the side of the road unless they were chained together!
There must be 80,000,000 gun owners now,,,
Most are armed to the teeth,,,
IIRC there are about 27,000,000 vets alive,,,
It has been said that 60-70% of the US Military would not
follow his orders if/when it comes to the trashing of the
US Constitution,,,
Me thinks the Mau Mau in Chief has over-played his hand...
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