Rangel to reintroduce military draft measure

The Hill ^ | 01/14/09 | Susan Crabtree

[DGHoodini]

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) likely will introduce his controversial legislation to reinstate the draft again this year, but he will wait until after the economic stimulus package is passed.

Asked if he plans to introduce the legislation again in 2009, Rangel last week said, "Probably … yes. I don't want to do anything this early to distract from the issue of the economic stimulus."

Rangel's military draft bill did create a distraction for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) soon after Democrats won control of Congress after the 2006 election.

In the wake of that historic victory, Pelosi said publicly that she did not support the draft and that the Democratic leadership would not back Rangel's legislation. She also said Rangel's legislation was not about reinstating the draft but was instead "a way to make a point" about social inequality.

Reintroducing the military draft bill, which would attract media attention, will be trickier for Rangel in 2009 than it was a couple years ago because the Ways and Means Committee chairman is now under investigation by the House ethics committee.

Democratic leaders have given Rangel a leading role in helping craft the new economic stimulus bill despite an array of ethics allegations that have surfaced over the last several months. The charges have ranged from failing to report rental income on a villa in the Dominican Republic to an alleged quid pro quo involving a legislative favor for a donor to an education center bearing Rangel's name.

[DGHoodini]

They are going to need a draft, with the lack of c onfidence there is in Obama as a CinC, and the filthy pervert DimoDeviates, about to pervi-tize the military....

Their retention rate is about to fall through the floor, and we will no doubt witness a lot of officers resigning their commishions in the next year or two.

What self respecting warrior would want to serve in such a depraved "military"?

[Red in Blue PA]

They should introduce a bill to draft people who do not pay taxes on vacation villas.

[KarlInOhio]

Just wait until he proposes a draft for the Obama Jungend.

[cubreporter]

This will be very interesting to see how the left/libs will handle the idea and possibility of themselves or those they know and love being drafted. Mmmmm, interesting indeed.

[cubreporter]

This will be very interesting to see how the left/libs will handle the idea and possibility of themselves or those they know and love being drafted. Mmmmm, interesting indeed.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

If Rangel was white he would have been run out of office by now.

[machogirl]

from the Heritage Foundation:

long, but good read, here is an excerpt:

Who Serves in the U.S. Military? The Demographics of Enlisted Troops and Officers
by Shanea Watkins, Ph.D. and James Sherk
Center for Data Analysis Report #08-05

Interactive U.S. map of troop representation levels

Who serves in the active-duty ranks of the U.S. all-volunteer military? Conventional wisdom holds that military service disproportionately attracts minorities and men and women from disadvan­taged backgrounds. Many believe that troops enlist because they have few options, not because they want to serve their country. Others believe that the war in Iraq has forced the military to lower its recruiting standards.

Previous Heritage Foundation studies that exam­ined the backgrounds of enlisted personnel refute this interpretation.[1] This report expands on those studies by using an improved methodology to study the demographic characteristics of newly commissioned officers and personnel who enlisted in 2006 and 2007.

Any discussion of troop quality must take place in context. A soldier’s demographic characteristics are of little importance in the military, which val­ues honor, leadership, self-sacrifice, courage, and integrity—qualities that cannot be quantified. Nonetheless, any assessment of the quality of recruits can take place only on the basis of objec­tive criteria. Demographic characteristics are a poor proxy for the quality of those who serve in the armed forces, but they can help to explain which Americans volunteer for military service and why.

Based on an understanding of the limitations of any objective definition of quality, this report com­pares military volunteers to the civilian population on four demographic characteristics: household income, education level, racial and ethnic back­ground, and regional origin. This report finds that:

1. U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Her­itage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demon­strates that the same is true of the officer corps.
2. Members of the all-volunteer military are sig­nificantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 per­cent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) pro­gram, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods—a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.
3. American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted per­sonnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18–24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor’s degree.
4. Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. Enlisted troops are somewhat more likely to be white or black than their non-military peers. Whites are proportionately represented in the officer corps, and blacks are overrepresented, but their rate of overrepresentation has declined each year from 2004 to 2007. New recruits are also disproportionately likely to come from the South, which is in line with the history of South­ern military tradition.

[Billthedrill]

It’d be lousy for the military - I know, the one I joined took draftees - and so I hope it dies in obscurity as it’s likely to. But if it does not a whole lot of young Obama enthusiasts are going to have their noses rubbed in change they had better believe in. And they won’t be blaming Bush for it, either.

[Edizzl79]

“will trickle to the media”

yeah im sure it will trickle to the media like ayers and obama during the campaign, a whisper a couple days before hand.

[machogirl]

oops, forgot link

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda08-05.cfm

[ETL]

From the website of the Workers World Party:

"Workers World Party values our close, comradely relations with the Workers Party of Korea very highly. We are proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement. ..."

With comradely solidarity, Sam Marcy Chairperson, Workers World Party" (1994):
http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sam94/1994html/s940721.htm

___________________________________________________________

Workers World
55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news
http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php

International Action Center
55 W 17th St #5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
iacenter@action-mail.org
ndomtickets@safewebmail.com
www.iacenter.org
[http://www.iacenter.org/polprisoners/dom-2007.htm]

Troops Out Now Coalition
55 W. 17th St. #5C
NY NY 10011
www.TroopsOutNow.org

____________________________________________________

Photo of Charlie Rangel at the podium of a March 19th, 2005 Workers World Party/Troops Out Now rally in Harlem, New York. The occasion marked the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. The photo comes from the Workers World Party website.

Also appearing at this "peace" rally with the demonRat Charlie Rangel, now chairman of The House Ways and Means Committee, were Saddam Hussein lawyer, Ramsey Clark and convicted terrorist enabler/attorney, Lynne Stewart. Clark, with Workers World Party, started up that other 'peace' group, A.N.S.W.E.R. Clark also heads the International Action Center and was actually once Attorney General of the United States under democrat LBJ.

Source for the photos: Workers World Party website (workers.org)
http://www.workers.org/march19/index2.html

[scory]

Let them reinstate the draft. The unintended consequences should be a riot to watch unfold.

[livius]

Actually, that’s essentially what this “draft” is. Watch it morph in a bit to include Bambi’s Youth Corps.

[Mr. Mojo]

It's no coincidence that Rangel waits until after elections (both midterm and genenal) to put this bill on the table.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

[dead]

Rangel simply wants a draft because it's damn near impossible to tack your class warfare, racial agenda on the back of all-volunteer military.

[Dahoser]

It’d be lousy for the military - I know, the one I joined took draftees - and so I hope it dies in obscurity as it’s likely to. But if it does not a whole lot of young Obama enthusiasts are going to have their noses rubbed in change they had better believe in. And they won’t be blaming Bush for it, either.

Oh yes they will. Bush will be blamed for being a warmonger who stretched our troops so thin that Chairman Hussein is being forced to draft his beloved 52% drones to make up for the damage. You just wait and see.

[Sig Sauer P220]

If Rangel was white he would have been run out of office by now.

Sadly, that is the truth. Otherwise, its racist. Same with the Jefferson dude in Louisiana.

[silverleaf]

sit down Chuck

but pay your taxes first

[Sig Sauer P220]

Good photoshop opportunity for someone. Maybe showing blood trickling down the side, from his chest.