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My daughter-in-law has a sister in a California college. Recently, the sister attending college, said that her boyfriend had received a notice to register for the draft. I know that Congress has passed nothing to reinstate the draft and that the main two sponsors of the resolutions for draft are both Democrats ( Rangel in the House and Fritz Hollings in the Senate). Is it possible that individual states are sending notices to register for the draft? My initial thought is that there could be someone forging the draft registration notices to scare the young voters and college crowd.

<p>Los Angeles Times July 14, 2004 Prospect Of A New Military Draft Drawing More Attention, Concern By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer BOSTON — No law has been signed to revive the draft, and the president, the Pentagon and the presumed Democratic presidential nominee all oppose forced military service. Yet as fatalities in Iraq increase and as troops see their tours extended, there is a growing concern across the country that a draft may be in the offing. At summer barbecues, kids' baseball tournaments and worksites, conversations focus on whether a new generation will be called to mandatory military duty. Parents, grandparents and others are wondering how long America can rely on volunteers and reservists to supply a strong defense. "I have thought about this a great deal," said Barbara Nicosia, who works in a bookstore south of Boston and is the mother of a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. "I have a strong memory of the draft during Vietnam, and I don't like where they are going with this," she said.</p>

San Antonio Express-News July 11, 2004 Would — Or Should — It Return? By Scott Huddleston Should women be drafted? Do young draftees make better soldiers than those with more education? Are volunteers more motivated than conscripts? Such are the questions debated these days by college students, who are a generation removed from the sit-ins and flag-burnings that marked campus protests during the Vietnam War. Women, says Gina Prescott Shinn, should be called up if this country reinstates a draft. "I think it's a good idea," the business major said during a recent classroom discussion at the University of Texas...

Bob Swerski: Hello, my friends, and welcome to another edition of "Bill Swerski's SuperFreeperfans". I'm Bob Swerski, and I want to thank everyone for sending those cards to my brother Bill, who recently had another heart attack. We are coming to you live from Ditka's, here on election night, after doing our part for democracy, and also to praise that team having kicked the 49er's out of office last weekend by a score of 91-9, a team that is known as Da Bears! SuperFreeperfans: [ beer mugs raised ] Da Bears! Bob Swerski: With me as always are the SuperFreeperfans....

While we generally only read the Sun for info on our beloved Os this caught my eye. Baltimore Sun July 12, 2004 On Reviving The Draft By Jules Witcover WASHINGTON - There's a scene in Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in which the filmmaker mischievously confronts congressmen on Capitol Hill with Army enlistment pamphlets, suggesting they give them to their sons to encourage them to fight in Iraq. ----- The bill calls for men and women between the ages of 18 and 26, with no exemptions except for high school attendance, to serve two years either in the military...

2004 VOTE Democrats Draft Platform In Hollywood, FL, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack co-chairs when the DNC's Platform Drafting Cmte. meets to present its recommendations to the full Platform Cmte. The full Platform Cmte. is responsible for recommending a national platform for approval at the Democratic National Convention in Boston July 26-29. SAT. ON C-SPAN AT 9AM ET

tate's Draft Boards Ready for Call-Up Selective Service panels are prepared to help funnel men to the armed services -- if conscription is started. By Steve Chawkins Times Staff Writer July 6, 2004 "Greeting: You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States …." So began the draft notice, one of the least welcome letters ever received by young men in America and one of the few Selective Service fixtures that would remain unchanged if the draft is reinstituted. Defense Department officials insist there are no plans to bring back conscription, despite persistent claims that...

As troops spread thin, some fear return of military draft By Michael Collins and Jeff Patterson Post staff reporters WASHINGTON -- Jason Britt thinks he knows what would happen if the government reinstated the military draft: The nation would be torn apart, with protesters taking to the streets like they did during the height of the Vietnam War, said Britt, a senior at Northern Kentucky University.

To secure the continuing existence of the United States democracy against intractable religious fanaticism, whose goal is nothing less than a Muslim theocracy for all of planet Earth, it is inevitable that military conscription will again be implemented during the months following the 2004 Presidential Election. The nature of this struggle renders irrelevant the person or party who wins the election. With very rare exceptions, every male residing in the United States 18 to 26 years of age is required by the Military Selective Service Act to register with the Selective Service System, and thereby subject himself to the possibility...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is forcing thousands of discharged soldiers back into the military, but that does not mean the United States needs to reinstate the draft, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday. "I can tell you the all-volunteer forces worked" when former President Nixon ended conscription during the Vietnam War, said Sen. John Warner, who was Nixon's secretary of the Navy in 1973. Opposition to perceived inequities of the draft spawned much of the early opposition to that war, due largely to deferments that exempted students and some draft-eligible men with political connections. "We cannot...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is forcing thousands of discharged soldiers back into the military, but that does not mean the United States needs to reinstate the draft, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday. "I can tell you the all-volunteer forces worked" when former President Nixon ended conscription during the Vietnam War, said Sen. John Warner, who was Nixon's secretary of the Navy in 1973. Opposition to perceived inequities of the draft spawned much of the early opposition to that war, due largely to deferments that exempted students and some draft-eligible men with political connections. "We...

<p>NEW HAVEN — A teenager has been arrested as the alleged gunman in a city man’s scheme to avoid being drafted by having himself shot in the leg.</p> <p>Police arrested Alex Lowery, 17, whose last known address was 140 Hallock Ave., late Thursday on a warrant charging him with first-degree assault and weapons counts in connection with a June 24 shooting in the Hill.</p>

Kansans in Congress say they won't support efforts by some colleagues to revive the military draft. Still, with the United States at war, suspicion persists that once the November elections are over what is politically unpopular could happen. After all, who three years ago would have predicted 150,000 U.S. troops, many of them reserves and National Guard forced to serve extended tours, would be fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? Congressman Jerry Moran, a Republican who represents the state's expansive 1st District, said a high school teacher from Hays visited his office the other day and asked him on behalf of...

<p>WASHINGTON Amid fears of open-ended military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ever more urgent-sounding indications of how stretched U.S. forces are around the globe, rumors that the military draft might be reinstated have surged across the United States, moving in recent months from obscure Internet sites into the mainstream media. .</p>

The US army has moved to recall nearly 6,000 former soldiers to active service to help maintain its force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has played down the move but this is the first sizeable call-up of the kind since the 1991 Gulf War and critics say it amounts to backdoor conscription. The US has relied on volunteer armed forces since ending the draft three decades ago during the Vietnam War. It has a pool of 111,000 ex-soldiers in its Individual Ready Reserve. The BBC's Pentagon correspondent, Nick Childs, reports that the recall is a further sign of the...

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has withdrawn her support of legislation that would reinstate the military draft, because she believes it would bolster the Bush administration’s ability to wage several wars simultaneously. Norton initially backed Rep. Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) bill on the draft in January 2003. But a Norton spokeswoman said the legislator now believes the bill, if enacted, would force draftees to fight wars they might not support. The spokeswoman added that a draft would help President Bush’s “preemptive” war on terrorism. Rangel said last year that he introduced the bill to highlight the large percentage of minorities who...

Gather round, and I shall teach you a new game, called “Michael Moore’s Mystery Message.” It is a fun game, really; you get to see a film, visit a colorful website, manage a few ironic laughs at someone who seeks to make you laugh at President Bush, and, at the end, receive a grand prize. What is this prize? That is a mystery to be unraveled, much like Michael Moore’s message. Are you ready? Watching Michael Moore’s film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” you get to look at pretty pictures of Iraq as a children’s paradise under the benevolent regime of Saddam Hussein....

New bills explore draft possibilities By KATHERINE BRINTON Staff Writer June 23, 2004 The draft was done away with more than 30 years ago, but two bills could bring it back, though not as it departed from military law in 1973. Several new provisions, such as the inclusion of women in the selective service, were proposed in early January of 2003. Also, the bills mandate that those not selected for military service would be required to fulfill a two-year obligation in a civilian capacity. Jennifer Victor, an assistant political science professor at Pitt, predicted that it was extremely unlikely for...

Despite denials that the U.S. plans to re-institute the draft, the Pentagon has stepped up preparations for a new Selective Service System that could allow for a full-blown draft by next year. Every few months Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gets peppered with the nettlesome question about whether the administration, straining to keep boots on the ground around the globe, is considering reviving the compulsory military service draft – moribund since 1973. The answer is always an unqualified “No.” Inquiries by NewsMax – and a persistent host of others, says the agency – to the Selective Service System (SSS) about...

<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Although there hasn't been a draft in more than 30 years, 22-year-old Minneapolis college graduate Nathan Mittelstaedt is worried that he might be forced into military service.</p> <p>He's not alone.</p> <p>Despite shaky evidence -- and denials by top officials -- Mittelstaedt and many other young people in Minnesota and across the nation are convinced that a draft is secretly in the works. Through mass e-mails and Internet sites, the word is going out that as early as next June, men and women as old as 34 will be subject to random, mandatory military service.</p>