Free Republic

The House Republican leadership decisively quashed a shameful Democratic whisper campaign Tuesday night, voting en masse against a bill that would reinstate the draft. Hoping to put this rumor to rest, House Republicans shot down H.R. 163 by a vote of 402-2. A pair of “liberal” Democrats cast the two affirmative votes. For months, the fever swamps of the Left have claimed President Bush stood at the cusp of conscription, but in recent weeks this claim had found its way into John Kerry’s campaign rhetoric. As recently as Tuesday morning, campaign official Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-TN, told Fox News...

This is not a reassuring election cycle to be the mother of two teenage sons -- or an adolescent daughter, for that matter. The specter of a military draft hangs over this presidential campaign like smoke above a burning Iraqi oil field. Both candidates insist they have no intention of reinstating the draft. And, the House voted last night to kill legislation proposed by Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, to bring it back as a means of spreading the sacrifice across racial and economic lines. So why does this mother feel such unease? Maybe because she is...

Friday, October 8, 2004 · Last updated 9:40 a.m. PT Poll: Youth tie Bush, draft reinstatement THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- In spite of denials by the Bush administration, half of young Americans believe President Bush wants to reinstate the military draft, a national poll suggests. The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 51 percent of adults age 18 to 29 believe Bush wants to reinstate the draft. Eight percent said Kerry supports bring back the draft, and 7 percent said both want to. A fourth of those polled said neither candidate favors the idea. Both Bush and Kerry say...

...........The ease with which on-duty enlisted Marines discussed politics, and the near-uniformity of their views, exemplified the extent to which the military vote has become Republican since the draft was eliminated in 1973. Studies that track political attitudes in the military indicate that the officer corps has historically been far more Republican than the general population at large, and that gap has grown in the last two decades. According to a 1999 study by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, a consortium sponsored by three North Carolina research universities, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the officer corps by a ratio of...

THE LATEST fear factor being injected into the Presidential election equation is a ghost from our past — the military draft. For the past several weeks, moms of the soccer and security persuasion, as well as the demographic known as The Youth Vote, have been targeted by an e-mail campaign promising reinstitution of the military draft should President George W. Bush be re-elected. One e-mail that's been circulating and posted on the Internet says, for example, that there's pending legislation in the House and Senate, (HR 163 and S 89) to reinstate mandatory draft for men and women (ages 18-26)...

ASHLAND — Opposed to the Iraq war, some Ashland and Talent teens and their parents are getting their ducks in a row, fearing a revival of the military draft. They are creating conscientious objector files and searching out safe-haven countries, all in case what they consider likely or even inevitable comes to pass, regardless of who is elected president. Nationwide rumors of a renewed draft, dormant since the end of the Vietnam War, have reached fever pitch with a hotly contested presidential election and the Selective Service System’s stepped-up efforts to recruit volunteers for the 1,980 draft boards around the...

Creating a New Army of Patriots - John Kerry Outlines Plan to Require Service for High School Students - "...As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory service for high school students and four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service..."

The latest fear factor being injected into the presidential election equation is a ghost from our past -- the military draft. For the past several weeks, moms of the soccer and security persuasion, as well as the demographic known as The Youth Vote, have been targeted by an e-mail campaign promising reinstitution of the military draft should President George W. Bush be re-elected. One e-mail that's been circulating and posted on the Internet says, for example, that there is pending legislation in the House and Senate to reinstate a mandatory draft for men and women (ages 18-26) starting June 15,...

H R 163 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 5-Oct-2004 7:29 PM QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass BILL TITLE: Universal National Service Act

A universal military draft could be in the works if a new approach to resolving the post-invasion turmoil in Iraq is not found, Rep. Jim Moran told a near-capacity audience at a town meeting here Monday. The event was held at the George Mason High School auditorium and featured sharp remarks critical of the Bush administration Iraq policy by former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Asked by a Mason High student about the prospect of a draft, Moran cited comments by GOP Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska that such a draft could be the only logical consequence of the administration's current...

Not that it's likely to stop the Democrats from spreading rumors to the contrary, but the House of Representatives — by an overwhelming bipartisan vote — has put the lie to any claim that the military draft is coming back. The House, voting 402-2, rejected Rep. Charles Rangel's bill to reinstate the draft, which was suspended in 1973. The legislation would have required all men and women ages 18 to 26 to perform two years of military or civilian service.

Oh, what a tangled Web we weave.... If anyone needed evidence of the power of the Internet, not only to inform but to disinform, they might refer to what happened in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night. Bill HR163, legislation to reinstate the military draft, a mischief-making proposal introduced last year by Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat, was rushed to the floor by its opponents in the Republican Party. And was put out of its 18-month misery by an overwhelming vote of 402 to 2. Even Rangel voted "no," hiding behind the fig leaf that he opposed the...

This letter appeared in the Letters To The Editor column in the Duluth News-Tribune Tuesday, October 5, 2004: Bush, Rumsfeld trying to reinstate military draft If you are a parent of or are close to someone between the ages of 18 and 26, please consider the following: There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (companion bills: HR163 and S89) to implement a renewal of the military draft as soon as next June. The Bush administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections. Information can be found in detail...

The latest fear factor being injected into the presidential election equation is a ghost from our past - the military draft. For the past several weeks, moms of the soccer and security persuasion, as well as the demographic known as The Youth Vote, have been targeted by an e-mail campaign promising reinstitution of the military draft should President George W. Bush be re-elected. One e-mail that's been circulating and posted on the Internet says, for example, that there's pending legislation in the House and Senate, (HR 163 and S 89) to reinstate mandatory draft for men and women (ages 18-26)...

Democrats Push Draft in Congress President Bush Opposes Draft And Republicans Seek Certain Defeat Of Bill Just Who is Proposing a Draft? Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) Introduced The "Universal National Service Act Of 2003" To Reinstate Military Draft. "A BILL To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." (H.R. 163, Introduced 1/7/03 By Rep. Charles Rangel) Today, House Of Representatives Will Vote On Rangel's...

Last night, the U.S. House shot down the military draft bill proposed by Democrats. The purpose of the bill was to scare college kids into voting for John Kerry. George Bush has never been in favor of the draft. But don't take my word for it. Check out the U.S. House's official website at the link below to see who sponsored the bill to reinstate the military draft. In the end, the sponsor of the bill to reinstate the draft, Charlie Rangel (D), didn't even vote for his own bill. The two "yea" votes were Democrats. The other sponsors of...

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday against a bill to reinstate the military draft, a tool that had been used by Democrats to point out the inherent inequality of volunteer service. The House voted 2-402 against suspending the debate and moving toward passage, meaning that the bill could be debated in perpetuity. The procedural motion is an action that prompts the sponsor of the legislation to pull it out of consideration. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (search), D-N.Y., introduced the legislation in January 2003 in an effort to highlight what he saw as an ill-prepared and ill-advised Iraq...

A letter that appeared in Tuesday's News Tribune suggested that the Bush administration was behind an attempt to reinstate the draft. As evidence, the writer cited by number two bills in the Senate and House and urged readers to write their representatives opposing them. In fact, there are no Republican-sponsored bills concerning the draft, and the two measures requiring conscription of all young adults, rich and poor, were sponsored by Democrats in early 2003 as a tactic against the then-impending war. Specifically, co-sponsor Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington wrote: "If we need to reinstate the draft in order to make...

..."There is certainly no one in the Bush Administration who has any idea like that at all," Donald Rumsfeld said Monday. "I don't even believe there's any Republican that I've heard of in the Congress who has that idea." He might have added that the senior military leadership hates the prospect most of all. But sometimes it takes an act of Congress to kill a politically mischievous rumor. This was the hope yesterday of House Republican leaders, who decided to schedule a vote on the Universal National Service Act, sponsored by New York Democrat Charles Rangel. Under Mr. Rangel's proposed...

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans sought to squash a persistent Internet rumor that President Bush wants to reinstate the draft if he is re-elected, engineering an overwhelming vote Tuesday killing legislation that would do just that. Republicans accused Democrats of feeding the rumor mill to scare young voters and their parents into voting against Mr. Bush. "This campaign is a baseless, malevolent concoction of the Democratic Party and everyone in this chamber knows it," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R., Texas). The House voted 402-2 to defeat the draft bill offered last year by Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.). Even...