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Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg wants to dramatically increase national service opportunities to "reignite a sense of unity in America." The South Bend, Ind. mayor on Wednesday announced what his campaign has dubbed "A New Call to Service." The initiative would build a network of one million National Service members by 2026, when America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence. “National service can help us to form connections between very different kinds of Americans, as was my experience in the military,” Buttigieg said in announcing his plan. Pointing to his tours of duty in Afghanistan, the 37-year-old emphasized that...

Pledging to make public service a hallmark of her would-be administration, Democrat Hillary Clinton proposed Friday a 5 million-member “national service reserve” project that would train Americans to respond to natural disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The program, Mrs. Clinton said, would allow citizens to continue working in their full-time jobs but essentially would put them on call if state or local governments need more bodies. “If you join the national service reserve, you will receive some basic training, just like you would in the military reserves. And then when your city or state needs you, you’ll get the...

Had you been surveyed, how would you answer this survey question: Should military or civil service be mandatory for 18-year-old Americans?

The concept of 'one for all and all for one' can get pretty absurd," the late Jerusalem Post staffer and columnist Sam Orbaum wrote about his identical triplet daughters 14 years ago. The Orbaum girls in uniform. The Orbaum girls in uniform. Orbaum, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 46, went on in the column, entitled "The threeness of it all," to describe life as a father of identical triplets. Not only did he sometimes mix them up, Orbaum wrote in his well-known wry, comic style, but he was also constantly impressed by their tight bond -...

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.... The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service... With the help of the Obama administration, [a] coalition [including ACORN, Color of Change and AFL-CIO] is launching a public relations campaign under the radar of the mainstream media ...to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance...

Another chestnut dug up by The One’s bete noire at Naked Emperor News, destined to be the inspiration for a new lederhosen segment on “Glenn Beck.” You might recall that this issue’s come up before in the context of Obama’s campaign: For a few days after the election, Rahm Emanuel’s stated fondness for mandatory national service was a hot topic on righty blogs, especially after the Obama transition website posted an entry on national service “requiring” 50-100 hours per year from students. After the outcry from the ’sphere, the “requirement” language was quietly replaced by more ambiguous language about “setting...

President Barack Obama plans to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the All-Star game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14. The White House said Tuesday that Major League Baseball’s focus on community service matches with Obama’s service initiative this summer, known as United We Serve. “The central theme of the 2009 All-Star game is community service, celebrating the extraordinary work being done by ordinary people,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. “We are thrilled that we can come together with President Obama, who has encouraged a renewed spirit of national service, and illustrate a call to action...

WASHINGTON – Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college. "What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs," said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.

Obama signs huge expansion of youth brigades legislation © 2009 WorldNetDaily President Obama today signed into law the "GIVE Act," H.R. 1388, which massively expands the National Service Corporation and allocates to it billions of dollars, and one executive for the program now says it will allow for the "managing" of up to 8 or 9 million people. WND has reported on plans to create the corps since Obama told a campaign stop in Colorado Springs last year he wants a "Civilian National Security Force" as big and as well-funded as the U.S. military. The bill includes a "National Service...

By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer Ann Sanner, Associated Press Writer – 6 mins ago WASHINGTON – Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college. "What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs," said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago. "It creates opportunities to serve for students, seniors and everyone in between," he said. "And it is just the...

Right on, Michele! I know the Left is going to go nuts with this as they continue their assault on Bachmann, but I don't think she is that far off! We are inching closer to Obama Youth! Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on the Sue Jeffers' show on KTLK in Minnesota, 4/4/09

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday to strengthen national service by increasing funding for thousands of volunteers. The House approved 275-149 the Senate-passed Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. "Just one month ago, in his address to Congress, President Obama called upon Congress to pass legislation 'to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations,'" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "Today, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act is on its way to his desk to become law." Obama...

I came across a video that left me shaking with fear and outrage: If this footage doesn't disturb you to your very core, I don't even know what to say. We have here a militarized group of young men being steeped in not only political ideology, but in literal cult worship of Barack Obama. This was going on before the election. I still remember the video featuring a glassy-eyed girl singing, “We’re gonna spread happiness! We’re gonna spread freeeeedom! Obama’s gonna change it, Obama’s gonna lead ‘em…” The cult mindset continued into his inauguration, with a creepy "Kids' Inaugural." That...

Interestingly enough an important amendment brought to the floor today was not in the H.R. 1388 when it passed the Senate today. The first presented by Sen Vitter (LA) wanted to insure that no money be made available to ACORN and its affiliates, on the grounds that it is a organization with possibly suspect behaviour and that including it in the bill would not be able to politicize charitable giving and activities. Saying that the bill doesn’t allow politicized does not necessarily protect the country from ACORN’s “so-called” charitable activities. ACORN has already received considerable funding from the government, for...

The 79-19 roll call by which the Senate voted Thursday to triple the size of the AmeriCorps and broadly expand incentives for students and seniors to give back to their communities. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to pass the bill. Voting "yes" were 55 Democrats and 22 Republicans and 2 independents. Voting "no" were 0 Democrats and 19 Republicans.

It is another sound good piece of legislation. H.R. 1388 has a creative title; The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. 321 representatives of the people voted approval for this legislation which, among many other things, strikes a blow to the rights of people to mount any protests against legislation. Listen closely, it outlaws the right to mount protests against proposed legislation.

Senators moved Wednesday toward creation of a “Veterans Corps” of up to 5,000 paid volunteers to work on aid programs for vets, their families and the families of active-duty troops. The corps is part of a group of national service initiatives backed by the Obama administration and an unusual bipartisan coalition in Congress. Participants would work directly with veterans and bolster existing aid programs run by state and local governments and non-profit groups. With civilian jobs increasingly hard to come by, the corps would give people leaving the military another way of serving their country and staying off the unemployment...

With all the focus and attention on the TARP, the so-called “stimulus” bill, the nationalization of huge chunks of our economy and the various issues economic – lost in the weeds have been a host of destructive “programs” being developed and passed by the Obama-Democrat machine. Right now on the floor of the United States Senate is one of the most disturbing pieces of legislation I have seen in a long time. HR 1388, the “Serve America Act” is cloaked in feel-good rhetoric and supposedly noble goals, but it is nothing more than another Washington power-grab – this time targeted...

My parents taught me to read every word of any contract I signed. Obviously Congress doesn't follow that rule. Already we have Congress' frantic backlash from the AIG bonuses, which were in fact authorized by specific language buried deep in the stimulus bill that gave AIG its handout. Now we have more dynamite buried in the GIVE Act (H.R. 1388), already passed in a whirlwind by the House and being fast-tracked in the Senate. The GIVE Act reauthorizes the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, and also includes many more new...

The Senate Finance Committee’s top two members — Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Charles E. Grassley — teamed up today to introduce legislation that would provide money to help small and medium-sized charities get training and management assistance. The legislation, introduced as an amendment to a national-service bill now being debated by the Senate, would provide $25-million over five years to a “Nonprofit Capacity Building Program” within the Corporation for National and Community Service. The amendment would “strengthen small charities around our country, especially where resources are scarce,” Senator Baucus of Montana, who chairs the finance committee, told his colleagues...