posted March 21, 2009 03:57 AM              

Also requires new evaluation of 'mandatory' service for all

Posted: March 19, 2009
4:58 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new "volunteer corps" and consider whether "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" should be developed.

The legislation also refers to "uniforms" that would be worn by the "volunteers" and the "need" for a "public service academy, a 4-year institution" to "focus on training" future "public sector leaders." The training, apparently, would occur at "campuses."

The vote yesterday came on H.R. 1388, which reauthorizes through 2014 the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, acts that originally, among other programs, funded the AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps.

It not only reauthorizes the programs, but also includes "new programs and studies" and is expected to be funded with an allocation of $6 billion over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Many, however, are raising concerns that the program, which is intended to include 250,000 "volunteers," is the beginning of what President Obama called his "National Civilian Security Force" in a a speech last year in which he urged creating an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military. He has declined since then to elaborate.

WND reported when a copy of the speech provided online apparently was edited to exclude Obama's specific references to the new force.

The video of his statements is posted here:
The new bill specifically references the possibilities "if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount of national service."

Such new requirements perhaps, the legislation notes, "would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds."

No one, apparently with the exception of infants, would be excluded:
"The means to develop awareness of national service and volunteer opportunities at a young age by creating, expanding, and promoting service options for elementary and secondary school students, through service learning or other means, and by raising awareness of existing incentives."

According to a report by Canada Free Press, "'volunteerism' that kept America running since the days of its founding" would be "wiped out with the stroke of a pen."

"It becomes forced labor and like the practice of another era, presses American citizens of all ages and creeds, unknowingly into military service," the commentary said.

"On paper, H.R. 1388 is the 'Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act'; the more innocuous sounding 'The Give Act,' for short.

"The Give Act puts the finishing touches to Public Allies New Leadership for New Times, modeled after Saul Alinsky's 'Peoples Organizations' and operating under Michelle Obama," the commentary said.

"Michelle was also a pioneer in the social entrepreneur movement – leaders who create new approaches and organize to provide new solutions to social problems. Like most things Saul Alinsky, H.R. 1388 sounds noble in stating why wide-sweeping change is necessary," the commentary said.

"H.R. 1388 goes straight to the heart of volunteerism in America, impacting everything from the lemonade stands of neighborhood children, to the residents of senior citizens homes. … The Give Act puts tow-headed school children and silver-haired seniors in the official uniform of the new State, and encompasses every walk of life in main-street America," the commentary said. "Whether you are young or old, or firmly believe that volunteering means you are offering your time to the good of community work, you will be pressed into Obama's National Civilian Community Corps."

Groups of such "volunteers," would, under the legislation, be "grouped together as appropriate in campuses for operational, support, and boarding purposes. The Corps campus for a unit shall be in a facility or central location established as the operational headquarters and boarding place for the unit. … There shall be a superintendent for each camp."

The plan generated this concern from Resistnet.com: "This is the equivalent of brown shirts."

Another portion of the bill talks about a "service learning" plan that will be "a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency."

A forum participant noted, "I wonder what's going to happen to those who refused to 'volunteer.' Maybe they will be put into a different 'campus.' I guess we will soon find out."

Formal announcements about the plan suggested something far different, picking a provision far down in the 200 pages of legislation to highlight.

According to a Business Wire statement released by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the bill "would formally authorize federal support for establishing the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America as a National Day of Service and Remembrance."

That provision is tucked into the far reaches of the legislation, but Schumer discussed it as if it were the primary point.

"I could not be more proud to work to pass this important provision," said Schumer. "September 11 should not only be a day for mourning – it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community, and our country. We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good."

On the Albany Insanity blog, this concern was raised: "What gives the government the right to require individuals to give three years service under the guise of 'volunteer' service? It is not explicit exactly who is required but I think they get the bill passed and then iron out the details. It talks about uniforms and 'camps.' They revise the word 'camps' and call it 'campus.' There is language about Seniors and Community organizations."

The blog noted, such work forces would be used for "pressing national and local challenges" that apparently could range from weather disasters to economic uncertainty.

At a Republican website, officials noted it authorizes funding for an Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans' Corps and Opportunity Corps.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York. It was approved in the House 321-105, with mostly GOP opposition. It now goes to the Senate.

WND reported earlier on Obama's Colorado Springs campaign speech when he sought a civilian security force as big and well-funded as the military – with a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars.

WND later reported when the official website for Obama, Change.gov, announced he would "require" all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs.

However, after a flurry of blogs protested children being drafted into Obama's proposed youth corps, officials softened the website's wording.

Originally, under the tab "America Serves," Change.gov read, "President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps.

"Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year," the site announced.

WND previously reported on a video of a marching squad of Obama youth.

Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND, used his daily column first to raise the issue and then to elevate it with a call to all reporters to start asking questions.

"If we're going to create some kind of national police force as big, powerful and well-funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn't this rather a big deal?" Farah wrote. "I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on the military. How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create some kind of massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together?

posted March 21, 2009 12:12 PM            

quote:

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He's living in a dream world. I wont be lifiting a finger for this unless it's my middle one.

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Amen sister !!

I have missed you T!

love, juni

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~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted March 21, 2009 03:48 PM            

I remember posting something about this before, probably before the election and it still makes me angry. I love the idea of volunteering but we all know that forced volunteering is just free labor. Just like I have nothing against the military ... and yet I would never seriously suggest that everyone be forced to serve in the military for x amount of time. People need to be able to choose what they are willing and able to do ... and choose venues for themselves where they will be glad to serve others in ways that they are actually capable of serving well. About the only thing the government now seems unwilling to do is force people to get paid jobs. Hey, maybe one day we won't have to be paid. Maybe we can all just work for the government; where they tell us to (based on some kind of aptitude testing) and how long they tell us to. And magically they'll provide us with our homes and food and education and healthcare and everything they deem we need ... so long as we do what they say without complaint. Aren't there already countries that function, and I use that term loosely, like that? Why do we have to try to ruin the US, too?

This whole far left movement (so far left that it ends up meeting up with the far right ... it's a circle, people, and tyranny stands opposite freedom) completely ignores even the possibility of will and choice in why humanity exists. People don't choose to support this or that and so now they have to be forced to do so with their money and now their time? "Change we want whether or not you like or want it." Joe Biden was talking the other day about wasting our money and said something along the lines of "We have asked the American people to do something they've never done before" and I'm thinking, really? Did you actually ask me? I don't believe anybody asked me what they could do with my money. They just did it and don't care whether or not I'm okay with it.

And children?! It's illegal to pay a child to work but force them to work for the government for free and that's supposed to be a good thing? It's just insanity. Actual, literal insanity.

One of the ironies is that we've been getting advice on not making stupid government decisions from China. I wonder if they also think free mandatory child labor is a bad thing. There was that one very infamous tyrannt (also ending up on the point where far right meets far left on the ideological circle) who was very fond of a child labor movement. And they had cute little uniforms and camps and songs, too. Gosh, what was his name?

This is why I think guns should always be legal in America. Whether or not we could resist the-worst-that-could-possibly-happen with a mostly obese civilian opposition force is not the point. The point is that if they ever did come a knockin' on my door to try and force me or my loved ones to do something like this, I would be glad to have us all go down in a rain of bullets for resisting by force asap. Liberty or death, seriously.

posted March 21, 2009 04:50 PM            

so this may just be more alarmist reporting...

i'll be baack!

and speaking of mandatory service i don't know if any of you remember but not too long ago we had something called the draft...if you were an 18 year old male you were forced to join the armed services for (3 years was it?) a period. and if you joined the reserves in 2001 you could be FORCED to go to iraq even though you had joined in a peacetime capacity(same thing happened in the 60s with vietnam). well we got rid of that one with a lot of standing up, screaming and protesting, and a lot of emigrating too! even today if you do not register with the selective service at 18 you can be fined up to $250,000 or sent to jail...

posted March 21, 2009 05:55 PM              

quote:

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The point is that if they ever did come a knockin' on my door to try and force me or my loved ones to do something like this, I would be glad to have us all go down in a rain of bullets for resisting by force asap. Liberty or death, seriously.

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Brings to mind my state's motto:

"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils"
-John Starke

I'm starting to think i might want to own a gun. If I were in the situation where I was being forced to take part in something described in the above article, I would not go out without a fight. And I'm sure they already have plans for how to handle us noncompliant ones who wont give up so easily. There is a brand new prison being built up in our mountains here. Interesting because we don't need it (or do we ). If I were being forced, I would like a gun to shoot at the aggressor, but I would purpously miss them, forcing them to kill me (this is Plan A, anyway). Continuing to shoot until they did. I wont kill another human being. I do not have a family to protect. If i did though, things might be different. I also wont go to a camp set up by them for people like me where we would probably be tortured, starved, raped, drugged or whatever else might be in order. Of course I hope it doesnt come down to this but I dont put anything past anyone in this world anymore. Especially those in the government. And the state of the people of world...unstable...many of them extremely stressed out and struggling, daily news reports of people 'losing it' left and right is all very alarming.
________________________________

posted March 21, 2009 06:05 PM              

Personally i dont have the energy or desire to read it. Partly because I wouldnt believe a word of it anyway. The sneaky, shady liars do not live by or enforce what is put into writing anyway. They do whatever they want and brainwash people into thinking it's what they want as well. They are adept at how to appropriately word these bills and know the psychology behind their choices in wording. Know what to say in order to ease the masses minds to slowly slip in and gain more control.

posted March 21, 2009 06:10 PM            

you can find the bill itself online. but i guess everyone is too stressed out to actually do the homework, better to have someone else (who is also already against obama in principle - sorry gut feeling) chew it up for you and spit it down your throat.

THIS is where the problem lies. not in leaders who might have the wrong end of the stick, but in "too stressed, too tired" citizens who can't be bothered to think for themselves.

edit: 26t our last posts appear to have crossed. i am on page 22 and i know what you mean about political language. but i was raised to believe it is OUR responsibility to keep the government in line. so it does not scare me when obama says things like We are the ones we've been waiting for. he is talking about each individual, NOT himself...

which is besides the point. so far every single thing in there is about providing funds for schools and programs to teach people the value of service and make it available to the communities. like i say i am only less than a 10th through it. not my favourite pastime either.

don't know if you have kids but community service has been on the curriculum in a small way for some time now.

posted March 21, 2009 06:11 PM              

Like I said, i didnt read the bill, but will plan for worst case and just-in-case scenario.

posted March 21, 2009 06:14 PM              

quote:

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she feels justified in NOT PAYING ATTENTION to anything he says, just his face gives her the creeps. that is VERY INTELLIGENT. we should all be so sure of ourselves.

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chill kat. dont let unintelligent people upset you so.

posted March 21, 2009 06:22 PM              

quote:

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but in "too stressed, too tired" citizens who can't be bothered to think for themselves.

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Hey kat. I believe I am thinking for myself and not letting a bill do it for me. Am I entitled to my thoughts and opinions even though I choose not to read the bill as you suggest?

posted March 21, 2009 06:25 PM              

Anxious time: More people want weapons

DERRY – AL BACON is explaining to one of his regular customers why the ammo he wants is out of stock. Meanwhile, three more people enter the tiny gun shop, doing an awkward two-step around other customers patiently waiting for a word with Bacon.

It will be nearly an hour before Bacon catches his breath.

"It's been like this all day, every day," he said of the constant traffic to his store, Al's Gun and Reel Shop, on Linwood Avenue. "It's difficult to keep up. In all my years here, it's never been like this."

The concern in Bacon's voice doesn't make sense, at first. What businessman wouldn't want a steady stream of customers at a time when the rest of the economy is stalling?

While his salesman, Tom, walks a customer through the different options for semi-automatic rifles, Bacon moves toward a quieter corner of the store. He explains that it's a venture he launched 39 years ago, something he calls his "dream job." It was a way to supplement his income while feeding his passion for guns. It was also a way to help build a network of fellow gun aficionados and promote responsible gun ownership.

As an afterthought, Bacon figured the store would help fight off the boredom of retirement, once his career with General Electric wound down.

Now 65, Bacon knows his "dream job" is really all he has left. The erosion of his nest egg in the past year has left him without much of a safety net.

"I thought I had done everything right," he said.

His next words are whispered, like a dark secret shared in the strictest confidence.

"People are scared. They're panic buying. They don't know what's next. There's a lot of fear out there," Bacon said, excusing himself to ring up another customer.

He recognizes the fear because it feels so familiar. Bacon said his own fear is that the current surge in gun and ammunition sales may be the beginning of the end for gun shop owners, himself included.

"What I think people are most afraid of is losing their gun rights. People have already lost so much," Bacon said. "It's a sign of the times. People are buying up everything they can, while they can. Washington right now is anti-gun, and nobody knows what Obama is going to do."

Home defense
Uncertainty over President Obama's commitment to the Second Amendment or his stance on gun control has been feeding a frenzy among gun buyers who suspect the President may soon take steps to slow or stop the sale of semi-automatic weapons altogether, Bacon said.

"It's hard keeping up already. I have to tell people I don't know when I will be able to get them what they're looking for. Companies right now are so backlogged with orders they probably will never catch up," Bacon said.

Smaller handguns -- particularly revolvers -- are flying off the shelves, along with tactical shotguns -- Bacon prefers to call them "home defense" shot guns.

"They are short-barreled shotguns, easier for a woman to handle," he says.

The other big sellers are AR-15s, most often referred to as assault weapons.

"That word carries a lot of stigma. It irks me. A bat can be an assault weapon, for that matter. This is really just a semi-automatic rifle," he said, as his salesman hands one of the black, military-style rifles over the counter to a customer, who's ready to buy.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," said the customer, a former officer at the Chester Rod and Gun Club, who doesn't want his name publicized. "I'm not trying to hide anything, but I don't want everyone to know I have guns. It's like an invitation to the bad guys. You understand."

He said what moved him to make the purchase now, after months of research on the Internet, was news reports over the scarcity of the AR-15s. Unable to find even one of the half-dozen or so rifles matching those on his computer printouts, he settles for one off the shelf at Bacon's shop.

"I've been looking. They're nowhere to be found. Everyone has the same idea. With the economy and all the layoffs of police, if someone breaks into my house and starts shooting at my family, I can't count on the fact that the police will get there in time to help. I have to protect me and my family," he said.

Same story at gun shops around the state, including Riley's Sport Shop in Hooksett, where the shelves are more or less empty, according to the sales clerk on duty yesterday.

"It's been like this since two weeks before the election. This isn't just in Derry or Hooksett or New Hampshire -- this is the whole country," he said.

As proof, demand is so high right now for ATF Form 4473, a mandatory firearms purchase form filled out before every sale, the government has run out.

"They told us to photocopy the forms we have," said the clerk at Riley's. "We are down to our last forms, as of today."

Converging fears
State Sen. Bob Letourneau, R-Derry, said the threat to gun shop owners -- and gun owners -- is real, and that the current surge in gun and ammunition sales is a direct response to that threat.

"People are speaking through their actions that they are not happy with the Obama administration. I am reading e-mails on a daily basis, from constituents and shop owners, over the threat of gun control laws," Letourneau said.

Attorney Evan Nappen, director of Pro-Gun New Hampshire Inc., said people's fear over possible anti-gun legislation is only part of the story.

"There is also fear from the economic downturn, and over situations in which the need for one to defend one's self will arise, either from lack of funding for police, to civil unrest -- whatever is running through folk's minds, people want to be able to defend themselves -- and it happens to be at a point in time when all those fears are converging," Nappen said.

Derry Republican state Rep. Frank Sapareto, whose day job is in equity markets and futures, said people shouldn't get too caught up in the negative spin on the country's economic downturn.

"Sure, gun sales are up, but other markets are up, too," Sapareto says. "We just had a report to the (House) Ways and Means Committee that housing starts are up. We don't hear much about that, but that's good news."

Underlying the fear factor has been the general public backlash over policies of the Bush administration, part of the national momentum that shifted the political power to the left, Sapareto said.

As the dust of this election settles, people will recognize the need for bipartisan efforts to improve the economic outlook and reduce the kind of fear that feed certain trends, such as the gun market, he said.

posted March 21, 2009 06:32 PM            

That was before I knew of his connection to the Weathermen terrorists and his change/hope farce... and the unfolding of his presidency , as a teleprompted puppet, has only intensified my radar.

Rather the bill is valid or false, Obama carries some serious bad vibes.

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What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted March 21, 2009 06:38 PM              

It's nice when one knows they arent alone.

posted March 21, 2009 06:43 PM            

love, juni

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted March 21, 2009 06:53 PM            

before you accuse me of defending the One or being in the left foot camp, i want to say that i don't believe anything politicians say either. and i don't particularly have time or desire to be reading every bill that comes out!!

i was not belittling your stress but trying to say that there is plenty of slanted press out there which makes the worst of any situation...

there is other information around which is less exhausting than the legal/politicalese of a congressional bill. which suggests that the bill is really about the funding and not about pressing anyone into service. you've heard of the peace corps and americorps probably, do they strike you as sinister?

posted March 21, 2009 07:04 PM            

of course if they come for me i will use everything i have but i'm not looking to attract that scenario.

posted March 21, 2009 08:09 PM              

I've read every book I could get my hands on about the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking. Listened to countless Hicks cd's in the past etc. I have finally come to realize that it's not quite so simple (or "right") and don't quite live by that code anymore. Perhaps I have been doing something wrong, but it never quite worked out the way they said it would in the books and after a lot of learning from this and wondering why it wasnt, i figured some things out and no longer subscribe to these beliefs. Lord knows I tried - hard.

Yes, i thought the same thing about the second article - how people are filled with fear. But they do have a right to be and I'm afraid that if everyone pushed their fear aside they would be handing over their rights and freedom too. I think Obama is using all this New Age stuff that people have gotten hooked into, to his advantage and knows exactly what he is doing and how to get to the heart of the confused masses who learnt about the Secret on Oprah and bought right into it. Isnt it interesteing how they have decided to call this the "Give Act" for short? Nice choice of words. Sounds like a nice thing to do. Everybody wants to be giving, right?

quote:

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of course if they come for me i will use everything i have but i'm not looking to attract that scenario

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Who is? I've been in plenty of situations that I never wanted to attract and have a hard time understanding how I did. Havent you? So have countless other people throughout the world. I think there's more to it than what one person attracts. It's a group thing. What if a worst case scenario did come to fruition and started playing out, but it was actually for the greater good in the long run? We just didnt see it that way first. What if lots of people had to die first? I believe "Light" always prevails, I dont believe or trust in man. That's just me though and life lessons and experience have brought me to this point. Obviously you are entitled to live how you will.

All I know is that i and many others have been through enough and i will not be spending the rest of my days in a "camp" or be ordered to do "volunteer" work. Leave us poor people alone. Maybe it wont come to that in my time or ever, but i dont think it's as farfetched as you are making it out to be. None of them want to help us or are on our side, everything's falling apart. It seems to me that Obama is extremely out of touch with the average American person and family's reality. For a lot of people, it's been a really long hard road and I dont think he has the slightest clue or even cares to.

posted March 21, 2009 09:41 PM            

Regarding things being in proportion or out of proportion, it would seem that the precedent is that those who don't like the President regardless of which party typically are weary of the worst.

I am not concerned about this topic in the least.