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Strange, You Can Believe It! [Dan Collins]

From Lonewacko via Hot Air Headlines:

Back on July 2, Barack Obama read his “public service” address, and it contained this line that hasn’t received much notice:

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set… We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

What the Sam Hill? There’s nothing at his Service page (barackobama.com/issues/service) discussing anything near such a program. He wants to increase the size of Americorps, create a “Homeland Security Corps”, create other specialized groups, and give more power and equipment to the Reserves and Guard. But, considering that the U.S. military budget is nearly half a trillion dollars and they’ve got bunker busters and nuclear submarines and things like that, one might expect some sort of inkling of a plan.

And, of course, there’s the creepy nature of his proposal, but nothing new there.

Huh. Well, maybe that explains his 2nd Amendment flip-flop.

In a speech in Madison, Wis., Obama told his supporters that rallying to his cause was today’s equivalent of the “greatest generation” rallying to defeat Hitler and Tojo. Oprah merely calls him, “The One,” saying he will help us “evolve to a higher plane.”

Oprah counsels Obama.

Insta-lanche!

Jonah-lanche!

Honestly, though, the attention should go to Lonewacko.

139 Replies to “Strange, You Can Believe It! [Dan Collins]”

  1. daleyrocks says:

    Jack boots

    Brown shirts

  2. Silver Whistle says:

    Make that the Sturmjugend O!

  3. Semanticleo says:

    Roosevelt’s HIGHLY successful CCC and Kennedy’s somewhat successful
    Peace Corps provided respite for domestic and international hardship.

    Obama;

    “”Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July,” he said. “Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger.””

    All those who will not give back to their country some sort of public service, might have to participate in lieu of military servitude.

    Clearly, merely appearing at the polls on election day is not the vision the Founders had of Participatory Democracy.

    “Ask not what your country can do for you…..” is as viable a notion now, as when first spoken.

  4. Dan Collins says:

    Sure, ‘Cleo. Let’s make volunteerism mandatory.

  5. McGehee says:

    And let’s support a guy who thinks getting him elected is the moral equivalent of winning a world war.

  6. Semanticleo says:

    “Let’s make volunteerism mandatory.”

    Well we could make Jury Duty optional. Also we could ask for volunteers to pay taxes.

  7. Sdferr says:

    ‘We are the ones we were waiting for’ will translate to ‘He is his own undoing’.

  8. Rob Crawford says:

    All those who will not give back to their country some sort of public service, might have to participate in lieu of military servitude.

    Wow. Not content just to indirectly confiscate our labor via taxes, hmm? I’m betting that helping out at an overtly-religious soup kitchen won’t be acceptable “community service”, and that neither will volunteering with the local office of the NRA.

    But, hey, I commend you on your blunt honesty. It’s rare, and while I find the sentiment breath-takingly vile, your honesty is refreshing.

    Oh, and that you actually said something, rather than resorting to your typical mumbo-jumbo.

    Clearly, merely appearing at the polls on election day is not the vision the Founders had of Participatory Democracy.

    Well, no. But I doubt they’d have considered it to mean Pharonic requirements to dedicate part of your life to building the Robert C. Byrd Memorial Cenotaph. I think they meant things like, oh, engaging in debate with your fellow citizens, serving in elected offices when you feel you can contribute, and the like.

    “Ask not what your country can do for you…..” is as viable a notion now, as when first spoken.

    But let’s forget when the same fellow said we shall “bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty”, eh?

  9. MlR says:

    Sounds like he’s talking about the civilian intelligence services.

  10. Darleen says:

    Cleo

    If you think JFK was looking at a civilian draft when he uttered those words …

    shit, scratch a “progressive” find a fascist…

  11. MlR says:

    Then again, the guy’s delusional, so that might make too much sense.

  12. Darleen says:

    Another thing Cleo

    The Founding Fathers would be appalled at the professional political class. They envisioned people running for office, doing a few years service, then going back to their professional lives.

  13. Semanticleo says:

    Regressives publicly supporting the suppression of evidence available through TelCom enablers is no substitute for Fascism.

    I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.

  14. MlR says:

    Yeah, reading the remarks in total, that’s a very charitable interpretation on my part. On second viewing it looks like he’s talking about some sort of new CCC, naturally presented as the salvation of America’s greatness, from the party that previously did everything possible to deconstruct American unity and civic-identity.

  15. Darleen says:

    IMO O! knows the military will obey him as CinC but it will be as suspicious of him as it was of Billy Jeff. It looks like O! wants to form an alternative organization loyal only to him.

    That is very worrisome.

  16. Darleen says:

    Cleo

    I guess “expo facto” was never in your vocabulary.

    I’m not surprised.

    You aren’t for the rule of law, you’re a sensitive, “all things not left are evil and defeating them by any means necessary is ok” Progg.

  17. Rob Crawford says:

    Well we could make Jury Duty optional. Also we could ask for volunteers to pay taxes.

    Oh, I spoke too soon! There you go, trying to be twee, again.

    So your point is that since we force people to pay taxes under the threat of imprisonment and/or impoverishment, and that we strongly encourage (though not truly require) people to serve on juries, it’s therefore acceptable (in your view, not necessarily Obama’s), to force people to hand over actual minutes of their life and literal sweat of their brow?

  18. Semanticleo says:

    CornCob;

    Your faint praise is acknowledged, but deemed unnecessary.

  19. “I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.”

    Your fascists start personality cults. Mine just don’t want trial lawyers to get rich over idiotic lawsuits.

  20. McGehee says:

    I’ve always believed those on the left are, at heart, nostalgic for the days when serfdom was the way of the world.

    In their utopia, of course, they’re never the serfs. But because they ascribe to their opponents all of their own darkest impulses, they naturally fear being made serfs (or worse) under a non-leftist government.

  21. SevenEleventy says:

    I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.

    Haven’t you expressed this in just about every comment you’ve made here. Rinse and repeat. Please, list all of Bushco’s crimes in one comment and get it over with.

  22. Rob Crawford says:

    Regressives publicly supporting the suppression of evidence available through TelCom enablers is no substitute for Fascism.

    Translation: “I stepped on my dick by calling for involuntary servitude to the state, so here’s a bright shiny distraction!”

    Again, Semanticleo, do you really think it’s proper for the state to require people to perform labor for it?

  23. Semanticleo says:

    “that we strongly encourage (though not truly require) people to serve on juries,”

    I’m sure there will be hardship and health deferments, just as the military had before the draft was ‘suspended’.

    But, by your expressed love for paying taxes, I assume you would support ‘volunteerism’ and believe the Fed Deficit, trebled since Bush II, would be inconsequential for carrying on your Iraq war because so many (unlike yourself) would CHOOSE to pay taxes.

  24. Darleen says:

    McGehee

    Ah! You’ve attended Medieval Faires!! (kinda like going to sci-fi conventions, only with swords instead of phasers)

  25. Das Ouroboros says:

    The Obama Youth.. Fight thought crime! Denounce your parents! Win valuable prizes!

    I feel more secure all ready.

    Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit! Zig Heil!

  26. Rob Crawford says:

    And I wanna make something clear — I think O! is calling for a latter-day CCC, an expansion of “Americorps”. In other words, another way to funnel tax-payer money and low-cost labor to left wing groups under the guise of “community service” and “volunteerism”.

    It’s cleo that’s calling for involuntary servitude.

  27. MlR says:

    “about some sort of new CCC”

    With the exception that this one isn’t just about the ‘poor,’ but also every little spoiled, overeducated brat who needs to go out and find himself on the dime of the productive.

  28. I was once on a jobsite for a well-known national charity. The workers were two sets of volunteers; real volunteers who were fired up by the vision of the charity, and Americorps volunteers, putting in hours to get whatever payoff they were getting. Night and day, so far as motivation and effectiveness go. I know who I’d rather have help me across the street.

  29. Jeff says:

    Dan, your headlines are frakkin’ hilarious. You’re like that bald-headed kid in The Matrix. When we ask, “How do you do that?” You reply, “There is no Obama.”

  30. geoffb says:

    “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.””

    To me this has more of the tone of the MVD than the SA, SS or CCC

  31. Rob Crawford says:

    I’m sure there will be hardship and health deferments, just as the military had before the draft was ’suspended’.

    So you are calling for a non-military equivalent to the draft?

    And what’s with the scare quotes? No one’s forced into military service. We have to register for selective service (by “we”, of course, I mean men), but there’s no draft.

    But, by your expressed love for paying taxes, I assume you would support ‘volunteerism’ and believe the Fed Deficit, trebled since Bush II, would be inconsequential for carrying on your Iraq war because so many (unlike yourself) would CHOOSE to pay taxes.

    Another attempt to change the subject!

    Again, ‘cleo, do you believe it’s proper for the government to confiscate the labor of the people? I’m talking about actually forcing people to work for the government, without choice. While I have a serious problem with excessive taxes, let’s set aside the whole question of taxation, because even with excessive taxation you have the option of how you spend the minutes of your life.

  32. Rob Crawford says:

    And does anyone else recall that when Heinlein posited a system of government that required national service to acquire the vote, people — primarily on the left — called him a “fascist”?

    For God’s sake, it was as recently as five years ago or so that I saw lefties calling RAH “fascist”. Now they appear to have taken the first step down that road, though I doubt they’d be able to express the rationale as clearly as he did, or much care for the route he described as leading towards it.

  33. Semanticleo says:

    “It’s cleo that’s calling for involuntary servitude.”

    Well, the loss of jobs is just below 500,000 so far this year.

    Participants in CCC during the depression was voluntary to the extent that non-participants could choose not to have any form of paycheck.

    No, it would not be exactly like the Draft (Genuine Involuntary servitude) but would probably be tied to an agreement for repayment of student loans and the like. Not saying I know just what it entails.
    Nobody will until it’s drafted.

  34. not Larry Johnson says:

    Why do the likes of KKKleo refer to volunteer military service as servitude?

  35. An Alien Observer-boros says:

    Although your world wonders me,
    With your majestic and superior Obamaman
    Your people I do not understand,
    So to you I shall put an end
    And you’ll never hear
    surf music again ….

  36. Semanticleo says:

    “Another attempt to change the subject!”

    You indicated your preference for not paying taxes period.
    I assume most everyone would opt out if it were possible, including you.

    And the funds for staying in Iraq would come from where if no one paid
    ‘voluntary’ taxes.

    Your failure to see context is habitual when you object to points which hit far too close to home.

  37. DoDoGuRu says:

    Homeland Security Corps

    I remember the good old days when Bush was using the words “Homeland Security” and being met with sneers, eyerolls, and denunciations from the left. I suppose the venom turns to sugar in the mouth of the Messiah.

    I also remember when giving a portion of our young men to the military draft was the height of evil. But now drafting the entire population into serfdom is a great idea. All it took was the Messiah to deliver this decree and Eureka! Let it be written, and let it be done!

    Good times. Good times.

  38. Slartibartfast says:

    Rob:

    While I have a serious problem with excessive taxes, let’s set aside the whole question of taxation, because even with excessive taxation you have the option of how you spend the minutes of your life.

    Semanticleo’s response:

    You indicated your preference for not paying taxes period.

    Do you speak English?

  39. McGehee says:

    Ah! You’ve attended Medieval Faires!!

    No, I’ve read Capital by Karl Marx.

  40. Spiny Norman says:

    Slartibartfast,

    Do you speak English?

    Cleo speaks “Progressive”. The words look like English, but have entirely different (and ever-changing) meanings.

  41. Semanticleo says:

    So if taxes were ‘voluntary’ you would pay what non-excessive percentage
    of your gross income?

  42. TmjUtah says:

    So let me get this straight…

    National Service is absolutely cool, as long as the government tells me when, how long,and where I will serve, and it’s not in any way, shape, or form related to national security or military duty?

    Did I miss anything?

  43. Slartibartfast says:

    I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.

    Cleo has fascists?

    I’m having a Johnny Hart moment.

  44. Rob Crawford says:

    Well, the loss of jobs is just below 500,000 so far this year.

    Which has what do with your calls for involuntary service to the state? And while the first sentence of your first comment invoked the CCC, you followed it with:

    All those who will not give back to their country some sort of public service, might have to participate in lieu of military servitude.

    This smacks of “if you won’t volunteer, we’ll force you”. If that’s not what you meant, why did you follow it by a reference to taxes (again, paid under penalty of incarceration and/or impoverishment)?

    So are you arguing for a make-work “workfare” program, or for “mandatory voluntarism”?

    That a small percentage of the population (US working-age population is around 200,000,000; 500,000 represents 0.25%) has become temporarily out of work in a short period of time is not really an argument for either, IMHO.

  45. Rob Crawford says:

    So if taxes were ‘voluntary’ you would pay what non-excessive percentage of your gross income?

    That’s not the topic at hand.

  46. Rob Crawford says:

    I’m having a Johnny Hart moment.

    CLAMS HAVE LEGS!!!

  47. JD says:

    Miss Cleo is fluent in idiot.

  48. Slartibartfast says:

    I’m wondering if the fascists have knobby knees.

  49. Semanticleo says:

    “So are you arguing for a make-work “workfare” program, or for “mandatory voluntarism”?”

    Could be a blend of both. The point is that this country needs infrastructural rebuilding and an infusion of participatory pride.

    Morale is essential when hard times hit, and they will hit; probably
    for a decade. For those not enticed by a small paycheck or other incentives (namely the top 1 percent economically), there will probably have to be some sort of inducement.

    Again, I mention our jury System, which is the foundation of our Legal System. Some choose to participate with vigor and enthusiasm, others
    perceive serving the public welfare negatively, at first, but find their own perspective enhanced after their ‘invlountary’ servitude has run it’s course.

  50. Semanticleo says:

    “That’s not the topic at hand.”

    Well, if you say so. But Slartman seemed to open that avenue when he announced how confident he was you would gladly pay your fair share.

  51. Slartibartfast says:

    Cleo’s reading comprehension skills are dimmer than usual, just now.

  52. ThomasD says:

    Roosevelt’s HIGHLY successful CCC

    Successful? Well, as with all thing progressive I guess it depends on how you look at it.

    Roosevelt’s actions during the depression, including the Wagner Act, made it more expensivd to hire new workers, thereby worsening and prolonging unemployment.

    Faced with the prospects of large numbers of young, under employed, males – and the accompanying risks (and fairly recent memories of the Bonus Army) the Feds create a conscript army of workers, exempted from all those pesky employment laws that they then segregate from the population at large, placing them on remote camps run by the military. Those workers were paid $5 a month, plus ‘room and board’ such as it was. Oh heay sure Mom and Pop back on the farm were bought off with an additional $25 of government ‘largesse.’

    Scratch a liberal..

    Oh hell, why bother, they know what they are and they don’t really seem to mind.

  53. mac says:

    Loyal only to: Barack Obama…uber alles (Dead Kennedys-1979).

  54. DoDoGuRu says:

    Again, I mention our jury System, which is the foundation of our Legal System.

    Your faith in people is astounding and I have to believe it is only because you’ve never had a jury summons. At least half the people ever summoned to jury duty just plain don’t show up.

    I remember when the Jenna 6 thing was happening and people were complaining that the juries were made up almost entirely of white people. I wondered for a while what could account for such a stacking of jurors against the defendants, until it was discovered that many black people had been summoned only to end up not appearing for jury selection.

  55. Semanticleo says:

    “they know what they are and they don’t really seem to mind.”

    I’m sure you’ll have a better idea, like GROW ourselves out of the coming Depression with some positive thinking and some more tax cuts.

    “let’s build a fire, sing some songs”

  56. TmjUtah says:

    “…might have to participate in lieu of military servitude.”

    Uh, Cleo, thanks.

    You gave me an opportunity to exercise my self restraint, and I chose to do so.

    By all means, carry on.

  57. slackjawedyokel says:

    Some choose to participate with vigor and enthusiasm, others
    perceive serving the public welfare negatively, at first, but find their own perspective enhanced after their ‘invlountary’ servitude has run it’s course.

    Ah, yes! Arbeit Macht Frei!

  58. ThomasD says:

    So, tell me Cleo, just where did Roosevelt get all the funds necessary to pay for all those CCC proles? And just how did that ‘get us out’ of the depression?

  59. I’m having a Johnny Hart moment.

    CLAMS HAVE LEGS!!!

    Sorry, but you know too much. ZOT!!

  60. dre says:

    “I’m sure you’ll have a better idea, like GROW ourselves out of the coming Depression with some positive thinking and some more tax cuts.”

    My idea is to give progs involutary servitude on the island paradise of Cuba.

  61. Semanticleo says:

    “where did Roosevelt get all the funds necessary to pay for all those CCC proles?”

    From the ‘involuntary servitude’ of Federal Taxes.

  62. dre says:

    “I’m sure you’ll have a better idea, like GROW ourselves out of the coming Depression with some positive thinking and some more tax cuts.”

    A recession is two consecutive quarters of economic decline. So yea you want to GROW the economy numbnuts.

  63. ThomasD says:

    And who paid those Federal Taxes that then wen to pay for the CCC? And again, just how did that ‘get us out’ of the depression?

  64. Semanticleo says:

    Here’s yer sign, people.

    What lowering the taxes on the richest one percent got us…..

    http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/events/spring08/feller/

    Its your patriotic duty to volunteer to pay more of your hard-earned
    wages in taxes.

  65. happyfeet says:

    I can see the backlash already and a lot look forward to the day when an ascendant Republican party cuts Baracky’s civilian national security force by like almost half.

  66. Semanticleo says:

    I guess it’s the one-issue voters that stick the labor force with elected officials who run counter to those same persons who vote against their own economic interests. That must be the sacrifice they have decided to make instead of voluntarism; i.e. economic decline.

    A small sacrifice; transferring your meager assets to the biggest Greeheads.

  67. ThomasD says:

    Well, as a member of the civilian national security force, aka militia, I’m exempt from any further service obligations. Plus, I get unlimited range time!

  68. Sdferr says:

    How’s about we start with just eliminating Social Security and it’s attendant Administration? People who fall for pyramid schemes are plain old stupid.

  69. dre says:

    “What lowering the taxes on the richest one percent got us…..”

    Oh good a socialist perspective. We’ve never tried that.

  70. dre says:

    “who vote against their own economic interests.”
    So you know the personal economic interests of 300 million people?

  71. Salt Lick says:

    Even WF Buckley wrote a 1990 article titled “National Debt, National Service” recommending a “national service” and bemoaned the “strange and unhealthy failure by many American men and women to manifest any sense of obligation to the patrimony.” (Though I kinda doubt Cleo agrees with the patrimony part.)

    Aside from the debate over involuntary servitude, however, the problem is Obama’s naive suggestion that a “civilian national security force” can supplement military power in a meaningful way if only it is “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.” All this shows is Obama’s is a childish mind that is unprepared to deal with the world of Ahmadinajeds, Vladimir Putins, etc. Which is no surprise given Obama’s been a senator for only 3 years and has no military or foreign policy experience.

  72. syn says:

    ” a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

    Is this Obama’s plan to weaponize and train Greenpeace for war?

  73. jdm says:

    Oh good a socialist perspective. We’ve never tried that.

    Waittaminute! This one’s a magically delicious socialist perspective. This time it’ll work; I just know it! Honest!

    And with O!’s “civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” as the military, it’ll be given the time and money it really needs to work. You know, wink, wink, perhaps an election or two may need to be cancelled.

    I, for one, look forward to my new proggie overlords.

  74. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.”

    A few of the French felt that way too. The rest of them were part and parcel to some crazy, disloyal thinamajiger called “The Underground.” Awful, just awful. I know Cleo, they should have been executed for the greater good. Well you and Obama can sleep sound, Cleo, because a lot of them were.

    Anyway, I forget how all that turned out. I went to public school and whatnot. What I do know from watching TV is that if I vote for Obama, I “blow Hitler.”

    Wait…no I mean I, “beat Hitler”? Is that right?

    Hold on…Damnit! I know Obama:Hitler is as something:something else

    Shit. And, I did well on the SAT. Got into State College and everything. I need help.

    I want to turn to Rob, Tmj, or even JeffG. Cuz they’re smart. But Cleo obviously majored in Progressive Mastery in Applying Convoluted “Dumb” to Complex Sentences That Mean Nothing for the Purpose of Causing Headache and Championing Ideological Fascism. That’s some heavy, Ivy League type shit right there. Just because Cleo graduated with a D- shouldn’t discount this whole area of study. I’ve seen it done much better. So if can just nail that degree, then brush up against the Goracle at a PETA meeting or get a shout out to Nacy P while I’m wearing a pink sweatshirt, or maybe a real estate deal with Harry Reid (I’ve always wanted to fuck over an American Indian) I’m liable to get rich bitch (or at least land a sweet gig in the vicinity of Turtle Bay).

    Anywho.

    What were we talking about?

  75. Techie says:

    Again, please tell me there will be uniforms!

    Cleo, you know for a fact you and your ilk would be screaming to the high heavens if Bush had proposed something like this in 2000 or 2004.

  76. Rob Crawford says:

    Could be a blend of both. The point is that this country needs infrastructural rebuilding and an infusion of participatory pride.

    So, basically, you want to reinstitute slavery in order to “infuse” the country with “participatory pride”. Why not just hold mandatory pep rallies?

    As for our infrastructure — that’s an argument about priorities, and the proper responsibilities of various levels of government. Oddly, the highway system wasn’t built with forced labor; neither was the electrical grid nor our communications network. You want to spend more on infrastructure? OK, no problem — let’s spend less of the National Endowment for the Arts, less on Health and Human Services, less on the Department of Education. You don’t like those trade-offs? Suggest your own.

    That you want government to have different priorities is not a reason to bring back slavery under the guise of “mandatory volunteerism”, nor is it a reason to create a make-work program that, bluntly, won’t do anything real for the infrastructure.

    Morale is essential when hard times hit, and they will hit; probably
    for a decade. For those not enticed by a small paycheck or other incentives (namely the top 1 percent economically), there will probably have to be some sort of inducement.

    You have an odd idea of who would be unwilling to participate in your “mandatory volunteerism”. I suspect the reluctance would reach much, much deeper than “the top 1 percent economically”. I’m well off, but not that well off, and would as soon die as cooperate with forced labor. I know plenty of people — many not nearly as well off as myself — who would do likewise.

    Neither you nor Congress, nor any body of people have the right to force others to spend their lives in pursuit of your goals. This country fought its bloodiest war in large part to settle that question; if you want another like it, you’ll re-open that question.

    And, frankly, nothing would harm my morale and regard for this nation more than any “mandatory volunteerism”. I’m disgusted that we’re at a point the idea is even brought up, particularly by people who just a decade ago were opposed to the idea of connecting work with welfare benefits.

    What lowering the taxes on the richest one percent got us…..

    That article is oddly silent on the utter lack of immigration enforcement. I find it hard to blame less confiscation of the wealth of the upper one percent for depressed wages when there’s a massive influx of unskilled, unregulated labor competing with our neediest workers. And, yes, I do think “big business” has wanted this outcome — but the left seems utterly unwilling to do anything but treat attempts to control our borders as the rebirth of lynchings, so it’s impossible to let the modern “civil rights” movements, big labor, and big government off the hook.

    And the section whinging about the decline in defined benefits pensions is, bluntly, retarded. Where’s the commensurate rise in defined contribution plans? Where’s the analysis of why there’s been a shift towards defined contributions?

    Its your patriotic duty to volunteer to pay more of your hard-earned
    wages in taxes.

    No, it’s not. The state exists to serve the people, not the other way around.

  77. Sdferr says:

    Arbeit macht frei IS an inducement. So are the machineguns they’ll be pointing at your back.

  78. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “Its your patriotic duty to volunteer to pay more of your hard-earned
    wages in taxes.”

    George Soros is as free as a necked 2yr old running the house without a diaper to give 50% of his annual income to the US Government. But he doesn’t. Every year, he employs the best tax attorneys money can buy to pay as little as possible, then he seals his returns.

    Fuck off.

  79. Techie says:

    How many will escape to Canada to escape their work requirement?

  80. Rob Crawford says:

    I guess it’s the one-issue voters that stick the labor force with elected officials who run counter to those same persons who vote against their own economic interests. That must be the sacrifice they have decided to make instead of voluntarism; i.e. economic decline.

    In English, please?

    And, as dre pointed out, how can you possibly know the economic interests of 300 million people? And could it be the “economic decline” (hard to credit that it’s happening when the economy is still growing) is more the result of an ever-tightening restrictions we’ve placed on ourselves? For one, it’s hard to see how limiting our access to energy helps an energy-driven economy.

  81. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “How many will escape to Canada to escape their work requirement?”

    Are they on that European “30 hour work week” up north yet?

    I mean I fucking hate snow, but I’m all about teh lazy. I’m an obese republican American after all.

    As long as I can still get Mark Steyn up there.

    Wait…what?

  82. Darleen says:

    Cleo, like most “Proggressives” has a very narrow definition of what “contributes to the good of society” consists of. It’s like anytime they start bemoaning big old selfish America, even though by any objective measurement, America’s citizens are the most generous people on Earth and conservatives, in particular, give more per capita than their “nurturant” (Lakoff’s term) progressive cousins. Proggs either sneer or dismiss voluntary charity. If the “charity” is a slice of the government budget, it doesn’t exist.

    LIBERTY and a willingness to take a risks in life, coupled with an examined moral code (usually born of ethical monotheism) lead an individual have gratitude and humility about their successes and a willingness to help others to success.

    For Proggs…. they “gave at the office”. For Proggs, very public displays of “caring” (carrying a sign, showing up when the cameras are there to pick up some garbage for an afternoon or hammer some boards on a distressed house) are what counts…then one can go home and be as nasty as one wants to the waitress or pool guy.

    So this whole involuntary national service “because O! will MAKE you care!” is more of the same paperthin charade of “moralism”. Cleo and the rest of his brownshirts are defining legitimate service to country by it, yet I’ll take one eager entrepenuer who opens a business that people WANT to patronize and honestly employs others than all the O! servicebots combined. I wouldn’t drive over one bridge those idiots built.

  83. Darleen says:

    should be

    If the “charity” is NOT a slice of the government budget, it doesn’t exist.

  84. Tony says:

    Time for the Second Civil War yet?

    Tony
    South Haven,MI

  85. SevenEleventy says:

    Tony,
    The Second Civil War started on November 8, 2000.

  86. Rusty says:

    I think Obama wants to create a core of dedicated democratic apparatchiks to ensure that any future elections are fairly decided for the democrats. It’s the Chicago way of doing things. A kinder, gentler geheime staatspolizei. bands will play stirring inspirational music as you enter the cam……er….polling place. Arbeit Maks Frei!

    Little cleo. All of the Rooseveldt administration makework projects were an economic disaster, except one. Lend lease. Building the arsenals of Britain and Russia for ready cash is what ended the depression. Not the CCC or any other busywork scam. After all you can just print money to pay for stuff when there’s specie in the hands of the population, hence the confiscation of gold coin.

  87. lee says:

    The point is that this country needs infrastructural rebuilding and an infusion of participatory pride.

    OOOO, I can’t wait to see what the unions think of this masterful plan.

    If I show up for my mandatory volunteerism, and slack off, are the guards going to send me to the rack for 49+1?

  88. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “If I show up for my mandatory volunteerism, and slack off, are the guards going to send me to the rack for 49+1?”

    All I know is I’ve started paying MUCH more attention to that ‘Surviving History’ show on Discovery. The ‘Rack’ is the least of your worries lee.

    Obama’s diciples seem more like the ‘Brazen Bull’ types. Better for large crowds. I dunno though, maybe the ‘Hallifax Gibbet.’ Always a show stopper that one.

    I guess it would depend on the depth of your slacking. And, of course, if there were any witches involved in your decision to slack.

    They’re all about teh nuance don’tcha know.

  89. Nan says:

    Cleo, before you shoot your mouth off any more, please go read some history books… preferably printed at the very latest in the 60s. What’s printed now is basically BS. Roosevelt’s attempts to turn the tide of the Depression did zilch to end it. And, by the by, was never his purpose. The purpose of the CCC was to put a little money in the hands of as big a chunk of the unskilled unemployed as possible, and also keep them off the streets. I don’t know, maybe he thought those breadline pictures were just too tacky. He also created make-work programs for the professionals dumped into the streets after the stockmarket crash. (By the way, is Obama assuming this will happen? Hoping it will happen?) Furthermore none of his programs were mandatory.

    What ended the Depression was this little thing you might have heard of called World War II. Ring a bell?

    Read a little history, fool. Toss in a review of historical perspectives on the Gestapo and Hitler Youth programs. Then go away.

  90. The Lost Dog says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 7/13 @ 11:49 am #

    Roosevelt’s HIGHLY successful CCC and Kennedy’s somewhat successful
    Peace Corps provided respite for domestic and international hardship.

    Obama;

    “”Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July,” he said. “Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger.””

    All those who will not give back to their country some sort of public service, might have to participate in lieu of military servitude.

    Clearly, merely appearing at the polls on election day is not the vision the Founders had of Participatory Democracy.

    “Ask not what your country can do for you…..” is as viable a notion now, as when first spoken.

    Why is it that the left feels that people must be forced into public service?

    Because they are a bunch of stingy assholes and think that they will be better off if Americans are told w2hat 5to do by the government.

    The people on the right already do the lion’s share of helping those less fortunate, but they don’t have to blare it from the rooftops.

    Obama and his minions are getting scarier and scarier.

    What does hiring a seventy six thousand seat stadium for his acceptance speech remind us of?

    German fascists, maybe?

    This man is looking more and more dangerous everyday. His hubris is unmatched by any politician I have ever seen. Except for maybe Chucky-ucky Schumer.

  91. TmjUtah says:

    Just a point I want out there, since I know that the flow of my thoughts confuse other folks even faster than they do me…:

    I’m way past party lines or platforms.

    We are drawing to the end of the era where “good intentions” became a sort of currency, the expenditure of which in expiation of failure transmuted shortcomings or even disastrous outcomes from not just being forgiven, but to being laudable accomplishments on some sort of obscene, bizarro world level.

    We are going to wish the issues before us were Dem or Rep, even con or lib, before too much more time has passed.

    Step one is dismantling the fiefdoms of Washington D.C., and in the state houses. Before that happens, we are all just waiting our turn under the lights.

  92. Radish says:

    The point is that this country needs infrastructural rebuilding and an infusion of participatory pride.

    I’m thinking this “mandatory participation” bit gets shit-canned as soon as the first urban high school dropout “recruited” to “serve” cries “racism.”

  93. McGehee says:

    Well, considering that O!’s election depends on the support of the age group that would be “recruited,” I’m betting this idea goes down the memory hole almost before this thread peters out.

  94. rickinstl says:

    My guess is that O is seeing himself having at his disposal a huge army of the type of sandalled simps who do the gruntwork for ACORN, the various PIRG’S, or the janitor’s union.
    I had one of them show up at my door last week:

    Simp – “Hi, I’m Josh from MOPIRG and I’m talking to people about our dependance on petroleum when we should be using wind and solar…
    Me – “Just a minute man. How old are you?”
    Simp – “Uh, 20.”
    Me – “Do you have a job?”
    Simp – “Uh, no.”
    Me – “Do you pay taxes?”
    Simp – “Uh, no.”
    Me – “Own anything?”
    Simp – “Uh, no.”
    Me dismissively – “Take your little clipboard and get the fuck out of here.”

    They use these people for under the radar agitating, vote fraud, and propaganda. They are very much in the mold of Hitler Juggend. And they are extremely naive. Easily dumb enough to be used as rent-a-rioters and political muscle.
    O and his buddies are very much fascists. He’s putting me in mind of Huey Long, another wannabe Kingfish.

  95. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Semanticleo on 7/13 @ 11:49 am #

    Roosevelt’s HIGHLY successful CCC and Kennedy’s somewhat successful
    Peace Corps provided respite for domestic and international hardship.”

    Yo do realize, do you not, the both Roosevelt and Kennedy followed the fascist model?

    By the way, do you speak English?

  96. N. O'Brain says:

    ““Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it.”

    What if I don’t want to change it? What if I think America is the greatest country on God’s green Earth?

  97. N. O'Brain says:

    “Clearly, merely appearing at the polls on election day is not the vision the Founders had of Participatory Democracy.”

    Where in the Constitution is the phrase, where is the concept of “Participatory Democracy”, fascist?

  98. N. O'Brain says:

    Up to comment #50 we’ve established that seman believes in slavery.

    I there any color barrier to your beliefs, seman?

  99. Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) says:

    “Roosevelt’s HIGHLY successful CCC”

    – Bullshit SemiClueless. There was a second “depression” on the heels of the first running from ’38 to ’39, you probably are totally unaware of, and it happened because FDR did nothing to jack up the economy, while he was busy draining private sector investment capital and pumping it into his WPA and CCC projects to prop them up. The banking and capital community was moving offshore because they were tired of being raped.

    – World War II saved his ass, and ours, not the effectiveness of his programs. Given a few more years, historical economists say we’d have been even further into financial disaster than ’35-’36.

    – If you’re going to thread jack sweetie, at least do a little studying first so you can talk with some accuracy and gravitas.

  100. N. O'Brain says:

    On the plus side, my Dad met my Mom through the CCC.

    In the mountains of central Pennsylvania.

    Beautiful plumage, the Allegehny Blue.

  101. N. O'Brain says:

    “If you’re going to thread jack sweetie, at least do a little studying first so you can talk with some accuracy and gravitas.”

    Um, BBH?

    This is CLEO you’re talking about.

  102. Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) says:

    – Yeh well NO, it was worth a try, if somewhat hopeless.

    – I just get tired of people trying to prop up raw welfare anything as if its ever once been successful. It hasn’t. Nada. none.

    – You want a free lunch you need to be in the movies, because it doesn’t exist anywhere on earth but Hollywood. Some people just can’t cope with that fact, no matter how many times they get it slammed between their eyes.

  103. N. O'Brain says:

    Maybe if we feed it gently to seman.

    HEY, cleo, go read some Heinlein.

    TANSTAAFL, baby.

  104. Jeff says:

    Darleen wrote, LIBERTY and a willingness to take a risks in life, coupled with an examined moral code (usually born of ethical monotheism) lead an individual have gratitude and humility about their successes and a willingness to help others to success.

    Perfectly said. Perfect.

    Proggs replace gratitude and humility with class-envy and self-loathing.

  105. Noah D says:

    “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded”

    Time to lay in more stocks of ammo.

  106. happyfeet says:

    Oh. He’ll have you killed or imprisoned or something if you resist. That’s how this works I think. Let’s not find out for sure.

  107. lee says:

    Yeah Noah, I think I better get another gun too. What I need to enhance my arsenal I think is a good sniper hunting rifle with a quality scope.

  108. lee says:

    So no one takes my intentions wrong, I mentioned the rifle as a defense against What Darleen said #15.

    In reality, that’s probably extra-constitutional, so Obama wouldn’t dream of anything like that

    *snort*

  109. Seriously,—seriously— could you imagine the Greenwalds’ and the left’s spittle-flecked paroxysms of righteous fury if McCain or (God forbid) Bush ever said anything approaching Obama’s “civilian national security force”?!?!?? They would be advocating open armed resistance. Hell, I’d consider heeding them!

    But Obama says it and it’s just another waffle moment, unimportant to anything. If I didn’t believe Obama was so credulous as to be capable of completely missing the implications of what was comes out of his own mouth I’d be ordering ammo right now, for real. And just for the record, if I see one torch at his stadium performance next month, I reserve the right to alter this assessment.

    yours/
    peter.

  110. happyfeet says:

    But this is weird. That quote I think basically comes from here.
    The article says…

    …With that environment behind him, Obama outlined several proposals to boost service, both at home and abroad, during a speech in Colorado Springs.

    “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

    But I don’t see that quote in the text of the speech here. So what’s up with that?

  111. justice prevails says:

    AOL Real Time Poll Results

    July 14 2008

    Who do you trust more on foreign policy?

    John McCain 62% 161,473

    Barack Obama 38% 98,168

    Total Votes: 259,641

    It is like I always have said–

    Those who scream the loudest in politics are
    always the least that translate in votes

  112. geoffb says:

    In the AARP article they imply,

    “Obama had first outlined many of the proposals he talked about Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.

    “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.””

    that that phrase is from an Iowa speech last December.

    Or maybe AARP is having a “senior” moment. I can say that as I am one.

  113. geoffb says:

    With the “He said Wednesday” thing I’m opting for the senior explanation.

  114. geoffb says:

    From the speech,

    “I will launch a new Social Investment Fund Network”…
    “I’ll start a new Social Entrepreneur Agency”…
    “We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps”…
    “We’ll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps”…
    “double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011″…
    ‘I will expand AmeriCorps”…
    “annual American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4,000″…
    “training they need to succeed in the Green Jobs of the future”…
    “expand the YouthBuild Program”…

    Socialism done right this time, really, truly. Better names make for better results.

  115. Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) says:

    “annual American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4,000″…

    – Oh goody. That would partially offset the $7300 in income tax increases for most Americans his 3 Trillion in tax money for all his welfare programs would cost us.

    – But hey. Hes going over to Iraq now, since he already gave two diametrically opposite positions, to check and see if either guess was correct.

  116. Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) says:

    – BTW, the latest polls show them neck and beck at 43%, which is an average drop of 4% for Varacky in just the past week.

    – Apparently his veer to the center, coupled with the last speech didn’t work out so well.

  117. Dan Collins says:

    I’m just waiting for those faith-based homeland defense militias.

  118. Les Nessman says:

    “Make that the Sturmjugend O!”

    Actually, the Sturmjugear O!

    “I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.”

    Well, progress at last. At least it admits the Obamists are being fascists.

  119. Chuck Pelto says:

    TO: All
    RE: SciFi Predicts Life

    I’m suddenly reminded of the Ministry of Peace from Babylon 5.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [We’re not so much concerned with what people do as with what they think. — MinPax Representative]

  120. Cannon Asesrb says:

    Cloe, just come out and say it. 100% tax rate, from each according to ability to each according to need. Everything is owned by the government. Say Cloe and you will feel soooo much better. Obviously the wise elected officials know best, after all we elected them so we wouldn’t have to think. Let’s papa government take care of you.

    You get your panties in a wad because the BUSHCO telecoms hand over *billing records* (IT’S ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING DON’TCHA KNOW!) not the actual conversations (BUT IT’S STILL ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING DON’TCHA KNOW!) yet you are perfectly content to let the government control you through higher taxes. I bet you are perfectly content to let the government have total access to your medical history in a single payer (Papa Government) health care system. Trust Big Brot…. er… HOPECHANGE with the Messiah BO.

  121. ZEITGEIST says:

    […] THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, we’d be talking about creating a powerful “civilian national security force” to oversee America and make sure of good citizenship. And they were right! […]

  122. Spartee says:

    Cleo,

    I was just passing by, and read this whole thread. My kind act of the day is this: stop typing right now. Because of your obvious limitations, you cannot comprehend how badly you are doing in this match of wits. I keep thinking your next post will read, “Tis merely a fleshwound!”

    It is like watching a bunny growl at wolves.

  123. monkeyfan says:

    “I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.”

    Good luck with that…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gH8rS_epQE

  124. JAL says:

    Y’all might be missing thepoint here, folks.

    “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set… We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

    (What national securtiy onjectives does he have in mind? Specifics, not a blank white board, please. But moving right along …)

    Don’t see anything in that quote about “feel good” coerced community service. I see a domestic army. Uhhmmmm… my history background isn’t anywhere near what some of you folks have, but isn’t this an end run? Isn;t this about setting up a national military to control the civilians (“national security” — but not the “militray”) like WHAT the US HAS ALREADY SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED BY LAW:

    Posse Comitatus Act
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    {This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations….}

    The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement police or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states, their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.

    The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act.

    The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement.
    ========================================================================
    Ya know .. I’m a dumb fine arts major from the hippy years (but no, I didn’t even inhale). Didn’t do Columbia, or Harvard or antyhing fancy. And *I KNOW* it’s against the law to use the US military for internal national security.

    So tell me, ‘cleo: WHAT WAS OBAMA TALKING ABOUT?

    (Sorry for yelling but some of this stuff Obama talks about is really really weird and way, way over the top.)

    And who is paying attention to what Obama is actually saying? ‘Cleo thinks “military servitude” (!!!) is an appropriate substitue for not serving in AmeriCorps? And we need a ‘civilian’ security force for our national security onjectives? As powerful (read “weapons”? etc. etc.) as our US military? WHAT FOR? Talk about loose cannons …

    Please. Deliver us from the evil of those who want to take care of us …

  125. Rob Crawford says:

    And who is paying attention to what Obama is actually saying? ‘Cleo thinks “military servitude” (!!!) is an appropriate substitue for not serving in AmeriCorps? And we need a ‘civilian’ security force for our national security onjectives? As powerful (read “weapons”? etc. etc.) as our US military? WHAT FOR? Talk about loose cannons …

    So we won’t go back to our lives, unchanged and unengaged.

    Duh.

  126. mojo says:

    (Starts humming the ‘Horst Wessel Lied’…)

  127. mwl says:

    Is anyone else starting to see echos of Tom Kratman’s book State of Disobedience in Obama’s proposals? Or am I just overly paranoid?

  128. Dave in SoCal says:

    The left has their panties in a twist over the Obamessiah’s support of the FISA bill, yet not a peep from any of them about Dear Leader’s proposed paramilitary organization. They must figure the “civilian national security forces” will be aimed mostly at those who are dumb enough to attempt to resist the Progressive mindset.

  129. […] Protein Wisdom, via […]

  130. geoffb says:

    As I said in #30, it’s the USA-MVD.

    Of course we have always had a civilian national security force. It’s called the Unorganized Militia and is what the 2nd Amendment is about. Armed civilian Americans. Best defense of freedom ever.

  131. Thomass says:

    Maybe he means something like the Peace Corps, something to use outside the country. He has talked about that before (a new sort of foreign welfare to improve our image). Thing is we have the Peace Corps and the State Department bureaucracy. Neither has members that want to go to dangerous areas. All you can send are the [highly armed] military to such places… and you have to order them to go… something you can’t really do to civilians.

  132. Patrick Chester says:

    Cleo proclaimed:
    “I admit I trust MY fascists over yours any freakin’ day.”

    Well, of course. Cleo’s fascists are the genuine article, while the others are just called fascists but just don’t measure up when you scrutinize them.

  133. Bob Hawkins says:

    The USSR had “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” as its military. It was called the KGB.

    In the Soviet system of checks and balances, instead of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, they had the Party, the military, and the KGB. If any one of the three grew in power, the other two would unite against it.

  134. Michaelyi says:

    Rob Crawford, responding on 7/13 @ 3:00 pm to someone not identified,
    wrote “You have an odd idea of who would be unwilling to participate in your ‘mandatory volunteerism’. I suspect the reluctance would reach much, much deeper than ‘the top 1 percent economically’.”

    Rob, you make a very good point. Most of the folks in the economic “top 1 percent,” whether one measures that by current-year income or holdings of long-term wealth, likely gain most of their income from interest, dividends, and capital gains. Their opportunity cost of spending a year puttering about some remote national park’s hiking trails while giving the occasional stock “I’m doing my bit just like every other citizen-conscript” celebrity interview is relatively miniscule relative to total lifetime earnings compared to the lost income opportunities faced by a high-school grad or college student from a family of modest means.

  135. […] him ripe for satire. He’s making noises that, whether intended or not, sound like he’s thinking of forming an “Obama youth” brigade. Someone is going to satirize that. Someone is going to draw a picture of him looking goofy in a […]

  136. […] Merci Beaucoup Chief Glenn, The Swamp, Lonewacko,  and Protein Wisdom. […]

  137. Troy says:

    I am wanting to make known that Obama’s plan to get our youth to be like police on our streets in America are just as close as you can get to what Hitler did! I feel once he accomplishes the first step getting America to think this is a good thing, he will take this to far greater extremes. Refer to Hitlers Youth group! I don’t at this minute remember the exact name Hitler used for his but, Google it and see for yourself any thing that sounds familiar. Americans should have listened closer to his speeches,his agenda’s. I for one do not want to live in a POLICE STATE or COUNTRY. I DO NOT want this man to take away my guns, I DO NOT want HIM to turn my COUNTRY into a COMMUNIST COUNTRY!!!! So many people think this man is like a savior to our country so suggest to you who think I am crazy to do a lot of research on him not just what you read in the paper or on blogs or see on tv. I know America is in for a very big surprise. You think we have lost freedoms now, WELL just wait!! How do the American people feel about being forced under OBAMA’s LAW to work on your own time because he say’s WORK or be punished as he see’s fit. WELL! talk about the USA falling, falling, falling into the hands of a COMMUNIST it has happened. This man is very bad news and all that voted for him bought his BULL about CHANGE!!!! WELCOME TO COMMUNISTIC AMERICA!!!! Obama is going to take EVERYTHING America stands for and destroy it. At least President Bush Loves America. Remember Obama’s wife saying This is the first time I am proud to be an american? Obama’s plan is not for a better America he wants America to follow Hitlers lead. I have ZERO respect this this man and I am ashamed to call him our President.

  138. Roodog says:

    Thos ought to be fun. We really don’t know what the President is talking about. We need to watch what kind of mischeif the Congress perpetrates on the people and watch out for any and all executive orders coming from the White(sic)House. We need to make it clear that a good job and goodwill on the President’s part is the only way to retain power for a second term.Hold him responsible for every decision he makes.
    Sieze the Moral high ground. Mend fences with faith and family. These ususall suffice to get us through the bad times. Faith and family will enable us to oppose any tyranny and give us freedom which the State cannot take away.
    Ialso believe in defending the right to believe what you want. Liberal and conservative is irrelevant on this count. Get a firearm and know how to use it. when it means defending your right to believe what you want, you don’t want the means to defend it taken from you.

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