Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

What’s behind Obama’s national service plan? [Karl]

Barack Obama completes his week devoted to “patriotism, faith and service” with his national service proposal.  His left-leaning base will gripe over his proposal to expand military ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines — but this was already in the works.

His broader approach proposes to expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the size of the Peace Corps, integrate service-learning programs into schools and universities, expand service initiatives that “engage disadvantaged young people and advance their education”, expand the capacity of nonprofits to innovate and expand their programs and so on.

Increasing AmeriCorps to 250,000 members a year would allow for more like this:

In Mississippi, AmeriCorps members have gone door to door to recruit people for food stamps. In New Jersey, AmeriCorps members are recruiting middle-class families to accept subsidized federal health insurance for their children. In Washington state, AmeriCorps bankrolled the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition. AmeriCorps is paying housing activists who pressure Congress to perpetuate federal subsidies for renters.

“Passing the laugh test” is not a requirement for AmeriCorps grantees. In Buffalo, N.Y., AmeriCorps members helped run a program that gave children $5 for each toy gun they brought in. In Lone Pine, Calif., AmeriCorps members put on a puppet show to warn four-year-olds of the dangers of earthquakes. Elsewhere in California, AmeriCorps members busied themselves foisting unreliable “ultra-low-flush toilets” on poor people.

John McCain also has supported expanding Americorps (thus highlighting Jeff G’s point about McCain’s own proggressive tenedncies), but for Obama it would serve the same agenda as Obama’s faith-based initiative. 

Indeed, in making his proposal, Obama alluded to his time as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side, and his stint heading the group Project Vote — and it turns out there is a direct angle here.  Obama directed Project Vote for ACORN — an “antipoverty” group also frequently involved in scandal-ridden voter registration drives.  Obama has a long, sybiotic relationship with the group.  He was their lawyer, helped train ACORN activists, and fed them grants from his position at the Woods Fund; they endorsed Obama’s candidacies and provided troops for his early campaigns.  ACORN has a long history concerning both election fraud and misuse of federal funds, including AmeriCorps funds:

In 1994, the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) received a grant from the newly created Americorps to assist low-income families at finding housing. In applying for the grant, the AHC claimed its activities were completely separate from ACORN.

But one year later, the Americorps Inspector General would testify that “AHC used Americorps grant funds to benefit ACORN either directly or indirectly.” She found several instances of cost-shifting from ACORN’s lobbying group to the housing entity, and also found several instances of the steering of recipients of housing counseling into ACORN memberships.

It is difficult to imagine Obama rigorously policing ACORN from using the national service program as a recruiting tool or to further its non-partisan-in-name-only voter registration drives.  To the contrary, his national service plan looks like another avenue for Obama to realize his vision of creating an army of left-wing activists to push his agenda and register more likely Democrats.

(h/t Memeorandum.)

126 Replies to “What’s behind Obama’s national service plan? [Karl]”

  1. nishizonoshinji says:

    i think a national service plan is a good idea.

  2. David says:

    Well, duh. This is taken STRAIGHT out of the Chicago machine playbook. It’s called “patronage” as I’m sure you know. You give your buddies work, they deliver the votes. They don’t deliver the votes, funding gets yanked.

  3. dre says:

    “1.
    Comment by nishizonoshinji on 7/2 @ 1:54 pm #

    i think a national service plan is a good idea.”

    Yea I’m glad I got the option on my Honda.

  4. Rick Ballard says:

    It’s gonna take a horde of Blackshirts and Brownshirts to create that America that Obama will be proud of. I wonder what the shoulder patches will look like.

  5. ProggHero says:

    The reality based community will become mainstream and active in American society, what is wrong with that?

  6. lee says:

    His broader approach proposes to expand AmeriCorps

    In Mississippi, AmeriCorps members have gone door to door to recruit people for food stamps.

    This is good. The country needs more marketers to give away my money.

  7. Karl says:

    O! could announce his plan to launch chemical weapons on major US cities and nishi would think it is a good idea. Because “paid volunteerism” is not at all a non-sequitur. And lumping the military in with the lo-flow toilet crowd is in no way demeaning.

  8. ProggHero says:

    You are heartless lee, you got something against the poor?

  9. Karl says:

    Unless mentally challenged, I have something against anyone who needs a government volunteer to get on the dole. Welfare reform worked mostly by rejecting that mentality.

  10. ProggHero says:

    Karl I think the point here would not be lumping in the military with the low flow toilet crowd, but trying to instill the idea that the people marching on the street protesting have the exact same amount of patriotism and love of country as those serving in uniform. It also helps equate Obama’s community organizing as somewhat comparable to McCain’s military service as well. See they both were serving their country just in different ways.

    Those are two sides of the same coin, don’t you know? Signing up to fight for your country is just the same as protesting it, because dissent is patriotism. You are patriotic aren’t you Karl?

  11. dre says:

    “because dissent is patriotism”

    That’s gay.

  12. Karl says:

    PH,

    The military is an apolitical institution, thankfully.

    Protesting would seem to be the opposite. But if O! gets his way, someday it will be the eeeeevil GOP throwing the cash at conservative groups to build their empire. You won’t enjoy it.

  13. N. O'Brain says:

    “#Comment by nishizonoshinji on 7/2 @ 1:54 pm #

    i think a national service plan is a good idea.”

    So did the Nazis.

  14. dre says:

    O! Youts

  15. N. O'Brain says:

    “#Comment by ProggHero on 7/2 @ 2:08 pm #

    You are heartless lee, you got something against the poor?”

    Yeah. They’re not rich.

  16. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by ProggHero on 7/2 @ 2:13 pm #

    Karl I think the point here would not be lumping in the military with the low flow toilet crowd, but trying to instill the idea that the people marching on the street protesting have the exact same amount of patriotism and love of country as those serving in uniform.”

    That’s what the Nazis thought, too.

  17. N. O'Brain says:

    “…because dissent is patriotism.”

    Fuck you, it is not.

  18. ProggHero says:

    My point was that it is trying to draw a moral and patriotic equivalence between putting on a uniform and fighting for your country, and such activities as marching in DC protesting, community activism, or joining the PeaceCorp.

  19. N. O'Brain says:

    “#

    Comment by ProggHero on 7/2 @ 2:20 pm #

    My point was that it is trying to draw a moral and patriotic equivalence between putting on a uniform and fighting for your country, and such activities as marching in DC protesting, community activism, or joining the PeaceCorp.”

    How many “community activists” have had their legs blown off with an IED?

  20. Karl says:

    Yes, and my point was that is fantastically demeaning to people who risk their lives to protect us, instead of in the service of a particular partisan agenda.

  21. N. O'Brain says:

    How many “community activists” have killed actual, real terrorists, thus saving untold Iraqi lives?

  22. N. O'Brain says:

    How many “community activists” have died in peacetime training accidents?

  23. lee says:

    you got something against the poor?

    A poor idea, yeah.

    dissent is patriotism.

    Patriotism is love of country. Dissent is patriotic if it is done against anti-American ideas. Dissent against American ideas, not so much.

  24. ProggHero says:

    Well they do sacrifice NObrain, just in different ways. They sacrifice their free time and energy, they care about the downtrodden, they care about those with less money than themselves, they volunteer on political campaigns.

  25. N. O'Brain says:

    How many “community activists” have been tortured (real torture, not having a dog leash put on him) like John McCain was?

  26. N. O'Brain says:

    How many “community activists” have actually liberated people from real honest to God dictators?

  27. dre says:

    “they care about the downtrodden”

    Bovine feces

  28. N. O'Brain says:

    How many Marines have turned in fake voter registration cards?

  29. N. O'Brain says:

    How many reactionaries recognize a bitchslapping as they’re receiving one?

  30. Karl says:

    Note PH wants to totally avoid the scenario in which this is done to fund right-wing groups.

  31. dicentra says:

    The reality based community community-based reality will become mainstream and active in American society,

    Fixed that for you…

    On the bright side, maybe if enough specimens of Chiroptera lunaria join AmeriCorps, they’ll stay off the blogs.

  32. McGehee says:

    Well they do sacrifice NObrain, just in different ways.

    We only have to look at the “Boobs Not Bombs” womyn in pictures, if we choose to click. The protestors have to see them in realtime, with their own eyes.

  33. Karl says:

    A few hours a week in a t-shirt and a ball cap = months in the desert under mortar fire.

    Sadly, O won’t be so dumb as to try to sell that… explicitly.

  34. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by ProggHero on 7/2 @ 2:24 pm #

    Well they do sacrifice NObrain, just in different ways.”

    Bullshit.

    My son sacrificed by being away from his wife for 6 months when he was at sea. He will sacrifice by being away from his wife and new baby for 7 months while he’s deployed to Iraq.

    THAT is sacrifice.

    Handing out food stamp applications, not so much.

  35. Fresh Air says:

    National service would be a disaster for the country’s economy. It essentially puts college kids into make-work jobs that they are overqualified for, while simultaneously delaying their entry into the real workforce. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  36. McGehee says:

    @ #35: To some extent, so does college.

  37. nishizonoshinji says:

    wow, i guess im naive on this….i thot it just meant that people that had a moral objection to war could serve their country in a nonmilitary capacity.
    the idea of service to ones country….isnt that patriotic however one serves?
    sendin peace corp teachers would be a great thing, for example.

  38. Anyone who campaigns or takes part in protests/activism for any brand of Collectivism/Socialism should either be incarcerated or deported.

    We are back to a time six months before Hitler invaded Poland. Lets not make the same mistake twice.

    The enemy among us are far more dangerous than any middle East Jihadist. Ignoring them as the real and present danger they represent, comes at our own peril.

  39. nishizonoshinji says:

    i think the military should be still allvolunteer, and compensated far more handsomely.
    increased risk IMHO.
    but military service would fulfill the community service.

  40. dre says:

    ” his national service plan looks like another”
    way to increase the number of low wage jobs Americans won’t do.

  41. Karl says:

    please note nishi’s advocacy for paid volunteerism on political projects…

    BECAUSE SHE IS SOOOOOOO FRICKIN’ LIBERTARIAN!!!!eleventy!!!

  42. Sdferr says:

    Fulfill? We have gone back to a draft all-of-a-sudden?

  43. Radish says:

    It essentially puts college kids into make-work jobs that they are overqualified for

    I expect some of the same rhetoric against the armed forces to be deployed against national service. You know, “expecting poor people to leave home and join AmeriCorps to get some training and earn some money instead of sitting around dealing drugs and making babies is mean and racist!” kinda logic.

  44. maggie katzen says:

    don’t forget, Obama will make you work.

  45. The Lost Dog says:

    ProggZero –

    What you call “protesting” is just a socialist scam, designed to part money from the people who believe in the American dream, and give it to those who don’t. “Fuck personal responsibility! I can take my money from someone else!”

    You want to sit around and gripe all day?

    Fine. But keep your filthy fucking hands out of my pockets. Whatever I have is not YOURS by fiat, bozo. You really should read the Constitution someday – assuming that you could understand it. What you and the leftards are pushing is EXACTLY what the Constitution was created to prevent.

    You should be in the Special Olympics, because even if you win, you’re still retarded.

  46. maggie katzen says:

    or was it care? I can’t remember, but you WILL DO IT.

  47. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    Barack Obama is the antiChrist. People that talk and think like nishi and ProgessiveHero should be the first to be rounded up.

    Lets stamp out this Socialist threat to our liberties and way of life before its too late.

  48. Ouroboros says:

    Why divert a bunch of money into Peace Corp when we have the military? I’ve participated in medical relief missions all over the globe.. Central & South Am, Africa, Asia.. American military medics are many times the only medical people 3rd world people ever see.. Plus the military has provided carreer training for more people and given more people opportunity to better themselves and their lives than any other organization in history.. Why pretend like we need a new program to do this?

  49. Dread Cthulhu says:

    Nishi: “wow, i guess im naive on this….i thot it just meant that people that had a moral objection to war could serve their country in a nonmilitary capacity. the idea of service to ones country….isnt that patriotic however one serves? sendin peace corp teachers would be a great thing, for example”

    Where’s Heinlein when you really need him…

  50. nishizonoshinji says:

    hmm……i guess Karls right.
    all national service should be elective.
    but the military should pay much, much better.
    better Karl?

  51. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    We should also throw people in jail if they read too much science fiction.

  52. Education Guy says:

    PH is clearly a parody, and I suspect Saint NeoCon XV is as well.

  53. nishizonoshinji says:

    and the family of the soldier or volunteer should get a huge tax break while they serve.
    the parents if they are less than 21 mebbe?

  54. Karl says:

    nishi,

    Yeah. And more consistent with your supposed views, too.

  55. Education Guy says:

    but the military should pay much, much better.

    I agree, with the caveat that we only use existing funding lines. Which will mean some other program will have to go or be scaled back.

  56. Dread Cthulhu says:

    Ouroborus: “Why divert a bunch of money into Peace Corp when we have the military? I’ve participated in medical relief missions all over the globe.. ”

    Perhaps a better question wouldbe why do they have the military doing “meals on wheels” services when we have a Peace Corps? I mean, I can understand using carriers to provide water or military transport for bulk transfers, but why drag out your average 11-bravo handing out MREs?

  57. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “We should also throw people in jail if they read too much science fiction.”

    Aw, did we hurts someone’s feelings?

    What would you want for an encore, SN15, a book-burning followed by a rousing chorus of the Horst Wessel Leid?

  58. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    We could spare the ones that drive VW minibuses, they get pretty good gas mileage.

    Maybe the ones that take baths once in awhile. But anyone who sings “Kumbeyah” has to go.

  59. B Moe says:

    Is he planning to keep the name Americorps? Or just go ahead and change it to Obama Youth?

  60. dre says:

    “Which will mean some other program will have to go or be scaled back.”

    Dept. of Progeducation

  61. dicentra says:

    Is he planning to keep the name Americorps? Or just go ahead and change it to Obama Youth?

    What color shirts should they wear? Brown and black are taken.

    Duh. Green.

    Way to ruin my favorite color.

  62. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    And lava lamps, and those stupid bell bottom jeans. Anyone that gets caught with those things are toast.

    I suppose to be humane we could start a “Shirt ironing corp”, and keep the better looking females. But thats it. The rest of them, on the boat.

  63. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “We could spare the ones that drive VW minibuses, they get pretty good gas mileage.”

    Too much “sway” and under-powered. Between having a bad center of balance and an 8mm projector for an engine, it is a hunk of junk.

  64. Aldo says:

    This is tangential to the issue, but that has never stopped me before, so here goes: A couple years ago one of the bigshot Democratic Congressional committee chairmen floated the idea of a national service plan similar to the one Obama is proposing. For some reason, “libertarian” Greenwald-doppelganger Mona, (who is usually unfazed by heavy-handed statist schemes arising from the Left), got really incensed about this. The funny thing was, she could not bring herself to actually criticize a Democrat, so when she wrote her big rant she focused all her fury on some minor Republican Congressman nobody ever heard of who expressed that he thought it sounded like a good idea, letting off the hook the powerful Democrat who was actually proposing the plan.

    I miss Mona. She was comedy gold.

  65. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    All true Dread, but that way whenever they’re out on the street we’d always know right where they were, and it would be easier to keep an eye on them.

    You know they’ll just flush the surveillance cams in their hovels down the toilet.

  66. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    I miss Mona. She was comedy gold.

    More like a homely scold.

  67. Education Guy says:

    Dept. of Progeducation

    It wouldn’t be enough, as the federal outlay for education is tiny compared to what the states pay.

  68. dre says:

    Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

  69. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “All true Dread, but that way whenever they’re out on the street we’d always know right where they were, and it would be easier to keep an eye on them.”

    They’re not the folks you need to keep an eye on… and if I’m gonna drive a Kraut-mobile, it certainly is going to be something with some guts.

    SN15: “You know they’ll just flush the surveillance cams in their hovels down the toilet.”

    Stereotype much, SN15?

  70. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    I think Secular Progressives should be forced to listen to Barry Manilow albums 24 hours a day until they repent.

  71. Jim in KC says:

    Mona is a libertarian in approximately the same way I’m a pig in a tutu.

    This plan does not bode well for the republic.

  72. Dread Cthulhu says:

    dre: “Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”

    Uh-huh… sounds a little bit like the rhetoric of another would-be society tranforming socialist leader…

  73. sashal says:

    what’s next?
    Komsomol?
    Gosh, how I hate those propagated and sponsored by government, “volunteered” initiatives…

  74. nishizonoshinji says:

    mona was killed by xians in her alterego as Hypatia.

    Believed to have been the reason for the strained relationship between the Imperial Prefect Orestes and the Bishop Cyril, Hypatia attracted the ire of a Christian population eager to see the two reconciled.

    One day in March 415 CE,[24] during the season of Lent, her chariot was waylaid on her route home by a Christian mob, possibly Nitrian monks[24] led by a man identified only as “Peter”.

    She was stripped naked and dragged through the streets to the newly christianised Caesareum church and killed. Some reports suggest she was flayed with ostrakois (literally, “oyster shells”, though also used to refer to roof tiles or broken pottery) and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death:

  75. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    MOTTOS…

    USMC: Semper Fidelis
    USN: Non sibi sed patriae
    USARMY: Duty, Honor, Country
    USAF: Above All

    Obama’s AmeriCorps: UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKERS!!!

    Yeah PH. Two sides of the same coin.

    You assclown.

  76. dre says:

    Marvel at the ideas of the Community Organizer%trade;!

  77. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “I think Secular Progressives should be forced to listen to Barry Manilow albums 24 hours a day until they repent.”

    I know that whole concept of a “free society” continues to elude you, your worship,but I think you will find that, in any event, your recommendation contravenes several anti-torture treaties and at least one military treaty dealing with the use of unconventional warfare.

  78. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    We could hand out big red tricked out hammer and sickle Moontags at the Democratic convention.

  79. nishizonoshinji says:

    when i started bloggin, that was mona’s name.
    hypatia.

  80. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “We could hand out big red tricked out hammer and sickle Moontags at the Democratic convention.”

    Hurm… might work… although we might need a few different symbols… liberals can be awfully symbol-minded sometimes.

  81. dre says:

    United forever in friendship and labour,
    Our mighty republics will ever endure.
    The Great Soviet Union will live through the ages.
    The dream of a people their fortress secure.

    Long live our Soviet motherland,
    Built by the people’s mighty hand.
    Long live our people, united and free.
    Strong in our friendship tried by fire.
    Long may our crimson flag inspire,
    Shining in glory for all men to see.

  82. Aldo says:

    I’m surprised you’re old enough to remember when Mona was Hypatia.

    Are we going to read a sci-fi book now?

  83. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    San Francisco should be cordoned off, all Progressives exiled to the city by the barking moonbats bay. Nancy would be thrilled to be made the queen of the insane asylum. Sheehan could lead a revolt. She does revolting good.

  84. Dread Cthulhu says:

    SN15: “San Francisco should be cordoned off, all Progressives exiled to the city by the barking moonbats bay. Nancy would be thrilled to be made the queen of the insane asylum. Sheehan could lead a revolt. She does revolting good.”

    I can live with that, so long as we give Madhatten the “Escape from New York” treatment.

  85. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    All Progressives should have their taxes raised every six months, or every time they get a pay raise, whichever comes first, and be made to do community service year round because they care so damn much and they’re stupid.

  86. urthshu says:

    So…if the Civilian Conservation Corps was an obvious cannon-fodder militia that could be shunted anywhere with or without a gun at a moment’s notice, this here ‘National service corps’ is going to be obviously poised for what, precisely?

    Because it isn’t really the service that he’s after. That much is plain, otherwise these would be like real jobs with career ladders and stuff. You know, like the military.

  87. Sdferr says:

    “…’This won’t be a call issued in one speech or one program — I want this to be a central cause of my presidency,’ Obama said in a speech at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. …”

    Telling, isn’t it, that “…I want…”? Do the people want this to be the central cause of Obama’s presidency? If not, at present, has Obama already done the calculus that reveals to him how the people will want such a thing once he gets done with them? Can he genuinely believe that this can be elevated to become the most pressing problem of our lives, the one thing the people will demand of an Obama administration? Somehow I fail to see the high probability here. It must be a failure of imagination on my part.

  88. MarkJ says:

    “because dissent is patriotism”

    That’s empirically wrong. Not all “dissent” is either correct or noble, just as not all “patriotism” is correct or noble. Hitler “dissented” from the Weimar Republic. Lenin “dissented” from the pre-1917 Russian monarchy. I could “dissent” from the notion that all races are equal under American law.

    History of full of “dissenters” and “dissidents” who, upon gaining power, denied the right of dissent to others. Robert Mugabe anyone?

  89. Aldo says:

    Can he genuinely believe that this can be elevated to become the most pressing problem of our lives, the one thing the people will demand of an Obama administration?

    The questions of judgement arising from Obama’s long associations with a motley assortment of radicals, ex-terrorists, and rae-baiters are (ahem) distractions from the real issues facing America.

    It turns out that the real issues are coerced “volunteerism” in Left-wing projects and more money for Bush-style faith-based boondoggles.

  90. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    Eh….what?….Who me?…Hmmmm….guess this means I won’t be able to sound the alrm any more folks….I’ve been notified I’m to be sent to the Or-ree-gon gulag for “retraining”. Tell my family I love ’em.

  91. dicentra says:

    Mona is a libertarian in approximately the same way I’m a pig in a tutu.

    Wow. Then it’s really true what they say: On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.

    Or an herbaceous woodland perennial.

  92. ProggressiveHero says:

    Ok guys enough I am not a parody.

  93. Sdferr says:

    Yeah, but Aldo, can you actually see the guy persuading a majority of this stuff? It’s one thing for him to have suffered a ‘vision’ in his youth of a perfect world of peaceful unicorns etc. but quite another to bring 120million people along on the vision (that being the ‘central cause, etc.’), no? And particularly when his actual attempts (in South side neighborhoods) at achieving his ostensible goals have been roundly shown to be a sad sort of fraud.

  94. Carin- says:

    Sure you’re not Proggy. You’re a REAL BOY.

  95. Sdferr says:

    Oh but you are ProggH., and why not embrace the praise? You’re good, that’s all, so good at what you do.

  96. ProggressiveHero says:

    I find this push brilliant political strategy. It perfectly fits into the media narrative Obama has pushed all week since Wesley Clark’s statements on Sunday. First was the push to denigrate McCains strength on Sunday with Clark and various left wing internet PAC’s all week. Second was Obama’s patriotism speech where he mentioned the slur on McCain, thus giving it more traction, while at the same time distancing himself from it and equating any criticism of his past associations with criticism of McCain’s military service. Now it is equating Obama’s different form of patriotism and love of country with traditional American patriotism of the past. Very nice Obama is the perfect politician and is going to kick the old man’s ass in November.

  97. Aldo says:

    PH, I was assuming that you were a troll doing a parody of a prog to push everyone’s buttons here. I’d prefer not to think that you wrote all that commentary straight up. That would be really sad.

  98. Rick Ballard says:

    Sdferr,

    Arming the Obama Youth with truncheons and the authority to use them (after all guns are turned in, of course) provides the method by which a nation rather than community can be speedily orgainized with greater success than that which the young Fuehrer ACORN leader achieved in Chicago.

    Honest.

    It’s been done before.

  99. PalmettoTiger says:

    @#56

    Sorry to be late getting back to this. Whether or not your average grunt is the one handing out the MRE’s really depends more on the security situation as much as anything else. Security and/or recovery and rebuilding operations are as much a part of our world-wide requirements as being able to put steel on target. Usually, though, the ones handing out the food are going to be some form of international assistance or relief organization along with whatever local structure is in place (if any). What the US military can do, and you alluded to it, is move lots of stuff to lots of places very quickly. The Peace Corps simply doesn’t have that kind of capability nor, really, should they. Heavy airlift, sealift and sustain operations are best left to those who do them regularly. Do you really want a Peace Corps person at the stick of a C-17?

    There is a benefit to the military in having humanitarian missions as one of its core strength. Besides the supposed “goodwill” (which really was lacking in Burma) built by such acts and the security benefits that provides, it helps provide an reason for those amphib assualt ships, transports, airlift, etc when they aren’t doing one of their other tasks like killing people and breaking things. If you Google the new National Maritime Strategy – which has its good points and bad ones – global humanitarian missions is one of the key components.

    PT

  100. Aldo says:

    Yeah, but Aldo, can you actually see the guy persuading a majority of this stuff?

    Who Knows? It has to disconcerting to the nutroots, though, to discover this late in the game that it is actually Obama, rather than McCain who is promising four more years of Bush-style policies.

  101. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    PH: “Ok guys enough I am not a parody.”

    You’re killin’ me Smalls.

  102. ProggressiveHero says:

    Well parody or not I am laughing too lamont.

  103. urthshu says:

    Nah, I don’t think ProggZero is a parody. But I do wonder why he thinks he, or Baracky, makes sense.

    I did notice above that nishi thinks/thought it ‘a good idea’ while Progg just thought it ‘good strategy’.

    Progg: Are you saying its not a good idea? That he’s just saying this for the strategy, so no biggie, etc?

  104. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by ProggressiveHero on 7/2 @ 3:55 pm #

    Ok guys enough I am not a parody.”

    No, you’re real.

    Which makes you a parody.

  105. ProggressiveHero says:

    Progg: Are you saying its not a good idea? That he’s just saying this for the strategy, so no biggie, etc?

    Just good for strategy. I do not honestly think he has the intention of doing this once he takes office, I think it just fits into the preferred media narrative of the week.

  106. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “Well parody or not I am laughing too lamont.”

    …I wasn’t laughing “with” you.

  107. urthshu says:

    Also: Is this plan in line with Obama’s ‘public projects, private management’ philosophy that he pursued with public housing in Chicago?

    B/C if so, he’s just planning on giving slave labor to slumlords using public funds.

  108. urthshu says:

    105, Progg –
    Thanks for your honesty. I’ve found a lot of Obama followers don’t really want any particular thing he promises to do and figure he’s just positioning himself throughout for the sake of the campaign. And they think its great for some reason.

  109. happyfeet says:

    I don’t wanna live where I’m always running into people who are working to fulfill Baracky’s vision for a new socialist nation. That’s just fucking creepy, and you know these aimless soul-dead idiots in Los Angeles are gonna lick that up. This is gonna suck really hard I think.

  110. happyfeet says:

    Los Angeles is already third worldy enough thanks.

  111. Aldo says:

    You’re right hf. Remember the Scientologists in Hollywwod in the 80’s, with their navy uniforms?

  112. happyfeet says:

    Oh. I wasn’t here then. But for real Baracky’s National Service Socialist Youth Happy Squad sounds just as gay. Gayer even. Scary jackboot in your face gay not ha ha funny Will & Grace gay.

  113. Rusty says:

    What’s behind Obama’s national service plan? [Karl]

    Well, Karl. Just shootin’ from the hip here, but I think the whole purpose of Obama’s plan is to make more democrats. He really doesn’t give a rats ass about third world folk , or the disadvantaged of this country for that matter. If he thought that grinding up the homeless and shipping the resulting meat overseas to starving pygmys would get him elected, he’d do it. it’s a progg/democrat thing.

  114. LunarTuna says:

    A National Service Corp would further blur the line between entrenched Government bureaucracy DNC advocacy. It might even be used to get one’s card punched for promotion in Government. “I see here you did 2 years NSC, Great! We have a place for people like you at the State Department”

  115. Saint NeoCon XV says:

    The Lamont thing gave you aw3ay ProggFace. You are a parody of a troll.

    But I’m with you. I hope you and your nutroot buddies are as successful at getting Oscama elected as you were with Teddy baby.

  116. MC says:

    All your service are belong to us!

  117. Dread Cthulhu says:

    PH: “Ok guys enough I am not a parody.”

    Ok, first of all, even if you were faking, you’re still not parody (let alone satire) because that requires intelligence. You might qualify for a lampoon or other, coarser, form of humor, but, by you own admission, you’re simply another fool what has been drinking the kool-aid.

  118. Rusty says:

    More like slapstick. Yeah. A sort of really pathetic Punch and Judy show without the Punch.

  119. Major John says:

    “but the military should pay much, much better.”

    I feel I am compensated just fine. Perhaps they could bring back that mobilization insurance program for the folks that take a big financial hit when called up.

    Any raises should go to the Compnay grade officers and EMs/Junior NCOs. They don’t get enough.

  120. […] as it came up in the discussion of Barack Obama’s “national service” plan the other day, I highlight the fact that 78% of those surveyed find military service shows a […]

  121. […] latest column from Jonah Goldberg, which raises the question of whether Barack Obama’s national service plan is involuntary servitude, has attracted the typical screechifying of the proggosphere — […]

  122. […] Obama’s not even President yet and he’s already revealing plans to stack the deck in his own favor. Protein Wisdom reveals What’s behind Obama’s national service plan?: […]

  123. […] Americorps Inspector General has similarly claimed that AHC misused Americorps grant funds to benefit ACORN either directly or […]

  124. gloria p says:

    I think Barack Obama is not going to be a good president at all!!! His tax plan is totally out there. Seriously spreading the wealth…? Come on ok people that worked hard in their live to get where they are at? Then for some man who says lets spread the wealth and give our money away to the people that don’t care where they are going. DUMB!!!!! Sarah Palin would be a way better President. She has strong beliefs and she doesn’t want to close a place where people are terrorist. THAT IS CRAZZZYY!! Harold and Kumar escaped from guatamo bay and smoked with the president. Barack Obama…the 1st fake black preisdent. if you were really black i would liike u…NOT!! this is what i hear when you talk (as;dkofjqlaskjdfgl BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!!) I HOOPE YOUR HAPPY!! YOU NEVER WILL EVER WILL BE HAS BEEN!! do you hear that? wait of course you do those ears are very large. have a great life mr. fake

  125. happyfeet says:

    But you really don’t remember. Was it something that they said? Are the voices in your head calling, gloria p?

  126. gloria p says:

    to happyfeet: WHAT???

Comments are closed.