Thursday, March 19, 2009

H.R. 1388... is "Arbeit Macht Frei" too strong?

Maybe. Not.

H.R. 1388 has already passed the House –
yesterday, in fact.

The breakout of ‘yeas’ and ‘nays’ tells a story all its own:



Now, in spite of the text changes that had to be made again and again to whitewash the recurring references to “camps” and such throughout this Bill on “Invigorating Volunteerism"...

(C) in paragraph (3)--
(i) by striking ‘superintendent’ and inserting ‘campus director’; and
(ii) by striking ‘camp’ and inserting ‘campus’; and

‘(1) UNITS TO BE ASSIGNED TO CAMPUSES- ’;
(ii) by striking ‘in camps’ and inserting ‘in campuses’;
(iii) by striking ‘camp’ and inserting ‘campus’; and
(iv) by striking ‘in the camps’ and inserting ‘in the campuses’;

‘(3) ELIGIBLE SITE FOR CAMPUS- ’;
(ii) by striking ‘A camp may be located’ and inserting ‘A campus must be cost-effective and may, upon the completion of a feasibility study, be located’;

‘(e) Distribution of Units and Campuses- ’;
(B) by striking ‘camps are distributed’ and inserting ‘campuses are cost-effective and are distributed’; and
(C) by striking ‘rural areas’ and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting ‘rural areas such that each Corps unit in a region can be easily deployed for disaster and emergency response to such region.’; and...
(So - they want their 'Camps' distributed in 'rural' flyover-country...away from population centers? )

…anyone who supports this Bill is going to tell you “It’s just about supporting volunteer organizations that already exist!” (seriously, the “nuthin’ to see here – move along” crowd is hard at work on the boards) – and will heatedly insist that there’s "Nothing Mandatory” about any of it.


And that’s true – as far as that goes...


But there most assuredly are
“requirements” attached to being a recipient of ‘Grants’:

‘(a) Required National Service Corps- The recipient of a grant under section 121(a) and each Federal agency operating or supporting a national service program under section 121(b) shall, directly or through grants or subgrants to other entities, carry out or support the following national service corps, as full- or part-time corps, including during the summer months, to address unmet educational, health, veteran, or environmental needs:
And oh, that list does go on – follow THIS LINK, there really is too much to post here.
(make sure anything near to hand isn’t too heavy, hard or sharp for safe throwing)

And not to be overlooked is the incongruity of this piece – in a Bill on ‘Volunteerism’:

“Section 1508 – Authorized Benefits for Corps Members”

Now this only makes reference to language-revisions for this section of the Bill, but THIS LINK will take you to the ‘Benefits’ section itself – to wit:

(a) In general
The Director shall provide for members of the Civilian Community Corps to receive benefits authorized by this section.

(b) Living allowance
The Director shall provide a living allowance to members of the Corps for the period during which such members are engaged in training or any activity on a Corps project. The Director shall establish the amount of the allowance at any amount not in excess of the amount equal to 100 percent of the poverty line that is applicable to a family of two (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget and revised annually in accordance with section 9902 (2) of this title.[1]

(c) Other authorized benefits
While receiving training or engaging in service projects as members of the Civilian Community Corps, members may be provided the following benefits:

(1) Allowances for travel expenses, personal expenses, and other expenses.
(2) Quarters.
(3) Subsistence.
(4) Transportation.
(5) Equipment.
(6) Clothing.
(7) Recreational services and supplies.
(8) Other services determined by the Director to be consistent with the purposes of the Program.
(and there’s more)

So – Wages, Housing, Subsistence (food), Transportation & Clothing.

Now, over the years, I’ve built a couple of ‘Habitat’ houses, done pro-bono Legal Advocacy for the local domestic violence shelter and volunteered with a small-town migrant-farm-worker association.

But reading through THAT list of ‘Benefits’, what has become clear is that I’ve apparently lost track of where “Volunteering” ends and where “Working on the Government Collective” begins…. Or is it just me?

Please - anyone - if my idea of ‘Volunteering’ is completely off, chime in and let me know...


Okay....


Despite the ‘People’s Collective’ theme - again – nothing “Mandatory” in the strictest possible sense – as long as you (or your respective education departments or school districts) don’t take any Grant-money,

But… (‘cause you knew there was going to be one)

The most troubling parts of this are, as such things tend to be, aaalllll the way at the bottom:

TITLE VI--CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION ON CIVIC SERVICE
(as there’s a fair amount of intro-pablum, I’m going to skip around a little)

SEC. 6103. ESTABLISHMENT.
There is established in the legislative branch a commission to be known as the ‘Congressional Commission on Civic Service’ (in this title referred to as the ‘Commission’).

SEC. 6104. DUTIES.
(a) General Purpose- The purpose of the Commission is to gather and analyze information in order to make recommendations to Congress to--

(b) Specific Topics- In carrying out its general purpose under subsection (a), the Commission shall address and analyze the following specific topics:
(this is where the creepy parts really get going)

(5) The effect on the Nation, on those who serve, and on the families of those who serve, if all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount of national service.

(6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

(7) The need for a public service academy, a 4-year institution that offers a federally funded undergraduate education with a focus on training future public sector leaders. (because once the service is mandatory... - MD)

(8) The means to develop awareness of national service and volunteer opportunities at a young age by creating, expanding, and promoting service options for elementary and secondary school students, through service learning or other means, and by raising awareness of existing incentives.

(9) The effectiveness of establishing a training program on college campuses to recruit and educate college students for national service.

(11) The constraints that service providers, nonprofit organizations, and State and local agencies face in utilizing federally funded volunteer programs, and how these constraints can be overcome. (I'm thinking 'Mandatory' would 'overcome' - MD)

(12) Whether current Federal volunteer programs are suited to address the special skills and needs of senior volunteers, and if not, how these programs can be improved such that the Federal Government can effectively promote service among the ‘baby boomer’ generation.
(so that elderly-social-productiveness can be made mandatory - once the preceding points are stipulated - MD)

So – No, nothing in the current Bill, in its current form is ‘Mandatory’.

Yet.

But it does yeoman-work in laying down all of the infrastructure needed for an eventual slide toward ‘Mandatory’ – if that were the intention...


Which, according to the Commission’s “Specific Topics” – pretty clearly is exactly the intention.

So, what do we do now?


- MuscleDaddy

37 comments:

  1. We hold on for two years and try to vote in constitutional conservatives that will strip the federal government back down to size.

    If that doesn't work, well then I guess there is always one last way of handling it and god help us all if it comes to that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Again...the speed of legislation toward the left is staggering! I'm picturing these 'young people' supported by the baby boomers as overseers in some sort of mass national soviet-style movement that sweeps out of the universities and across the evil corporate world in the name of 'national service.' PLEASE HELP get these people out of office in 2010! Stopping this insanity is becoming more imperative than I could have ever imagined or predicted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, I was screaming before the election that if all three branches of Govt went Democrat, that they would consider it "payback time", but they're going at it even faster and harder than I thought possible.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MD, bless your giant heart for pulling this information together. But I can't bear to read through even one complete section of the bill. It's like reading the death warrant of the country, in the bland machine-speak of that cancerous government that presumes to be the source of all benefit to people. This is not what we were, and if this is what we are to become...

    I am chilled to the core.

    "The Director shall provide..."

    "The Commission shall address..."

    Futher under the "Duties" section -

    (3) identify and offer solutions to the barriers that make it difficult for some individuals in the United States to volunteer or perform national service;

    Yep, we'll all get together and review what we've leaned and Make Some Recommendations. We're Sure You Will Agree With Our Conclusions.

    The poison that flows in the veins of those who act as agents of government will not allow them to recognize what tyranny they wield - no, check that, for all the useful idiots operating with the best of intentions (which by the way thanks you guys, but no thanks, please stop helping) there are just as many who relish the opportunity to exert control over others while having no concept of the dissonance between their loftily intoned double-speak and the cruel reality they engender.

    How much insanity must propagate? Has the deluge thus far been insufficient? Dare I hope that common sense can endure and survive until our votes right the course next year? Will it ever be just soon enough to withdraw from the precipice - or is this vortex insurmountable?

    To myself I says this, I says.

    I cannot convince my dearest closest family of the danger, and they should know better. The actions taken by our government have served none but government.

    We just lost the Fifth Amendment by the way, with the effective Bill of Attainder taxing the bonuses paid out of 'bailout' monies. Beyond merely offending the takings clause, ... the Legislature has no business meting out punishments against those against whom their current hatred is directed. Complaints were to have been settled by law under the Judicial branch, with due process. Instead, we get a lynch mob in business suits - and a Court which could preemptively rule on the constitutionality of this legislation, but are likely instead to stand by and wait until someone who has been taxed at 100% brings complaint before the Court.

    Oh my dear sweet land what has happened to you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is a partial realization of the Eight and Ninth Planks of the Communist Manifesto.

    The Marxist majority in the Democratic Party is actively seeking to create an "Obama Youth" which will be positioned to subdue the rural areas of the United States after an "emergency" as the federalized National Guard and active duty elements of NORTHCOM subdue the urban areas.

    This is pure genius, and utilizes class warfare to pit the rural against the urban to destroy the Republic. The Guard and Army (mostly manned by volunteers from "flyover country") will gladly crush the freedom of urbanites, while the urban volunteers in the GIVE Corps will happily subjugate the rural population.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is ALL so Orweelian as to trigger an epidemic of massive and fatal mund explosions among the sane in the population!

    Thank God for the Second Amendment!

    Begin contacting your Senators today, and keep at them!

    ReplyDelete
  7. OOOOoops...

    Make that Orwellian.

    Sorry...

    ReplyDelete
  8. is "Arbeit Macht Frei" too strong?

    Yes, it is too strong.

    Firstly, this is significantly less than the draft.

    Secondly, unless the Dems can get a majority of GOP to vote for making it mandatory, and thus hang such a 'draft' on the GOP later, it will never become mandatory.

    Thirdly, this bill is clearly patterned after FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, even to having the same initials. However, it will be spun (once some bright laddie in the Administration thinks of it) as a "Peace Corps for America" even though it is more clearly an elaborate federal-level welfare program as was the CCC.

    Let me repeat: it is a giant welfare program.

    And it will be billed (with a rip at Reagan) as a "workfare" program "done right" even though people could easily get paid for 4 years of "training" rather than for "working".

    MD, as you are very concerned (and I understand your concern) I think you might try a simple test of the sort that I usually try to find to understand the odds of our country going further downhill. Which do you think is easier to pass, a mandatory peace-corps-like 2-year draft or something that is uniformly praised in the mainstream media --say a renewal of the "assault weapon" ban?

    I believe that if they can't get a new AWB passed, they can't get a CCC draft passed. And I'm certain that there are other prospective bills that should be easier to pass than a CCC draft.

    And a CCC draft is a long way from mandatory re-upping until you are fully "re-educated".

    ReplyDelete
  9. qwer, I think you're missing the point.

    Of course they're not going to be able to pass a 2-year-peace-corp draft - they're not trying to.

    Now.

    What they're doing NOW is laying a groundwork of feel-good-volunteer-laced pablum, full of references remniscent of FDR's CCC, undoubtedly couched in bastardized Reaganisms.

    And LOOK @ 6104,b,8 under 'Duties' - BAKED INTO this plan is the re-education of the children in the schools/communities that take their grant money.

    And OF COURSE it's a giant welfare program - what do you think 'working on the government collective' is?

    And once they have so many people 'being productive' via their 'work' on the collective, and once they've poured support into existing volunteer organizations (soon to be ensnared by that selfsame grant-money-obligation), and once they've spent a few years "promoting service options for elementary and secondary school students, through service learning or other means" so that it's as much a part of everyday life as HeadStart and "Free-lunch" programs...

    How far off of an acceptance of CCC will the lowest-common-denominator of our society (you know, the part that politicians pander to @ election time?) actually be?

    They can't pass an AWB, because all THAT would ever BE is an AWB - there is no 'look-at-all-the-good-being-done' run-up to an AWB. - you can't reasonable compare the two or use one as an indicator of the other.

    It's not the draft, because there's no war to necessitate/justify it suddenly becoming the draft - there is no 'look-at-all-the-good-being-done' run-up to a Draft. - you can't reasonable compare the two or use one as an indicator of the other.

    Again - It's Not Mandatory Yet.

    But it has built into it everything it will need to bring everything around to allowing it to BECOME mandatory.

    My greatest concern - right now - is that our people's propensity for short-attention-spans and dismissal of historical lessons will allow this groundwork to be laid.

    - MuscleDaddy

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have to say, it's nice to see the esteemed qwer back on the boards, as acute and rational as only the top left alphabetic row of a keyboard can be.

    I'm only here to post a link to an excellent article by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone on The Big Takeover, aka How Wall Street Screwed and is Screwing Us. Although there have been many articles with this theme produced over the past six months, I really think Taibbi strikes the notes tone-perfect.

    Happy reading folks, and have a great weekend.

    Adios.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you for your visit to my blog. Thank you pulling this together, I'm linking this where I can and letting others see it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "It's not the draft, because there's no war to necessitate/justify it suddenly becoming the draft..."

    World war is just a motion away.
    An agreement to disagree,...violently.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Doug,

    True enough - but I don't think that would be impetus for a corps of volunteer collective-workers, either.

    And thanks, btw - looks like you've been a regular one-man PR-firm.

    - MD

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nice writeup, but you missed a spot. In Section 120, where they talk about how to be eligible for "Youth Engagement Zones," there's this:

    ‘(A) not less than 90 percent of the students participate in service-learning activities as part of the program; or

    ‘(B) service-learning is a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.


    So while the Feds might not be making it mandatory, per se, they're providing a carrot and stick for the several States to do so for them. Unless I'm reading this wrong, they would only need a friendly or desperate State legislature/agency/Governor (like, say, California) to apply for a relevant grant before the Feds could come in and set up their indoctrination camps. After that, it would probably work like the old vampire myths: Once you invite them into your proverbial house, there's not a lot you can do about it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I think the poster here doesn't understand what they mean by recipient of grants. I think what is meant is that a particular non-profit agency can be one that accepts these so-called volunteers (the non-profit agency will get the grant money). The actual volunteers (who are not volunteers since this is "expected" and "required") will not get anything except for travel expenses.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'd like to know that if a child gets hurt (this bill includes elementary school children even) during their forced child labor (this must break child labor laws, so it's incredulous), is there funding to cover all the lawsuits that every parent will go for. I mean, they don't want their children hurt. There is a part in this that states that there will be high school students "mentoring" middle school students who have basically done time in a detention center. Well, that sounds pretty risky. When the mentor gets hurt, how many millions can he/she sue for? Also, schools are pretty secure (security locks, every teacher/aid/sub have background checks), and almost everyone has lots of training in child development/learning etc. What kind of environment will this be for the kids? What kind of treatment? This is surreal.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous @ 4:10,

    Thanks - against the bulk of the Bill text, there were a great many spots that I missed, but since they were more 'letter' than 'spirit', they seemed ancillary to an explanation that was already approaching critical mass.

    Anonymous @ 5:57,

    No - while your interpretation will certainly apply in a given instance, the main purpose of the "grants" in question is pretty clearly 4:10's carrot-that becomes-a-stick.
    As for what the 'volunteers' will get, that too becomes carrot&stick to becoming a "Corps Member".

    Anonymous @ 6:05,
    Any parent who willingly allows their child to be pressed into this service in the first place is already so cowed or has drunk so deeply, that they would be unlikely to sue.

    The only silver-lining I've got right now is that, on any other day, I wouldn't get the chance to use the word "Kafkaesque" in a sentence.

    - MuscleDaddy

    ReplyDelete
  18. And thanks, btw - looks like you've been a regular one-man PR-firm.

    Are you sure you got the right Doug?
    My memory is horses#!t and my recall can only be found on the phone. I can't even remember my facebook password.
    One thing I do know is that I can trust you, so whatever it was I did,...You are welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dougman,

    You're right - I'm all burned out from reading that abomination - I started off intending to thank you for something that I'd heard you'd said, and then crossed that wire with the one that intended to thank DougLoss for scattering easter eggs all over the 'verse.

    Same thanks, just spread over two different Dougs.

    - MD

    btw, we broke 1,000 page-loads on Friday - not just a first, but 4x our previous best.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hardly all over the 'verse, MD. A couple of sites. Still, thanks. I try. Occasionally I don't fail miserably.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Well, I sent an Email to our morning-show person on 55KRC here in Cinci. I don't know if he'll come over and read it, but if he agrees at all, it'll get some air time. He was very instrumental in getting out the word on the Cincinnati Tea Party, so maybe that will help.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I actually consider myself a socialist and I am rather concerned about this bill. Most of the comments I've seen posted sound like they're from redneckian fear-mongers. But I see potential dangers here that are not taking us to far to the Left, but rather way too far to the Right---an extreme Right I do not want to see.

    ReplyDelete
  23. MD, fine post!! Am busy emailing my senators with my similar take on this bill (yours more witty and concise, tho) They are voting on this in the Senate tomorrow 3/23/09, with cloture planned at 6pm!! Your analysis dead on! BTW, this dovetails nicely with the Communist agenda: see this link


    http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm#Documention

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous socialist, you mistake fascism for an extreme right-wing philosophy. It isn't; it's a variant on socialism. You should be concerned about this bill. You should be concerned that it's an attempt to gradually introduce a private security force of the type that all authoritarian regimes eventually try to create, and which are the hallmark of all socialist/fascist (they really are part and parcel...) governments eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I've heard that if you're trying to make your voice heard that phone calls are best, that emails are often ignored and not counted, and that the snail mail you send is delayed up to weeks due to having to check it for anthrax, etc.

    I call after hours and leave messages on the voice mail often if I can't get through during the day. Also -- call both the Washington office AND their "home" office in your state.

    ReplyDelete
  26. IN this section, what does participant mean. And if it means an individual in an 'organization' then this is a violation of our first amendment.

    SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

    ‘‘(a) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.—A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
    ‘‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
    ‘‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
    ‘‘(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.
    ‘‘(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.
    ‘‘(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office.
    ‘‘(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.
    ‘‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
    ‘‘(8) Providing a direct benefit to—
    ‘‘(A) a business organized for profit;
    ‘‘(B) a labor organization;
    ‘‘(C) a partisan political organization;
    ‘‘(D) a nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of
    1986 except that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and
    ‘‘(E) an organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities.
    ‘‘(9) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.
    ‘‘(10) Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Great. Makes me want to go join a pre-Obama milita.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks Old Marine for this site. Knowledge is power.
    Gregory

    ReplyDelete
  29. They may have my children, when they first take my lead.

    This new social walfare spending plan is not only going to cost Billions, but it will also cost us more of our dignity. Why work, when you can feed off those that do work?
    Gregory

    ReplyDelete
  30. I wonder how african americans feel about this or are they still spellbound because obama and his wife are in office so much so that, he can't do no wrong?? lol..

    This country is in trouble and this is OUR (europeans) last chance to save it...

    ReplyDelete
  31. Doesn't this bill have something in it about not being able to practice any religion?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Can someone here please explain what Sec 1310, 125 means? It's the prohibited activites and organization section.

    Does that mean that someone receiving a grant from this bill can't go to church? Isn't "Engaging in religious instruction" going to church?

    ReplyDelete
  33. MN Republican from TexasApril 25, 2009 at 4:29 AM

    If Bush and his congress weren't able to permanently undermine the basic tenets of this great country of ours...I very much doubt Obama and the current congress will be able to. Never forget that the beauty of our system is that all idiocy can be removed from control in fairly short order.

    ReplyDelete
  34. What are you people talking about???

    ReplyDelete
  35. Not to change the subject but this was on Defendourfreedoms.net yesterday:

    H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday
    As per the CNN news ticker, H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday,
    Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA.

    This is the news that didn t make the headlines... By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered
    The expenditure of $20.3 Million in migration assistance to the Palestinian Refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.
    The presidential determination , which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States, was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.

    Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.

    Since Obama's inauguration:

    His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
    His first one-on-one television interview with any news oganization was with Al Arabia television.
    His first executive order was to fund/facilitate Abortions, not just here within the U. S., but within the world, using U. S. Tax payer funds.
    He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
    He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
    He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the terror attack on 9/11.
    Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
    Permalink: defendourfreedoms.net/2009/05/13/hr-1388-was-passed-yesterday.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  36. This is the first step toward COMMUNISM, read the word, COMMUNISM. This jerk is selling this country down the river and nobody seems to care.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Do you know that "Arbeit Macht frei" during the Hitler regime meant "work produces freedom" and was placed on every entrance of the many concentration camps throughout Europe?

    ReplyDelete

We reserve the right to delete comments, but the failure to delete any particular comment should not be interpreted as an endorsement thereof.

In general, we expect comments to be relevant to the story, or to a prior comment that is relevant; and we expect some minimal level of civility. Defining that line is inherently subjective, so try to stay clear of insulting remarks. If you respond to a comment that is later deleted, we may take your response with it. Deleting your comment isn't a personal knock on you, so don't take it as such.

We allow a variety of ways for commenters to identify themselves; those who choose not to do so should take extra care. Absent any prior context in which they may be understood, ironic comments may be misinterpreted. Once you've earned a reputation for contributing to a conversation, we are likely to be more tolerant in those gray areas, as we'll understand where you're coming from.