Posted by
The Crawfish on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 5:01:16 PM
Part 13 of The Swamp's continuing series on Barack Obama's main campaign policy document, "The Blueprint For Change," continues with his call for national service. You must join the Party and become part of the State! (was that Barry O-Zebra or Joey Stalin?)
“Your own story and the American story are not separate – they are shared. And they will both be enriched if we stand up together, and answer a new call to service to meet the challenges of our new century. … I won’t just ask for your vote as a candidate; I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States. This will not be a call issued in one speech or program; this will be a cause of my presidency. ”
-- Barack Obama, Speech in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, December 5, 2007
For only in government can we succeed.....
Barack Obama’s Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service
It ain't gonna be universal if it is voluntary.
At a Glance
Ask All Americans to Work Together to Meet Our Common Challenges
Obama will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the Peace Corps and dedicate these positions
to addressing America’s common challenges. He also will provide new service opportunities for working Americans and retirees.
What a load of manure! What has the Peace Corpse done for the USA? Nothing besides be a feel good refuge for the rejects of the 60s and their ilk. What has AmericaCorpse done besides give a bit of good press to Billy Jeff Clinton and get his Willie off the front pages for a while?
Expand Service Learning
Obama will integrate service-learning into our schools to enable students to graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of service experience.
What in the world is he talkin' 'bout? Giving college kids 17 weeks of experience as waiters and waitresses? Where does he find any federal government involvement with college programs listed in the Constitution? Nowhere in that document does it say anything about socialism indoctrination.
Bolster the Nonprofit Sector
By leveraging federal dollars, Obama will foster the use of best practices of the private sector to nurture innovation in the nonprofit sector.
That's the job of private contributors, not the federal government. You don't have authorization to use federal taxpayer funds for charities.
THE PROBLEM
Americans Not Asked to Serve After 9/11
President Bush squandered an opportunity to mobilize the American people following 9/11 when asked Americans only to go shopping.
He asked for folks to serve...in our nation's military! Oh, sorry. You believe that our military is a bad thing. Our bad. You want Young Pioneers and Junior Communists to Serve the State!
Insufficient Federal Support for Service
While more than 500,000 people have served in AmeriCorps, the program turns away tens of thousands of applicants a year because of limited funding.
It should have ZERO federal funding.
Need for More R&D in Nonprofit Sector
Research and development in the nonprofit sector is limited and there is a disconnect between charitable
foundations that can fund innovation and the organizations on the ground that can test new concepts and bring them to scale.
And that is the job of the federal government exactly how? We still don't find that stuff in the Constitution.
BARACK OBAMA’s Plan
Enable All Americans to Serve to Meet the Nation’s Challenges
Expand Corporation for National and Community Service: Obama will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000 and he will focus this expansion on addressing the great challenges facing the nation. He will establish a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students, with a priority placed on underserved schools; a Health Corps to improve public health outreach; a Clean Energy Corps to conduct weatherization and renewable energy projects; a Veterans Corps to assist veterans at hospitals, nursing homes and homeless shelters; and a Homeland Security Corps to help communities plan, prepare for and respond to emergencies.
Where to start?
a) Zero out Americorpse.
b) You can help out schools by getting the federal government and the NEA out of them, along with allowing school choice, which would force schools to improve or get closed down.
c) Haven't you already proposed nationalized socialist health care that is guaranteed to fail?
d) Get the government out of the way when it comes to energy. We need to go for more energy NOW while developing cleaner and renewable resources for the future, but gummint isn't the way to do it.
e) Isn't that what the VA is supposed to do, if properly funded by Congress?
f) You have opposed everything in the realm of homeland security. The planning, preparing, and responding to local emergencies is the job of the local and state governments.
Engage Retiring Americans in Service on a Large Scale: Older Americans have a wide range of skills and knowledge to contribute. Obama will expand and improve programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to quality volunteer opportunities.
It is up to those people and those organizations themselves to do that, not the federal government. We are not property of The State.
Expand the Peace Corps: Obama will double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011. He will work with the leaders of other countries to build an international network of overseas volunteers so that Americans work side-by-side with volunteers from other countries.
Where does he find this fertilizer in the Constitution? How does this bovine excrement help America? He doesn't and it doesn't.
Show the World the Best Face of America: Obama will set up an America’s Voice Initiative to send Americans who are fluent speakers of local languages to expand our public diplomacy. He also will extend opportunities for older individuals such as teachers, engineers, and doctors to serve overseas.
If people want to do that sort of thing, they can already do so. It doesn't take the government. Of course, we can start by exporting all people living here who don't speak English, most of whom aren't supposed to be here in the first place...
Integrate Service into Learning
Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation’s Schools: Obama will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. He will develop national guidelines for servicelearning and will give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience.
The federal government has no business getting involved in making demands on our local schools. Forcing schools to make the kids into good little community serving socialists is not allowed. Education was left out of the Constitution because the Founding Fathers felt that it was the job of the states, communities, and families to decide how kids should be educated.
Green Job Corps: Obama will create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields.
Here we go with the "disadvantaged youth" horse hockey that the leftists are famous for, along with more government programs. If building owners want their buildings weatherized, they can pay for it themselves. If they want to train some younger folks, that is up to them.
Expand YouthBuild Program: Obama will expand the YouthBuild program, which gives disadvantaged young people the chance to complete their high school education, learn valuable skills and build affordable housing in their communities. He will grow the program so that 50,000 low-income young people a year a chance to learn construction job skills and complete high school.
a) There's no such thing as a "disadvantaged youth" in America.
b) Every kid in America already has the chance to complete their high school education, even if it is already run by the idiots of the teachers unions.
c) Any kid that wants to learn skills is free to apply for jobs, since there will be plenty of them when we kick the illegal aliens out.
d) Thanks to the Democrat Congress, housing is extremely affordable throughout the nation these days, and becoming more affordable daily as home values drop.
Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
REQUIRE????? Where does he get that power? We could have sworn that we were still in the United States of America!
Promote College Serve-Study: Obama will ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.
You must Serve the State! Since there's no authorization for any work-study federal funding in the first place, where does he get the power to dictate where state and private funds are spent?
Invest in the Nonprofit Sector:
Social Investment Fund Network: Obama will create a Social Investment Fund Network to use federal seed money to leverage private sector funding to improve local innovation, test the impact of new ideas and expand successful programs to scale.
What? Private sector funding needs no federal funds or federal intervention. The federal government has no place in local innovation and community affairs. PERIOD!
Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits:
Barack Obama will a create an agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service dedicated to building the capacity and effectiveness of the nonprofit sector.
We hope that Corporation of your's is a private enterprise with no federal funding or administration, since it isn't Constitutional and sounds like a load of poultry droppings.
OBAMA’S RECORD
A Lifetime of Service
Obama began his career by moving to the South Side of Chicago to direct the Developing Communities Project. Together with a coalition of ministers (how quaint...he still calls Wright, Farrakhan, and Pflieger "ministers"), Obama set out to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued by crime and high unemployment. By tossing in some good old-fashioned Chicago corruption and racism? That sounds like a real winner of a plan! After graduating from law school, Obama passed up lucrative law firm jobs to head Project Vote, which helped register 150,000 new African American voters in Chicago, the highest number ever registered in a single local effort. 100,000 of them, as per Chicago tradition, were from the local cemeteries or were not actually legal to vote under federal law, such as felons and illegal aliens. Michelle Obama was founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago, a leadership development program that identifies and prepares talented young adults for careers serving the public good.
That's nice. You did things within the bounds of community and state. That is where those efforts belong. You are now running for the Presidency. Those type of programs are not in the balliwick of the federal government.
for more information
Read the Speech:
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/12/05/obama_issues_call_to_serve_vow.php
Watch Excerpts of the Speech:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/ObamaHQ/CRHJ
Read the Plan:
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/NationalServicePlanFactSheet.pdf
or try reading the Constitution and finding out what the actual jobs and responsibilities of the federal government are