I'm about to ruin your day: HR 4752

[elfs]

I stared up at the cold, uncaring stars, and shreiked in unholy madness as I read House Bill 4752, introduced into Congress this year:

Purpose: To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.

(Emphasis mine.) It's currently locked up in the Subcommittee on Military Personnel and will probably go nowhere, but doesn't it warm the cockles of your heart (or maybe the subcockle region, maybe your liver, maybe your rectum! No, that's just clenching...) to know that Representative Charles B. Rangel cares so much about his country?

Okay, the guy's a Democrat, and a one-man "I move that the house recognize so-and-so for his or her acheivements in..." yadda yadda yadda machine. It's probably a publicity thing. But the fact that it's there at all annoys me. I hate politics.

Comments

[fallenpegasus]

Isn't that the stupid draft bill that gets introduced every year by the D's, just to put anti-war pressure on the R's?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Probably. And it's probably so routine it goes nowhere. Some days I pine for an efficient congress. And then, I remind myself of what that would really mean. "Every new law creates a new class of criminals."

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, my beloved (cough, cough) former representative, Charles Rangel.

This is actually the second or third year in a row he's introduced the draft bill. Yes, it's a publicity stunt -- it lets him hector republican reps about how many of their kids aren't serving in Iraq.

On the list of reasons to hate Rangel, this is a relatively small one: there's at least kind of a point to it. Higher up on the list is the fact that he is, even by House standards, a complete whore (http://www.iapprovethismessiah.com/2004/04/rangel-letter-recognizes-far-right.html) who will take money from anybody.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

I had the impression that he was serious about it, as a mechanism for better social cohesion and to force everyone to rub elbows with everyone else. At least, that's the way he talks about the issue for the media.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

*All* men and women, or only the straight ones. Well, the straight ones that aren't too weird and stuff. Which "all" does he mean, just out of curiosity?

[gromm.livejournal.com]

*All* men and women, or only the straight ones?

#1: If it's still illegal to be gay in the army, then if you're gay, they'll just say you're trying to worm your way out of doing your patriotic duty. See also: Corporal Klinger.

#2: That's what the "civilian support role" clause is for.

No.

[ladymarine.livejournal.com]

The military is chaotic enough already. One of the worst things to have to deal with on the inside is working with someone who does not want to be there. I would rather have less people in the militray and have those people want to be there and love their job, than have a larger amount of force composed of people who have something better they think they could be doing.

Re: No.

[murbin.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, the DoD is opposed to a draft for the reasons LadyMarine stated.

I also remember reading that Republican Congressman's nephew was recently KIA in Iraq.