“YES WE CAN”

The expression of empathy is the only effective way to address suffering’s

root causes. This requires melding the cognitive component of empathy with
engagement, with resistance against asymmetrical power, always an
inherently political act. Otherwise, empathy has no meaning… che

"yes we can" -- Obama has unabashedly aimed at reorganizing our concept

of groups. Either purposefully or by coincidence, this strategy fits perfectly
into a plan of increasing empathy and pro-social behavior more broadly.

Regardless of one's opinions about Obama, it is difficult to argue against the

fact that he has engaged the emotions of a generation of first time voters,
and motivated millions of people to at least one kind of selfless behavior:
donating their time and money to his campaign. Will this translate into a new
age of service, in which once apathetic young people will start pitching in for
their country? Obama's ideas about altruism are also not scientifically
implausible. By recruiting an increase in empathy among a younger
generation, he may be able to tap into a deeply ingrained, even hard-wired
tendency we have to help each other.

I urge my friends and colleagues to talk about this, ask the tough questions
and demand that Obama address the issues raised by his own initiative, we
must be concerned about the grave constitutional and taxation implications
it raises.

Today's youth are drawn to public service because they are told that
participation in these things is a prerequisite to getting into a decent college,
and further employment. universities are pushing "service learning"

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“YES WE CAN”
Now, performing public service is a good thing, I believe we have a moral
responsibility to individually help our fellow man, but, Obama does not want
you to serve the public, he wants you to serve the government.

http://www.hithimagain.com/2008/02/02/the-federal-plantation/

And It appears President Obama, fully intends to recruit young citizens into
something he calls a “national security force,” apparently a large
paramilitary group “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as
the U.S. military. Obama made passing reference to this disturbing idea in a
speech delivered in Chicago on July 2. As should be expected, the corporate
media, with the exception on the Chicago Tribune, completely ignored the
statement and its implications.

Does Barack Obama really intend to push the idea of spending as much on the
State Department as America currently spends on defense? ----This should
be the No. 1 question he is asked at every press conference until we get a
coherent answer.

Why do transcripts of the July 2 speech in the Denver Post and Wall Street
Journal fail to include Obama's statement about a "civilian national security
force"?

is Barack Obama's notion of a "civilian national security force" something

else entirely? Does it have anything to do with the Foreign Service, or does it
have more to do with some kind of domestic Big Brother program as the
chilling words first suggested to me?

Why did other reporters covering his July 2 speech fail to cover this big idea
for a "civilian national security force"? Obviously, this was a pretty hot
sound bite. Why did no one take the bait?

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“YES WE CAN”
Why was this obviously well crafted sound bite not a part of the prepared
remarks handed out to reporters that day? Had it been scratched from the
speech? Or was it added at the last minute? The nation has a right to know!

With enormous attention focused on Barack Obama and all the insane
questions asked of him by reporters, I find it almost inexplicable that no one
has been able to pin him down on his own words from July 2 speech mentions
a "civilian national security force"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df2p6867_pw&eurl=http://www.wnd
.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70160

you can read a transcript of the speech made available for the first time to
Internet users.

The only thing that will force Obama to come clean on this plan is public
pressure.

“Defense department announces civilian expeditionary workforce”

The DOD doesn't yet know how to use civilians …..

Civilians in the Peace Corps often wound up on economic development

schemes benefiting only one rich man in a poor country.

You can call or write to the President:

YES WE CAN!!

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
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“YES WE CAN”
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

send email (click link below)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Office of Public Liaison
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl/

H.R. 393, a.k.a the “Universal National Service Act of 2007,” seeks to
impress every man and woman between the ages of 18 and 42 into forced
servitude for the federal government for a period of two years.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-393
http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00393:@@@P

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/207164/6-of-10-the-military-is-
just-one-way-to-serve.jhtml#id=1580846

Thirteenth Amendment:

" Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for

crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. " …….Thirteenth
Amendment

http://lists.powerblogs.com/pipermail/volokh/2008-
September/014309.html

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Perhaps the most important question that has arisen in discussions is the
extent to which his "Universal Voluntary Service Plan" is nonetheless
mandatory.

Because Obama calls his plan voluntary, it’s important to understand exactly
what he says and doesn’t say. In the first two of his main speeches on
national service – on July 2, 2008 and on December 5, 2007 – Barack
Obama set his goal of 50 hours of service a year, promised that “We'll reach
this goal,” and explained how he would do so for middle and high school
children:

So when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high
school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college
students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the
time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service.

We'll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level,
we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing
service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service
opportunities…..
http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2008/09/11/transcript-
servicenation-presidential-forum-at-columbia-university/

So one hurdle that Obama’s plan must vault is the U.S. Constitution, which
limits the federal government to enumerated powers. Lacking the power to
mandate universal community service directly, Obama candidly discloses his
strategy: making federal funds contingent on schools having service
programs that meet federal standards.

If Obama hadn’t promised that “We’ll reach this goal” of 50 hours a year of
service, one might read his proposal as indicating that he would require
schools to have service programs, but that these programs might not require
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“YES WE CAN”
50 hours of service. Yet the only way that almost every 11-year old public
school student in the country would serve 50 hours a year – i.e., the only
way that Obama could reach his goal – is by doing what he seems to indicate
he’s going to do: setting a federal goal of 50 hours a year for each middle
school student and reaching that goal by making federal funds contingent on
middle schools requiring their students to serve those 50 hours.

Thus, it would be the public schools that would impose federal standards of
coerced service on each child as part of their requirements for graduation.
For students, service would be involuntary. Even for the public schools, their
participation would be only nominally voluntary – for how many public
schools can survive without federal assistance?

Lest there be any remaining doubt that Barack Obama’s “voluntary”

universal service plan contemplates mandatory service for children, his
Service Plan praises mandatory service in the sentence that immediately
precedes his call for 50 hours of service: “Schools that require service as part
of the educational experience create improved learning environments and
serve as resources for their communities.” Moreover, in his Plan, he promises
to “develop national guidelines for service-learning and community service
programs,” thus not leaving the content of service programs to the states.

I suspect that Obama describes his mandatory plan as voluntary for good
reasons: (1) part of his plan – i.e., participating in his many new “Corps” – is
indeed voluntary, and (2) people bristle at the word “mandatory.” In the
movement for national service, it is common to describe mandatory plans as
voluntary. For example, Representative Charles Rangel’s National Service
Act, which is languishing before Congress, provides for a universal draft with
two years of service for virtually all persons ages 18-42, with no deferment
for college. This explicitly mandatory service is described in the bill as
“Voluntary Service” because “A person subject to induction . . . may volunteer
to perform national service in lieu of being inducted.”
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“YES WE CAN”

Nonetheless, there still remain some ambiguities in Obama’s Service Plan.

Does Obama intend to force states to include private and parochial school
students within his scheme? Obama does not say whether private middle and
high schools would also be required to impose 50 hours a year. I assume that
would depend on whether they rely on federal grants.

Also, how will students who defy their high schools or the state be punished?
Will they be prosecuted, placed in re-education programs, or merely
flunked? Obama’s proposal never says.

-----------------------------------

Steve Watson

Friday, Jan 30th, 2009

The Defense Department has established a "civilian expeditionary workforce"

that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in
support of worldwide military missions.

The move is seen by some as an initial step towards fulfilling president

Obama’s promise to form a civilian national security force as powerful as the
U.S. military.

The intent of the program “is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce
to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements,”
according to a Defense Department report.

The program was officially implemented one week ago, on the 23rd January,
when Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed Defense Department

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“YES WE CAN”
Directive 1404.10 (PDF), which provides a summation of the duties the
workforce will undertake.

The directive, which is effective immediately, states that civilian employees

of the DoD will be asked to sign agreements stating that they will deploy in
support of military missions for up to two years if needed.

Workforce members, who are divided into different designations under the
directive, will serve overseas in support of humanitarian, reconstruction and,
if necessary, combat-support missions.

"If the employee does not wish to deploy, every effort will be made to
reassign the employee to a non-deploying position." the DoD reports states.

While the directive suggests that the DoD will at first seek volunteers to serve
in the civilian workforce, section 4, subsection (e) paragraph (2) states:

Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees,

voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD
mission.

In addition, the directive states that all workforce members will be subject to
physical and psychological testing, both before and after deployment.

The directive refers several times to the civilian workforce as a component of

the "Total Force", which it describes as "The organizations, units, and
individuals that compromise the DoD resources for implementing the National
Security Strategy." This "Total Force" includes active, reserve and retired
military personnel in addition to DoD civilian employees.

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“YES WE CAN”
Back in July 2008, Barack Obama, then the presidential front runner, called
for a "civilian national security force" as powerful as the U.S. military.

"We cannot continue to rely 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," Obama
told a Colorado Springs audience.

The comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate
media but were found to be troubling by some independent journalists who
compared the idea to the formation of the Nazi Hitler Youth.

Fears of "youth brigades" or civilian stasi style units increased following

Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff.

In his book, "The Plan: Big Ideas for America," Emanuel writes: "It’s time for a
real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal
civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans
between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going
through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and
community service."

The book also notes, "Some Republicans will squeal about individual freedom,
ruling out any likelihood that they would let people opt out of universal
citizen service."

Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service

Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the
foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military
academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in "civilian
internship in the armed forces".

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“YES WE CAN”
Furthermore, in a rediscovered 2006 audio clip of an interview with Ben
Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for
compulsory military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at
preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack.

When controversy arose over the program last November, the use of the
word "required" to describe the program was removed from Obama’s
change.gov website and replaced with "community service" type terminology.

Though the civilian expeditionary workforce program is restricted to DoD

employees, similar programs have already been established for public sector
workers.

One such program has seen hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and
utility workers recently trained and dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison
Officers" in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for "suspicious
activity" which is later fed into a secret government database.

-------------
Take note of the fact; Obama’s top advisor is Zbigniew Brzezinski, a close
Rockefeller protégé, a founding member and former director of the Trilateral
Commission, and a CFR member. Obama’s wife, Michelle, is a member of the
Chicago branch of the CFR. Big donors to the Obama campaign basically
constitute a who’s who of corporate and Wall Street banking interests,
including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and
Citigroup. Disgraced former Obama advisor, James A. Johnson, former Fannie
Mae CEO and consummate Washington insider, is a member of the American
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“YES WE CAN”
Friends of Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign
Relations.

The expression of empathy is the only effective way to address suffering’s

root causes. This requires melding the cognitive component of empathy with
engagement, with resistance against asymmetrical power, always an
inherently political act. Otherwise, empathy has no meaning….. che

# Key variables in American Capitalism. The following variables are

important parts of the North American Algorithm...the set of instructions
which politicians, scholars, and CEO's will have to 'read out' in order to plan
and to program US policy.

1. Consumer Demand. One of the features of capitalism is that while it is a

magnificent system of production, it is a lousy system of
distribution...improvement in productivity tends to dis-employ workers;
profit tends to separate every body from the means of
distribution...capitalism is the only economic system which does so; in all
other economic systems, the whole point of production was distribution...not
so capitalism.

So...how to renew demand...there are several solutions.

1. Parallel economic systems. There are a half-dozen economic systems
in the USA which supplement/redeem the market system: the family is the
most important parallel system...it re-distributes huge amounts of goods and
services...especially at Christmas time. (worked that in nicely, didn't I??).

Crime is a very, very important parallel system; it provides a lot of

jobs for the underclass, stimulates the legitimate economy, creates ever-
more service sectors (private security is larger than public policing).

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“YES WE CAN”
The welfare state continues to re-distribute huge sums mostly
upward but still enough downward to buy a thin social peace.

The church continues to be the place of last resort for the homeless,
tempest-tost, poor huddled masses discarded by market, family, state and
too proud to do crime...most of the time.

Without these parallel economic systems, 'twould be a terrible time

for hunreds of millions in North America.
2. The future of the USA capitalism depends in great part upon its military.
It is the only Super-Power in the world. Many old and new capitalist
countries depend upon it for the social peace both national and trans-
national needed for local capitalists to survive and thrive.

Bill Clinton is explicit about this...along with Richard Nixon, he realized

more than most presidents that the future of American capitalism depends
upon the US retaining its position at the top of the global order.
3. One should watch France and the EU; France engineered the end of the
link between the dollar and the gold standard in the 70's; it is trying to
displace the US dollar which is now the universal currency...with the euro-
bill...this is one key

4. There are three or four fiscal tools which shape life variables in the
global system. The USA controls the World Bank, the OEDC and AID and the
International Monetary Fund...these together are used to force 3rd world
countries to reduce debt at home and to US, German, British and Japanese
banks. And bring home a lot of wealth/profits/food to the developed
countries...without control of these tools, the US is forced to rely on the CIA
and direct military intervention...very costly in terms of dollars and in terms
of political legit- imacy...that is the lesson of Vietnam.

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5. US properity hinges upon the creation of new consumer goods. There
have been 4 or 5 great depressions since 1800; new inventions have worked
to renew demand and economic growth. The automobile, railroads, television,
radio, cinema, computers and now the Internet continue to stimulate
demand.

6. Political legitimacy at home is crucial. As the underclass grows; as white

male workers are marginalized; as the middle class continues to bear more
and more of the tax burden...to the delight of the wealthy; as political
corruption and bureaucratic ineptitudes continue to dis-enchant people from
the nation-state, legitimacy becomes a serious problem.

There are solutions. Social justice is the best solution but it is costly to the
wealthy. Racism, religiousity, the false masculinities of sports and violence,
demonization of the young, gender bashing and national chauvinism still work
to shape both street politics, public policy and private relationships.

These are, however, short-term and self-defeating solutions which may

postpone civil strife but at the expense of social and economic health of the
country.

Again, social justice is the best long-term solution...not criminal justice

nor incivility toward minorities. Social justice...

# Five futures for America. Modern science requires one predict one and only
one outcome state. Postmodern science permits/requires a plurality of
parallel and contrary outcomes. I predict all the following in varying
unpredictable combination:

1. The Soylent Green Solution...well protected residences and working space

for the affluent and their clients; a reactive police presence for the growing
underclass left to parasitize upon itself.
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2. The English Model: genteel impoverishment...as was the case with Greece,
Rome and other imperial countries before it, the USA may follow the English
example; relinquish power and status to any one of the NICs and grow old
with some grace.

3. The Serbian Model...internal/incestuous warfare in which one ethnic

enclave claims superiority and tries to solve its social problems on the backs
of other ethnic enclaves.

4. The Theological State...Islam and Israel are both attempting to impose an

religousity and exclusivity upon those within the borders of given nation-
states. In Islamic states, Islamic law provides very important solutions to
poverty, housing, health care and social peace...gender inequality remains but
class inequality is greatly minimized...Islam is most appealing to the poor in
such countries...as is religious fundamentalism among the poor in the USA, the
former Soviet Union and in Latin America.

Liberation theologies may work to humanize/expand the shape of

Universal Being but just now, things look like more religious conflict.
5. Democratic Socialism. With the collapse of bureaucratic/repres- sive
socialism, other forms of socialism now seem more likely. The Mondragon
co=ops in northern Spain; Kerala State in India; the communist cities of Italy;
newly re-organizing nations in Central Europe as well as the possibility of
great improvement in Cuba and perchance China hold out promise for a
better way to do social justice on a global scale.

I believe it was Einstein who said that capitalism is the predatory phase of
human development. Capitalism, properly regulated, has fed nations, but the
kind of capitalistic greed demonstrated in the recent housing bust we can do
without.

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"We have seen that in the massive $800 billion-plus “stimulus” program,
which largely goes to directly helping the unions that backed Obama and
which benefits a massive laundry list of social welfare and pork barrel
spending.

A careful examination shows the stimulus is nothing more than payback to

many of the special interests that supported his campaign and the
Democrats in 2008.

Commentator Ben Stein estimates that almost half of the stimulus will
directly benefit the private and public unions that backed Obama and the
Democrats in the recent election.

Then, other hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on federal and state
welfare programs. Even illegal aliens can collect checks of up to $1,000.

When I hear Obama wag his finger at bankers on Wall Street, I wonder if he
really is serious about fixing our economy or simply replaying Franklin
Roosevelt and the 1930s.

Unsuccessful at solving the country’s economic woes, some argue FDR’s

policies actually prolonged the Depression for almost a decade and shifted
the public’s focus on “evil” Wall Street.

During the ‘30s, FDR demonized corporate America in a skilful public

relations effort that pitted Main Street against the wealthy elites."

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Wall street and congress are both to blame. Wall St PAYS our congressmen to
not exercise any oversight. Every congressmen who voted for the bank
bailout plan was paid millions of $ by the bankers.

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