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Chicagoist received a mass e-mail message this past week with the subject line "Mandatory Draft" followed by a number of, depending on your position, exciting or menacing exclamation points. The e-mail mentions companion bills H.R. 163 and S 82. The titles of both these bills contain the text "...to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, 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."
The e-mail explains lays out a basic outline of what the bills and mentions that "The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately." What they mean by administration isn't exactly clear. We assume they're referring to Bush & Co., but the thing is, both of these bills are sponsored by democrats. While the Senate bill has no co-sponsors, the House bill has 14--all democrats.
The bill defines "young people" as a person who has "attained the age of 18 and has not attained the age of 26." And this includes women. Plus, get this, there's no exemption for Illinois residents. So BOO-YA! THAT'S what it has to do with Chicago. Plus one of H.R. 163's co-sponsors is Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL).
Both bills were introduced to their respective legislative bodies on January 7, 2003, and aside from being referred to committees, not much has been done since. However in October 2003, the Selective Service did begin to resuscitate the draft boards with a campaign to fill vacant spots. So it seems that there's not much to worry about as both presidential candidates have said they won't re-institute a draft.
Chicagoist still hopes Jim Lehrer sticks it to 'em tomorrow on this issue, or, rather, that officials from both campaigns negotiated and scripted a scene in which "Jim Lehrer" asks "George W. Bush" and "John Kerry" about the draft and these two bills in Congress. Thanks, Sam!
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Did this e-mail also mention that it has a great deal on penis enlargement pills?
There was a big story about this in the Wall Street Journal, I think it was last week, describing this as the non-story / rumor / spam that just won't die. The gist of the article is that the bills are non starters, and that no one expects either bill to go anywhere; they are not serious efforts and are essentially pet projects. Apparently this mass email has been going around since last spring, and is associated with, but not necessarily instigated by, the Nader campaign.
H.R.163 is a bill by Congressman Rangel (NY-D) and S.89 is a bill by Senator Ernest Hollings (SC-D).
Why would the administration try to quietly get a draft passed using bills written by Democrats?
Furthermore the Selective Service website says:
This a dirty political trick played by Democrats to try to scare college age students in to voting for Kerry.
No Steve, the dirty trick played on the American public is the OH SO necessary war in Iraq and the $7 trillion dollar debt.
I thought Chicagoist would be informed enough to know that this is a Democratic scare tactic. Apparently I'm either wrong, or perhaps Chicagoist wishes to push the scare tactic further. Hmmmm.
Check out FactCheck.org, specifically this link:
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docid=200
(Draft Fears Fueled by Inaccurate E-mails
A scare story spreads electronically, but it gets facts wrong.)
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