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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (21861)	10/13/2004 2:56:49 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Ed, In disagreement with your presumption: <<Kodiak, finally we arrive at the real issue. Please note that it's not whether the Democrats raised this as a fraudulent issue, as you initially suggested.>> Yes, we can have a draft, if we want one. But what is the nature of this scare tactic in the last 3-4 weeks of a presidential election, and why do Dems want to run with it? I refer you once again to the program of disinformation about whether or not there are "secret plans" by the Republicans (which is what Dem Senator Tom Harkin told a newspaper) to reinstate the draft. This is irresponsible bullshit, and using fear to try to sway as many young and naive first time voters to vote Kerry. That's all. It is a fraudulent issue. It is a scare tactic dreamed up by the Democrats and undertaken with Democratic action and operatives, to try to make it into a real issue: "The chatter began last year after Democrats introduced a pair of bills in Congress to resume conscription . The bills weren't taken seriously in Washington — Representative Charles Rangel said he introduced his version to make the point that the volunteer military is full of minority kids with few options. But the bills led to the formation of a website called stopthedraftnow.com, and they inspired a largely fallacious, prodigiously forwarded e-mail claiming that the White House was fighting for the bills and that "$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System budget to prepare for a draft." In fact the entire SSS budget is just $26 million, and the system estimates it would need $600 million to oversee a national draft. When Republicans finally brought Rangel's bill to a vote last week, it lost 402 to 2. But by then the rumor had plodded from chat rooms to the mainstream, especially on college campuses. This fall the University of Minnesota's Daily ran an editorial concluding that "re-electing Bush might very well lead to a draft." The National Annenberg Election Survey released last week found that 51% of 18-to-29-year-olds believe that the President wants a draft, in contrast to just 8% who think Kerry does. Kerry surrogates Howard Dean, Max Cleland and Michael Moore have all stoked draft fears. Democratic Iowa Senator Tom Harkin told the Des Moines Register this month that the White House has "secret plans" to begin a draft. And Rock the Vote, the left-leaning group started by the music industry, is running ads featuring a forlorn-looking young man getting a buzz cut. "OFF TO COLLEGE OR OFF TO WAR?" the ad asks. "Could you be drafted?"