Charles Rangel has an UPDATE for you:

He is going to reintroduce draft legislation. I bet you thought that was not going to happen under the One’s leadership.

With the Iraq war off the front page and the economic crisis taking center stage, nerves are not as raw on the topic of strain on the military as they were a few years ago, so Rangel’s legislation may not make as many waves this time around.

But some Democrats — even one who supported Rangel’s efforts in the past — are a little perplexed about his plans to reintroduce the legislation, especially now that President-elect Obama is poised to take over the White House.

CHANGEOLOGY 101:

More: violates the sacrosanct, age-old constitutional guarantee of a right to privacy?

In addition to the three months of compulsory civil defense training Rahm Emanuel wants 18-to-25-year-olds to do what?  Let’s not go nuts.

Thu Nov 06, 2008 – How ironic is it that for all of the psychotic fear mongering the left engaged in 2004 over the draft, Barack Obama has just chosen a chief of staff who legitimately supports a plan to send 18-25 year olds into compulsory service. This is an excerpt from Emanuel’s 2006 tome, The Plan: Big Ideas for America: 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 eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.

Change can be anything that Obama desires.

Obama’s office of Change has now sentenced the children of America to become the new slaves.

Per Obama’s mandate:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

So kids, are you ready for change???

A commenter at Gateway Pundit brought up an interesting question:

This is a direct violation of the 13th Amendment, I believe. It mentions specifically the abolition of “involuntary servitude”..I thought this guy was a “Constitutional Scholar”?

College students must serve in order to keep their scholarships.  I hear the screaming loudly now.

Whereas

The Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery, and with limited exceptions, such as those convicted of a crime, prohibits involuntary servitude. It was adopted on December 6, 1865.

Fast forward Update:


via Sweetness & Light, the Change.gov plan as of this afternoon:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

Interesting that he suddenly decided to slap a number on the program, too. Read Tom Blumer for a back-of-the-envelope analysis of what it could cost and what kind of bureaucracy, potentially, we’re looking at here. The feds already oversee millions of student loans so there’s presumably plenty of institutional knowledge already available to phase this in. Exit question: Why the sudden turnaround? Had they really not thought this through before putting it online, or do they have no real intention of making it happen and are happy to play with the rhetorical particulars so long as it keeps people off their backs?

It should be noted that when this “service” program was mention during the campaign it sounded quite “voluntary.”

$ now offered.

From the Obama campaign site:

What a difference an election makes.

Update!

Look, the Change.gov “Service” page has now been changed:

Revision, all mention of “required” has been disappeared. And the college tuition incentive has been added.

Maybe this is what they mean by “change.”