Obama's secret army?

**elbamba** · 03-30-2010

I am sure you are referring to the bolded part. I have not heard the speech and I am certain this is taken out of context, but my guess is that this is why you started the thread.

By John McCormick

Sen. Barack Obama called his fellow citizens to greater public service today, as he outlined several proposals to boost the involvement of Americans both at home and abroad in helping meet the nation's needs.

"Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July," he said in a speech in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger."

The Illinois Democrat pledged that he would make enhanced public service a central part of his presidency if elected this fall.

"I won't just ask for your vote as a candidate," he said. "I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I'm president of the United States. This won't be a call issued in one speech or one program. I want this to be a central cause of my presidency. We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve."

Obama said he would boost the size of the active military, but that the nation's future depends on more than just additional soldiers.

"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school working in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.

Obama reflected on how the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both made public service hallmarks of their administration and how the nation was the better for such efforts.

He promised to increase AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 and pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011.

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."

Obama called for greater integration with schools, so that young Americans are better prepared to be active citizens. He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle and high school students.

"Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously," he said.

For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and repeated his pledge to create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students that would be tied to that level of service.

Obama said he realizes there will be skeptics who will question how he might possibility be able to get more young people motivated to do public service, but argued the nation's very spirit is tied to greater service.

"Renewing that spirit starts with service," he said. "Make no mistake: our destiny as Americans is tied up with one another. If we are less respected in the world, then you will be less safe. If we keep paying dictators for foreign oil, gas prices are going to keep rising, and so are the oceans. If we can't give all of our children a world-class education, our economy is going to fall behind. "

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/po...public_se.html

**Winehole23** · 03-30-2010

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."

If it doesn't happen in four or eight years, this counts as just another broken campaign promise.

It's not gonna happen IMO.

@elbamba: Has any pertinent legislation been passed wrt civilian service under Obama? The link you posted is from the summer of 2008, almost two years ago.

**Bartleby** · 03-30-2010

Doesn't sound very secretive to me.

**Ginobilly** · 03-30-2010

From what i heard from a friend who's in the Air Force....Obama wants to create another military branch/agency, but that only will respond to his orders. That's just a basic crash course on the subject. But why?? We already have countless government agencies protecting American interests.

**fraga** · 03-30-2010

Oh you mean the Obama Secret Service...which would be the SS...oh my god...wait a second...SS...Hitler Obama...Obama....Hitler...

**Bartleby** · 03-30-2010

**elbamba** · 03-30-2010

Originally Posted by Winehole23

If it doesn't happen in four or eight years, this counts as just another broken campaign promise.

It's not gonna happen IMO.

@elbamba: Has any pertinent legislation been passed wrt civilian service under Obama? The link you posted is from the summer of 2008, almost two years ago.

Not that I have heard of. I am not waiting for a knock on my door from the American gestapo.

I remember when I first heard this comment. A lot of the republican/ conservative talking heads were using this as a scare tactic. I don't see it happening, in fact I don't think a member of congress would even propose this idea in a bill. We already have state militias and they would essentially have to amend the cons ution...not going to happen.

**Trainwreck2100** · 03-30-2010

If its a secret army what does everyone know ab *snipe*

**Nbadan** · 03-30-2010

Obama wants to create another military branch/agency, but that only will respond to his orders.

Dubya had one, maybe you know it? Blackwater (Xe)?

**Rogue** · 03-30-2010

socialists all need their own schutzstaffels to defend their own awkward propositions.

**TheMACHINE** · 03-31-2010

Email to me:

Remember when Obama said he wanted a “national security force”? Not the national guard, but a civilian one that has not sworn to uphold the Cons ution? On July 2, 2008 in a speech in Colorado Springs, Barack Obama called for a police state.

Obama just got his private army… And no one seems to have noticed.

It is buried in the Senate revisions to the health care bill.

Sub le C–Increasing the Supply of the Health Care Workforce
Sec. 5201. Federally supported student loan funds.
Sec. 5202. Nursing student loan program.
Sec. 5203. Health care workforce loan repayment programs.
Sec. 5204. Public health workforce recruitment and retention programs.
Sec. 5205. Allied health workforce recruitment and retention programs.
Sec. 5206. Grants for State and local programs.
Sec. 5207. Funding for National Health Service Corps.
Sec. 5208. Nurse-managed health clinics.
Sec. 5209. Elimination of cap on commissioned corps.
Sec. 5210. Establishing a Ready Reserve Corps.
Sub le D–Enhancing Health Care Workforce Education and Training

See the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, page 1312:

SEC. 5210. ESTABLISHING A READY RESERVE CORPS.
Section 203 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 204) is amended to read as follows:
SEC. 203. COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE CORPS.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT–
(1) IN GENERAL.–here shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency.
(2) REQUIREMENT.–All commissioned officers shall be citizens of the United States and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act 2 of 1923, as amended.
(3) APPOINTMENT.–Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
(4) ACTIVE DUTY.–Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including active duty for the purpose of training

(5) WARRANT OFFICERS.–Warrant officers may be appointed to the Service for the purpose of providing support to the health and delivery systems maintained by the Service and any warrant officer appointed to the Service shall be considered for purposes of this Act and le 37, United States Code, to be a commissioned officer within the Commissioned Corps of the Service.
(b) ASSIMILATING RESERVE CORP OFFICERS INTO THE REGULAR CORPS.—Effective on the date of enactment of the Affordable Health Choices Act, all individuals classified as officers in the Reserve Corps under this section (as such section existed on the day before the date of enactment of such Act) and serving on active duty shall be deemed to be commissioned officers of the Regular Corps.
[Note here that those personally appointed by BO -- without advice and consent of the Senate -- automatically become a part of the Regular Corps. Ed.]
(c) PURPOSE AND USE OF READY RESERVE.–
(1) PURPOSE.–The purpose of the Ready Reserve Corps is to fulfill the need to have additional Commissioned Corps personnel available on short notice (similar to the uniformed service’s reserve program) to assist regular Commissioned Corps personnel to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.
(2) USES.–The Ready Reserve Corps shall–
(A) participate in routine training to meet the general and specific needs of the Commissioned Corps;
(B) be available and ready for involuntary calls to active duty during national emergencies and public health crises, similar to the uniformed service reserve personnel;
(C) be available for backfilling critical positions left vacant during deployment of active duty Commissioned Corps members, as well as for deployment to respond to public health emergencies, both foreign and domestic; and
(D) be available for service assignment in isolated, hardship, and medically underserved communities (as defined in section 399SS) to improve access to health services.
(d) FUNDING.—For the purpose of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Commissioned Corps under this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to the Office of the Surgeon General for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014. Funds appropriated under this subsection shall be used for recruitment and training of Commissioned Corps Officers.