Copyright (c) 2008
Chicago Tribune
Is U.S. ready to serve?
Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he said the nation's future and safety depends on more than just additional service members.
"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.
Obama had outlined many of the proposals offered Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.
Goals set for students"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," he said Wednesday. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
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 school and high school students.
For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students tied to that level of service.
In Chicago, meanwhile, billionaire investor Warren Buffett headlined two fundraisers to benefit Obama and the Democratic National Committee.
Let me make sure that you read that:
"
"We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
What do we have going here - we have a candidate whose voting record is the most left wing in the senate. He is surrounded by people who have advocated violent overthrow of the US Government - and he wants his own private army?
Google it. With the obvious exception of the Main Stream Media - it's all over the net.
The man is not a socialist- He's a communist! Just like his weatherman friends William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn