The Noble Lie

I've been busy blogging in other venues, to the type of people who would never be caught dead at a site called "The Noble Lie." The news just gets more surreal every day, and the atrocities are coming down in torrents. I couldn't pass this issue up and I want everybody to be aware of what our gov't is up to. People like Rahm Emanuel do not simply say things like this to hear their gums flap.

GovTrack.us (one of my favorite recently-discovered sites) is now my first destination when I need to look up draconian new legislation.

HR 1388, the GIVE (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education -- where do they come up with this bullshit?) Act, was a funding bill for AmeriCorps and a number of other federal programs.  However, they tried to sneak in a very dirty little piece of laundry:

TITLE VI--CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION ON CIVIC SERVICE

SEC. 6104. DUTIES.

(b) (6)

(6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.

There was enough outcry over this Orwellian Hitler Youth-style provision that they had to take it out of the bill.. and put it into its very own bill, HR 1444, the Congressional Commission on Civic Service Act.

Unrelated I know, but blogger and actual-honest-to-god-real-life-activist Tad of The Plazoid writes extensively about the California Medical Algorithm Project (CalMAP) and forced medication, "rope em and dope em" as he calls it. He is facing charges for "disrupting" a local county supervisors meeting. I am waiting to see such a "rope em and dope em" bill or program make its way into the federal arena.