Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

FreedomPatrolGo!

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

08:38 / 30.01.02

[a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/696325.asp">Corps blimey[/a]. W. wants to set up a "Freedom Corps", to do the work of the Peace Corps, but in America. Thus, where the Peace Corps brings the peace, the Freedom Corps takes the peace. To America. Obviously. What did you think I meant?

Not sure what sets my teeth on edge slightly about this; possibly that the name suggests that it should be led by [a href="http://www.sourcecandg.com/images/nickfuryshield.jpg"]Nick Fury, Agent of Shield[/a]. Possibly because I can't shake the feeling that W. really wants everyone to volunteer not to mention Enron right now, and is looking for anything to function as a distraction tactic. Possibly it's just that everything the First Special Boy says worries me, either because it has an ulterior motive or, often worse yet, it doesn't.

<a href="http://slate.msn.com/?id=2061175">Bush 43 has a terrific speechwriter in Mike Gerson, who has been able to infuse his boss's lack of pretense with a sense of grace and decency. But I've been disappointed by the president's reluctance to ask anything of us beyond the clarion call to go shopping.</a>

Now that he is, what do people think?

13:06 / 30.01.02

What I think is humorous about the project is that (a) it is exactly the kind of thing he denigrated during the campaign as wasteful Democrat policy and (b) the First Priority for the Freedom Corp will be "Homeland Security". Zounds! Talk about your Orwellian doublespeak. I for one can't wait for civic-minded youth to be racially profiling travellers across our nations' airports.

13:18 / 30.01.02

Yes... sounds like a strange cross between the Scouts and the TA. Citizen Corps? Including a Terrorist Information and Prevention System?

Uh... is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

13:27 / 30.01.02

That they will require that you serve your 2 years if you want to have full citizenship/voting/consumer rights? Cause that's what I'm thinking.

13:31 / 30.01.02

Nooo, not exactly. I was thinking how similar it sounded to the kind of 'voluntary' movements used by totalitarian governments in early C20 Europe - where membership=good and (even tacit) disapproval=bad, to be watched, and so on.

I'm not saying that that's what the intention *is* - just that that's what it sounds like.

[ 31-01-2002: Message edited by: Kit-Cat Club ]

14:42 / 30.01.02

I'm with you guys on this one so far. One thing he said which really, really raised my hackles was the statement "no-one likes the idea of the Secret Police showing up in the middle of the night and taking you away" I'm paraphrasing, but just a very little.

Warning, paranoid conspiracy theorizing ahead.

It sounded to me like a well-guised subconscious threat. "Agree and comply with my new Minuteman McCarthyists, or you're blacklisted as anarcho-commie-terrorist Pinko scum."

Do you guys think this is gonna take off? Will this Freedom Corps knock skinheads out of their place as least tolerant, are these Bush's new brownshirts? Is the stage being set in the U.S. for an internal Us-V-Them for the public to be distracted by while the lizards take over?
(deep breaths)
Ok, I feel a little better now. I know it's hyperbolic, but I see all these things as long-run possibilities, and the very fact that I heard George Bush use the words "secret police" when referring to his own country bugged me.

[ 30-01-2002: Message edited by: Floats With Spider ]

14:56 / 30.01.02

Are lederhosen compulsory? I'm not joining unless they are.

15:00 / 30.01.02

They are, but only straight-legged 5-pocket trousers, uniform black, no lining. Chaps or lederhosen with the back-cheeks cut out are Communist and strictly forbidden.

17:18 / 30.01.02

I wonder what it'd take to join....

17:50 / 30.01.02

Holy vibrating jiminy. Is this really happening, or is it some huge prank perpetrated by White House Staffers?
And how long before Blair proposes something similar? The Royal Freedom Brigade...

18:39 / 30.01.02

Here's the part of the speech that jumped out at me:

quote: Our country also needs citizens working to rebuild our communities. We need mentors to love children, especially children whose parents are in prison, and we need more talented teachers in troubled schools. USA Freedom Corps will expand and improve the good efforts of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps to recruit more than 200,000 new volunteers.

Excuse me? Prison?

At first I was confused, but then I understood. After we jail and execute all the Un-American people having Un-American thoughts, someone will have to reindoctrinate their children. And then it all made sense.

11:57 / 31.01.02

I noticed in the speech that it wasn't the "Freedom Corps", but the "USA Freedom Corps"..<shudder> Devote 2 years to the Fatherland! Now!

17:47 / 31.01.02

so are y'all implying that the hitler youth were a bad thing?

19:58 / 31.01.02

quote:Originally posted by alas:
so are y'all implying that the hitler youth were a bad thing?

Not at all. The sooner kids learn to turn on their parents and friends for the benefit of the state the better.
State Sponsered youth gangs keep unemployment down. Give young violent thugs an oppressive regime to work for and a satanic father figure to look up to.

What more could WE want for our youth.

It worked in the 1930's it will work again now. All W needs is a pissy moustash and the circle will be complete...

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

09:05 / 01.02.02

I see it more as the "Sentials of Liberty" thing. There were tons fo groups like this in WWII to make people think they were doing something important, when in fact they had nothing to do.

Or it could be that he's trying to start a right wing version of the Peace Corps, with the right has ALWAYS hated, but can't kill because it makes them look like evil bastards.

*laughs* I'm joining as soon as I can...kind of be an agent of change from within.

09:05 / 01.02.02

Welocome to the Kommosol. Next up, Young Pioneers....
[sing Internationale here]

Spooky overtones aside, I keep on imagining, y'know, cheesy Japanese teenage superhero teams: color-coded uniforms, those inexplicabe gestures and sayings, giant robot fights....

09:05 / 01.02.02

quote:Originally posted by alas:
so are y'all implying that the hitler youth were a bad thing?

My grandmother (south German conservative catholic) was part in the 'girl's version' of the Hitlerjugend. Can't remember what it was called.

Messed her up good, mentally.

20:47 / 01.02.02

The scary thing is I know kids who'd be right in with that whole "contributing to Homeland Security" thing. Go check the Bible belt. And a copy of 1984.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

00:46 / 02.02.02

Could someone get the links up and running? I'd like to read about what you guys are talking about. I missed this completely, and it's a bit scary. Not that I don't love you guys, but I don't imagine I'm getting a judgement free recap of what was said/published. Right now, not having read anything about it, it's scaring the pants off me.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

01:01 / 02.02.02

Right, nevermind. I found 'em myself, and it's still really scary. All that stuff about "Internal Terrorism" and whatnot...brrrr. I really hoping most people are too smart for this, or at least too proud. Hell, I'll even take too lazy.

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:05 / 03.02.02

See, even though it's a volunteer thing (at the moment) and even though it's supposed to be for around 200,000 people (isn't it? going on what I've heard at the pub, frankly), this thing slightly worries me; could it be the return of national service by stealth? I mean, national service in a SuperFunHappy pair of spandex duds? 'Cos it sure sounds like it to me. Voluntary now, yes... but in a couple of months? Or years?

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:30 / 06.02.02

OK...Bush has cut funds for job training and wants to give tax cuts to companies that lay people off on one hand and is starting a volunteer force with the other.

Does this boggle anyone else's mind? Does he think that everyone has rich parents to support them like he did?