The Democrats have had a fine time this month spreading urban legends about the prospect of a reintroduction of the military draft during a second Bush term. Not only have they and their associates started a shadowy e-mail campaign, but several of their party leaders accused Republicans of hiding a "secret plan" to restart the draft, despite the numerous denials from the GOP -- and the fact that the only people to actually propose a new draft are two Democrats, Charles Rangel and Fritz Hollings. CBS helped out, again, by again treating rumors as fact and basing an entire news segment on the hoax.

But lost in the shuffle until now is John Kerry's proposal to require service for high-school graduation, found by Swimming Through The Spin. Brian found the original web page archived, as somehow this proposal has been mysteriously deleted from the John Kerry website. Since the Democrats brought this up, what exactly are the plans for American youth under a Kerry/Edwards administration?

As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory service for high school students and four years of college tuition in exchange for two years of national service.

The more expansive PDF of Kerry's plan doesn't detail how the mandatory high-school service is supposed to work, nor does it clearly explain how they plan to pay for four years of college tuition for the 500,000 students per year they expect to put through this program, other than closing a loophole that allows lenders on student loans to keep extra interest paid. If a "typical public university" charges $5,000 per year for tuition -- a rather moderate amount these days -- then just the cost for the first year alone will be $10 billion, not the $12 billion over 10 years that Kerry claims. ($20,000 times 500,000 students = $10 billion.)

It seems that Kerry has once again been caught in a severe case of projection, and once again has deleted pages from his web site to cover his tracks. His party squeals about a draft which only they have proposed restarting while trying to back-door a plan for indentured servitude for the teenagers of America.

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» Edwards: No Draft (Someone Please Tell Democrats) from A Stitch in Haste
Would Kerry be willing to take the "no draft" pledge a step further and promise that there will also be no "compulsory public service" of any kind? UPDATE: Captain Ed has more on how Kerry flip-flopped on this issue, to the tune of $10 billion per ye... [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 8:09 AM

» Still Digging (UPDATED) from INDC Journal
Seems like Dan and CBS are still kicking explicitly for the Kerry Campaign: Three weeks after he denounced the internet as being "filled with rumors," the embattled CBS anchor ran a story on his Tuesday "Evening News" program hoping to... [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 8:21 AM

» About that draft thing... from Posse Incitatus
A night of rest and the Posse is feeling much better. Or at least we were until we browsed Captain Ed this morning. One of Kerry's recurring talking points is how Bush will bring back the draft. Only a man [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 8:37 AM

» Is it Drafty at the DNC? from Secure Liberty
The constant harping from Democrats about Bush re-instituting the Draft has become an absurd non-truth. They might as well be saying that he advocates pop-rocks and Coke for school lunches. New England Republican has this post about CBS airing so c... [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 11:52 AM

» Is the Draft Coming back? Not likely. from I Have No Idea Where We Are---- But We Are Making GREAT Time!
There are rumors and emails from Democratic supporters that the Republicans are trying to re-instate the draft. The bills that they cite as proof are S. 89 and H.R. 163. If people would take about 3 minutes out of their days, they could read these b... [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 1:49 PM

» That's It, I'm Done With Them from Fat Steve's Blatherings
The Rathergate mess was bad enough, but as far as I'm concerned last night CBS crossed the line. . . . Until they fire their propogandists, BOYCOTT CBS! [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 3:46 PM

» Draft! How about National Service! from Slant Point
In another post by Captain Ed we get the real story, whereas the Left is spreading viscious scare-tactic-laden rumors about a draft under Bush term two, Kerry has a plan of his own to require mandatory "National Service" of some sort. Oh, you'll be abl... [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 6:39 PM

» More Fake Documents at CBS from Time is a Factor
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Tracked on September 29, 2004 6:39 PM

» Kerry and the Draft from Moonage Political Webdream
Man, this is getting ridiculous. Why do I keep repeating the same names here? I mean, there are other elections going on, but you'd think Dan Rather was running for something as often as his name appears here. Count the [Read More]

Tracked on September 29, 2004 10:58 PM