Blue Collar Muse

I thought we already had the FBI, DEA, BATFE, US Marshals, TSA, postal inspectors, park rangers, Secret Service, state bureaus of investigation, state police, local police, sheriffs and constables, among others, that already did that.

The other, more likely, possibility here is that Obama has absolutely no clue what he’s talking about. That would explain why he hasn’t elaborated on the idea.

I wonder who is really pulling Obama’s string. Will these be the new gestapo? Will you need a certificate to be a member? Will they be knocking on our doors to take our guns? Are most Americans on crack now a days? This man is a blithering empty suit who will probably put his weatherman underground group in charge. Which leaves a bigger question? How can you vote against him with McCain when McCain turns his back on Conservative principles. Is it time for a 3rd party candidate? I think so. Maybe we can get Ross back.

“…in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set.”

I’ll just add another question. What are the ‘national security objectives we’ve set’? Oh, and one more. Who is we?

It’s pretty clear from the context (he ad-libbed those lines) that the specific force he is referring to is a rejuvenated Americorps, Peace Corps, and diplomatic corps. Here are the two paragraphs (from the prepared text) just before his ad-libbed lines:

As President, I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots, and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem - they are the answer.

We’ll send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We’ll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects in their neighborhoods. We’ll enlist veterans to help other vets find jobs and support, and to be there for our military families. And we’ll also grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy.

The ad-libbed lines follow immediately. You can see it, starting about 15-16 minutes in, on the YouTube video of the speech. The meaning is clear in context; Farah is being deliberately obtuse.

In theory couldn’t this civil force then be used as a way of imposing “Martial Law” on the nation or any section of it without declaring same or violating the Posse comatus law?

Scares the hell out of me. Hang on to your guns folks, and stock up on ammo you may need it to defend yourself and and family against U.S. Government sponsoed terrorists.

Owen

We had one of these when I was a kid, and it’s enforcers were given the power of life and death. They were called “nosy neighbors.” If they saw us kids doing something really bad they’d tell our folks, and we would then get killed for doing whatever it was. Not a bad system, that - probably saved a lot of lives.

[”It’s profiling, I tell ya - you just got it in for kids!”]

However, if you expect me to believe that the comment he made was an extemporaneous amplification of the remarks you quote above, then it is you who are being deliberately obtuse.
It was one of two things. Either Obama was, as I suggested, riffing on what he had just that second finished saying, or he let slip accidentally something about a new super-secret plan that had never been mentioned before or since by him or his campaign. The second option seems unlikely, as he is usually a careful speaker and if he had a super-secret plan, he’d probably not go blabbing in a room full of people during a major policy address covered by all the networks. That, and in the video, you can see he actually raises his voice and speeds up to beat the applause building after his “renew our diplomacy” line. If he were starting in on something new, why wouldn’t he wait so he could be heard?

As for the size and funding, I think we disagree on the readings of the words “strong” and “well.” There is nothing in what he actually said that means he wants any kind of civilian force of equal size to the military; the rest of the speech and his website are clear he’s talking about less than 300,000 people. There’s no way that could ever rival the DoD in price, but he may have meant, by “well-funded,” that funds for AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and the Foreign Service would be as easy to secure as funds for military projects. I admit I’m interpreting, here, but there is also nothing about what he said elsewhere in the speech, before, or after to suggest that he wants his service programs to match defense spending dollar-for-dollar. The ad-lib may have also been a little, well, hyperbolic.

Folkbum,

Thanks for some additional input. Perhaps you are correct in your parsing of what he meant when he said it.

I do agree with you that it was one of two things. However, my two things are decidedly different than yours.

Obama was either proposing a huge new force beyond the military which will be tasked as he said with “national security” affairs. From his words, especially putting them in the context of his remarks on youth service which no one in their right mind would describe as related to “national security”, I conclude he might possibly intend something vast and heretofore unseen in our Republic. That things like this have been seen other places simply means that it is possible to accomplish given the right conditions. Once again, if this is not what he means, all he need do is clarify his remarks and the issue is over. He has yet to do so.

The other option is that he is, as you suggest, amplifying the message contained in his remarks immediately preceding his comments on national security. When he speaks of the “military” and “national security objectives” people should automatically connect those terms with the organization and mission of Americorps and the Peace Corps. And when he compares the budget of his proposed “civilian national security force” with that of the military and says he wants the force to be “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” people should automatically understand he doesn’t really mean what he says, they should understand he means something different.

Of those two options, #2 is actually scarier. Are we, as a nation, so stupid as to empower a man who takes no responsibility for his part in communication? If he has something to say, can he not say it plainly? Why must we endure this sort of deciphering and gnostic parsing of his words? Obama wants to be the most powerful and influential man in the world. You want me to elect him to that office even though, in a matter as serious as this, both of us are still, after two weeks, trying to decide what he means? That is insane!

He either wants some vast, new government nightmare or he does not. He’s either being misunderstood or he is not. He can clarify his comments and make his intentions and meaning crystal clear or he cannot. So far he has chosen “cannot”. That’s not confidence inspiring enough to make me give him a pass on this one. It ought not be for you either.

The cult of Obama may yet destroy me and mine but they’ll have to come hunt me down and do me personally while they look me in the eyes. And I won’t go quietly or make it easy for them by drinking their kool-aid willingly. The more this man talks, the worse he looks. And there’ll be a lot of talking between now and November.

[…] reading: What in the World is Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force”? Obama’s ‘civilian national security force’ Posted in Regular Postings RSS 2.0 […]

This is interesting, with all of the Obamessiah’s other blather, it’s difficult to filter it all out. So good catch!

In context, I don’t see how he’d be referring to the peace/amerikorps. Unless he was inartfully speaking.

I’m thinking there’s a possibility that he’s talking about creating a national security infrastructure that has intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities? Perhaps he’s unaware that one already exists. I don’t think it’s quite as big as the Army. Yes, I think there’s a possibility that Obama’s that ignorant- but maybe he’ll take credit for NSA/CIA/NRO/etc like Algore’s internets.

I also think he might be suggesting brownshirts.

B.I.G.,

Good to see you again, my friend!

Inartfully speaking … great phrase! Reminds me of a poster I saw on the tubes last week. Someone Photoshopped Obama’s face onto the body and costume of the character ‘The Artful Dodger’ from a production of ‘Oliver Twist’. Very funny!

[…] Blue Collar Muse wants to know what that means, and says the MSM has not fleshed out the details from […]

Bush wanted the same thing. A “National Security Force” under the direct control of the president. If we are talking about this along with his FISA vote, it isn’t looking too good is it?
I miss Hillary Clinton.

[…] I, like others, automatically thought “What does that mean?”.  […]

If civilians taking responsibility for national security is alarming, does that mean that the Second Amendment is also alarming? What are gun rights for, if not to allow civilians to participate in national security? Aren’t we supposed to stop relying on the government for everything?

Also, if private security is so scary, why aren’t we afraid of Blackwater? They’re more well-funded than the military. If the “Civilian National Security Force” is the Nazi Youth, does that make Blackwater the Gestapo?

[…] Blue Collar Muse wants to know what that means, and says the MSM has not fleshed out the details from […]

David,

My comments on Blackwater had nothing to do with their being OK or not. They were intended to demonstrate the difference between “public” and “private” when talking about “civilian”. Blackwater is a “civilian, private” organization. Obama’s proposed “civilian national security force”, even if it is merely an overly excited description of the Peace Corps, is a “civilian, public” group.

National Defense is a constitutional power granted to the federal government. It’s why those of us on the Right tend to be pretty staunch defenders of the US military. It’s also why we support “civilian” control of the military. The two, civilian authority and military power, are to be separate from one another except where they come in contact in the person of the Commander in Chief. Further, the powers and scope of the military are pretty well defined as are the circumstances under which it can be utilized.

None of those constraints would be true of a civilian national security force if it turns out to be something other than the benign ad-lib Obama’s supporters are trying to make it. If it does, you should oppose Obama’s CNSF for the same reasons you don’t like BlackWater. It would be a paramilitary force under the control of the government which they can use as they will. It would be precisely the sort of “civilian, public” force you claim we don’t need.

Brian and others who insist that Obama is merely explaining his youth service programs are too willing to simply accept Obama’s word on the matter. If what he really meant was Americorps and the the Peace Corps, then why won’t he say so? Why have the video and text been scrubbed from so many places? Why isn’t it available even at his own website? Might it have been a trial balloon that failed in spectacular fashion reminiscent of the Hindenburg? I’m not saying it is. I never said that it was. The title of my post is and remains, “What is it?”

If Obama wants my vote, he has to earn it by giving me something to vote for. An integral part of that would be clearly explaining and articulating what it is he intends to do. He has not and refuses to do so. As with his notion of a civilian national security force, absent his involvement in his own affairs, I can only speculate. That’s not my fault, it’s Obama’s.

it sounds like he’s talking about iraqi civilians replacing our military. What is the context for the quote?

I expect this “Civilian National Security Force” will be made up of inner city youth with no other opportunity. They will be open to learning and following his Ideology. ie; Black Liberation Theology.

Like the pied piper they will blindly follow.

The problem with most comments here is that the definition of “National Security” differs from what I believe Obama means with what most commentators think. National Security is not only about fighting terrorists, guns, wars and killing threatening people. National Security involves education, health, environment and the well being of all of us living here in the United States.

Do you think we can be a strong nation when our school system is failing, our sick can’t get the care they need or our environment is collapsing in front of us? We can’t speak about National Security without speaking about our Nation (as in national) first.

And one last thing, I would like to see such a program as well funded as the military because I rather see my tax money being spent building and fixing things here instead of being spent to destroy and kill abroad.

Could Americans Control Direction of “Civilian National Security Force” under Obama?

No one has yet qualified what Obama meant when he stated in July 2008: “We cannot continue to rely on our military to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Brief Historical note: Germany under Hitler during hard economic times set up a volunteer neighborhood/community “Civilian National Security Forces” to protect the Homeland. Once established, the civilian force became a “neighbor” Political Enforcement Arm of the Nazi Government. And was subsequently run by the Gestapo.

Could Americans control the direction a civilian national security force might take under Obama? How would local police interact with a “civilian national security force” that is just as powerful as the U.S. Military? Would volunteer civilians have access to Citzens’ private records? Could U.S. private mercenary companies now contracted in Iraq work with a “Civilian National Security Force” on U.S. Soil?

Could Constitutional Fourth Amendment rights be trashed including illegal search and seizure. Could Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force” members handle neighborhood informants and share like the Gestopal did in seized and forfeited assets from Americans.

Obama’s National Security Force = GUESTAPO

@Irinami -

You may be on to something with the observation that “… he’s honestly more stupid than Bush was reputed to be.”

[…] The Blue Collar Muse blog commented, “The questions are legion and the implications of such an organization are staggering! What would it do? According to the title, it’s a civilian force so how would it go about discharging ‘national security’ issues? What are the Constitutional implications for such a group? How is this to be paid. … The statement was made in the context of youth service. Is this an organization for just the youth or are adults going to participate? How does one get away from the specter of other such ‘youth’ organizations from Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union when talking about it?” […]

I think people are missing an important part here. This really isn’t an army or serving Obama type program. Obama doesn’t want all kids to serve. As stated on the wesite its the kids in the “underserved schools” This is just another excuse to give a hand out to the poor kids. Will people in rich or kids in better schools get to earn 4,000$ worth of schooling? From what i see it says kids in “underserved schools”, it should say all kids in any type of school.

@Fred #52 -

Good observation … yet another way Obama isn’t going to be the President for all of America … just his portion. Meanwhile so many are lining up proclaiming we must all rally behind him for Unity’s sake.

Our capacity for self-immolation knows no bounds …

@Carol #55 -

I cannot see how a civilian corps tasked with enforcing a gun ban upon the general population could possibly require “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

I imagine that Obama has a similar vision for the members of this group, marching in cadence praising him. But stop and think…what happens to the ones who don’t praise him or are unwilling to be re-educated? I don’t have the answer; though the alleged planned extermination of 25 million Americans by Weather Underground is a chilling thought.

LETS HOPE THAT THE FULL MIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES DESTROYS ANY CIVILIAN ARMY THAT ATTEMPTS TO TAKE AWAY EVEN ONE AMERICANS RIGHT TO LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. MILLIONS OF OUR FOREFATHERS HAVE SHED THEIR BLOOD TO PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM. THE BIBLE PREDICTED THAT IN THE LAST DAYS EVEN THE ELECT SHALL BE FOOLED. ON NOVEMBER FOURTH 2008 THEY WERE FOOLED, FOR THEY CHOSE SATAN OVER CHRIST. THE BIBLE IS TRUE. GOD TOLD SAMUEL, ”I KNEW YOU WHEN YOU WERE YET IN THE WOMB AND YOU WERE MY MARVELOUS WORK OF WONDER”. JOHN MC CAIN BELIEVED GOD, OBAMA SUPPORTS LATE TERM ABORTION, FOR HIS LOYALTY IS TO SATAN, AS IS HIS REVEREND WRIGHT. 95 PERCENT OF CHRISTIAN AFRICAN AMERICANS SWORE THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO SATAN WHEN THEY VOTED FOR THE DEMONIC AND MURDEROUS BARACK OBAMA. IN THE EYES OF THE GOD OF ABRAHAM ISSAC, AND JACOB ABORTION IS MURDER. EVEN MILLIONS OS JEWS CHOSE THE DEMONIC AND SATANIC OBAMA. EVEN THE ELECT JEWS WORSHIPPED THE GRAVEN IMAGE OF OBAMAS SMILE. FOOLS, OBAMA SAID WITH HIS OWN WORDS, ” THEY CLING TO THEIR GUNS AND RELIGION”. FOOLS DONT YOU REALIZE THAT WHEN OBAMA SAID ”THEIR RELIGION” ,HE MEANT THEIR GOD.OBAMAS PASTOR FOR 20 YEARS SPEWED EVIL FROM THE BOWELS OF HELL AND DAMMED OUR COUNTRY. MILLIONS OF AMERICAND DIED TO STOP HITLER, AND TO PRESEVE FREEDOM , AND WE ELECT A PRESIDENT THAT ; IS NOT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, BELIEVES IN LATE TERM ABORTION, WANTS TO BUILD A CIVILIAN ARMY WHICH IS AS POWERFULL AS OUR EXISTING ARMED FORCES. THIS SOUNDS LIKE ADOLF HITLER TO .ME HE SAID THESE THINGS BEFORE HE WAS ELECTED BY JEWS AND BLACK AMERICANS THAT SOLD OUT TO SATAN AND HIS ANGELS, THE LIKES OF WHICH INCLUDE; WILLIAM AIRES, REVEREND WRIGHT AND OPRA WINFREY. I BELIEVE JESSE JACKSON, AND AL SHARPTON ARE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE LIVING CHRIST, BUT THEY WERE BOTH FOOLED BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS IMPOSTER THAT THE NEW WORLD ORDER HAS CHOSEN TO BRING FORTH THE DOMINION OF THE ANTI CHRIST HERE IN THE USA.OBAMAS GOAL WILL BE TO CHANGE OUR CONSTITUTION IN ORDER TO ABOLISH; FREEDOM OF SPEECH, THE RIGHT TO BEAR FIRE ARMS, THE RIGHT TO THE PURSUIT OF LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, AND MOST OF ALL FREEDOM OF RELIGION SHALL BE ABOLISHED. AFTER ALL BARRACK OBAMA SAID , ” THEY CLING TO THEIR GUNS AND RELIGION”. PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA AND HIS LEGIONS OF SATANIC EVIL WILL ATTEMPT TO PREVAIL OVER THE FORCES OF RIGHTOUSNESS AND HOLLINESS AND GOODNESS. BUT I FEAR THAT THE ELECT HAVING BEEN FOLLED SHALL JOIN FORCES WITH THE ILLUSTRIOUS ANTI CHRIST ”OBAMA”,AND BY THE TIME WE HAVE ALL ENSNARED BY HIS CIVILIAN ARMY IT WILL BE TOO LATE. IF YOU THINK THAT ALL THIS SOUNDS CRAZY TELL HOW IS IT THAT EVEN ONE CHRISTIAN , EVEN ONE, COULD VOTE FOR OBAMA AND AGAINST MC CAIN AND PALIN , WHEN MC CAIN AND PALIN ARE BOTH 100 PERCENT AGAINST THE MURDERING OF MILLIONS OF ABORTED CHILDREN. WE HAVE LOST OUR FAITH IN THE ;RIGHTOUSNESS , OMNIPOTENCE, OMNIPRESENCE, OMNICIENCE OF GOD. THOSE THAT VOTED FOR OBAMA SOLD OUT TO THE DEVIL. THE DEVIL WARNED YOU THAT HE WAS AGAINST GOD, BUT YOU CHOSE SATAN. ”IN THE LAST DAYS EVEN THE ELECT SHALL BE FOOLED, FOR THEY WILL HAVE A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENY THE POWER THEREIN.” GOD IS MOCKED ON TELEVISION BY THE LIKES OF ATHEISTIC HOMOSEXUALS LIKE BILL MAHRS, YET I FEAR THAT THE DAY IS COMING SOON WHEN OUR NATION SHALL BE DESTROYED AS WAS SODOM AND GOMMORAH. PEOPLE FEAR THAT OBAMA IS A MARXIST. I SAY THAT OBAMA IS A SATAN WORSHIPER. HIS PASTOR THE REVEREND WRIGHT HAD NO IDEAH THAT HIS STAR PUPIL BARRACK HUSSIAN OBAMA WOULD SOMEDAY ATTEMPT TO RAISE THE KINGDOM OF LUCIFER AGAINST OUR NATION.OUR NATION THAT ONCE SANG ” GOD BLESS AMERICA THE LAND THAT I LOVE”. OBAMA DID NOT FOOL ME FOR ONE SECOND. THE MOMENT THAT I KNEW THAT OBAMA WAS PRO ABORTION THE HOLLY SPIRIT OF THE LIVING CHRIST THAT LIVES IN THE SOUL OF THIS JEW FOR JESUS TESTIFIED TO ME THAT OBAMA IS AN ANTI CHRIST. CHRISTIANS GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY THAT GOD WILL GIVE YOU THE STRENGTH AND COURAGE TO FIGHT FOR THE CAUSE OF ; CHRIST, AND FREEDOM, AND PRAY THAT GOD OPEN YOUR EYES TO THE TRUTH. BLACK AMERICAN CHRISTIANS LIFT YOUR HANDS TO THE LORD JESUS. DONT LET SATAN DECIEVE YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT CHRISTIANITY IS RELIGION OF THE SLAVEMASTERS OF YOUR FOREFATHERS. JESUS CHRIST DID NOT HAVE TO DIE ON THE CROSS. HIS WORD RAISED LAZERETH FROM THE DEAD, MADE THE BLIND SEE , CLEANSED THE WOMAN WITH LEPROSY. JESUS COULD HAVE SPOKEN AND THE WORLD WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED. JESUS CAME TO SACRIFICE HIS LIFE FOR US,BLACK WHITE, YELLOW, ALL OF GODS CHILDREN, HALLELUYA. DONT BE TRICKED BY SATAN. I WAS A JEW UNTIL IWAS 21 YEARS OLD. ONE DAY IN BROAD DAYLIGHT JESUS ACTUALLY APPEARED TO ME. HE WAS A GLOWING FIGURE CLOTHED IN A WHITE ROBE THAT WAS FLOWING LIKE A WHITE SMOKE THAT SEEMED TO BE A MIST AS IT TOUCHED THE GROUND I BRIEFLY LOOKED AT HIS FACE, BUT THEN A VOICE WITHIN ME TOLD ME NOT TO LOOK AT FACE OF THE LORD. BUT I WILL NEVER THE FORGET THE LOOK UPON JESUS FACE. A LOOK OF PURE PEACE, AND OF ALL KNOWING. I TOLD MY FRIENDS BACK AT COLLEGE THAT JESUS CAME TO ME. AND ONE OF MY FRIENDS BELIEVED ME AND BECAME PASTOR. MY PASTOR FRIEND IS WHITE AND HIS WIFE IS BLACK. I PRAY THAT I AM WRONG ABOUT OBAMA. PRAY WITH ME.

[…] Read more… […]

Obama and his former Marxist handlers and financiers know that our U.S. military is mostly conservative and would refuse to be any part of any attempt to overthrow our Republic by force. To counter that threat he proposed a counter force reporting to only himself. Remember Hitler’s Brown Shirts, Hitler Youth Organization and especially the armed, trained, ruthless and deadly SS Gestapo of Nazi Germany? The Nazi Police State was to ensure that everybody did as they were told - or paid the price. The Nazi Police were controlled by Heinrich Himmler and his feared secret police - the Gestapo - did as it pleased in Nazi Germany. Children’s loyalty could be developed with a policy of indoctrination via education and the Hitler Youth movement. All other axis dictators too had similar para-military forces devoted to their dictator. Beware the coming storm in America!!!

There are two things that I need to point out.
One, all these 18-25 year old kids that voted for Obama are going to be the first ones to get picked for this farce. So all of you that are of that age right now, just remember that your kids and your grandkids are going to be totally screwed because you voted for Obama. You’ll be the one to have to explain why you made such a stupid move to your offspring.

Two, all of this involuntary servitude without pay is unconstitutional. Even though the majority of Americans have no idea what is in the Constitution, the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution illegalizes slavery.

What’s next? Mandatory prayer five times a day, and if we don’t do it, the youth army will be trained to execute us?

After reading these comments, I watched the video a couple of times. As a conservative white male police officer who voted and campaigned for McCain, I would like to offer my opinion. The military cannot, with severe exceptions, act as a police force withing the USA. Crime is completely out of control in many areas. Civilian police officers, sheriffs, state police, etc., are woefully underpaid in many areas (especially rural), lack real good practical training, and are having a hard time in getting good equipment.

I believe Obama is talking about increasing the strength of the civilian police agencies. Clinton had this idea in the 90’s and it turned out to be a total joke for the way he went about it. I am not paranoid as many are, but I am not naive either. I just do not see Obama trying to pull off a police state and have anyone to begin to accept it (especially his biggest supporters). A few have posted comments such as polish for jack-boots and the SS. The people I fear are the ones who are out there wearing swastikas, jack-boots, and doing the “sig-heil” in honor of Hitler.

As one of the youth that would be enlisted into the youth training that Rahm Emanuel is planning, I must say I am extremely worried and scared. Way to take a leaf from Hitler Youth there Rahm.

watch for united nations peacekeepers

[…] How does one get away from the specter of other such “youth” organizations from Nazi Germany and… […]