Blue Mass Group

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Barack Obama’s Selective Service Lie

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According to MSNBC.com, Barack Obama stated that he had thought about joining the military in 1979 after graduating high school, despite never mentioning it either of his books.  

Obama disclosed that he had once considered serving in the military.

“You know, I actually did,” Obama said. “I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.

“And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”

Oops there is a little problem.  The Selective Service was not in effect in 1979.  It had been suspended.  

On March 25, 1975, Pres. Gerald Ford signed Proclamation 4360, Terminating Registration Procedures Under Military Selective Service Act, eliminating the registration requirement for all 18-25 year old male citizens. Then on July 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Only men born between March 29, 1957, and December 31, 1959, were completely exempt from Selective Service registration.[2] The first registrations after Proclamation 4771 took place on Monday, July 21, 1980, for those men born in January, February and March 1960 at U.S. Post Offices. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were reserved for men born in the later quarters of the year, and registration for men born in 1961 began the following week [3].

So Barack Obama did not register for the selective service in 1979 because it didn’t exist!!!

HT: Claude Rhaines

crossposted at RMg

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Comments

  1. …need to get your facts straight:

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    On March 25, 1975, Pres. Gerald Ford signed Proclamation 4360, Terminating Registration Procedures Under Military Selective Service Act, eliminating the registration requirement for all 18-25 year old male citizens. Then on July 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Only men born between March 29, 1957, and December 31, 1959, were completely exempt from Selective Service registration.[2] The first registrations after Proclamation 4771 took place on Monday, July 21, 1980, for those men born in January, February and March 1960 at U.S. Post Offices. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were reserved for men born in the later quarters of the year, and registration for men born in 1961 began the following week [3].

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    p>Barack Obama was born on 8/4/1961.  Your post is nothing more than yet another lie, brought to you by the lying liars on the right.  You really should stop getting your talking points from liars, I would think you’ve been embarassed enough around here lately…

    • He said he registered in 1979.  He registered at best during the summer between his freshman and sophomore year of college, in early august of 1980.  A full year and 2-3 months from when he claimed he did.  Thanks for playing though.

      • It’s only a matter of time before the “I’m rubber and you’re glue” argument rears its ugly head.

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        p>Nothing to see here…

        • “I had to register for selective service when I graduated high school”……………

          …….”I graduated in 1979″…..

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          p>He said he registered when he graduated. Not after he graduated.  That implies 1979.  He did not have to register at that time, because it didn’t exist.  

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          p>He was trying to up his military street cred. He got caught in a lie though.  

            • i could edit together all kinds of stuff mccain has said.  you’d be surprised at the results.  or maybe not…

            • …an inane comment that is not only worthless, but actually subtracts from the quality of dialog.

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              p>

          • If he registered, he registered.  Getting the year wrong is not a lie, it is a slight error, relatively.

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            p>Happens to me from time to time because in 60 years I have done a lot of stuff.  I tend to say things like, “I worked in a warehouse after graduation from college, because of a recession.  Now Dang,what year was THAT? Sometime in the 70s, anyway.”

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            p>Getting a year wrong is not a lie in my book.  Mind, I think I know a year when it kicks me in the gut, like John Edwards did when he turned out to be a lecher, but also a cad and a bounder.

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            p>After working for him, you can believe I know I cannot 100% trust my judgment with regard to national candidates.  I don’t really “know” them, after all.

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            p>The media coverage and the campaigns TRY to make us think we know these candidates – but actually, we don’t.

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            p>So as to calling getting a year wrong a “lie” – well that is not a lie, it is an error in fact checking.  Big difference.

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            p>You can do better than that.

      • …if it’s tea at all.  Note the bolded portion of my blockquote – he was required to register for the draft, but in your usual dishonest style, you try to make it seem as though he didn’t have to.  So, 28 years ago, he registered for the draft as a young man – fresh out of high school or one year into college, that’s immaterial.

        • How did I say he didn’t have to. All I said was he didn’t have to at the time he said he did, he couldn’t have because it didn’t exist.  this is factual and not dishonest.  But the Obamamessiah cant do any wrong right.  Isn’t it odd he never mentioned this in any of his memoirs?

  2. This reminds me of your birth certificate investigation a few months back.

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    p>Yes, Selective Service was suspended at the time he graduated high school, but he did sign up when it was resumed the following year.  

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    p>If this is the best you can do, then you’re in for a long eight years…

  3. President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Only men born between March 29, 1957, and December 31, 1959, were completely exempt from Selective Service registration.

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    p>Barack Obama was born 4 August 1961. What’s the issue here, that he said 1979 when he should have said 1980?

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    p>How is this remotely the same as repeatedly stating falsehoods about Palin’s position on the bridge to nowhere and claiming that she flipped the state jet on Ebay for a profit – especially in light of the long laundry list of other flasehoods propagated by the McCain campaign these past few weeks?

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    p>Lame.

  4. I can’t wait until users can rate posts the same way we rate comments. Or at the very least have an “anti-recommend” button to compliment the recommend button.  

  7. EaBo you are too funny. I’m going to have to think about including this one in the Weekly Joke Revue. Seriously, please stop hyperventilating for a moment and try to make reasonable arguments. That’s the best way to help make your candidate look like a centrist and separate him from Bush, which is what he has to do to win.

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    p>TBlade and others, please don’t wish away posts like this. They are a precious window into an alternate reality.

    • …if he were at least as creative as MCRD claiming to get daily intelligence briefings on foreign policy issues. Now that is a truly scary alternate reality. So much for “Classified” and “Top Secret”.  

    • argument against Palin and her education record that turned out to actually have improved education?  I am still hearing crickets on that one.  No one answered me, was your post a stunning example of the “lie of omission?”

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      p>Ya see this post was 100% factual.  Oops, hate to do that.

      • They claim the high road whenever possible then slap you around. Check this thread of comments and look for their “attitude” which they profess to be the trademark of Republicans. Again hypocrites.

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        p>I ask legit questions all the time but they respond by calling me a racist bigot or being obtuse and conveniently avoid answering the question.

      • In March 2000, in the middle of Palin’s Wasilla mayoralty, students at her high school took a qualifying exam for graduation. Results: 58 percent did not meet minimum standards in math (third in their district), half did not meet minimum writing standards (fifth place), and over one-fifth couldn’t read properly (also fifth place). Conclusion by a nationwide Johns Hopkins study based on data from the National Center for Education: Palin’s school is a “dropout factory.”

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        p>Neither you nor anyone else has challenged those facts because they are true.

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        p>The claim by others (not by you, I note, despite your assertion here) is that subsequently the school system improved. Pity that it was too late for so many of the trusting souls that relied upon Mayor Palin to supervise a functional school system. Maybe she was out skinning moose.

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        p>I haven’t had a chance to check yet to see if the claims about later years pan out. The metrics might have been changed, the standards lowered, I don’t know. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time that Republicans tried to change the goalposts after the facts (WMDs in Iraq, anyone?). When I do, I’ll get back to you.

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        p>Keep up the good work.

          • Here is “the rest of the story” to complete the discussion of education from the other thread. Sadly, it makes Mayor Palin look like even more of a fumbler than my original post. Might have been better to leave this one alone đŸ˜‰

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            “Dropout Factory.” “The data used by Johns Hopkins researchers came from the National Center for Education and tracked senior classes for three years from 2004 until 2006,” according to KTUU.com. Let’s call them “victims of Palin’s legacy.”

            Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Exam. The data dweir cites in their comment is from the spring 2002 test. The autumn 2001 test was less favorable: reading 51.2% not proficient, writing 72% not proficient, math 86.6% not proficient. Since 2001 was Palin’s last full year in office, it seems to me the most relevant comparison is to the autumn 2001 results. If one compares spring 2000 to autumn 2001, Palin’s leadership seems to have produced a decline in math from 58% not proficient to 86.6% not proficient, in writing from 50% to 72% not proficient, and in reading from 20% not proficient to 51% not proficient.

            The reason dweir’s numbers look so much better, I suppose, is because of all the drop outs while Palin was Mayor: people may have enrolled in the autumn and then dropped out in the spring; the better students stayed. Which brings us back to: “McCain-Palin Record on Education: ‘Dropout Factory'”  

            However you slice it, this is not an impressive educational record.

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