Rep. Charles Rangel is a liar about our military and his rationale for wanting the draft.

Via the New York Daily News: Rep. Charles Rangel: Why I want the draft

The great majority of people bearing arms for this country in Iraq are from the poorer communities in our inner cities and rural areas, places where enlistment bonuses are up to $40,000 and thousands in educational benefits are very attractive. For people who have college as an option, those incentives – at the risk to one’s life – don’t mean a thing.

A recent Heritage Foundation study of enlistment data from recent years proves BEYOND ANY DOUBT that Ragel is a bald-faced, race and class baiting liar:

The percentage of recruits from the poorest American neighborhoods (with one-fifth of the U.S. population) declined from 18 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent in 2003, 14.1 percent in 2004, and 13.7 percent in 2005.

This report updates the previous Heritage Foun­dation report, with data on all U.S. recruits during 2004 and 2005. We introduce the term “wartime recruits” to identify volunteer enlistees in all branches during 2003, 2004, and 2005. Like the previous report, the analysis considers the follow­ing characteristics:

* Household income,
* Level of education,
* Race/ethnicity, and
* Regional/rural origin.

In summary, the additional years of recruit data (2004–2005) sup­port the previous finding that U.S. military recruits are more similar than dissimilar to the American youth population. The slight dif­ferences are that wartime U.S. mil­itary enlistees are better educated, wealthier, and more rural on aver­age than their civilian peers.

Recruits have a higher percent­age of high school graduates and representation from Southern and rural areas. No evidence indicates exploitation of racial minorities (either by race or by race-weighted ZIP code areas). Finally, the distri­bution of household income of recruits is noticeably higher than that of the entire youth population.Demographic evidence discredits the argument that a draft is necessary to enforce representation from racial and socioeconomic groups.

Wow, who’da thunk a (D) needed to lie so blatantly to make a point in today’s world of the evil Bush empire…

Thanks for reminding us what you are all about, Charlie. You should give $harpton and Jack$on and call, they love this kind of crap.