Highlight: C.I. on "Hypocrisy in Recruiting"

The Common Ills is the flagship of the community and one of the reasons is that C.I. frequently writes essays and that the other posts are jam packed full of information. (Such as relating a "news development" to a page in Greg Palast's book.) But we know the time that goes into that site and frequently urge C.I. to do a short entry or two. Tuesday night, all of us participated in a lengthy roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin. C.I. knew there'd be e-mails about no evening posts at The Common Ills. Even so, C.I. was willing to turn over an idea to Wally because it seemed to fit Wally's site (The Daily Jot) better. Knowing how pressed for time C.I. is, when Jim saw something in a Wednesday morning entry, he suggested to C.I. that a single entry be done on that topic to make sure it stood out. Here's that entry.

Hypocrisy in Recruiting
At some military bases, commanders will not even allow police recruiters on the grounds, for fear that they will steal troops who might otherwise re-enlist, said Lt. Mike Barletta of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

The above is from Timothy Egan's "Police Forces, Their Ranks Thin, Offer Bonuses, Bounties and More" in this morning's New York Times and Jim asked me if I would give that section its own entry to make sure everyone caught it.

In case anyone missed the hypocrisy of not allowing police recruiters on military bases, we'll note this from Democracy Now! (December 7, 2005):

Case Challenges Recruiting Access for Military on Campus
And the Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case that challenges military recruiting on campus. A coalition of over 160 law schools is contesting the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which allows the government to deny financial support to any university that does not give military recruiters the same access to students it gives to other employers. The law schools are arguing they should only have to grant the military equal access when the military allows equal access to openly-gay recruits. The Supreme Court is widely expected to rule in favor of the Solomon amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to defend it during the proceedings, saying: "It says that if you want our money, you have to let our recruiters on campus."

Who pays for the military? We do. So if the military wants our money, by the logic of John Roberts and the government, then they really shouldn't be able to refuse police departments the right to recruit on bases. Or they could just drop the case and their attempts to bully law schools.

the new york times
timothy egan
recruiters
police
military
democracy now
the third estate sunday review