our government has given ONE advertising firm over 70,000,000 since 2002

for them to turn over the names (and it would seem, the habits too) of our daughters and sons for recruitment purposes. seems like a bit of harassment is going on as well, with these recruiters HOUNDING everyone with their phone calls. personally, a few years ago, i was being HOUNDED by recruiters. i am WELL past the age of recruitment mind you. i have caller id (and privacy manager) and wouldn't answer the phone most times. i did once just to tell them to STOP calling. they asked for 'my son'. i HAVE NO SON, which of course i told them. that didn't stop 'em, they continued to call for a LONG while thereafter.

Mining for kids: Children can’t “opt out” of Pentagon recruitment database
By Kathryn Casa Vermont Guardian
posted January 17, 2006
Parents cannot remove their childrenÂ’s names from a Pentagon database that includes highly personal information used to attract military recruits, the Vermont Guardian has learned.
The Pentagon has spent more than $70.5 million on market research, national advertising, website development, and management of the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) database — a storehouse of questionable legality that includes the names and personal details of more than 30 million U.S. children and young people between the ages of 16 and 23.
The database is separate from information collected from schools that receive federal education money. The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to report the names, addresses, and phone numbers of secondary school students to recruiters, but the law also specifies that parents or guardians may write a letter to the school asking that their childrenÂ’s names not be released.
However, many parents have reported being surprised that their children are contacted anyway, according to a San Francisco-based coalition called Leave My Child Alone (LMCA).
“We hear from a lot of parents who have often felt quite isolated about it all and haven’t been aware that this is happening all over the country,” said the group’s spokeswoman, Felicity Crush.
Parents must contact the Pentagon directly to ask that their childrenÂ’s information not be released to recruiters, but the data is not removed from the JAMRS database, according to Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman...........

.........She said the Pentagon spends about $500,000 annually to purchase the data from private companies, and has paid more than $70 million since 2002 to Mullen Advertising — a Massachusetts firm whose clients include General Motors, Hooked on Phonics, XM Satellite Radio, and 3Com — to target recruiters’ messages toward teens and young adults.
The Boston Business Journal reported in October that the Pentagon had spent a total of $206 million on the JAMRS program to date, and could spend another $137 million over the next two years.................