Obama website: Hey, let’s make community service compulsory for students
posted at 2:45 pm on November 7, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Intriguing. Will that be in lieu of or in addition to the three months of compulsory civil defense training Rahm Emanuel wants 18-to-25-year-olds to do?
The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.
Presumably, the penalty for being a 20-year-old who doesn’t want to spend two hours a week picking up trash would be not graduating. The penalty for dodging Emanuel’s program, only Rahm knows. I remember this subject coming up now and again in poli sci classes and my leftish professor arguing that a peacetime draft would violate the right of privacy sketched out in cases like Roe as an infringement of one’s physical autonomy. If The One pushes ahead with this, it’ll be fun watching conservatives suddenly trying to coopt that right and liberals just as suddenly trying to narrow it. (On which side, do you suppose, will the ACLU come down?) Alternatively, you could skip the right of privacy and try a First Amendment argument: If the state can’t compel students to say the pledge of allegiance, arguably it can’t make them go clean parks, either. That case would turn on the distinction between speech and conduct; given the current composition of the Court, refuseniks would stand at least a shot of winning.
It bears noting that Maverick’s also always been famously gung ho for kids doing some form of national service — “There should be more focus on meeting national goals and on making short-term service, both civilian and military, a rite of passage for young Americans,” he wrote in the Washington Monthly(!) in 2001 — but he’s been careful, at least lately, to say that it should be volunteer-only. Exit question: Won’t a lot of conservatives, especially older ones, dig this idea? Keeps kids busy and out of trouble, teaches spoiled teens responsibility, etc.
Update: Let’s not go nuts, please.
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Andrew Wilkow had some thoughts on that.
Here ya go………….Without your “voluntary” service, President-elect Obama might just decide to hold back on all those gubmint handouts he was promising during the campaign.
Peggy the Moocher should be worried.
Grandma doesn’t knit enough sweaters for the homeless? Well, Grandma might not get her Medicare this month.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Yes, yes, and yes.
Where some of you get the idea that Christians and social cons would agree with a government mandate on this is beyond me.
INC on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Anybody seen those pictures of Obama going to the gym today. He’s got a heavily armed secret service detail flashing their weapons. Kinda looks like a third world dictator already!
mgt on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
And to add to what Grue stated, he doesn’t actually read your comments with any depth. i.e. he completely misses significant clues …such as when another poster upinak stated…I’m female…. and Drywall still believes the person is male.
OT. Grue – lots of suggestions on the music on the Rahm Emanuel post.
Marine_Bio on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Let the brainwashing of our youths commence. Perhaps they will be taking courses in how to spot a racist and report them to the Civilian National Security Force for reducation and healing.
James on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
It would most certainly be a good thing.
It’s the parents job to teach their kids to help others, not the government’s.
BacaDog on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Yes, most conseratives will “dig this” provided it’s not mandatory, after all I think the right does much more volunteer work than the left, the left talks about volunteering but in my volunteering experiences I mostly see middle age to older conservatives lending a hand, not so much the younger lefty crowd.
It will be interesting indeed to see how the lefties that staunchly supported and helped Obama gain the presidency react to this. I’m betting they will rebel as most young people do when it comes to authority telling them what to do.
Ever since Tuesday the same adage keeps running through my mind about the left and their adoration and wish of an Obama presidency…BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!
Me thinks their poor decision in voting Obama as POTUS will be coming home to roost very soon indeed and I shall relish every moment I rub their ignorant noses in it!
Liberty or Death on November 7, 2008 at 3:25 PM
That’s the new Obama narrative. First thing I saw this morning when I opened email was: “Obama to Bring Back Slavery”
econavenger on November 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM
I wouldn’t have a problem with students doing community service as a way to help pay college costs, but forcing people to do it?!?!?!
No freakin’ way.
The government works for us, not the other way around.
Bobbertsan on November 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM
In the USSR they used to send engineers and doctors to pick potatoes and tomatoes in the fields, – on weekends too, so they could not get too busy listening to the voice of America or something.
runner on November 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM
YOINK!! Hold a place for me here :)
(On the upinak thing… that’s pretty sad, she even posted a picture!)
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM
When I was a kid I worked MY BUTT off, and saved money for the things I wanted – a car, computer, college, etc.
Now that work ethic has gotten me to the point that I’m successful enough that I’ll be asked to subsidize today’s lazy teens who won’t do what I did. $4000 for a few hours of service, courtesy of the US taxpayers. Great.
Go get a job, kid. Take a difficult one from an illegal if you have to, but just get a d*mn job!
innominatus on November 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Age 55?
Um, yeah, like I’ll be retiring… ever.
Someone’s gonna have to pay for all this.
saint kansas on November 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Hitler youth groups . . . yes indeed that’s just what we need. This entire country has fallen off the deep end.
rplat on November 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Dave Rywall on November 7, 2008 at 3:10 PM
You don’t have a life do you Drywall? No matter what time of day or night that I take a look at the board- there’s old Drywall making an ass of himself. Do you like, live in your parents basement, or something?
anniekc on November 7, 2008 at 3:27 PM
LOL
blanchkie on November 7, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Why should this suprise anyone? Just like the left prefers government welfare over private charity they also believe that forced community service is preferable to individuals willingly donating their time/skills to their communities. Do they think that way because the track record of liberals in both situations is poor?
katiejane on November 7, 2008 at 3:29 PM
With the stock market crashing like that Star Destroyer into the Death Star in Return of the Jedi, *this* is Obama’s priority?
Really. What am I missing?
JohnTant on November 7, 2008 at 3:29 PM
Why would social cons approve if its voluntary? It’s still a government sponsored way to get people to do stuff. Voluntary or mandatory are irrelevant. You can volunteer without any government involvement at all.
lorien1973 on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
4 years of muting, switching and ear plugging …. I guess I can do this …… kind of like my first marriage
MooseStew on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
sad thing is, its almost needed because of the decline of the Family and values.
jp on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
No, if your kids graduate from college, at great expense and perserverance they should be able to enter their field of study right away.
Compulsory service is un American unless it is a draft called for because of a threat by a foreign enemy.
If any kid wants to join one of these Obama Corps projects then feel free but I draw the line at compulsory service.
Screw that.
FireBlogger on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Forced servitude = No pay
No pay, no money
No money, no need for a market
Just a shot in the dark…
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
100 hours per year for college students? Whew! Looks like Republicans will be getting the youth vote in 2012.
CarolynM on November 7, 2008 at 3:30 PM
He’s certainly not wasting any time showing his totalitarian wanna-be colors, is he?
More gems from that whacko site of his:
He wants to disarm our military and take nuclear weapons off the table, supposedly working toward the ideal of a “nuclear free world”. I’m sure our enemies are salivating over that pledge. Why can’t this idiot understand that maintaining a nuclear arsenal is the only thing that has prevented us from having to use them and that has prevented us from being struck with them?
He wants to send billions of dollars over to the Middle East, claiming it will be used to re-educate Muslim kids and get them to stop hating us. While we’re at it, why not spend another couple billion dollars to give $10,000 start-up checks to felons as they get out of prison? We’ve got to be compassionate, after all. It’s hard to get a job if you’ve got an armed robbery conviction on your record!
He wants to double the amount of foreign aid we hemorrage (the figure he throws out is $50 billion) in order to “fight global poverty”.
He wants to sit down and chat with tyrants and thugs from terrorist states…. Actually, this idea makes sense. Obama probably wants to get some tips from them.
He wants to enact a tax on the oil companies, because they are making “excessive profits”! Thanks, moron! Gas prices have finally fallen to a reasonable rate and now you want to raise the oil companies taxes, renew the offshore drilling ban and bankrupt the coal industry. With plans like these, speculation will start raising gas prices even before he gets in office. Say hello to $6/gallon!
He advocates using $25 billion for what sounds like little more than welfare. “a $25 billion State Growth Fund to prevent state and local cuts in health, education, housing, and heating assistance or counterproductive increases in property taxes, tolls or fees.”
They throw around billions of dollars like they’re talking about nickels and dimes, yet they never explain where that money’s going to come from.
Can’t we have a recall vote or something?
Sign of the Dollar on November 7, 2008 at 3:31 PM
How much do you want to bet that with all of these initiatives his image will somehow be associated with it? They won’t be presented as US government initiatives but as the “Obama Corps”…watch he will slowly back the US out of visibility and replace it with himself..
There is now way in hell my kids are doing this…I am not going to have them brainwashed…as it is I just learned that they were forced to “raise a toast” to the president elect in school this week…I promise you they did not do that in 2000 for Bush..
We need to protect our children or this narcissistic nut is going to take them…
Civil Defense Corps my ass…if Rahm Emanuel wants to protect the country he should volunteer…or at least outed Freddie Mac instead of having taken contributions from them…when’s the indictment coming down for that?
AmericanUnderground on November 7, 2008 at 3:31 PM
$40 an hour for volunteering? Someone buy this man a dictionary please. It is obvious he has no clue what the word volunteer means.
angryed on November 7, 2008 at 3:31 PM
I was batting around in my head the idea of requiring all high school graduates to go through some form of boot camp.
Somehow, forced “community service” sends shivers up my spine, though. I keep imagining a bunch of kids having to listed to sermons by Rev. Wright or lectures from Billy Ayres.
Count to 10 on November 7, 2008 at 3:32 PM
It’s Derb we’re talking about … a RuPaul supporter.
Still, I think BO’s idea is pretty dumb and I don’t think it’s going to endear him to the younger crowd. Good.
thirteen28 on November 7, 2008 at 3:32 PM
True.
But I think there’s a conservative case that can be made for a program that helps out volunteerism. Like a brokerage-type system, or a listing of organizations which need help.
Obama runs afoul by tying financial aid into it, or making it compulsory.
JohnTant on November 7, 2008 at 3:32 PM
You’re absolutely right . . . I did the same. Now, under this regimes new socialism we must pander to lazy parasites that are demanding handouts. This country is sick.
rplat on November 7, 2008 at 3:32 PM
I’ll serve 48 hours
/I promise to be real good, now, Mistah
CatesObama!Christien on November 7, 2008 at 3:32 PM
yeah, let him institute this. backlash in 2012 from youth vote.
jp on November 7, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Careful there, Dave, those kids are the ones who got your Caesar elected.
Besides, I thought you liberals looooooved kids!
Gina on November 7, 2008 at 3:33 PM
We have a sizeable portion of the electorate that are entirely too obtuse to even blink at the very thought that someone would aspire to the highest executive office while toying with fascism like this.
Utterly horrifying, in fact.
They even have the gall to refer to themselves as “Americans”.
LimeyGeek on November 7, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Servitude.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:34 PM
And you people laughed when Whoopie said she was worried about being a slave again.
Bobbertsan on November 7, 2008 at 3:34 PM
Under most circumstances I’d agree, but I’m hoping freaking out now might be the only opportunity we have to help influence those “specifics” when they do finally make it into federal legislation.
I’m having trouble accepting “hope” and “change” as specifics.
saint kansas on November 7, 2008 at 3:34 PM
I’m only 22 but I support this. Kids are becoming more and more sociopathic and we could use some slave labor to keep them busy and maybe learn a little humility.
Darth Executor on November 7, 2008 at 3:34 PM
Time for some Buyer’s Remorse.
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:34 PM
$4,000 barely pays for a single class in standard universities, it barely pays for two classes in community / night college.
No one is going to want to do this, it’s a waste of time that a lot of people do not have.
Enoxo on November 7, 2008 at 3:35 PM
You send us to a site that invokes Godwin’s law?! You must not have children.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” -Santayana. So let’s just pretend that there was no Hitler Youth. Godwin my ass.
Akzed on November 7, 2008 at 3:35 PM
Heh… the final irony?
I know a lot of people who voted for Obama simply because they thought it’d be nice to have a real public speaker in office again.
Didn’t even get that.
Skywise on November 7, 2008 at 3:35 PM
This simply isn’t the moral equivalent of volunteerism and doesn’t carry the benefits that true volunteerism does for either the volunteer or the recipient(s).
1) It’s compulsory, which will make the work most participants perform shoddy, meaningless, and probably useless as well.
2) It will not teach young people the value of community service; instead, it will cause most of them to hate it.
3) It will cost a ton of money to implement and enforce, eliminating much of the benefit to society of the “free” labor it represents.
4) At the college level, the “volunteerism” aspect is eliminated by paying them; it’s just work-study then.
I am completely and totally in favor of community service for people of all ages, but it must be something they WANT to do and that has meaning for them and the recipients of their service, or it is a self-defeating exercise.
aero on November 7, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Compulsory service is unconstitutional.
CP on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 PM
Remember Michelle Obama’s quotes…..
She’s not kidding.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 PM
Can someone please help me with the argument that this is a good thing as it is in Israel?
null on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 PM
It’s okay, they shredded it last week! We even got a picture!
Allah, where’d you put it?
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 PM
I really don’t think the way to help young people feel good about society rests in forcing them to serve some fascist cause.
I don’t want enforced humility through intimidation. I want people who think freely and are in charge of their own destinies. This doesn’t help at all.
JohnTant on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 PM
Well, hope that he doesn’t expect adults to do community service. I would give em the finger myself then. I hope former daughter in law gets my grand kids in Home schooling. All parents that are not zombie sheep. Should do that. Public Schools are the worse.
sheebe on November 7, 2008 at 3:38 PM
…the citizen’s duty to the state, not the state’s duty to stay out of the life of the citizen…the first signs of fascism…that you don’t belong to yourself…that you belong to the state….
…the state doles out all this largesse…which you may actually not be available to you on account of its being earmarked for someone else entirely…which, in fact, you may be barred from receiving…nonetheless, it’s sold that to deserve to live in such a generous country, you owe the collective service…and *WHUMP*, coercion follows, and you’re not your own person….
…*WHUMP*, from citizen to subject….
…this election victory, in part, was predicated on the loosening up of freebies…remember the lady who said that, if she supported Obama, she’d no longer have to worry about buying gas or paying on her mortgage? Think of all those bent and broken toys masquerading as citizens whose vote was to be had if only the burden of their white guilt could be lightened…like Christian’s load of sin in Pilgrim’s Progress….
…well, this time, we’re going towards the City of Destruction, and back through the Wicket Gate away from the Celestial City….
…we’re headed to the Greater Obama Reich….
…watch Triumph of the Will sometime…watch as Herr Hitler addresses the RAD (the guys with funny hats and shovels). CONTEXT: RAD – Reicharbeitsdienst – Reich Labor Service, “…on June 26th, 1935, the Reichs Labor Service Law was passed in which service in the Reichsarbeitdienst for 6 months time was made compulsory and nation-wide.”
…nobody, he said in the film, was to have any standing unless they served in the ranks of the RAD. The RAD was to be the nation’s great leveller….
…and elsewhere, when speaking to youth, to other of the party organizations, to visitors, and to history, in effect, Herr Hitler lets us know that the citizen was not his own, but belonged to the collective…in his case, to the Reich which he alone ruled….
…alarmist? Typical, calling someone you don’t like “Hitler”? Maybe….
…but, the parallel is there. Don’t know history/condemned to repeat, that old chestnut….
…and, to be fair, the Soviets (of course) had such a service, as well…it was referred to euphamisticaly as the “Labor Army”, and at one time was organized by none other than that arch civil libertarian, Leon Trotsky. His excuse?
…so, you see…Mr. O’s man, Mr. E, is proposing a scheme with historical legs, so to speak.
How many times has this sort of populist crap been proposed around the water cooler, union hall, diner or barber shop? “These kids today have it soft! They should reinstitute the draft!” To this, I would reply:
A) The Army (Navy, etc.) have different agendas, and are resistant to the sorts of party propagandizing a civilian labor corps might attempt to inculcate, and
B) This still presupposes that the citizen is not his own, but belongs bodily to the state.
Collectivist…redistributionist…statist…I’d say that we can sum them all up with another word…”fascist”….
…but, that’s only what I think….
Puritan1648 on November 7, 2008 at 3:38 PM
That’s apparently SOP for the Secret Service. I work in DC and clearly recall a motorcade exiting the White House and driving down Pennsylvania Avenue towards Washington Circle. There were some DC cops in the lead, then some unmarked cars, then a big limo with tinted windows and two US flags on either side of the hood, and right behind it there was a black Suburban with the windows rolled down and automatic rifles hanging out the windows, pointing downward at the sides of the road.
Overkill? Maybe, but it’s not Obama’s innovation.
factoid on November 7, 2008 at 3:38 PM
He’s not even got started yet, folks. Thermostat monitors and tire pressure police will help him reduce energy demands after he bankrupts coal-burning energy producers.
Just a thought.
hillbillyjim on November 7, 2008 at 3:38 PM
I thought that was Mao in China. Sent everyone with an education off to the fields so that they would “know their place.”
Count to 10 on November 7, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Would the country be a better place if everyone volunteered? OF COURSE!
Should GOVERNMENT make us volunteer? If they do, I will show them what the 2nd Amendment is all about.
antoniojvr on November 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM
DE too. We lied about it. Tough titties.
Akzed on November 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Just to make it clear, this is something I saw last summer.
factoid on November 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Prediction: Jonah Goldberg sells alot more copies of Liberal Fascism.
I have an autographed copy, which will make it that much more special during the book burnings to come. /sarc i hope
jp on November 7, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Our Republican governor is putting forward a plan to stop the “brain drain” in Indiana. If a student graduates with a B average, they will be guaranteed $6000 for college tuition in the state of Indiana. That will completely pay for 2 years at our statewide community college (where I teach). They are also facilitating a program where students could take their first 2 years of general education courses at the community college and then transfer to an public or private school in Indiana if they want to finish their bachelors degree.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:40 PM
This is by design. Socialism and Communism require the dismantling of the family structure so that the ruling class can assert control over the proletariat. In the next few years I wouldn’t be surprised to see an increased focus in policies that shift rights form the family to the government, mostly through the education system. We have already seen schools trying to implement processes for teachers to evaluate parents. We will see a lot more of this.
neuquenguy on November 7, 2008 at 3:40 PM
You have a knack with words, Puritan. Excellent work.
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Songs like a “white nights” rehearsal….fruit punch is next!
Rev. Jones would be proud.
try again later on November 7, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Enoxo:
What community college do you go too? I am in 11 hrs for less than a 1000bucks this semester.
James on November 7, 2008 at 3:41 PM
I agree. Let’s remain sane, not forget history and connect the dots.
A German Lady remember “Change”
econavenger on November 7, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Israel’s service is Military.. they have a small population, small land mass and enemies surrounding. It is a necessity for their survival.
This is nothing more than “training” our youth, much like the Hitler Youth. If he can enact this, he could also have only a few select organizations that qualify for credit. Don’t you think that they would be extremely liberal?
beththebaker on November 7, 2008 at 3:42 PM
I’m reaching for the Godwin button, but I can’t find the heart to press it.
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:42 PM
My kid will never be a service pawn in some massive Liberal game. Screw you, Obama.
worlok on November 7, 2008 at 3:43 PM
I have a prediction that the House, Senate and White House switchboards will be awfully busy over the next 4 years.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Michelle O warned us during the campaign. Barack Obama will make us leave our comfort zone and work. No more SUV’s. No more fatty foods. Serve! Look for the remote thermostats in your homes that will keep them locked in. No more freedom. All is for the good of the plural, no more individuals. Thank you IDIOT Americans who voted for him.
carbon_footprint on November 7, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Allah, in his Obamelerium, forgets to remind the gentle reader that the most insane, vicious enemies of our volunteer soldiers are, indeed, the same fevered nitwits from Kos and DU that foisted this fucking nitwit Obama on the public in the first place.
So, one might be just a wee bit skeptical about the nature of this forced servitude to the State, rather than gleefully declaring that this is just what conservatives have been pining for in the first place.
Not quite.
Jaibones on November 7, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Have some kids canvas for conservative causes or protest Obama’s policies to meet the requirement, and see what happens. File suit if they raise any concern.
Right_of_Attila on November 7, 2008 at 3:45 PM
What an idiotic statement. Are you a priest? Don’t priests teach people what Christian values are? Are their people not allowed to repeat such teachings?
People like you made the Reformation necessary.
Akzed on November 7, 2008 at 3:45 PM
doesn’t Israel and the Swiss have mandatory service?
jp on November 7, 2008 at 3:45 PM
LOL! Seriously! Most of the people I know would “volunteer” 40 hrs/wk for that kind of salary.
aero on November 7, 2008 at 3:46 PM
Adolph Hitler couldn’t have said it better. Good God we’re in trouble.
rplat on November 7, 2008 at 3:46 PM
So here’s my question…will only Obama approved volunteer activities count?
What about if, your son for example, is in the Boy Scouts and already does multiple hours of volunteer services through them. We know that the left can’t stand the Boy Scouts so will the volunteer services there count? If it doesn’t count, what happens to organizations like the Boy Scouts that don’t meet the Obama approved community service list? Does their membership dry up because the Obama Compulsory Service essentially takes all their members away?
Queasy on November 7, 2008 at 3:46 PM
“So this is how democracy passes… not with deaths, but with cheers.”
(WikiQuote, ironically, does not have this quote, so I likely got it wrong. I should add it…)
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:46 PM
Israel’s service is Military.. they have a small population, small land mass and enemies surrounding. It is a necessity for their survival.
This is nothing more than “training” our youth, much like the Hitler Youth. If he can enact this, he could also have only a few select organizations that qualify for credit. Don’t you think that they would be extremely liberal?
beththebaker on November 7, 2008 at 3:42 PM
beththebaker on November 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
I won’t invoke Godwin’s Law over this. I’ll invoke Godwin’s Law over their plan, outlined on change.gov, to make the Assault Weapons Ban PERMANENT.
Molon Labe, Nazis. Come and get them.
quikstrike98 on November 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
I’m not the one throwing “Christian Values” in people’s faces as some kind of QED argument.
People like you make reading classes necessary.
JohnTant on November 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
Mandatory military service.
BacaDog on November 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
Ok does this mean that if this comes to pass, we should reffer to THE ONE as MASSA?
ColdWarrior57 on November 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
Yep, that’s the one.
carbon_footprint on November 7, 2008 at 3:48 PM
The scariest part for me is looking at this topic on other bi-partisan sites and seeing the cheery uplifting Obamabots scoffing at the idea that this is somehow wrong.
This is the same crowd that doesn’t think that people should work for welfare money?
So let me get this straight. Say we work, and we pay $4,000 to the government in the form of taxes. In order to be allowed to partake in public “services,” we have to work as a volunteer to earn that $4,000 credit back. So we get to work twice for the same money?
Over my dead body. I’ll quit producing a damned thing, and live off of everybody else. This system can crash and burn, and those that support it can rot in hell.
angelat0763 on November 7, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Oh, come on. You don’t want this to be part of your children’s future?
I can’t see what the problem will be.
/sarc
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on November 7, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Precisely…. kills two birds with one stone
beththebaker on November 7, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Barack Obama may not be the anti-Christ but he is certainly the anti-Reagan.
carbon_footprint on November 7, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Well the nation got an introduction to CP time today when Barry was almost a half hour late for his first press conference. The idea of national service was mentioned by him when he told us during the campaign that he wanted to institute a “national” army. Imagine the look on all the faces of the “youths” who so eagerly voted for him when they’re informed they have to do mandatory service to our country. Barry is going to give us four years of giggles.
UnEasyRider on November 7, 2008 at 3:49 PM
He’s going to turn America into one large labor camp. “You will do what we have assigned for you to do.”
“You must do this for the Mother Land.”
mindhacker on November 7, 2008 at 3:50 PM
lulz
Next Obama will adapt a quasi-military uniform, complete with tons of gold braid and mirrored sunglasses, and proclaim himself Field Marshal Doctor President For Life Obama Big Daddy!
pseudonominus on November 7, 2008 at 3:50 PM
AP: It doesn’t help you to link to Politico as an update… because he gets it completely wrong. He either ignores or missed the word “required” in the paragraph you quoted (and I observed independently). And it is that word, which I as a conservative, and especially a parent, strongly object to.
dominigan on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Sure. I just emailed a long-haired, pot-smoking, kool-aid drinking buddy of mine about this program, and he had no problem with it: first, because it’s not the military (his main point), and second, it could be a lot worse (e.g., Israel). Now, I’ve known this guy for a long time, and if they tried to sign him up to mow his neighbor’s friggin’ lawn for free, he’d bike his ass to Rywall’s mom’s basement in Canada that same day.
Please note Obama’s emphasis that “young people will be trained not as soldiers, but simply as citizens who understand their responsibilities in the event of…a terrorist attack,” juxtaposed with his disdain for the military and his promise to lay down and roll over before “rattling any sabers” like Bush.
saint kansas on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Hey, check Drudge… looks like the Messiah has his seal back! Smaller version but it’s there.
I guess it’s not pompous anymore… NOT!
scottythrust on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
…*BINGO*…good call….
…nothing compulsory in a free society can be equated to anything “voluntary”, morally or otherwise….
…in discussing compulsory and voluntary, you’re talking about opposites. To say that something compulsory is actually voluntary is like saying:
“It’s black, but it’s the moral equivalent of white.”
“She’s seven months pregnant, but the moral equivalent of a virgin.”
“That dog sh*t is the moral equivalent of the hot dog Fido stole off Junior’s plate last night…Junior! Junior! We found your hot dog!”
Compulsory is the photo negative, diametrically opposed, ain’t nothin’ it opposite of volunteer.
…and, in a free society, in a pre-Obama America, you ask for citizen participation and cooperation…you don’t compell.
The Thesaurus tells us:
…so, drop “moral equivalent” like a pidgeon drops calling cards, and anything so splattered becomes whatever the political pidgeon wants it to be? No…English has rules…and, until last Tuesday, the nation had rules….
…now, we’ve got Rahm Emanuel, soon to be installed as the Fuehrer’s chief enforcer (with a sorry personal and professional history of playing well with others), and we now have his rules…and his language….
Puritan1648 on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Nevermind, found the right one:
“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.”
*eats*
Grue in the Attic on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Really? Please point out the fallacy in my thinking then, or must one be a popish priest to do that?
Akzed on November 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
I’ll bet Peggy the Moocher is going to be pissed when she finds out she’s going to have to “volunteer” to get her gas and mortgage payment.
BacaDog on November 7, 2008 at 3:52 PM
I’m going to a local university for my Master’s. This semester alone, for two classes, cost me over $4,000, including books (around 650 per credit hour).
Enoxo on November 7, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Run for office… you communicate very well!
beththebaker on November 7, 2008 at 3:53 PM
I quoted the guy who was trying to invoke “Christian Values” as a way to try and make critics of this look like hypocrites. I’m reasonably certain you saw that part.
As he was shown to be woefully ignorant of the concept, numerous times I might add, I’d say you could probably follow the rest yourself.
JohnTant on November 7, 2008 at 3:54 PM
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