The beginning

When was he elected, like three days ago, right? I admit I was actually relieved, because I think there would have been actual riots had the equally-repulsive McCain pulled it off. But already reality has set in, because on the change.gov website which supposedly speaks for "The Office of the President-Elect" -- an "Office" which doesn't exist, mind you -- the president-elect doesn't think it's too soon for this:

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.

Actually, my kids won't be compelled to do jack fracking squat hours of "community service", thank you very much. If America doesn't just say "no" (or something a bit more colorful) to this, it will be more evidence of, let's say, those ominous parallels.

Update:

Already, there's more! With GM and Ford predicted to go bankrupt next year, the Senator has this to say:

I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States.

Exactly which laws will the executive branch of the United States government be fulfilling when it helps two companies on the brink of insolvency "weather the crisis"?

In other news, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet just went to $2T, thanks to "bailouts". Meanwhile, unemployment is shooting up, which means tax revenues will plummet. Methinks car companies aren't the only thing insolvent around here.

The march to fascism continues.

Update 2:

Obama has replaced his plan to make students part-time slaves with a plan to make students part-time social workers. Now the site says:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

So the "service" won't be required -- but note that $4,000 is a fortune to a college student, especially for 50 hours of "service." This is still government coercion.

The scariest thing here is perhaps not the content, but the political method: float the statist proposal you really want, but if it attracts too much of an outburst replace it with a similar but evolved statist proposal that will silence the first criticism. I assume this is nothing new in politics, and I expect we will see it over and over again from this administration (which isn't even an administration yet). In the years to come, we are going to get every bit of statism that the filters of the left and right let through, and I fear that is going to be a lot.