Barack Obama started his final jog up the White House steps by opening his own quasi-official government website. Calling itself ‘the office of the president-elect’, it purports to present the agenda of the newcomer. In actuality, it is a rehash of the Obama for president campaign website, registered by the same individuals and sloppily copied at that. Indeed, some comparisons to the McCain campaign’s positions still existed earlier today. I make that distinction because the site is constantly in flux, which wouldn’t be unusual in itself, but given that its showcasing a faux-government entity, that’s a bit disconcerting.
There are a lot more troubling aspects to this site than just lazy editing. The new president seems to want people’s names and addresses for an unlisted reason, most likely in order to net more names for campaign fundraising in the future– remember that the Obama campaign seems to have purposefully disabled all credit card safety checks that are routinely in place for online merchants, including address verification, in order to allow people to funnel money in as quickly and as illicitly as possible. To put it in terms more familiar for our lefty friends, wouldn’t you have raised an eyebrow if George Bush opened a site asking you to leave a little story and all your personal details/contact information? Especially in the age of telecom wiretaps and supposed government abuses?
The absolute worst part of the site, which has since been scrubbed clean, was a section stating that Obama wanted to make it mandatory for middle school, high school, and college students to complete lengthy commitments to community service. Now we’re treated to a more vague extolation of the virtues of public service and promise of free candy (and college) for those willing to sign up. It’s quite a bit less threatening, but a testament to who Barack Obama has shown himself to be: namely someone willing to say absolutely whatever he needs to in order to garnish popular support, even if it directly contradicts what he’s said mere moments before. You can see the original and edited versions here, it’s pretty sick stuff.
Why is it wrong to ask for compulsory service in this country you might ask? Well, beyond the hysteria on the left in the 2004 campaign about the prospect of Bush secretly reinstating the draft, it goes against the foundation of individual freedom in this country to force servitude. It is your American right to either give the country your all or to give it nothing. That’s the basis of the free market, of our individual liberty, and the often-quoted-but-never-located separation of church and state. As part of this now edited effort, Obama also promises to create ‘Classroom Corps’ to help plan lessons and educate the underprivileged. I’m just wondering if these government-sponsored administrative branch observers will be unbiased additions to the classroom or something more intrusive. Two guesses, if you need ‘em.
So here’s some small crumbs of confirmation before the main course arrives at Che Obama: he’ll toss anything against the wall to see if it sticks. I feel better already.
Update: Allah at Hot Air picks it up.
If one day of carping in the blogosphere is enough to get The One to reverse himself, maybe we can work with this guy after all.
Work with him? Why not? It’s easy to compromise when you have no intention of sticking to your position. It just makes finding out if you’ve actually had the last word on an issue a touch more difficult to discern. Who knows what pandering promises the next day holds?
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