Obama's alarming calls for the sort of "national service" normally associated with communist regimes and Nazi Germany will no doubt be backed to the hilt by his enablers in the media, particularly the execrable Time magazine. NewsBusters reports:

Time magazine isn't satisfied with reporting the news. It wants to play both journalist and lobbyist. Their website announced: "TIME is helping to lead a major push to make national service a priority in Washington. And we want you to get involved". In his "To Our Readers" article this week, Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel announced that Time has joined in a lobbying group called "Service Nation" to promote legislation for more federal government programs of volunteering. If the phrase "more federal government programs of volunteering" sounds strange, you're not on Time's wavelength.

Government volunteerism is an oxymoron. Government is about force. At best, the volunteer programs will be financed by money expropriated through coercion. At worse, volunteering will not be voluntary.

Time has been pouring its blessings upon liberal authoritarians like Mike Bloomberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger for their roles in hyping national service. A cover story on the topic included these ominous thoughts:

Today the two central acts of democratic citizenship are voting and paying taxes. That's basically it. The last time we demanded anything else from people was when the draft ended in 1973. And yes, there are libertarians who believe that government asks too much of us — and that the principal right in a democracy is the right to be left alone — but most everyone else bemoans the fact that only about half of us vote and don't do much more than send in our returns on April 15.

Bellyaching about the end of the draft offers some insight into how voluntary volunteerism would be if left to the liberal fascists who run the mainstream media, and who may soon have their avatar in the White House.

On a tip from Cheetah. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.