South Chicagoland Young Democrats: The Blog

I’m trying to write this, make dinner, and hand out candy, all in the next 30 minutes, so forgive me for making this rather abbreviated and short.

Today, as many people know, is Halloween, the day in which children (and some who aren’t children) dress up as something with the intent to either frighten others, or get candy. (I’ve never really celebrated Halloween as most of you know it, so my interpretation may be a bit off.)
Now, in between supporting the dentist industry and checking for the spaghetti water to boil, I have a couple of seconds here and there to point out what is really frightening in this world:  the simple fact that Noah Webster and Samuel Johnson are under the thumb of the GOP.  I am, of course, referring to the makers of the first dictionaries, and the monopoly that President Bush and his cronies have on the English language.  The control of the language began, of all places, in Hollywood, known for their dramatic special effects, from the mind of Ronald Reagan.  While most Americans were drawn in by the rhetoric to fight the Soviet Union and “win one for the Gipper,” a subtle change was occuring:  the word “public” became related with communism, and “private” was suddenly the popular word around the Beltway.  Now we’ve got privatized Social Security (as if that isn’t a contradiction in terms), private military contractors, and on and on.  Next I imagine we’re going to privatize sidewalks.

Since I’ve already written on Blackwater, I’ll go after the future of Social Security here.  It’s certainly possible that I’ve missed something major, but from what I understand of the president’s plan, all of “Social” Security in the future will be handling by investing in Wall Street.  Now, it may just be the spaghetti, but something there just doesn’t sit well with me.  In terms of economics, we’ve got a real problem on our plate at this very moment.  The housing market has reached a new low, a credit crunch is here now, and the Fed’s plan to ease us out of it is to inject $17 billion into the economy, which only causes inflation.  Economists left and right are anticpating a major recession to come, and to come soon, resulting in billions of dollars lost by businesses.  And, billions of dollars lost by businesses means that shareholders aren’t going to get their dividends (don’t forget we’ve got this little problem of the national debt, too).   So, go ahead and invest your retirement savings, but if what the experts think will happen actually happens, then you’d better work to pay off your retirement debts.  Personally, I’d rather pay into Social Security now and get guaranteed returns, than pay into Wall Street now and get possible returns.  Here’s what is really scary about this year’s Halloween:  the potential for millions of retirees to suddenly be without money if the market collapses (and it will- but that’s a different story to come).  As a side note, President Bush is taking money out of Social Security to fund the occupation of Iraq, then returning to DC and complaining about how Social Security is broke. Well, I wonder why!

And, for those of you who are interested in knowing, I am wearing a Cubs shirt for Halloween.  My dad doesn’t mind having a Democrat for a son, he minds having a Cub fan for a son.  Luckily for him it’s only for a day, but when he’s old enough to get Social Security, he’d better hope that the coming recession is old history by then.

From the mind of Eamon Driscoll.

As a nation, the number 80 seems to be a peculiar feature of our republic.  It was approximately 80 years ago that the nation voted overwhelmingly for FD Roosevelt, for change in the face of the Great Depression.  80 years before that, there was Lincoln, and 80 years before that- George Washington.

Friends, we are at a crossroads of history.  Now, as the 80th year approaches and history confronts us once more, we are left with a deceptively simple choice.  There is a feeling I have that this election will determine the course of history and may be the single factor that either restores or destroys the falling opinions of the US abroad.  As it is, the best man for the job may be Barack Obama. 
For what this nation is, or rather, for what “President” Bush has let this nation become, we need somebody new.  We are embroiled in not one, but two wars, while our reputation worldwide has fallen to incredible lows.  TIME Magazine had a story about worldwide polls asking which nations people believed had a better government.  Of the nations, the majority of people believe that the Kremlin is a better government that the White House!  This reflects very poorly upon us as a nation, and we need someone to restore our reputation.  The politicians have done little to stop this.  For them all that matters is making money, but Obama is different.  Barack has refused to take money from lobbyists, meaning that his capital is much smaller than the other candidates, but also that he is not burdened by special interests.  In one sense, you might say that Obama’s sole special interest is the American people.  Now THAT is a revolutionary statement for a politician. 
And the war?  Even in 2002, Obama was a stalwart opponent of the invasion of Iraq.  No other candidate can claim anything similar.  We cannot say that Bush lied, because the intelligence that the war was based on turned out to be false.  MI-6, FSB, the Mossad, and various other intelligence agencies all had the same information.  But when Congress nearly unanimously supported the war, Obama stood among a small contingent of those who were opposed to the war no matter what the CIA told us.  History has vindicated Obama, perhaps in a subtle means of drawing our attention to him.  Obama remains among the few candidates who are committed to a complete withdrawal because he, unlike Hillary, unlike McCain, unlike Giuliani. 

We are at a crossroads of history.  Now, like every 80 years before, we have the opportunity to directly change the course of our nation.  The chance may not come again in our lifetimes, but now we have the opportunity to make there be another chance.  Therefore, not only for myself and for America, but for the world.  I will be voting Obama, and I invite everyone to join me.  The best politician is not a politician.

From the mind of Eamon Driscoll