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.

While on the outside the Pledge of Allegiance appears to be an oath of loyalty, there are certainly parts which seem to contradict the fundamental values of America, most of which have been violated time and time again.  There is of course the religious controversy about adding “under God” to the Pledge, which occured in 1954.  “Indivisible” is clearly a reference to the Civil War, though secession is still held as a right in many states, even those in the north, such as New Hampshire (Article 10).  If America is founded on rebellion, why should this country be indivisible?  Even Thomas Jefferson believed that “a little revolution now and then is a good thing.”  I could go on for hours about “liberty and justice for all.”  But I will not make this a philosophical argument about the ethics of the Pledge.  Instead I have created a new, more realistic version of the Pledge of Allegiance, according to what I believe that those in power (ahem:  King George II) wants everyone to be really saying.  Enjoy.

I pledge obediance to the Flag
of the Corporate Feudalism of America
and to the Empire for which it stands
One Conglomerate, under the Christian God,
Superficial, with Serfdom and Conformity for all.
Amen.

~From the mind of Eamon Driscoll

In honour of Fred Thompson throwing his name into the political maelstrom of the 2008 presidential election, I first will salute him for his bravery.  This is a turbulent time, what with the War on Terror and the subsequent rape of Islamic culture.  If the United States continues on the path that George W. Bush has set forth, if the USA remains in Iraq beyond the point of no return (which may very well have already passed) and if we continue to consume non-renewable resources at ever-increasing rates, then the world in twenty-five years will be a pitiful war-torn excuse for civilization.  On that positive note, I would like to announce that I am running for President of the United States in 2032.  I will be forty-two years old, one of the youngest to ever run.  Now, if you will humour me, the situation all candidates will be facing in 2032 unless something is done right now:

• Rising sea levels worldwide cause flooding of countless millions of people worldwide, but especially threatening to under-developed nations with large populations such as Bangladesh.  In the United States, Floridians have evacuated to Georgia and Alabama, while those from New York, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and countless other cities move inland.  Chicago becomes the capital of the United States.
• Peak Oil is old news, as stockpiles in the thawed Arctic Ocean are used up by 2015.  Millions of Chinese return to their bicycles, but most Americans can’t seem to leave their cars.  The non-renewable resources are extremely scarce, and so expensive as to be absurd.
• “Alternative” energy no longer exists.  There is no alternative to alternative energy, and solar farms become increasingly prevalent.  Entire cities place solar panels on top of their buildings, while nuclear reactors make up for what wind and solar cannot.
• NASA has fallen apart in favour of private companies for the American space program, but the Europeans, Russians, Chinese, and Japanese are surpassing the US in nearly every category.  The International Space Station is obsolete, while the Russians and Chinese jointly share a colony on the moon.  Asteroids are mined in a futile attempt to secure more resources for power. 
• International borders have collapsed due to increasing advances for the internet, making any sort of local government nearly ineffective.  In the US, elections are fraut with corruption and bribery, making present-day (2007) elections in countries like Iran, Russia, and Venezuela look as pure as the new-driven snow (by the way, snow is a distant memory, still present only in Antarctica, Siberia, and Greenland).
• The collapse of borders means people are flooding into the US and Europe, leaving Latin America, Turkey, Africa, and various other locales struggling to retain any sense of stability. 
• Wars come into being daily, as less people in the under-developed areas means an easier path to creating an empire, for those political leaders too inept or too apathetic to care about the rest of the world in favour of their own personal power.  In the developed “superpowers,” chaos reigns in Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, England, and the US as the hordes of newcomers topple established methods and bring an abrupt end to what was once a stable society. 
• In the midst of the chaos and anarchy, highly intelligent thieves are able to sneak into the nuclear stockpiles of the US and Russia.  Several thermonuclear bombs explode over major cities, including Jerusalem.  No one really pays much attention, as each nation has much more important matters to attend to.
• The idea of a nation as a separate entity falls apart, as local governments are able to establish much better control in a chaotic world than the federal government.  This results in the fragmenting of much of the world, and a renaissance of the Dark Ages.

Isn’t that a wonderful picture?  It is the most extreme possibility I could imagine, though it would not be too difficult to imagine given how easily the internal societies can change when given drastic external changes, such as rising sea levels and the continued occupation of Iraq.  We cannot hold off the future, and we must do something right now to change this.  It certainly changes my campaign slogan (Driscoll is good for your Fiscal)- there would be no need for a solid fiscal year in such a situation as described above.  It remains to be seen how humanity will respond to these crises, but one thing is certain:  the only way to respond fully is to respond before the stimulus occurs.  Yet, on our present path, we may never respond.  (But it isn’t the first time a strong government denies the truth until it is no longer an issue.)

I feel sort of sorry for Fred Thompson.  He doesn’t realize what he’s getting himself into. 

~From the mind of Eamon Driscoll

Olbermann at his best. Watch it. Now.