Saturday, September 13, 2008

Invasion Of The Mind Snatchers

Saturday, September 13th, 2008


My Dear America:

On a Saturday afternoon in a decade long past I went to the movies in Clark Summit, Pennsylvania and saw a film called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". It was a science fiction film, a genre I really enjoyed. Unlike most science fiction films, though, It didn't have a giant Ant, Gorilla,Creature from the Black Lagoon or some other scary monster that you could see and by seeing be less scared of because you figured that the plot of the movie probably couldn't happen.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was different. It was the story of a Doctor who returns to his small town and finds that one by one all of the people he has known in his town are being replaced by emotionless individuals who have been grown from pods that have dropped from the sky and when placed by a person when they sleep they replicate the body and mind of that person. Just not the emotions. I still remember coming out of that theater feeling more than a bit paranoid as I looked at the people of my small town going about their business just as if nothing had happened. Of course nothing had happened to them, unless they had seen the movie like I did.

I had that same strange feeling as I watched the Republican Convention less than two weeks ago that I had when Kevin McCarthy (the Doctor in the Movie) woke up and realized just how dangerous his world had become. We have seen in the past two weeks some mind control of epic proportions.

Sarah Palin has arrived on the Republican Scene and this hot looking bible beating, book banning, Barack bashing, mother of five and Governor of Alaska has transformed John McCain from an also ran into a fast runner. Palin was noticeably absent from Sunday Talk Shows last Sunday, the Sunday after the Republican Convention. Certainly there may have been a lot of reasons for that, such as her meager foreign policy experience. But one has to really wonder about the power of the Religious Right Wing, who have embraced Sarah Palin as one of their own and a reason to finally get on board the Straight Talk Express.

Many bizarre and weird things have happened since Sarah has arrived on the 2008 Political Scene. Many of the most bizarre scenes occurred at the Republican Convention in St. Paul. There was the Night of a Thousand Political Losers starring Arkansas Traveler, Mike Huckabee, Plastic Mitt Romney and, Of Course, Ruthless Rudy Giuliani. One had to admire Texas Congressman, Ron Paul for having the good sense to avoid the Republican Convention like the Plague. He had his own convention of his own offbeat followers across the river from St. Paul. I only saw Romney's and Giuliani's speeches. I missed Huckabee's speech, although I saw a comment about it on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show". I got the impression from Stewart's show that Huckabee's speech was hard to fathom. Romney and Giuliani sounded like completely different people than they were in the campaign, where they had little good to say about John McCain. While that was not surprising, the level of venom spewed by Romney and especially Giuliani was extremely mean spirited and obnoxious.

Giuliani looked and sounded like a snake snarling and spitting into the St. Paul night. It was a surprisingly disturbing sight. Rudy on a good night looks Ugly. On this night at the convention, though, Rudy looked as though he had truly been beaten to within an inch of his life with the Ugly Stick.

After Rudy slithered off the Convention Stage even a Half Ugly Human Being would have looked good. Certainly Sarah Palin following Rudy Giuliani was like a movie star following the Hunchback of Notre Dame on stage.

Sarah was folksy for a bit and then got quickly to her message which obviously was to trash and shred Obama. Disrespect was the watchword for Sarah and she did her shredding job as well as McCain or anyone else could have expected.

McCain on Thursday Night was the Man, The Candidate, The Honorable One and then the Convention ended on a high note and has continued since then on a series of low notes. But clearly what looked like an iffy pick for Vice President has turned out to be a positive for John McCain.

The mind snatchers have returned once again. Watch out for the Pods, America. This is a very scary time.




Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

John McCain, Where Are You

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
10:30 AM


My Dear America:

Even Democrats may be starting to feel sorry for John McCain these Days. On what was to be the second day of the Republican Convention it seems as though John McCain has disappeared. He was spotted at the end of last week introducing his Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin to the world. He really did something on Friday that I would not have thought was impossible. On the day after Barack Obama's incredibly successful Acceptance Speech at the Democratic Convention John McCain's stunning Vice Presidential announcement stole Barack's momentum and lit up the airwaves and McCain's Conservative support, which had at best been lukewarm up until then. But it didn't take long for the bloom to come off McCain's unlikely pick.

To be sure Sarah Palin is an Exciting American Story. She was a good student, standout basketball player and coach and a Hockey Mom who married her High School Sweetheart. She started with the PTA and graduated to City Council, Mayor of a small town and ended up a popular governor of Alaska. Although she seems to be very popular with Alaskans one Alaskan State legislator indicated that he could not figure out why John McCain picked her and questioned whether McCain had a recent head injury.

Television Talking Heads who claim to know something about the process say that John McCain was steadfast in wanting to pick former Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate, Joe Lieberman but was finally convinced by a McCain Confidante that anti Lieberman sentiment was so high in the Republican Party that it could quite possibly blow up the Republican Convention. At the last minute McCain backed down and out came Palin on Friday. And along with Palin is word that she fired Alaska's Commisioner of Public Safety because he would not buckle and fire her ex Brother in Law, who is a State Trooper and is involved in a custody battle with Palin's sister. As if that wasn't enough bad news for McCain, word also leaked out that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant.

One has to admire Barack Obama for letting the world know very quickly that the families of candidates should be off limits and that he would have nothing to say about Sarah's daughter's situation. Obama was kind enough to remind reporters that his mother was a teenager when she had him.

In addition it seems odd, to say the least, to note that after James Dobson's prayers for rain to ruin Barack's Acceptance Speech night, that the rather sick joke was on Dobson. Barack could not have asked for better weather for his big night in Denver. On the other hand Hurricane Gustav virtually shut down the Republican Convention in St. Paul Monday. The first night of the Convention was on the same day Gustav hit landfall in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf Coast. Yesterday, Monday night, Bush and Cheney were scheduled to speak but of course they didn't. In the end that might have been more of a plus than a minus for John McCain.

Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, who was also scheduled to speak this week at the Republican Convention said he wouldn't make it either. He is running the show in Louisiana and has had the good sense to continue to put his concentration where it needed to be. Jindal was on McCain's short list of VP Contenders. He is doing a magnificent job this time out in making sure that there is no repeat of Katrina. He is doing so well that I am sure there are many Republican hand wringers who are saying:

"Bobby, Why didn't he go with Bobby J."?

McCain may very well be one of those hand wringers.

So to Dr. Dobson who prayed for rain to drown the Democrats I can only Say "Hey Brother Dobson, God has answered your prayers. You wanted rain. You got rain. God just got to it a little later than you wanted him to. And it did, in fact, ruin a Convention. Just not the one you wanted ruined, Dr. Dobson."


Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher