Letters to a Lost Nation

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum: Even The Losers Get Lucky Sometimes

2012-02-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday February 12th, 2012

My Dear America:

It has been a good week for Rick Santorum. After several disappointing matchups between Santorum and his Republican Rivals he won three contests this week, Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. None of these contests provided him with any solid delegates, although certainly none of these State's Republican Party Leaders will be able to count Santorum out when it comes to appointing delegates to the 2012 Republican Convention.

Everywhere I looked on Television this morning I saw Rick smiling and basking in the glory and the momentum that his victories this week have given him.

Yesterday, he had what I assume were his family members, at least his wife and kids, spread across the stage at the C PAC Convention as he spoke and basked in his glory there as the latest Republican Flavor of the Week for the Tea Party and the Republican Party.

Never mind the fact that Rick Santorum proved in his last Pennsylvania Senate Race against Bob Casey that Rick was one of the Biggest Losers of all time in Pennsylvania Politics. This is a fact that most Republicans either don't know or don't care about at this point in the Presidential Race. Certainly Richard Nixon proved that Losers can sometimes be Winners when, after losing the Presidency to John Kennedy and the California Governorship to Edmund "Pat" Brown, he came back from virtual obscurity to win the Presidency in 1968 and 1972. And, Of course, we all know how well that Presidency went.

Santorum is not the only Loser to have won a State Republican Primary. Newt Gingrich did it in South Carolina, a state that he virtually stole from Mitt Romney. Newt campaigned aggressively in South Carolina brutalizing Romney's reputation and pandering to whoever he needed to in order to win.

Romney, who allowed Gingrich to decimate Mitt's reputation in South Carolina learned a valuable lesson in that state. In Florida Romney outspent Newt 3 to 1 on negative ads which reminded Floridians in no uncertain terms what a flawed candidate Newt Gingrich is. Floridians voted for Romney gave him another State Primary victory.

Now the Romney Juggernaut may have been thrown off the tracks this week for a bit but it is quite doubtful that either Santorum, Gingich or Ron Paul will be able to beat Romney in the end. Mitt's Campaign is loaded with money but it looks like he is going to have to spend a lot of that money beating back the Republican Boys of Spring and possibly Summer. It is going to be a long race to the finish line for the Republicans, while President Obama sits back and does his job and saves whatever money he has in his War Chest. One thing is for certain, if all four Republican Candidates stay in the Race they are all going to be Less Rich and far Bloodier by the time that September, October and November come around.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Chickens Come Home To Roost in South Carolina or The Scum Also Rises

2012-01-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

January 21st, 2012

My Dear America:

It has been one hell of a week for the Republican Presidential Candidates still seeking a Victory in today's South Carolina Primary. The only Candidates left in the battle for Republican supremacy in this key southern state are Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum (What, this Loser is still in there). Yes he is and this week was a good one for Santorum. Iowa, after recounting the votes in their Caucus Primary Election, certified not Mitt Romney, but Rick Santorum as the final winner in their state wide Caucus election.

Two of the Candidates that weren't catching fire in South Carolina, or anywhere else, for that matter, Rick Perry and John Huntsman, jumped off the expensive primary path just prior to the South Carolina Primary. Huntsman threw his meager support to Romney while Perry threw in with Newt Gingrich maybe with visions of the Vice Presidency in his head.

On Monday of this week the media was not only crowning Romney as the leader and eventual Winner in South Carolina but also the winner of the eventual Republican Presidential Nomination. A funny thing, in fact a couple of funny things, happened on the way to the Romney Victory Celebration. Two things that happened were two Republican Debates in which Romney tried to be a Gentleman Debater, while Newt Gingrich took the gloves off and proudly beat the bejesus out of not only Mitt Romney but also John King, CNN Debate moderator on Thursday, who had the audacity to bring up a question about an interview that was scheduled to run on Thursday Evening's Nightline Program on ABC in which Newt's second wife, Marianne Gingrich, revealed what an immoral scumbag Newt was. Newt was "appalled" at the question by Mr. King about Newt's damaged moral compass and the South Carolina crowd seemed to love it when Newt tore into the CNN Debate Moderator.

What's more is that following the airing of Newt Gingrich's extremely dirty laundry on ABC the reaction of the public on ABC.com was almost overwhelrmingly pro Newt and anti Marianne Gingrich, anti ABC and anti media.

Suddenly the Family Values voters seemed to rise up in anger saying things like "What about Clinton," apparently forgetting the fact that Bill Clinton did not leave his wife for his girlfriends. The Family Values voters also did not seem to be disturbed by the fact that while Gingrich, as Speaker of the House was leading the impeachment charge against Bill Clinton because of Clinton's cheating on his wife, Newt was doing the same thing with his mistress, and now wife Callista. The Family Values Voters also seemed to forget about the pattern that Newt Gingrich had established of not only cheating on his wives but cheating on them for years before dumping them for new wives (Ex mistresses)when the old wives got sick (Cancer or MS), or "too old" or not pretty enough. Old Pretty Boy Newt was such a handsome devil that he shouldn't have to be saddled with a wife who wasn't up to his beauty standards.

No, In South Carolina the Evangelical Christian Voters seemed to only care about Morality and Family Values when those values were violated by Democrats. With Newt Gingrich, one of the most reprehensible Serial Adulterers and Certified Liars of all times, suddenly Family Values was something that wasn't all that important, after all.

If, indeed, Newt Gingrich wins in South Carolina and, worse yet, win's the Nomination I think that he will lose to President Obama in the final tally for the Presidency.

But, as a friend reminded me just today, there are a lot of people in the United States who hate President Obama with a vengeance and might be willing to vote for a Candidate as morally corrupt, as well as physically ugly as Newt Gingrich.

I hope and pray that corruption and hatefulness in our country has not gone so far as to make Newt Gingrich look like Presidential Material.

God forbid that we would ever live in a nation governed by a corrupt contemptable misanthrope like Newt Gingrich.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Bashing Newt Gingrich: It's not just for Democrats Anymore.

2012-01-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

My Dear America:

It is one day after New Years and one day before the Iowa Caucuses, which will be the first real Primary Election Event in 2012.

It has been a very interesting Primary Season, thus far, as the Republican Field of Primary Candidates have had a season of bashing and crashing against one another in what seemed like an endless season of Republican Primary Debates in 2012.   The result of the debates and the beginning of the Primary Season has been a whack a mole series of exploding and imploding candidacies in which the Primary Republican Poll Leaders have shifted over time like a series of earthquakes over Iowa changing poll leaders sometimes weekly and sometimes daily.

Most of the truly serious Iowa Republican Presidential Contenders seem to have had their special moment at the top pf the Polls. Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have all had their moment at the top of the heap. Ron Paul who has had slow but steady support over time seems to have surged a bit after Hemain Cain did the honorable thing and went home to his wife after being accused of sexual harassment and having a 13 year relationship with a woman who was not his wife.

Following Hermain Cain's Campaign Implosion, in which his questionable moral judgements seemed to drive him from the race, Newt Gingrich suddenly began to surge in the Iowa polls. Newt had continued to have a steady debate performance, unlike Rick Perry who came into the Primary race like a house on fire.  Perry's continuing debate flubs pretty quickly put the fire out. Michelle Bachman, despite continuing inaccurate historical fact statements that would have gotten her thrown off "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" Bachman has been rather surprising in her debate performances, which consist mainly of bashing President Barack Obama and statements appeasing the Tea Party.

Newt Gingrich probably gained more from Herman Cain's departure from the Republican Presidential Pack than anyone else. As Herman Cain's numbers went down and finally out, Newt Gingrich's poll numbers began to surge.  This is particualrly difficult to explain since Iowa voters who rejected Herman Cain in the end were mainly values voters and although there have been many things that Newt Gingrich has been accused of in his political and personal life, being a man of high moral values is not one of them.  As Newt's poll numbers began to surge, both media representatives and other Candidates began to take Newt more seriously and both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul began to send out their well funded Campaign's truth squads to try to straighten out the lies and distortions that Newt Gingrich had tried to pull off. Newt, who has been particularly cruel to his first two wives, as he moved forward to marry his last two mistresses has been fully exposed as a liar and a cheat on the home front, as well as on the campaign front. As a result Newt has seen his previously considerable lead dwindle to that of an also ran.

In the closing days of the Iowa Campaign as Mitt Romney and Ron Paul seem to be very close to each other in First and Second place, something else surprising has also happened in Iowa.

Rick Santorum, A man who was soundly defeated in his last Pennsylvania fight for his United States Senate Seat by present Senator Bob Casey, has touted his low rent Presidential candidacy by presenting himself as a big winner in his Pennsylvania Congressional and Senate races. Apparently he seems to have amnesia about his last Senate race trouncing. Nevertheless, as Republican candidate after candidate has bit the Iowa dust, Rick Santorum has surged in the last weeks as Newt Gingrigh has faded fast under the hot glow of the reality microscope.

Santorum for President. This, to me, is almost as bad a prospect as a Newt Gingrich Presidency.

As the Republicans have cannibalized each other's candidacies in 2011 we will finally have more than polls to tell us what is happening in the 2012 Presidential race.

The Republicans will continue to beat the living daylights out of one another and President Obama,

I have visions of President Obama, who the last time around had his candidacy taken seriously after Iowa made him a Democratic Star, sitting around the White House laughing hysterically at the Republican Presidential Primary Side Show. He, of course, is sitting pretty as the only Democrat in the Iowa Caucus voting. It is hard to conceive of how he could lose his standing in the Iowa caucus.

After tomorrow it will be done in Iowa. A Republican winner will be leaving Iowa to pursue other treasures in other American States and Iowa will just be a distant and painful memory to those who did battle there. Whoever is left after their Iowa bloodbath will be moving on to New Hampshire and South Carolina and on and on and on in this battle of the New Presidential Election Year.

As Tiny Tim would say in Dicken's A Christmas Carol, "God Bless us, Every One."

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Welcome To Wall Street: The Birthplace Of The New American Revolution

2011-10-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

My Dear America:

As you well know by now the New American Revolution has begun and oddly enough it has begun on Wall Street, probably the least likely place for a Revolution to start.

Occupy Wall Street is a determined bunch of Americans who have had it, who are fed up and who are, Like Peter Finch in the movie "Network," "Mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore."

What are they mad at and what is it they are not going to take anymore. Well, they're mad at a lot of things.

They are mad that the 99 percent of Americans are buckling under incredible debt and financial burdens while the 1 percent of Americans, who are the Super Rich are doing well and getting the tax breaks that the 99 percent need and deserve.

They are mad at the fact that a college education has become out of reach for many deserving young people as college costs in public, as well as private schools have put those who have graduated in an economy with no jobs, no heath care and outragous debt for their college loans. Many other students have found that the prohibitive costs of College has forced them to drop out, without a college education and with a lot of debt, but no degree.

My daughter, an incredibly gifted student, who went to a great private college and just recently completed Law School understands what Occupy Wall Street is all about. She is looking at upwards of two hundred thousand dollars of debt and is unable to get credit without a co signer for a loan. She and all the other students who are Occupying Wall Street know what a crock of lies the American Dream has become for young people under the oppressive yoke of the Obstructionist Republican Congress.

We are in a period of time where we need a Revolution of epic proportions. We certainly don't want the blood of any Americans running in the streets. But we do need to show those in positions of power that the middle and lower classes in America are no longer satisfied to sit home and tolerate their destruction at the hands of the rich and powerful.

What we need is for the anger and disgust with what is happening to America to be channeled in a positive manner, namely at the ballot box. The Democratic party has, unfortunately, become as dependent on corporations as Republicans have. I have had friends talk to me recently about their disappointment with President Obama and their plans not to vote for him again.

My response to my friends is "Who are you going to vote for, then." Their answers are usually that they will not vote or will vote for an alternative candidate.

I tell my friends that now is not the time to give up on Obama. Has he been a disappointment?

Yes, he has.

But the main reason that he is a disappointment is that Republicans have done everything they could do to stand in the way of everything he has tried
to do to help the average American.

Even now, when everyone in the country knows that the main concern on every American's mind is jobs, the Republicans continue to stand in the way of Obama's Jobs Bill with some Republicans even going on record saying that the jobs bill will not be passed because the Republicans do not want to give Obama Any credit for Anything. The Republican Party has become a heartless and uncaring party, who seem to care about nothing except defeating President Obama in the next Presidential election and keeping Millionaires satisfied.

Any and every Progressive who looks at the present Republican field of candidates has to feel a cold chill go down their back as they think that any one of this field of has beens and wack jobs might actually become President of the United States.

We think that we are in rough shape now. Think about the prospect of one of these Republican "Contenders" in the oval office.

If that is not enough to get us down to Wall Street with the Revolutionaries then get ready for this country to hit the skids even harder than it has so far. I would urge everyone who has not completely given up to dust yourself off, get down to Wall Street or wherever they are protesting in your area and get on board the Revolution Train and don't lose sight of that light at the end of the tunnel on this train.

President Obama

Barack Obama may not be everybody's cup of tea but in the era of the Tea Party Takeover of the Republican Pary, it is time for the Occupy Wall Street Movement to start thinking about Occupying the Democratic Party and fighting for the ideals that John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey believed in. We need not only to re elect Obama but to load him down with a Congress of Democrats who will not stand in the way of progress but will help Obama to make progress happen for all Americans.

Occupy Wall Street also needs to continue their Non Violent Power boosted and keep out the Anarchists who will destroy their credibility and their movement.

In my opinion:

Long Live Occupy Wall Street and Long Live the Democratic Party.

They need to work together, the sooner the better.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Straw Poll On The Planet Of The Apes

2011-08-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

My Dear America:

My friend, Larry, just went to see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." He gave it a Thumbs Up and said he liked it a lot. Larry is not alone. Last Saturday, the day of the Iowa Straw Poll, the latest installment of the Planet of the Apes movie franchise was the highest grossing movie in our country for the second weekend in a row.

I still recall the first time that I saw Charlton Heston in the first "Planet of the Apes," movie toward the end of the film riding on a horse escaping from the apes and suddenly seeing the almost destroyed remains of the Statue of Liberty and realizing, along with the audience, that The Planet of the Apes was really planet Earth.

It was a very heavy scene and one that still gives me chills when I look around and realize that although we don't have a lot of apes running around the Earth, we certainly have our share of apes disguised as humans and a heck of a lot of apelike behavior by humans.

On the Planet of the Apes humans were subservient to apes and violent apes were generally in charge and very brutal. On our Planet of the Apes in 2011 we don't have to look very far to see brutish, stupid and apelike behavior.

Take the debate on the national debt, for instance. The Apes of the Republican Party and, in particular, the Tea Party, won by failing to debate and whipping what should have been a simple bipartisan political decision into a nightmare for President Obama and the Democrats, as well as the American people, by holding out for no taxing of the rich and extraordinary cuts of valuable programs. What Obama had to give up to get the Tea Party Republicans on board was too much.

In Iowa we finally had a referendum on who might be the Contenders for the Republican nomination for President. On Rise of the Planet of the Apes second weekend in the theaters some very fresh and interesting political theater was taking place in Iowa, as well as in South Carolina.

Just prior to the Straw Poll we saw a debate that took place there among the Republican Contenders. Tim Pawenty and Michelle Bachman, Minnesota's entrants in the Presidential race sliced each other up pretty well, Rick Santorum acted like a kid on the playground that wasn't picked for a game and Newt Gingrich sounded good but would not place well in the straw poll. Too many people were onto Newt's two faced, self aggrandizing brand of politics.

While Bachman stirred up her base in Iowa, like a shark circling its victims Sleezy Rider, Sarah Palin breezed into Iowa on her bus to attend the Iowa State Fair. What odd timing for her to come charging into Iowa. One would almost think that she was trying to take the spotlight away from the other Presidential Contenders. And, to some extent, It worked.

Also, in a state far away from Iowa, South Carolina, in fact, some additional political theater was taking place that was clearly designed to take the focus off the Straw Poll and put it on Texas Governor, Rick Perry. This strategy worked even better than Sarah Palin's, to draw attention to Perry's announcement that he was indeed going to be a Contender for the Republican Nomination for President.

The Straw Poll, itself, became almost an also ran. Michelle Bachman won it, Ron Paul came in second and Tim Pawlenty, third and Rick Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania who had been tossed out of office by a bone chilling loss to Present PA Senator, Robert Casey, came in 4th. Pawlenty, quit the race after losing to Bachman, Ron Paul proved once again that his power in the Republican race is not with the party but with the people.

The rest of the large Republican field did not see their poor showing in Iowa in the same light that Pawlenty did. Some, like Rick Santorum, have nothing better to do, of course, but for him the 4th place showing breathes new life for his poorly financed and lackluster campaign. The rest of the Straw Poll losers left Iowa, not only discouraged by their showing the in straw poll, but also discouraged by the new look look of the Republican field of Front runners.

Michelle Bachman soaked up her victory on every Sunday Morning Television Political Talk Show that she could find. Her front runner status was quickly challenged by Rick Perry accepting a speaking engagement in Michelle's home town of Waterloo, Iowa. Although she had initially not accepted a spot on the speakers platform of this Republican Fund raising event, she quickly got herself added to the candidate spotlight show and raced home to Waterloo for the Sunday Fund Raiser.

Although the press and pundits seem to have made this race a three way race between Bachman, Perry and Romney, I think it is far too early to count out other candidates like Palin.

To tell you the truth it looks like an awful group of Republican Candidates, with the possible exception of John Huntsman and Ron Paul, but to be honest I don't think either of these candidates have a snowball's chance in hell.

What both Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman have going for them is that they both look good on Television and both can give a good speech. As long as no one is paying attention to what they are saying they are going to be good, strong candidates.

God Help Us, America. Suddenly John McCain is looking like a wonderful candidate in comparison to what is available so far in the 2011 Republican Field of Political Dreams.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Sarah Palin - Sleazy Rider

2011-05-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 30th, 2011
Memorial Day

My Dear America:

While the swirls of Patriotism are in the wind on this special day, Memorial Day, 2011, into the hometown of the American Congress and President rides the stranger than fiction hot chick on a Harley, Sarah Palin. At a biker rally on the Washington, D.C. mall here comes Sarah dressed in biker chick clothing and wearing a military helmet. Can any sight be more patriotic than that.

She is also on the first leg of her "One Nation" bus tour and has just bought a house in Arizona, a place where they claim to understand Sarah Palin and her strange ideals.

When you think about it there is nothing short of amazement when you try to understand the transformation of Sarah Palin from the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska to the Governor of Alaska, to Republican Vice Presidential Candidate in 2008, to Author and Fox News Analyst (Analyst - Right) to possible Republican Presidential Candidate and major obsession of the Republican and Democratic Party, as well as the American News media.

How in the world did we let this happen and allow Sarah Palin to dominate our lives for this long and allow her to progress to the point where she might end up being the 2012 Republican Candidate for President. Well, to be honest she is a step up from Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich, but not much of a step up.

Why are Americans so obsessed,, either positively or negatively, with Sarah. She apparently is just hard to forget. We seem to forget her embarassingly hokey stump speeches in 2008. We forget that John McCain's Campaign leaders were reluctant to let her talk to the media immediately after she was nominated at the Republican Convention. We seem to forget how she paraded her unmarried pregnant daughter and her future son in law, as well as her handicapped infant around the Convention and then the country. We seem to forget the embarassing answer to Katie Couric's simple (obviously Trick) question about her reading habits. We seem to forget that she was investigated in Alaska for her efforts to fire her ex Brother in Law from the Alaska Sate Police. We also seem to forget that when the pastures became greener (financially) Sarah dropped the Alaskan Governorship like a bad habit and made money hand over fist on the lecture circuit and from her first book.

Laurence O'Donnell makes a good point when he states that Fox news has fired other possible Presidential contenders like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich but has kept on Sarah and Mike Huckabee, knowing full well that they will not run. That may well be true but oddly enough Roger Ailes, Fox News head has been quoted as calling Palin "Stupid".

The truth is that Sarah Palin, star of the Discovery Channel's enormously successful, "Sarah Palin's Alaska" series, may not be nearly as stupid as we all thought. She is an opportunist of epic proportions and as the list of Republican Presidential hopefuls dwindles, her name has suddenly risen to the top of recent Republican Primary polls and we should not make the same mistake we have made in the past, which is counting her out of the Presidential Race before she takes herself out.

The truth is also that the Republican Presidential Presidential Primary field is so riddled with awful, candidates that in a field like this Sarah Palin may once again prove that truth is stranger than fiction.

Watch out Republican Party, I don't think Sarah Palin is done with you yet nor are you done with her.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Newt Gingrich - Another Voice From The Bottom Of The Barrel

2011-05-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

My Dear America:

If there was one person that I would not want to see capture the Presidency of the United States it is probably Donald Trump. Certainly a close second in this Nightmare Scenario of Republican Roulette is Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is one of the most incredibly immoral liars and cheaters who has ever lived, never mind lived in the public eye.

How he has the gall to run for Presidency, let alone public office, is beyond me. Newt has been responsible for, if not starting, at least stoking the animosity between Republicans and Democrats to far beyond acceptable levels when he was Speaker of the House during the 90s. Newt was responsible for pushing the process until the Government shut down and strangely enough in a weird way helped to foster the Monica Lewinsky scandal which seriously tarnished the reputation of President Bill Clinton. Gingrich then took the opportunity to push hard for the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about cheating on his wife with Lewinsky. At the same time that Newt was leading the charge to root out the moral corruption of "Cheatin Bill," "Cheatin Newt" was doing the same thing, namely cheating on his wife with a staffer, who later on became his wife and eventually got the same deal from Newt that his first wife got, namely Newt cheating on her with a staffer and later marrying that person.

Newt told his first wife that he was divorcing her while she was in the hopspital fighting cancer. His second wife tells the tale of asking Newt how he could justify his lying and other reprehensible behavior and him telling her
"It doesn't matter what I do, It just matters what I say."

Newt now states that he has "done some things that he is not proud of." His explanation of his cheating, lying and other despicable acts is now that his "love for his country" caused him to do what he did.

Amazingly enough, to my mind, at least, Newt, the Sunday before last said on Meet the Press in answer to a question by David Gregory, that he did not support the Paul Ryan Plan to dismantle Medicaire. Gingrich stated that he found the plan an example of "Right Wing Extremism." By this Sunday, however, the outcry by the Republican and Tea Party Extremists had pushed Newt way back over to that same Right Wing Extremism that a week before he found so reprehensible.

Who knows whether Trump or Gingrich is indeed the most dangerous Meglomaniac in America. At the moment Trump has (supposedly) taken himself out of the Presidential race. Will that be the end of it for him. Let's hope so.

Gingrich is still in it, however, so clearly he is presently maintaining his spot at the bottom of the Republican Candidate barrel and I am sure he will be putting his foot in his mouth and trying to lie his way out of it many more times during this campaign.

How could the American Electorate be stupid enough to elect this guy. Well, in America, not once but twice they elected George Bush.

That, to my mind is enough to make me worry about Newt's chances in this election.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Donald Trump - Voice From the Bottom of the Barrel

2011-05-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

My Dear America:

Well, at least one impending Crisis of Doom has been averted.

That Crisis was the prospect of Donald Trump being elected President of the United States. I will never understand why this reckless, heartless, arrogant and clueless Egomaniac was ever allowed the airtime and media consideration that he was. Even in his statement yesterday he was allowed the gall of stating that although business is his true love, that if he had entered the race he was sure that he would have won the Republican Nomination and in the end would have also won the White House.

Throughout Trump's short Tease Campaign he spewed venom at President Obama, demanding, among other things that Obama, who had real matters of concern, like trying to get Osama bin laden, show his true birth certificate. Trump even went so far as to claim that Private Investigators Trump had hired found evidence of Great Concern about where the President was born.
To shut the Donald up Obama finally released his long form birth certificate, made a fool out of Trump at the White House Correspondent's Dinner and to top it off, engineered a mission to not only eliminate bin laden but also to haul away valuable intelligence information from bin laden's compound in Pakistan.

Certainly there were plenty of good reason's for Trump not to run. It is doubtful that, even if Obama didn't eliminate Osama, that Trump could have beaten him although the prospect of Trump even being in the race still gives me chills.

I am glad he is out of it, or at least out of it for the present, but like the Loch Ness Monster or Governor Schwartzeneger, I still fear that this opportunistic Egomaniac may still have it in his head that he will at some point say "I'll Be Back."

But for now, though, it appears as though the person who stopped Donald Trump's real or possibly false Political Ambitions was the President of NBC, the network that broadcasts Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice." When asked whether or not Donald Trump could be replaced on "Apprentice" the NBC President indicated that not only could Trump be replaced on "The Apprentice" but that he would be replaced and it would be easy to replace him.

Within hours of that statement by the NBC President, Trump had put out his statement throwing in the towel on his Presidential bid.

I wonder if one thing had any bearing on the other.

Goodbye Mr. Trump. And Good Riddance.

I guess The Donald didn't want to hear the head of NBC say to him "You're fired.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Obama - One / Osama - Zero

2011-05-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

May 5th, 2011

My Dear America:

Well, here we go again. The Race for the Presidency of the United States has begun once again and events in the beginning of May, 2011 are happening at Breakneck Speed and with Great Significance.

It has only been a few weeks since President Obama officially threw his hat in the ring and announced that he was, indeed, planning to be a run for a second term for President in 2012. One wonders why he would want to be a candidate with the incredible animosity he has received from his critics but I do not question his reasoning for his undertaking the race, I am simply grateful that he is doing it.

The State of the Union at the present time is, in many respects a disaster. Republicans in the House, especially Tea Pary Republicans, continue to try to dismantle the safety net for Poor and Middle Class Citizens that has been in place for many years thanks to primarily Democrats and those ancient beings that used to be known as Moderate and Progressive Republicans.

President Obama on today's date is clearly in the drivers seat heading for the 2012 Election after showing calm, deliberate and sensible leadership in the direction of a commando campaign into Pakistan which not only killed Al Quida Leader, Osama bin ladin but also took possession of bin ladin's computers and other files, which hopefully will lead to the killing or capturing of other Al Quida operatives wherever they may be.

Over last weekend President Obama did not display any signs that he was burdened by the coming operation to eliminate Osama. He sat at the main table on Saturday Night at the White House Correspondents Dinner and, along with Saturday Night Live Head Writer, Seth Meyers, skewered some of the leading Republican Candidates for President, with especially deserved ridicule aimed at Republican Poll Leader, Donald Trump. Trump was there in the audience glaring viciously at Obama and Meyers. It had been wonderful to watch Trump, who had spent a good deal of time on the campaign trail questioning Obama's place of birth earlier last week, put in his place by the President, who released his long form birth certificate and once and for all, at least for all reasonable people, put the matter to rest. Trump, classy guy that he is, did not apologize to the President but instead patted himself on the back for forcing the President to take time out from his genuinely important duties to deal with this Trumped up BS. Trump's next step was to start questioning Obama's intelligence and in so doing calling for Obama to release his college transcripts. Here again, only a stupid fool like DT would be foolish enough to question the intelligence of a man who graduated from Harvard Law School Magna Cum Laude and was the first black Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Hey, Donald Trump, when are we going to see your college transcripts.

Tonight will be the first Republican Candidates Debate in South Carolina including only a few of the Republican Candidates for President. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Ron Paul will be there along with a guy named Gary "Who".

I guess its never too early for Republicans to market themselves.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

And We Gazed Upon The Chimes Of Freedom Flashin

2011-02-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

My Dear America:

Legend has it that Bob Dylan wrote his own personal National Anthem, "Chimes of Freedom", after an experience in which Dylan was caught in a Thunderstorm in New York City when he was down by the New York Harbor. Apparently, according to legend, Dylan was so moved by the awesome sight of lightning flashes and sounds of thunder over and around the Statue of Liberty that he was moved to write the song which is a celebration of Freedom in America for not only the Rich but the "Confused, Misused, Refused, Strung out ones and Worse, and for every hung up person in the whole wide Universe, And We Gazed upon the Chimes of Freedom Flashin"

Perhaps Dylan's National Anthem is on it's way to being an International Anthem. It is one day after one of the world's most vicious Dictators has been driven from power by the incredible bravery of his mainly young Countrymen, who, following the lead of Tunisia and several other middle eastern and African countries including Jordan, Yemen and others, shut down their country (Egypt) and refused to budge from their massive demonstations until the Dictator left and turned the country over to the Egyptian Military.

Yesterday was a day of unbelievable celebration in Egypt. Today is a day of cleaning up Tahrir Square (Demonstration Central) and making an attenpt to get back to what will forever, from this day, be thought of as Normal in Egypt. The Egyptians have taken back their country after 30 years of Tyranny.

What happens now is anyone's guess.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

You Say You Want a Revolution - We All Want To See The Plan

2010-11-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

November 6th, 2010

My Dear America:

"It's All Over Now" is a Rolling Stones Song that seems to be appropriate to sing or listen to at this very low point, just a few days past the Republican Tsunami that washed over our Country this past Tuesday.

The Truth is, however, that although Democrats feel terrible right now perhaps this is the wake up call that we all needed to recognize that during the last two years while we have been complacent and uninvolved in the goings on in Washington, those Wackos and Wierdo's who inhabit Fox News and every State in the Union were busy as hell promoting their agenda, which was to kill the Obama and Democratic Agenda.

In Washington, the Congress under the leadership of John Boner and Mitch McConnell certainly did their part to kill every positive measure that the Democrats and, in particular, Barack Obama, came up with and looking back on things one would have to say they accomplished their tasks quite effectively.

In fact, Congress between 2008 and 2010 became an Inert, Do Nothing Body which one would have thought would have been punished in this past election
by throwing the Republicans, who were responsible for the inaction out on their collective rear ends.

One would have thought wrong.

Instead of the American Public recognizing the insanity of the Republican effort to claw their way back to the Bush or Reagan Eras where the Corporation was King and the little guy or the unemployed girl were fed table scraps from the Wealthy Corporate Banquet Table, The American Public rewarded Republicans.

If there is anyone out there who understands how or why Regular Decent Americans could be turned into Voters who Vote Republican in this two year period in which Republicans did not do anything for them other than try to smother every good idea which the Democrats Came up with, I would love to hear or see the explanation.

It is beyond me to understand what Americans were thinking when they voted for a party that had no use for them. Why in the Hell did they vote against their own interest.

On this day, one day after MSNBC Countdown host, Keith Olbermann, was taken off the air by NBC for violating NBC's policy by donating to Democratic Candidates, we must take a long, hard look at Fox News. Fox "Fair and balanced" News is nothing close to Fair and Balanced.

It is, and has been for some time, a propoganda tool for the Republican Party with not one of its Anchors or Analysts, with the possible exception of Juan Williams and occasionally Geraldo Rivera, fair and balanced. Fox lies and subverts the truth every day it broadcasts and still presents itself as a legitimate News Network.

Freedom of the Press certainly does have it's drawbacks. But what can we do about Fox. About the only thing we could do up to now is watch some other network with Anchor's willing to tell the truth and straighten out many of Fox's lies and half truths. Keith Olbermann, along with Rachel Maddow was one of those people willing to stand up to Fox. Now he is suspended indefinitely. Could Keith's Friend and MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow, be next to go. I hope not but new Corporate people are now running NBC and Keith Olbermann's "suspension" is not a good sign to me.

While Tuesday's bloodbath was a terrible blow to Democrats I think we have to give credit where credit is due. During the past two years, despite his sometimes maddening attempts to work positively with Republicans, Barack Obama tried his best to make good on his promises to you, America.

One of the strangest things to me looking back over the past two years was the incredibly transparent Republican obstruction of efforts to pass Health Care Legislation. In the end, at Republican insistence, there was no "Public Option" and the plan was so watered down that it was still a bonanza for Health Care Corporations but it still wasn't weak enough for Republicans not to run against it this past year and demonize it along with Speaker of The House, Nancy Pelosi.

Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, what about the influence of the Republican controlled Supreme Court's "Citizen's United" decision which opened the financial flood gates to unlimited money to be poured into Republican Campaign Coffers this year to pay for the seemingly unending negative ads that promoted lies, half truths and trash talk about Democrats all over the country. Yes the American People should have been able to see through this mountain of obvious garbage but they didn't, not this time.

So we have Nancy Pelosi, a truly outstanding American Woman and a truly outstanding Speaker of the House, villified throughout the 2010 Campaign along with those other Democratic Outlaws, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and to a lesser extent, Bill Clinton, throughout the race.

I must say I am proud of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and especially Bill Clinton for doing all they did to promote Democrats and try their best to be a Truth Squad as they worked to help Democratic Candidates throughout the County.

I salute them and I especially Salute Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and other Democratic House leaders who I feel did their jobs as well as could be expected during the Republican Right Wing Obstruction in Congress for two years.

I also applaud Barack Obama and Joe Biden for doing their jobs well and putting the needs of the Country First.

Do we want a Revolution.

Yes, We need one.

But not one in which we are using guns to get our way.

I believe that somewhere out there are the same people who voted Democrats in in 2008. We need to find them, connect with them and begin our Revolution today to take back our Country in 2012.

It is certainly going to be an unbearable couple of years but as they always do they will pass very quickly. I don't think that President Obama will roll over and play dead. He will continue to show us that he cares and that he wants us to progress.

He can help us and I think he will help us take back the House, Keep the Senate and Keep the White House in 2012. But we must begin now. We can certainly lick our collective wounds but after we do that we need to reorganize and like the Tea Party, get back to Move On and other Democratic leaning organization's like the Democratic Party in every State, County, Town and District in the Country. Lets start working on getting good candidates like we had in Pennsylvania in Joe Sestak who came within two percentage points of beating Pat Toomey for Senate.

We can, should and I think will learn a difficult lesson from this Election and that is work hard and take nothing for granted. Get involved in Democratic Party Politics wherever you are. Run for Office. Recruit others to run for office.

Get involved.

Lets not ever have a bloodbath like this happen again to Democrats in our country.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Recent Public Opinion Polls Present the Possibility of a November Surprise in Pennsylvania

2010-10-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

My Dear America:

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Republican Rout in Pennsylvania.

People started paying attention this month to what both the Republican and Democratic Candidates were stating in their Ads and in their numerous Debates.

Clearly many Pennsylvanians did not like what they heard since the rather comfortable leads of Tom Corbett (Republican) over Dan Onorato (Democrat) for Governor (over 15 points at one time) and the 9 point lead that Pat Toomey (Republican) had built up over his opponent, Joe Sestak (Democrat) have sunk to within a few percentage points in the polls.

I have to admit that both Corbett and Toomey seem to be a little more comfortable looking on Television than their Democratic Opponents. They are both Smooth Republican Operators who know how to play to the cameras and also know how to play down their Extreme Positions when the TV Cameras are rolling.

Corbett seems to like to play the role of a kindly Gray Haired Grandfather proudly stating that he will cut taxes and cut spending if it kills him, seeming not to care if it kills the state of Pennsylvania, as well.

The Real Tom Corbett is not so kindly. He has been known to sue to try to find out who his Social Network Critics are, unsuccessfully, Thank God, So Far.

He has also spent a fortune to root out what he calls corruption in the Pennsylvania Legislature, namely legislators using public funding to pay their staffers to work on their campaigns. While it is true that this is against the law in Pennsylvania, It is hard to believe that only Democrats have been guilty of this dastardly crime. But surprisingly Corbett only seemed to investigate and prosecute Democrats for this crime.

I have two questions for Corbett.

ONE: Why did he investigate and Prosecute only Democrats?

AND

TWO: Couldn't the Attorney General of Pennsylvania spend his Offices Money and the Taxpayers Money more wisely by going after real Criminals?

Corbett's Opponent, Dan Onorato, is a well connected Western Pennsylvania Democrat with a good record that has been twisted badly by Corbett and his Republican backers. Onorato in debates seems to have been able to finally begin setting the record straight about who in the Governor's Race is and who is not beholding to big business and especially companies that are looting the Marcellus Shale areas with no payback to the state other than through the Campaign Coffers of Tom Corbett.

In the United States Senator's Race Pat Toomey is a former 15th District Congressman who has the slick personality of a Former Wall Street Derivatives Huckster who has worked in China and seems to be more concerned about China's Economic Problems than those of America. Toomey is an expert BS Artist and that had been working for him when not a lot of Pennsylvanians were paying attention but in the recent debates Sestak's halting and emotional speech patterns have been less slick than Toomeys but more honest and realistic than his opponent whose dishonest House of Cards seems to be crumbling in the final days of the Campaign.

After leaving Congress Toomey ran the Right Wing Fringe Group, "The Club For (Republican Millionaires) Growth" and scared Republican Senator, Arlen Specter, into becoming a Democrat rather than face Toomey in the Republican Primary. Specter also started with a huge polling lead over his opponent, Joe Sestak, in the Democratic Primary. No one gave Sestak much of a chance to beat Specter, but he did. As the Pennsylvania November Election gets closer Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey are a hairs breath away from one another in the polls and so are Corbett and Onorato.

As a Famous Baseball Manager once said.

"It Ain't Over Til its Over"

And In Pennsylvania

"It Ain't Over Yet".

Welcome To Bizarro America

2010-09-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

My Dear America:

I remember a TV Show (I Think it was Saturday Night Live but I'm not sure) having a continuing skit in which there was a place called "Bizarro World."

Bizarro World was a world that didn't make sense. It was a world in which opposites meant the opposite of what we expected and were used to in our world.

For instance in our world Black was Black and White was White, Good was Good and Bad was Bad.

Things made sense in our world.

But in Bizarro World things did not make sense. Everything was opposite of our world in Bizarro World.

For instance in Bizarro World White was Black and Black was White and Good Was Bad and Bad was Good.

Now, however, after all these years we are finding out that Bizarro World is not all that Bizarre.

We are living today in you, America, and you have become, in my estimation Bizarro World in the USA. I hate to say it. Believe me I hate to say it but I must say it.

Why are you, America, Bizarro World. Let me discuss that with you.

In America things haven't always made sense, take Watergate, for instance. But for the most part, when it came to Politics you or I could look at a Candidate and pretty much figure out where they stood. And when it came time to make a decision it might not be easy to figure out who was best and who was not but with a little bit of effort you could do it and so could others.

The truth is that I still can pretty much figure out who I want to vote for and decide for what I feel are good reasons. The problem is that now that we are living in Bizarro World my countrymen and women don't seem to have the same capabilities as I do. Or is it me thats Bizarre. Sometimes I don't know.

The bottom line is, America, what in the hell is going on with you. You are either stupid or I am. I can't figure out which of us is out of touch with reality.

For instance, what is so hard about understanding the fact that Republicans throughout the past year and a half have done Nothing to advance our Country but here, today, in Bizarro World instead of people looking at that almost Criminal Record of Republican Obstruction and lies in Washington and elsewhere, according to nearly all of the polls Republicans, or worse Tea Party Candidates, are primed to win statewide and federal races all over your country.

I don't understand it. What is going on here. Do people not have memories. Have their brains been erased. Why can't they recall the depths to which our country had sunk prior to the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and his Inauguration in 2009.  Barack brought us Hope back then and Optimism for the future.

But after the Bush Administration plundered our banks, our spirits and our good name aound the world, Obama was handed a country that was a disaster and was headed toward a depression.  Republicans have fought him tooth and nail throughout his short lived Administration as he struggled to prop up Wall Street, the American Automotive Industry and finally after nearly a century of trying brought us at least a little bit of Health Care relief. Obama has struggled in Bizarro World in every effort to improve our country and nearly all legitimate economists indicate that although we are still struggling with our economy that TARP and the Stimulus have, at least temporarily staved off a Depression.

Unfortunately, however, here in Bizarro World where the Republicans seem to be lined up to take back the US House and Senate we are up the proverbial creek without much of a paddle left.

In my out of the mainstream view of things I think that Barack Obama and his Democratic Congressional Cohorts have done a good job under difficult circumstances trying to move important legislation forward in a House and Senate in which Republicans under the Bizarro eyes of Mitch McConnell and John Boner have had nothing positive to contribute to you, America, and have remained opposed to anything constructive put forth by the Democrats.

I hope that Democrats wake up soon enough to prevent the disaster that would be the Republicans retaking of your country.  If the Republicans are successful in November they will certainly push us back in the ditch that Barack Obama has halfway pulled us out of here in Bizarro World.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Daniel Schorr - Farewell to a Fearless and Legendary Newsman

2010-07-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

July 25th, 2010

My Dear America:

Daniel Schorr is dead and the news business has lost another legendary Newsman.

I don't exactly recall the circumstances of when I first saw Daniel Schorr presenting a story on CBS News with Walter Cronkite as he did for so many years. I do remember thinking, however, how in the world is this guy on a network newscast when he sounded like he had a speech impediment. He did not really have a speech impediment, of course.  Its just that his laid back speech sound and his rather plain ordinary face did not match up with the booming authoritative voices and the pretty boy good looks of many other Television newscasters at the time.

Why was Dan Schorr on television with CBS? The answer was because he was one hell of a newsman and had been one at CBS since first getting picked by Edward R. Murrow to become one of his select few correspondents at CBS News.

CBS Newsman, Robert Schieffer, himself a standout in the field of Television Newsmen, gave Howard Kurtz of CNN and the Washington Post some of his memories of his colleague, Daniel Schorr, this morning. Schieffer recalled a time when Schorr was using a cane due to a leg injury or an operation or something and when attending a press opportunity on Capitol Hill used the cane as a weapon to clear a path for himself to get to the front of the press pack limping badly as he hurtled himself forward. Schieffer also recalled that Schorr, who was quite proud of his status as being close to the top of Richard Nixon's famed "Enemies List", found out that he was on the list on live television when having come up with the list he was reading the list and reporting on camera when he found his own name close to the top of the the notorious list. According to Schieffer he thought Dan Schorr would probably want his inclusion on the "Nixon Enemies List" to be on his gravestone.

There was a good reason that Daniel Schorr was on the "Nixon Enemies List". Schorr was a probing and fearless White House Reporter who was constantly trying to find the leaks in the Nixon Administration's Ship of State and when he found them he was not satisfied just to report them. He constantly wanted to find more out about the dark dealings of the Nixon Administration and did so consistently. Although Daniel Schorr did not break many of the stories on Watergate that eventually sunk the Nixon Administration, he and CBS News were for a long period of time the only national Television News Organization that reported those stories to the National Television Audience. In the research I did for my book on Watergate, "Letters To A Lost Nation: A Watergate Chronicle" I list only Daniel Schorr and Walter Cronkite of CBS and Carl Stern of NBC as the only Network Reporters who regularly contributed Watergate stories to Network news prior to the Senate Watergate Hearings.

Schiedffer and Kurtz also talked about the fact that Daniel Schorr not only stood up to politicians like Nixon in the White House but also to his bosses at CBS News, as well. He left CBS News due to a heated dispute about reports he did on the CIA that CBS refused to air. He moved on to CNN where he only agreed to take a job as Correspondent if Ted Turner and company promised him complete autonomy and independence and freedom from interference.

Schorr eventually had problems with the CNN brass also and left CNN ending up on NPR Radio for the last 25, or so, years of his life. When he died this week he was 93 years old and had given his last NPR News Analysis only a couple of weeks before his passing.

Dan died with his family beside him and it is hoped that the integrity that he showed throughout his career will somehow be emulated by others in later years in what will be left of the News Business.

He was clearly one of the last surviving members of a dying breed of Courageous and Legendary Reporters and I will personally miss his compelling News Analysis Reports on NPR.

He was an example in so many ways of what a Reporter should and could be in America and he will be missed terribly by NPR News Junkies like me.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

A Case of Mistaken Ideology - The Strange Misunderstanding about Shirley Sherrod

2010-07-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

July 22nd, 2010

My Dear America:

It has been a half a week from Hell for former United States Department of Agriculture Administrator, Shirley Sherrod.

Recently the NAACP in a very almost cordial way requested that the Tea Party Movement lighten up on the Racist Rhetoric and Racially charged Signs that some super extremists in the movement have been presenting. In what I seem to feel is at least a showing of good faith the National Tea Party Movement apparently did pass the word to their members to lighten up on the blatant racism and even expelled one of their groups whose leader put a racially charged post on his blog after the word went out.

Apparently in reaction to the mild chastising of the Tea Party Movement by the NAACP a Conservative Blogger named Andrew Breitbart put on his Blog a video that apparently showed United States Department of Agriculture Official Shirley Sherrod talking at an NAACP Dinner about how 20 years ago she was put off by a white farmer acting superior to her while requesting her help in saving his farm. Shirley commented in her speech that she did enough but not as much as she could have for the white farmer but did put the farmer in touch with one of his "own kind" for further help.

Clearly the video when initially viewed was disturbing in its blatant reverse racism of this black woman toward that white man seeking her help. Apparently officials in the Obama Administration and in the Agriculture Department without checking out the facts with Shirley Sherrod immediately asked for her resignation, which she gave them, without being allowed to explain how, when and why she gave her speech and what the extenuating circumstances were behind the video.

The Administration, The Agricuture Department and the NAACP all condemned the video and the person in the video, Shirley Sherrod.

Now a few days later, after she was essentially fired by USDA, circumstances have changed. Shirley Sherrod is no longer the victimizer she appeared to be in the video because the video was a short clip from a 45 minute speech in which she was trying to show how her racial views had changed since that time many years ago when she was working with a Non Profit organization helping rural farmers.

Now, after the spectre of the video being shown on Glen Beck's show is past and most people have heard the other side of the story the entire incident has turned into an embarassment for Barack Obama and USDA head, Tom Vilsack. Shirley Sherrod will probably be offered another position with USDA although she has indicated that she might not be willing to come back to an organization that was so quick to make rash judgements about who she is and what type of person she is.

Understandably enough, the news media jumped on this story and joined in on the initial condemnation. I have to admit that when I first saw the video clip I was also shocked and apalled at what appeared to be Shirley Sherrod's racism.

Now I can only respect her for the magnificent way Shirley Sherrod has conducted herself in what must have been a living nightmare for her. Andrew Breitbart has semi apologized stating that he wasn't after Sherrod but was merely trying to tarnish the reputation of the NAACP. The NAACP has also apologized to Sherrod for their quick condemnation without finding out the facts.

CNN has shown interviews with individuals in the audience for Shirley's speech that night and they all found the speech one that was condemning racism in any form and was especially encouraging to young people. CNN has also broadcast interviews with the white farmer that Shirley talked about in the video and his wife. The farmer and his wife state that Shirley Sherrod was responsible for helping them save their farm and since the time that Shirley talks about in the video they have been good friends with Shirley Sherrod.

Clearly the Obama Administration and USDA jumped the gun on this situation and I hope that they learn some valuable lessons from this incident. First of all, a video clip taken out of context can be manipulated in many ways, as this one was. Secondly, cooperating with the Republican Party should not be given up on entirely but it certainly should be put into perspective. Bipartisanship certainly has a place in our government but when bipartisanship is only one sided it is not bipartisanship, it is foolishmness. And please don't be guided by what is going to be showing up on Glen Beck's show, or any Fox news show. Investigate what is really happening before you just chop off a hand that has been giving to you for a long time.

On the positive side, Barack Obama and Tom Vilsack could have written off Shirley Sherrod, and weathered the storm of criticism from all sides that this entire situation has produced and not backed down from their mistakes. They have not done that. They have looked at the facts and from their statements seem to have learned from their mistakes and seem to be doing what they can to help restore Shirley Sherrod's reputation.

Barack Obama, I believe, owes Shirley Sherrod and her husband, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinading Committee, at least a beer summit and quite possibly a dinner party with the Obamas and the Vilsacks.

I just hope that Shirley Sherrod's reputation is able to be restored and that she is able to go on with either USDA or elsewhere to continue to teach others the lessons of Tolerance and Respect.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Happy Birthday, America - You look Good for a Country that is 234 Years Old

2010-07-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

July 4th, 2010

My Dear America:

Happy Birthday, America. I'll bet you are as surprised as anyone that you have made it this far, 234 Years old. I think that's how old you are, but who's counting.

I just saw an interesting series called "The Revolution" on the History Channel yesterday. Although there wasn't a whole lot of new information there were some interesting facts that I hadn't known about your birth.

For instance, France invested so much money, millions in their time and what would have been billions in our time, as well as provided troops and naval support. The end result of France helping U.S in our struggle was that their own financially strapped average citizens revolted themselves against their own Government once they saw what we had accomplished. Their bloodbath of a Revolution put into practice, however, a democracy which, like ours, still survives.

What is also interesting when you think about your birth is just how close we came to losing the Revolutionary War. And if we lost what would have happened to us. We would probably still be under the thumb of British Rule. Who knows. All of our Revolutionary heroes would probably have been hanged or shot and would never even have been mentioned in American History.

But you did make it, America, and you're still making it. You are struggling, yes, and you will undoutedly continue to struggle but even with the awful partisanship of Washington I know that we will get through our struggles just like we have done countless times before and we will hopefully survive many more centuries to come.

Yes, we will have problems but sooner or later our Democracy will produce solutions to those problems. I know it. We make a lot of noise in our Democracy but noise is better than silence that is forced and ominous. We have our share of gutless politicians at the present time who are either too timid to do what is right or too dumb to realize that they are destryong America by trying to destroy it's President.

Certainly our President has made and I'm sure will make some serious mistakes as all Presidents before him have but at least he is trying to do some things that need doing.

Republicans standing in the way of Health Care Reform, Economic Reform and Immigration Reform are, I am convinced, going to learn a serious political lesson in November of this year when voters who are fed up with Obstructionists in Congress vote them out. Republicans who continue to try to strangle the Government from doing anything are going to wake up on Election Day and find out that the electorate was not as stupid as they had counted on. I am sure of it.

As we celebrate your birthday today we look forward to that Day of Reckoning in November when the American People get out, go to their polls and "Vote the Rascals Out" one more time in America.

Once More, America, Happy Birthday To You.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Sad Goodbye of Helen Thomas

2010-06-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

June 13th, 2010

My Dear America:

Monday Morning of this week was a sad day for Helen Thomas and also, I believe, a sad day for America.

A firestorm of controversy erupted following the release of an Interview that Helen had given in an offhand conversation with a Blogger on the White House grounds.  The Blogger had asked her what she thought the Israelis should do with regard to Gaza and Helen replied that the Israelis should "Get the Hell out of Palestine".

Where should they go asked the Blogger and Helen replied that they should go back to Germany and Poland.

WHAT

When I first heard about the statements I was quick to fault Helen Thomas for these outrageous statements. Later on I heard the recorded statements on NPR and saw the video on Television and clearly I don't believe that these statements were made as racist rhetoric.

What I have thought about since the abrupt resignation of Helen Thomas from her Front Row Middle Chair in the White House briefing room and her status as a Columnist for the Hearst Newspapers, is that there may be some extenuating circumstances regarding Ms. Thomas's incendiary comments.

First of All, Helen Thomas was 89 years old. Was she too old to be doing her job in the White House. Perhaps. But the truth was that from Day One during the Kennedy Administation when she first took her seat in the White House briefing room she was a standout for many reasons. She was the first woman to be allowed a seat in the press room in any Administration and even at that point in the early 60s She had been working for United Press International since 1943.

Helen Thomas had lived through the Rebirth of Israel in Palestine in the late forties and beyond and knew what anyone with a knowledge of that era knew. Israel did not become a state without a fight with the people who had lived there for centuries before them, The Palestinians.   Palestine was occupied by the Israelis in a violent and aggressive manner and although the British and Americans had brought the Israelis to the area the Israelis finally got their "benefactors" out of their country but still kept them as benefactors.

So the truth is that Israel has not existed forever under the control of the Israeli's but is a rather recent country which took control of Palestine in much the same way way that early Americans took control of American Indian Country in The United States of America.

I do not mention these things to cause further incendiary messages but simply to put things in perspective. To Helen Thomas, Israelis probably never deserved to live in Palestine and did not belong there. I do not know if that is what she was thinking when she made her controversial statements but it may very well have been and if so She had a good point.

Regarding the far more disturbing point, which is that Israelis should return to Germany or Poland from whence they came, clearly there is no valid excuse for that comment based on the horrific history of the Jewish holocaust by the Nazi's in World War II. The only possibly reasonable explanation for that comment might be Helen recognizing that those presently high functioning countries were past home countries for many Israeli families and that anti semitism was a thing of the past, or so we might hope.

Who knows what Helen Thomas thought. Only she knows for sure and she has not commented, as far as I know.

One comment that I thought was insightful regarding this situation was Lewis Black's comment to Joy Behar that Helen Thomas' "editing equipment wasn't working."

The truth is that her editing equipment hasn't been working for a long time and thats why we loved her. Her exchanges with President Kennedy were memorably humorous. Clearly Kennedy loved her barbs and responded in classic exchanges.

We should also remember that when other reporters were timid in their questioning of wars and other White House Horrors, Helen Thomas was always there putting Lyndon Johnson's, Richard Nixon's, Gerald Ford's, Ronald Reagan's, George Bush's 1 and 2, Bill Clinton's and Barack Obama's feet to the fire whenever she got a chance to do so.

Helen Thomas was an accomplished Reporter who has had a long and distinguished career. Perhaps it was time for her to retire anyway but she deserved better than to be tossed into the trash heap of history on a trumped up charge of racism that I don't believe is credible.

I would guess that I am not the only one who has had older people in my family that I loved but could not discuss blacks or jews with. Lovely people, for the most part, who grew up in another era in which racism not only existed but was a fact of life. I learned to love those people and to forgive them their faults in that one area and trained myself not to talk about subjects in which we were never going to agree and were probably going to get into terrible arguments.

I think Helen Thomas is probably one of those people who, like my relatives, couldn't help herself and like my relatives, did so much good that this one flaw in her conduct and personal record needs to be forgiven.

This Historically Significant Woman Correspondent was a real Journalistic Pioneer and does not deserve to be tossed out of the White House Press room without attention paid to her countless commendations for journalistic excellence and her many years of gutsy advocacy in favor of the American people and against American involvements in Wars where we didn't belong.

Yes she certainly was not flawless but then, who among us is.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

A Farewell to Arlen or Why I Voted for Joe Sestak

2010-05-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

My Dear America:

It is just a few days after the extraordinary Primary Election in Pennsylvania which resulted in a loss by long time incumbent Senator Arlen Specter and a win by a previously little known Congressman named Joe Sestak.

Although my wife and I are generally on the same page politically we ended up having a split decision this time. Sandy voted for Arlen and I voted for Joe. I suppose the reason that she voted for Arlen was that he has been a long term Senator from Pennsylvania and certainly has made some good moves in his United States Senate career along with some bad ones. I must confess that in previous Senate campaigns I have voted for Arlen on more than one occasion when I sincerely thought he was a better candidate than his Democratic rival.

That was not the case this time, however. Joe Sestak, in my opinion, was the better of the two candidates for U.S. Senator even though from the first it seemed like Joe had the deck stacked against him. Word has it that Joe was first approached by top Democrats in Pennsylvania and Washington, including the President, to run for the Senate against either of the two likely Republican rivals, Arlen Specter or Pat Toomey. Toomey is a Righter than Right Wing former Congressman from the Lehigh Valley area of Pensylvania who has headed the dreaded Super Right Wing mislabled "Club for Growth" in recent years. Toomey is a Harvard Educated Restaurant owner with a slick personality who manages to look to the uneducated Pennsylvania electorate as if he is just a regular man of the people. He is not that, however. He is a man of the Corporations and I would expect that in the coming race for the Senate he will be fully funded by his Right Wing Republican supporters.

I also expect that, although Joe Sestak had virtually no support from the Democratic Party leaders, Labor Unions and the President of The United States, that this situation will certainly now change. Joe Sestak is no longer just pain in the party Joe, whose annoying presence embarassed Democrats. Those Democratic party leaders including President Obama who threw Joe Sestak under the Democratic Party Bus once Arlen came aboard will likely be singing a different tune now that Joe Sestak has proved that he is no ordinary Joe.

In truth, Joe Sestak's accomplishment must be looked at with a great degree of astonishment regarding what he has done to get to the point where he is presently. Joe started off his primary campaign facing a gigantic lead on Arlen Specter's part. Nobody in their right mind gave Joe Sestak much of a chance at the beginning of his campaign. Nobody, that is but Joe Sestak. Sestak recognized the grim reality of his situation. He was an Underdog with no Democratic support except for a few scattered Democratic leaders throughout the Commonwealth who liked what Joe had to say and didn't like the fact that the Pennsylvania Democratic Party was in the process of nominating a dyed in the wool, George Bush 1 and 2 and a Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon Republican to be their standard bearer in the Senate Primary just because he had switched parties to protect his job.

If there was one issue that I think brought Joe Sestak to the winner's podium on election night it was the issue of George Bush and Sarah Palin embracing Specter in Sestak's powerful video released late in his campaign. Bush stating "I depend on this man" and looking at Specter was the kiss of death for Specter. Specter also looked outclassed in his one and only debate with Sestak and his demand that Sestak apologize for calling Specter a liar made Specter look foolish, not statesmanlike. Sestak held his own in the debate and once you got past his soft spoken halting speech patterns that he used over and over again in every instance that he could find a place to speak in Pennsylvania, I found that that guy made sense.

His stump speech everywhere was pretty standard. He talked about his daughter's brain tumor and his appreciation for the free and competent medical care that he and his family received courtesy of the U.S Navy, where he was an Admiral when he retired.  He went into politics to try to obtain the kind of health care for everyone that his daughter received.  He went everywhere in Pennsylvania where he was welcomed and over the countless times he was on the Pennsylvania Cable Network and other newscasts it rang true for many Pennsylvanians that this guy was not a Democrat of convenience and necessity but a committed Democrat who had a clear record of voting as a Democrat. He was not, like Arlen Specter, a man escaping to the Democratic Party from a likely defeat in his own Republican Party. Sestak was the real thing.  Democrats in Pennsylvania when they finally got that message responded appropriately and Joe Sestak, as he carried his daughter on his shoulders from TV interview to TV interview on election night was a happy man.

I must say, though, that even though I did not vote for Arlen Specter on Primary Election night in Pennsylvania I, like Joe Sestak in his victory speech, also respect Arlen Specter for all of the good things that he has done and there is quite a list of positive things he has done. Arlen worked on the Warren Commission and came up with the One Bullet Theory regarding the Assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963.  The One Bullet Theory was not his best work but he apparently did well in other Warren Commission assignments. He was the District Attorney of Philadelphia prior to being elected to the Senate, where he served for over thirty years.

It is anybody's guess as to what Arlen Specter will do now but after surviving cancer and other serious medical conditions and being 80 years old it might be the time for him to sit down and write his Autobiography. If and when he does that I would count on the book being very interesting and quite likely a best seller.

I know I join many in Pennsylvania and around the Country in wishing Arlen Specter the best in his retirement and further ventures.

I also wish the best to Joe Sestak, who will not have an easy task of beating his slick and sleazy Republican rival, Pat Toomey, in the November Election but I certainly hope Congressman Sestak does it and becomes the next United States Senator from the State of Pennsylvania.

In other words Good Luck to everyone except Pat Toomey.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Message in The Gulf

2010-05-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

May 13th, 2010

My Dear America:

There is an Urgent Message for President Obama, The United States Congress and the rest of America floating in the polluted water of the Gulf of Mexico.

That message is clearly "Stop Drilling for Oil in the Offshore Seas of America".

It is a message that is clear and sensible. It is a message that needs to be paid attention to and needs to be heeded.

Clearly America's and indeed the world's Oil companies (BP for one) have been turned loose on the American coastline especially in the Gulf of Mexico. In the Bush years and, quite Frankly, even before the Bush years, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was not only tolerated, it was encouraged.

Now, in the past few weeks we have begun to see the Ominous Results of our incredibly stupid policy. As the future devastation becomes more clear in scope and we see dead dolphins washing up on the shore, the end of low cost seafood on our tables and the probable end of Swimming, Boating and Beauty on the Gulf of Mexico Shorelines, it is going to become increasingly clear that what we have done in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is shameful and unforgivable. It is also stupid beyond belief.

Weeks before the incredible BP Oil Spill and weeks after the historic Congressional passage of the Health Care Bill in Congress the President, in a move that I can only describe as pandering to the Republican Right, announced a new policy that in addition to drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico his administration was opening up drilling on the East and West coasts of our country, as well as off Alaska.

What was wrong with President Obama. Was he now taking advice from Sarah Palin. It certainly sounded that way.

"Drill Baby Drill" was now the cry of the Obama Administration.

Obama's reaction to the BP Oil Spill was to reevaluate the procedures involved in granting licenses for companies to drill off the Coastline of America. He did not say he was stopping the drilling he was just slowing down a process that had not even begun.

He has still not backtracked on his prospective policy of drilling off the east coast shoreline although I hope that this misguided policy has been a casualty of the Golf Oil spill.

Meanwhile the spill continues and the oil flows out into the Gulf of Mexico and ever closer to the shores of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Florida and the residents and the politicians realize that they are up the creek without a way to hold back the flow that grows more worrisome and more toxic to our wildlife and our environment every day.

I hope the voters in the November, 2010 Election remember those Republican Candidates who stupidly chanted "Drill, Baby, Drill" in prior elections. We have Drilled, Baby Drilled and we are paying for it and will continue to pay for it for years to come, possibly decades to come.

Hopefully Politicians, including our President, will learn a lesson from this incredible disaster and this failed policy of drilling in our oceans will end.

President Obama is, in most respects, a brilliant and thoughtful guy but the truth is that with regard to his Offshore Drilling Policy he was and continues to be on the wrong track. There are very few of Barack Obama's policies with which I am clearly on the totally opposite side of his thinking. This is one.

Another one is Nuclear Power Plants.

Don't get me started on that one.

Barack. Three words:        Three Mile Island

Come on, Mr. President. Lets get it together. Stop Pandering to the Republicans. Just remember, They are the party of "Drill, Baby Drill" and you can see just where that policy has taken us.

"Don't Drill, Mr. President, Please at least no new drilling on the East Coast.

I love the Jersey, Delaware and Maryland Shores. We surely don't want to see them in the shape of the Gulf of Mexico Coastlines will shortly be and while you're at it please light a fire under the asses of the BP Executives so that they will get their leaking oil well to stop leaking.

God Bless you, Mr. President. You are certainly going to need his help to get us out of this Mess.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Inglorious Arrogant Lying Basterds

2010-04-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

April 26th, 2010

My Dear America:

Two of my Least Favorite Americans these days are John Boner and Mitch McConnell. Yes I know the Republican Congressional leader's name is spelled Boehner and is pronounced (Ba ner) but this is my Blog and although I have made a great effort to avoid using curse words in my posts, I find it hard to think of McConnell and Boner (Bo ner) without at least thinking about many curse words regarding these two arrogant individuals.

These two Republican Congressional leaders, McConnell in the Senate and Boner in the House, have been the Chief Obstructionists throughout the Obama Administration. They weren't happy with just leading the charge against Health Care Reform in Congress. After helping to water it down (no public option) to where even the Health Care Industry couldn't complain too loudly about the legislation, which was probably going to be a potential bonanza for their profit margins, McConnell and Boner continued to try to completely kill the legislation, lying about its potential effects to the last voting minute and thereafter. Boner acted like the Health Care Reform was the end of Freedom in the United States as we know it. Nothing could have been further from the truth and I still continue to be awed by the lying and manipulation skills of McConnell and Boner who somehow were able to convince normally smart American people that the United States Health Care system would be better off without reform.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about Health Care Reform. I think the only way to really reform Health Care is to scrap the system we have which is a system that profits by Health Care Providers not having to pay Health Care benefits to recipients. This, of course, leads to Health Care Providers having incentives to cut off benefits rather than provide benefits to Americans who need them.

The only real way to reform Health Care is to scrap the profit making system that we have and go to a Single Payer System similar to Medicare in which everyone is covered and coverage is free and available for all. Unfortunately with the stranglehold that the Health Care Industry has on Congress it is unlikely that Single Payer will arrive anytime soon. I am hopeful, though, that with Congressional Advocates like Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers that somedy Single Payer Health Care will be the law of the land.

Recently Boner and McConnell both went to a meeting of Congressional Leaders at the White House where President Obama explained the details regarding a plan to exercise some control over Wall Street abuses of power. What was explained to the Congressional Leaders was that one of the key provisions of the new legislation was that a fund would need to be set up and contributed to only by Wall Street firms that would essentially be a bail out fund in case Wall Sreet needed to be bailed out in the future. The legislation would protect America from ever needing to bail out Wall Street Companies in the future.

No sooner had Boner and McConnell left the meeting with Obama than they started lying about the proposed fund and calling the legislation a way to have Wall Street continually bailed out by the United States taxpayers in the future. They had not even left the White House grounds before they started lying through their teeth abouth this legislation. How these people can do what they do day after day and live with themselves is beyond me.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

"Letters To A Lost Nation: A Watergate Chronicle" Newly Published and Available on a Website or Book Store near You

2010-03-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

March 26th, 2010

My Dear America:

I am pleased to announce the recent publication of my First Book, "Letters To A Lost Nation: A Watergate Chronicle," which is presently available on Amazon.com and can also be purchased through the Createspace.com website at the following Web Address

https://www.createspace.com/3427958

"Letters To A Lost Nation: A Watergate Chronicle" is a Non Fiction Paperback Book that comments on the 1970's Watergate Scandal in the form of a Journal written as letters to America as if America was a person. This device was used successfully by French-Algerian Writer, Albert Camus' to comment on Politics and Government during World War II.

Most of the letters in this collection were written in response to many of the Watergate Secrets revealed by the Senate Watergate Committee Hearings and the Investigation by the Watergate Special Prosecutors during the 70's.

The book also includes "A Brief History of Watergate", "A Cast of Watergate Characters" and an "Epilog" including "Watergate, Then and Now" discussing updates on many of the Watergate figures and "Some continuing Mysteries of Watergate."

In my opinion many of the Political Scandals and Outrages of recent years can be traced directly or indirectly to the Political Scandal's and Outrages of Watergate. There is much that can be learned from this bitter Lesson in Politics taught to us by President Richard Nixon and his henchmen.

I think this book can be especially instructive for young people who may have only heard about Watergate but did not live through it and do not really understand what happened in the 70's and why it happened.

I hope that anyone interested in the lessons of the past will check out my book and I would be quite interested in hearing from anyone who reads the book and is willing to let me know what they think of it.

I will, therefore, thank in advance any and all readers of "Letters To a Lost Nation: A Watergate Chronicle."

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Zen and the Art of Health Care Reform

2010-03-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

March 25th, 2010

My Dear America:

During the first part of last week last week my interest in Health Care was simply to survive the cruel Stomach virus that hit me worse than anything I had endured in decades. Once I started to feel better toward the end of the week, though, I found myself paying attention to the Health Care Debate once again.

By Friday of last week it began to dawn on me that something very serious was going on with Health Care. My first clue was the speech that I watched on Television Friday Morning when President Barack Obama addressed the students of George Mason University. The President reminded the audience and himself that the last time he had spoken at George Mason was weeks after he had launched his bid for the nomination of his party to become President. He spoke wistfully about the old days when few in the country gave his Presidential bid much of a chance. But the students at George Mason had greeted him on that visit as though he was already the President and Barack Obama appreciated it. Last Friday he was the President as the George Mason Students greeted him like he was stilll Candidate Obama.

Clearly President Obama appreciated his enthusiastic welcome at Gerorge Mason University. He was at George Mason for two reasons. To charge up his appreciative collegiate audience and to get his own batteries charged up for this last historic battle for Health Care Reform that was coming around the following weekend in the House of Representatives.

Barack Obama did not disappoint his college audience and they, in turn, did not disappoint him. Barack had learned over the long haul that had been his first year in office to take his message and trim it down to the basics. The Health Care Bill that had been passed by the United States Senate was too weak by liberal Democratic standards and too strong by Republican standards but what had become clear by last Friday was that the Gunfight at the OK Corral on Health Care was at hand. Barack Obama had finally come to realize that his wish for Compromise with Republicans was a pipe dream. The Republicans were counting on Obama to fail to deliver on Health Care Reform.

But something happened at some point in the Health Care Debate that alerted the President to what probably should have been obvious to him long ago.

Only the Democrats were interested in changing the way Health Care in America was delivered.

Only the Democrats were going to help him in his struggle to get it done and as last weekend approached Barack conferred with Democratic leaders and they quietly began the final process of trying to get the votes to pass Health Care Reform.

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Steny Hoyer, John Larson, Jim Clyburn and many other Democratic Zen Masters took their places and performed their jobs with skill and precision. Some members of Congress like Dennis Kucinich replaced their original "No" votes with "Yes" votes. Others did the opposite.

When the final tally came up on Sunday clearly the most important votes were those of Bart Stupak and company, without whom the measure surely might have failed. With great conscience Mr. Stupak and his Anti Abotion Coalition agreed to vote with the President on the bill if the President issued a Presidential Order promising that no money in the bill would be used for abortions.

Somehow, miraculously Barack Obama and his Democratic Zen Masters pulled it off and we are now looking at providing Health Care for most Americans.  There are many good ideas in the bill. Eliminating Health insurance companies from providing coverage on the basis of Pre Existing conditions will mean that my daughter, who lost her health care last year on the day she she graduated from College and has not been able to get coverage of any reasonable kind, should now be able to qualify soon for Health Insurance. Also Health Insurance companies will not be able to drop Americans from coverage at the very time they need coverage.

The bill is a not a very good bill in that there is no Public Option or real cost controls to help keep the Health Care industry honest.    In my opinion it should be a Single Payer Plan that would either provide competion for the Health Care Industry or put companies that deserved to be out of business where they belong. Certainly the idea of fining those without Health Insurance, which will happen in a few years, is an idea that rubs me the wrong way.

But in this climate with the power and the money that the Health Care Industry possesses we must be satisfied that we have at least stepped down the road to improving our Health Care System. We have a long way to go but it is at least a step in the right direction.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

JD Salinger is Dead Long Live The Lonesome Genius of Holden Caulfield

2010-01-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

January 29th, 2010

My Dear America:

I realize that I should probably be talking today about the President's State of the Union Speech that he gave on Wednesday night this week. Certainly that speech is important and I must say that the President in my opinion hit it out of the park with that speech.

Yet, there was something else that occurred on Wednesday that I believe is one of the most Significant Literary Events since the Death's of Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and John Updike.

On Wednesday, 1/27/10 the world lost one of the most Significant Writers of any generation. That Writer was Jerome David Salinger, JD for short.

I read "The Catcher in the Rye" at a very lonely and very difficult time in my life in the early 60's. I had just flunked out of King's College in Wilkes Barre. I had worked hard my first year of College and had maintained an acceptable GPA. Not Great but acceptable. I had heard many people talk about the fact that most people flunk out of College in their first year and that it was by far the hardest year. I guess I took that to mean that I could take it easy during my second year of College. Big Mistake. Although I thought I was still working hard during my Second Year, I was also having a good time. Another big mistake. When I flunked out I was told that I could return after taking a semester off.

It was one of the hardest lessons that I ever learned. I was devastated and felt like a complete failure. To tell the truth I had never been that keen on going to College but I really couldn't figure out something else that I would rather do. My parents, being the great and encouraging people that they were, insisted on my going to College. I really didn't have a choice and wasn't that dedicated to working hard in College. Unlike some of my friends at school, good marks didn't come easy to me. I had to work hard and I resented those friends who barely did any work and were still A Students.

Next thing I knew I was sitting on the outside looking in and wishing that I had worked harder in school when I had the chance. But it was too late. Suddenly, I realized just how right my parents were about College. There weren't many jobs open to someone like me, without a college education. I worked part time for my father who was running a Diner but he didn't make enough money to pay me and I didn't ask for it. I found a full timejob working for Uniform Printing Company in my home town of Allentown, PA. It wasn't high paying but it was a job that I thought I could do. I worked in a gigantic rectangular building on the second floor of a factory with one other person. That person and I walked around all day picking out forms, placing them in boxes and sealing the boxes up. That other person was an older guy who never spoke even when spoken to. The job was probably not the worst job that I could have gotten in my predicament. It wasn't hard physically but it was boring beyond belief. I was never so lonely or disturbed in my life as when I was looking at those tattered walls and thinking that

"Good God, Is this where I am going to be for the rest of my life."

It was into this God Forsaken Frightening Life of mine that "The Catcher in the Rye" came.

I don't remember why I read it the first time. Perhaps someone recommended it to me or maybe it was one of the assignments that I didn't finish in my last lost semester. Whatever the reason was that I read it I could not put it down once I started it. It was a fascinating story to me about Holden Caulfield, a young man with whom I could identify completely, the way he talked and felt about things and most of all the sense of failure he felt when he flunked out of school. At a period of time when I felt a sense of purpose had gone out of my life I seemed to find that purpose in Holden's story.

Holden's story helped me at a time when I probably should have been in therapy but wasn't. My therapy was reading the "Catcher in the Rye" many times over the course of my life. I felt as though Holden Caulfield was teaching me some very serious life lessons. I saw hope in the book and still resent the fact that Mark David Chapman tarnished the image of this magnificent chronicle in identifying it as the key to why he killed John Lennon.

I eventually was lucky enough to get a chance to return to King's College largely through the generousity of my Philosophy Professor, George McLean. When Mr. McLean, who found out that because of my father's Diner going under that I would not be able to return to school, he essentially worked out a scholarship for me to finish College. He did this without any expectations of any kind and essentially by giving me another chance at school he gave me my life back and although I still had a pretty good time at school, I never took it or life for granted ever again.

I Thank both George McLean and JD Salinger for giving me my life back and helping me to appreciate the lessons of life at a time when I needed their help.

I can't even remember how many times I have read "The Catcher in the Rye" over my lifetime. I would think that it is between 10 and 20 times. I am not a rereading kind of person, especially when it comes to novels, but I have found "Catcher" to be a different book every time I read it. I think that it is probably because of the history of "Catcher" in my life that first time that makes it so special to me. I have read other books by JD including "Nine Stories", which I think is great. "Franny and Zooey" and "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenter and Seymour, an Introduction" I have read only once and, quite frankly, do not have any plans of rereading them.

I am excited, however that the word is that there are more books that JD has written and stashed in a safe in his house in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he isolated himself since the early 50's.

Hopefully, that safe can now be opened and those books can see the light of day. I will be anxious to read them but I really don't think that any of his or anyone elses books will ever measure up, in my opinion, to "The Catcher in the Rye".

I am going to go now and find one of my many copies of the book that I have collected over my lifetime and begin to read it again. I know that I will enjoy it just as much this time around as I ever have. Maybe even more now that JD Salinger is no longer around to point out the Phoneys of this world.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Liberal Democrats have a Very Very Very Very Very Bad Week

2010-01-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday, January 24th

My Dear America:

It has been the kind of week that Liberal Democrats could do without. The First Year Anniversary of Barack Obama's Innauguration certainly could have gone better, to say the least.

God knows, It couldn't have gone much worse, or so we hope.

The week began with the continuing problem of a Haiti in ruins after the most powerful earthquake on record with only more bad news likely to come from down there in the near future.

There was a bright spot in the Haiti picture, however, since it seemed as though the world reacted quickly and help was quickly dispatched not only by America but from countries all over the world recognizing Haiti's plight.

Early this week another earthquake took place in Massachussetts. An almost unknown State Senator just a few months ago, Scott Brown, beat the Endorsed Democratic Party Candidate for Ted Kennedy's vacant Senate Seat.

What the hell, Was hell freezing over?

Things couldn't get much worse, we all thought, but we were wrong. The Republican packed Supreme Court struck down controls on how much money big business could contribute to candidates in elections. The spigot was back open for big oil, big banks and big pharma to reach out their hands loaded with money more than they ever had the right to before.

Add to this the fact that John Edwards , after denying paternity to former campaign staffer, Rielle Hunter's child for nearly two years, picked this week to fess up to his paternal responsibilities. Thanks a lot, John, liberals really needed this week to be reminded of how foolish we were to follow you in your quest to become President. Thank God, you didn't make it.

And yes there was one more thing that made this week significantly horrible for Liberal Democrats. That was the death of Air America Radio. I discovered Air America Radio around the time of the Kerry Presidential Run in 2004. Since there was no Air America Radio Broadcast in my area of Pennsylvania I had to listen to it Online. One of my favorite Air America Personalities was Rachel Maddow. She was on an early morning show with Chuck D. and Liz (I can't think of her last name- She was a comedienne). What impressed me most about Rachel was just how informed she always seemed to be on every subject. The other thing that impressed me was that she was openly gay. She wasn't beating the drum for it constantly, She just didn't hide the fact that she was gay. Air America was a breath of fresh air for me when I listened to it, just as Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are a breath of Fresh air on MSNBC broadcast television. I will miss Air America. I foolishly thought it would go on forever. I was mistaken.

Well, lets hope, America, that this coming week goes better than the last.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

A Republican Senator is Elected in Massachusetts-Ted Kennedy's Worst Nightmare has Come True

2010-01-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

My Dear America:

I am tempted to talk about Ted Kennedy rolling over in his grave but in deference to Senator Kennedy's long and remarkable career and his indelible image in the minds of Americans everywhere I will spare myself and them that sad image.

Something remarkable and possibly Earth Shattering has happened in the state of Massachusetts and it happened yesterday in the state that sent Ted Kennedy to the United States Senate for 42 years. Scott Brown, a handsome young Republican State Senator was elected to the United States Senate beating the Democratic Party's chosen Candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley. Martha, at first, seemed like a shoo-in but during the course of the campaign she seemed to look a bit uncomfortable and out of her league campaigning, especially over the past weekend when it seemed like every Democratic Stalwart who could be persuaded, including President Barack Obama, Senator John Kerry and Massachussetts Governor, Deval Patrick, came out to campaign with Martha. And, of course, there was that mistake of mistake on Martha's part which was not knowing Boston Sports History. An unforgivable sin in Boston.

Mr. Brown, on the other hand had some very important things going for him. His good looks had, many years ago, landed his naked body in a Cosmopolitan Magazine centerfold. Not only that, his daughter had been a contender on American Idol. Good God, you can't beat a background like that.

Do I sound cynical and disappointed. Yes I do. I am angry that the replacement for one of the nation's best and longest lasting Senators is going to be a Republican who campaigned on a platform of typical Republican obstructionism.

No, to Health Care

No to pretty much the full Obama agenda

And Yes to bipartisanship, although the bipartisanship seems to be only related to Republican sponsored issues and Republican Right Wing Thinking.

It is discouraging, to say the least, to be a liberal Democrat today. The Democrats seem to be stalled in every way except for continuing Wars of Questionable Choice. Those the Republicans can get behind.

Instead of lamenting our bad fortune, however, I think that it is time for the Democrats to gather their forces together and make one more stab at bipartisanship before doing what George Bush and his Republican Cronies did and say the hell with bipartisanship. We have an Agenda and we are going to push ahead full speed with our Agenda. We need Health Care Reform and not the watered down version it has become without even one public option proposed.

Enough with the obstructionists. It is time for the average American to recognize that they have the power to let their legislators know that they are unhappy with Republicans saying no to anything progressive. They need to get on the internet, get on their phones, write letters and let Congress know what they really want and what they really feel. It is time for Americans to vote not only with their eyes but with their ears, their hearts and their consciences.

Who knows. Maybe Scott Brown will surprise us and really become a bipartisan Senator.

It could happen, after all, although I personally doubt that it will.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

HAPPY NEW DECADE - The Best and The Worst Of The First Decade Of The Twenty First Century

2010-01-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

January 8th, 2010

My Dear America:

First of all let me apologize for not communicating with you since October of 2009.

I have been busy finishing what I anticipate will be my first published book.

The book will be titled the following:

LETTERS TO A LOST NATION - A Watergate Chronicle

I plan to publish it shortly after a thorough review to make sure it is publishing ready.

It will certainly be available through this Blog.

But enough about that, for now.

It was during the last weeks of 2009 that I began realizing in talking with my wife and with friends that we were not just looking at a Happy New Year in 2010 but also the start of what we hope will be a Happy New Decade. Certainly it is anybody's guess how happy we will be in this next Decade but then we haven't been too happy with this last Decade either.

Those of us who are old enough can certainly remember the start of the First Decade of the Twenty First Century.

Y2K.

Oh My God, The Computers were going to crash. That's what we were worried about as the Decade started. As I sit here writing about it the start of the year 2000 does not seem like it was 10 years ago. It seems more like it was one or two years ago. Man, this Decade went fast.

Certainly The Worst Thing that happened during the past Decade was September 11th, 2001, when we were attacked by terrorists of our own creation on our own soil in our own major American City. We watched in Amazement at the Televised Madness as the two Major High Rise Signature Buildings on the New York City Skyline became rubble in a matter of minutes, while still filled with American Citizens as they crashed to the ground

Remember the Mujahadin, who kicked the Soviets out of Afghanistan during the Reagan years. Well now one of them, Osama bin laden, along with the Taliban, who we kicked out of Afghanistan are trying to return the favor to the United States 8 years after we invaded Afghanistan to get bin laden for what he had done to the United States in New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The Second Worst Thing that happened during the last Decade was the 8 Year Reckless Reign of President George Bush and his despicable sidekick, Vice President, Dick Cheney. Bush and his inner circle ignored the warnings of their National Security Advisor, Richard Clarke, a leftover from the Clinton Administration, about bin laden and his Terrorist Boot Camps in Afghanistan and the result was the disaster of 9/11.

Following 9/11 Bush had the entire United States on his side as he proceeded to follow the Terrorists to their Host Country, Afghanistan, and invade that Dangerous and Massive Country, when the Taliban Rulers of Afghanistan refused to turn over bin laden to US. It was a popular move on Bush's part, which was approved of by nearly everyone in the country. Bush promised that he would get bin laden and certainly he tried. There is no doubt of that. The elusive bin laden evaded capture, however, and released taped threats toward you and US for years afterward as he seemed to travel freely across the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

At some point Bush tired of the Cat and Mouse Game with bin laden and proceeded to invade the Country he had wanted to invade since his election.

Iraq

Early on in his presidency George W. Bush passed the word to his National Security Inner Circle to come up with a plan for an invasion of Iraq.

It was Iraq, after all, where George W.s Dad, George Herbert Walker Bush, refused to follow Saddam Hussein into his Baghdad Refuge following the thwarted invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Dick Cheney had been a leader in that U.S. struggle and had been frustrated by H.W.'s failure to finish the job in Iraq. Now that Cheney was second in command, at least in White House structure, he sowed the seeds of Iraqi Invasion in the mind of the new Commander and Chief.

Thanks to Cheney and Bush we are still in Iraq stuggling to get out but with the election of Barack Obama we are finally on the way out of a stuggle that we should never have gotten into in the first place.

In my opinion the Best Thing that happened in this past Decade was the Election of Barack Obama.

Certainly Republicans would dispute this selection. To Republicans Barack Obama is the worst leader we have ever had. To Right Wing Republicans like Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and others Obama is leading us to ruin.

The truth is that without Obama's Emergency Political Surgery all of the bad decisions made by Bush and Company over the 8 years he was in office could have continued to lead to National Security, Economic and Political Ruin. The hard truth is that it still could. The damage is so extensive that it may possibly be beyond the reach of even a brilliant leader like Barack Obama.

Even though they know it is not the truth, Republicans continue to dump every problem created by the disastrous Bush Administrations on the doorstep of Barack Obama.

The truth is that Barack Obama, a Dark Horse Candidate for President if there ever was one in 2008, realizes his imitations but he also realizes that unlike Bush, who alienated many countries in the world, Barack Obama is respected in much of the world. Oddly enough, after continuous refusal by Republicans in Congress to work with him in any manner, except in providing troops in foreign countries, Republicans deride Obama for not being bipartisan. It's bizarre.

And then there is that one more Worst Thing in the Last Decade, Fox News.

There are certainly worse things than Fox news in the American media. There is Rush Limbaugh, of course. He is by far the worst that the American media has to offer. But his importance and his influence is liimited to those who are willing to commit to listening to his vicious tirades on the radio for limited periods.

Fox news, however, is a non stop Television News source that pretends to be unbiased but is, in fact, a shameless mouthpiece for the Republican Party. It is Right Wing Extremist Mind Control Madness in the Big Brother 1984 tradition. But it is, unlike George Orwell's Science Fiction, a very real threat to America.

In response to Fox News, Rush and other Republican Propagandists, we have, thank God, had MSNBC and Air America Radio help to fill the sanity gap by exposing the Right Wing lies and propaganda with some truth and left wing propaganda. Thank God For Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, two of the Best People in the World, to use an oft used Olbermann expression.

Some of the other Best People in the world, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken and Al Gore.

In addition to Bush and Cheney Some of the other Worst People in the World (The list is longer) are: Joe Lieberman and every other gutless Republican Congressman and Senator who refuse to vote for anything that Obama is for. That list is long but certainly includes Mitch McConnell, Eric Kantor, and John Boehner. Other Worst people in the world include the following Hypocrites: John McCain, Elliott Spitzer, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Carrie Prejean, John Edwards, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Donald Trump.

But lets for now at least not concentrate on what is wrong with America but what is good about our country. I love living here and realize that even with its faults America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.

In the coming months and years it is up to us who voted for Obama to recognize his faults but still respect, admire and follow him. We must let him know our thoughts regarding his policies and unlike President Bush, I do believe that President Obama truly does care about the common person and not just the well heeled contributor to his campaign.

I will support his efforts to pass Health Care Legislation even though I know that what he will sign into law will be a watered down version of what real Health Care Reform could be or should be. It is at least a start down the road toward Health Care Reform. President Obama has worked hard to bring something resembling Health Care to us and although it should be better it could be worse. it could, indeed, be the same resounding failure to do anything that we have had in the past.

Has Obama made mistakes. Of course he has. But he at least has the interest of the average American in mind as he goes about his Government business.

I wish him and us a very Happy New Year, as well as a very Happy New Decade.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

BARACK OBAMA WINS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE - Americans Should Be As Happy As The Rest of The World - Right

2009-10-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

October 11th, 2009

My Dear America:

When I found out on Friday, October 9th, that The President of The United States, Barack Obama, had won the Nobel Peace Prize I have to admit that I was rather surprised but not really as stunned and shocked as apparently many other Americans were.

It would seem to me that it would be a slam dunk to expect that every American would react to our country's leader receiving this High Honor by expressing pride in our President's ability to impress the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

That was not the case though.

It seemed to me that although nearly every leader of every civilized country in the world was thrilled with Barack's choice, the American Coalition of the Willing, the Stupid and the Insane went after the Nobel Committee's choice with a vengeance.

It is quite true that the Nobel Committee's choice can be viewed by many perspectives. Even Barack Obama recognized that the choice was made not so much as a recognition of his achievements but more so for the fact that his election was a symbol to the world that the George W. Bush period of Arrogant Cowboy Diplomacy was a bygone era. Obama's nomination in February for the Nobel Prize was made in the infancy of his Presidency. Clearly even from the beginning of the Obama Presidency, however, it was clear that we had entered a new dawn in which respect for other Nations and Human Rights were going to be protected and revered by President Obama and his Administration

It was early in the Obama Presidency that the nomination for the Nobel Prize was made but Obama's credit as a Peacemaker had already been clearly signalled throughout his Campaign for the Presidency in 2008 and in his Inauguration speech. He wanted out of Iraq, where he was certain we should never have invaded in the first place. In Afghanistan, he is presently conferring with his advisors, including the Generals who are in the field, in an effort to determine what to do next about the 9 year old war in Afghanistan that George W. Bush seemed to leave to die as he pursued his own agenda in nearby Iraq.

Are we going to continue to waste the precious lives of our American soldiers in order to prop up the corrupt Karzai government which didn't even seem to make attempts to hide the fraud in it's recent elections.

Perhaps before we continue to go any further in propping up the Karzai Government at the expense of American lives we should give some serious thought to the fact that every single time a foreign invader has tried to control or conquer Afghanistan they have failed. Witness the Soviet Invasion which not only bankrupted the USSR but also led to the fall of the Soviet Union.

We do not belong in Afghanistan. We can't afford it politically or financially. We may have belonged there in 2001 when Al Quida was there but Al Quida is gone and we should be too. We should pay attention to some of the early Television interviews with Osama bin laden when he was pretty much a nobody who no one else was paying attention to.

In one of those interviews when asked how he intended to defeat the United States he said very bluntly that he expected to bankrupt us.

With George W. Bush's help bin laden is well on his way to doing just that.

Bankrupting the United States.

Perhaps with the Nobel Peace Prize in his future it will give President Obama pause before he commits himself to increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, regardless of what his Generals advise him to do.

I personally wish to thank President Obama for his new world agenda and his continuing attention to efforts to make peace in this world wherever it can be achieved.

Yes there are elements in this world and movements that make it impossible for world peace to be accomplished that he needs to deal with today and probably for many days and years to come.

But perhaps with President Obama's efforts to improve the prospects for Peace tomorrow may surely be a better day and President Obama, The Peacemaker, may, indeed, live up to the High Honor that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has bestowed upon him.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

HEALTH CARE REFORM - A Final Lasting Tribute To The Lion Of The Senate

2009-08-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

August 27th, 2009

My Dear America:

It has been a harrowing couple of days for Americans. On Tuesday Night after practicing with my Friend, Larry, for a gig we are playing for local Democrats tomorrow, I returned home and found myself watching a strange movie on the Lifetime Movie Network with my wife. After the movie was over my wife and I just put on CNN with the intention of seeing if there was anything significant happening in the news.

There Was.

CNN was reviewing the life of Teddy Kennedy.

"Good God", I said to my wife. "Teddy Kennedy must have died".

As we all know now, Teddy Kennedy had died and the tributes began even at that late hour to start pouring in, from Democrats and Republicans, alike. Clearly Americans of all kinds loved Ted Kennedy. His name had been included as a sponsor on thousands of legislative bills over the years he had served in the Senate.

Thousands of others he had simply worked to have passed. He had been one of the longest serving Senators of all time, running third only to Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.
Most of his Legislative Legacy had to do with helping those people who often could not help themselves. The Young, The Old, The Disabled, The Minorities all benefitted from his kindness and concern. Many of those Republican Conservatives who always seemed to have harsh words for Teddy Kennedy and his liberal agenda seem to be the same people who now, after the fact, are lining up to identify themselves as Good Friends and legislative partners of Ted Kennedy. John McCain and Orrin Hatch are two who insist that they loved Ted Kenndy. Orrin Hatch even allowed NPR to broadcast a song he had written for Ted.

Much has been written and broadcast over the past couple of days and nights about Kennedy's incredible ability to engineer compromises over his lifetime of legislation. It seems to me that at this very sad time when we are saying Good Bye to Ted Kennedy that it would be a great time for everyone in the Senate and The House to get together when they return to Washington shortly. It is time for them to stop their bickering and do what it was that Ted Kennedy wanted most to do since first coming to the Senate in 1962.

He made no secret over the course of his life that passing single payer Government controlled Health Care Coverage for all Americans was the most important legislation and "the Cause of his life".

In his honor, This congress should immediately start working together toward a compromise and put together a real Health Care Reform Bill that Ted Kennedy would have been proud of.

Full Coverage Health Care for All Americans just as good and comprehensive as that which covers Congressmen and Women is what Ted Kennedy wanted for all Americans.

In Ted Kennedy's name let us pass a Health Care Reform Bill that he would have been proud to have voted for.

Lets see all those Democratic and Republican buddies of Ted Kennedy step up to the plate and deliver the best tribute of all to Ted Kennedy.

Worthwhile, All Inclusive Health Care Reform.

The Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

IRAN - Not Quite The Land Of The Free - But Definitely The Home Of The Brave

2009-07-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

July 6th, 2009

My Dear America:

As I sit at my computer at the end of my Long Weekend Celebration of the Fourth of July I remain, as always, Happy, Proud and Lucky to be an American. The fireworks were great and sitting around a pool with my family members was great and I am grateful for the time that I have had this weekend in the Land Of The Free. I admit that I am as guilty as anyone else when it comes to taking for granted the benefits of living in America. That was brought home to me forcefully when in the month of June Iran had an election.

The results of Iran's election for President was questionable at best and brutal and savage highway robbery of voting rights and human rights, at worst.

Just weeks after American President Barack Obama reached out to Middle Eastern and Islamic Citizens everywhere in the world through his speech in Cairo, Egypt, Iranian citizens went to the polls in droves and staged pre election rallies that looked like nothing that had ever been seen before in this country that had stirred the ire of freedom lovers everywhere.

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran", John McCain had sung during the Presidential Campaign mocking the Jan and Dean and Beach Boys song, "Barbara Ann".

McCain, George Bush and Dick Cheney were all on the same page when it came to Iran. Never mind that they never finished what they had started in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not only didn't they finish what they started, they had turned both Afghanistan and Iraq into terrorist magnets and made what seemed like wrong moves at every juncture.

Following Bush and Cheney's disastrous entry into Iraq and Afghanistan the dynamic duo started taunting Iran. Just what we needed no wins in two countries was not enough, BC & Company started talking like they were going to invade Iran, as well. And they had some degree of support prior to the American Elections in November of 2008. Luckilly for us Bush and Cheney were shown the door before they could throw more gasoline on the Middle East Fires they had started.

And in June, 2009 the Iranian electorate prepared to show the door to their hard line holocaust denying President but instead the even harder line Islamic powers behind the scenes in Iran slammed the door to freedom on the progressive mainly young peoples movement in Iran.

At first it looked like a real election with polls set up for all Iranians to have their chance to vote. But clearly something went wrong in Iran as the hard liners were taken aback and the new freedom fighters, who recognized how badly they had been shafted hit the streets of Tehran in protests that were stunning. They were, at first, broadcast all over the world by CNN and other networks while Iranian Television gave no coverage to the protest in the streets. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter at first stoked the flames of freedom in the streets of Tehran. To those of us watching it in America, it looked as though the Candidate of the people, Mousavi, might actually be installed as President of Iran. But that was not to be, at least not in the immediate future.

Although at first Mousavi seemed to be given a free hand in setting up protests and rallys that freedom of assembly didn't last long. The more control Iranian officials had on the media the less they played their hand. But after about a week of protests it was clear to anyone watching that the rulling Ayatollah's were getting ready to rid the streets of Tehran of the stink of Freedom. Clearly if Freedom truly came to Iran the days of the Ayatollah's calling the shots were numbered. So the men of God, the followers of Allah, began a crackdown of epic proportions.

When the protests broke out after the election results were certified by the Ayatollahs, President Obama's reactions were measured and hopeful. His measured and thoughtful reactions to the crisis in Iran were criticized by John "Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain and Lindsay Graham, among other mainly Republican critics of the President.

Clearly at the beginning of the protests Obama getting involved in telling Iranaian authorities what to do is exactly what the powers that be in Iran wanted. When confronted at a news conference by a reporter's question regarding the Republicans, McCain and Graham, charging Barack with being timid in his response to the crisis Barack stated that

"I am the President and they are not"

In Obama's defense, as the violence in the brutal crackdown on Iranian protestors has escalated so has Barack Obama's condemnation of the Iranian government's vicious attack on their freedom loving countrymen. Although some word continued to get out through social networking sites, Twitter and phone cameras sent videos to CNN too violently graphic to broadcast, the Iranian regime stamped out the protests with incredible violence such as shooting innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and even hatcheting incidents and human beings thrown off bridges and brutally attacked in their homes.

As CNN found it harder and harder to find appropriate broadcast videos suddenly word came that Michael Jackson had died and from then on all that could be seen on the 24 hour News Channels were all things Michael Jackson. So as the King of Pop has taken over our TV screens it seems as though we who are free have forgotten about those Freedom Loving Brave Individuals who, for a couple of brief weeks actually were free.

As we move on through our lives in the new Post Michael Jackson world I hope we never forget the King of POP and I am even more hopeful that we will keep in mind the thousands of Brave Iranians who put their lives on the line to protect their votes and their freedom. They may not still be on the evening news but they are out there in that dark country shouded in mystery working toward the freedom that we take for granted in America every day of our lives.

Let us never forget their courage as they showed us how much like us they really are.

And if John McCain once again sings "Bomb Bomb Iran" lets keep in mind just who we will be bombing and never sing that song again.

Unless its Barbara Ann and The Beach Boys or Jan and Dean are singing it on the radio.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

D Day, June 6th, 2009 - 65 Years later

2009-06-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

June 6th, 2009

My Dear America:

On this day, June 6th, 65 years ago, Allied troops, mainly American, British and Canadian soldiers, sailed across the English channel to France. By this point France had been occupied by German soldiers, who had fortified the French coast in preparation for the assault that they knew was bound to come. By the time D Day finally arrived Europe was almost completely under the control of Hitler's forces. D Day saw thousands of allied troops brutally cut down on the shores of France before they even had a chance to get off the sandy French beaches.

This morning American President Barack Obama, Prince Charles and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain and Prime Minister Harper of Canada met with French President Sarkozy on the French fields of Normandy that were the last resting place of so many allied freedom fighters. The leaders of the allied countries today celebrated the fallen heroes of Word War II.

The speeches given by the leaders of the Free World Countries on this day celebrated the courage and determination that was shown on D Day. Just prior to today's D Day celebration President Obama, with Germany's President Merkel and Jewish Author, Ellie Wiesel, visited the site of the Buchenwald Death Camp, where countless Jews were tortured and murdered by the soldiers of Germany's Third Reich.

Also this week was another speech given by President Obama in Cairo, Egypt, in which he mainly addressed his comments to the Muslim and Arab World. President Obama pointed out that Muslims and Americans and Europeans have much more in common than is often recognized. This speech seems to have been well received all over the world.

At Buchenwald Obama, after his remarks, turned the podium over to Ellie Wiesel who had been rescued by Allied Troops from this place in an era long past. President Obama personally invited Wiesel to accompany the President on the Buchenwald trip. Although Wiesel was not officially scheduled to speak on this occasion his heartfelt rememberance of his life in this German Hell on Earth will probably be the major speech that will be remembered from this German stop on Obama's trip.

At Normandy on D Day Sarkozy, Brown, Harper and Obama all gave great speeches that will be well remembered. But Wiesel's personal recollections of the reality of man's inhumanity to man will be the hardest speech to forget in this entire Presidential trip.

65 years down the line from D Day and the Normandy Invasion it is easy for Americans and others in the free world to forget the Terrorist Nations including the Nazi's and Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy and Hitrohito in Japan. It took the American people the horror of Pearl Harbor to finally sit up and take notice of what was happening in the world. The true Axis of Evil, Germany, Italy and Japan were quickly takng over the known world and were cruelly and brutally exercising their killer instincts on those who opposed them or those who did not necessarily oppose them but who they didn't like. It was not only the Jews who the Nazi's targeted for extinction in their Death Camps. Hitler didn't like the gypsys or the handicapped either. They, along with the Jews, did not belong in Hitler's concept of German perfection of the Master Race.

Year by year we lose more and more of our brave World War II Veterans who came back to our country after their service and became regular citizens of America. They have, for the most part, not been the kind of people who stood out in a crowd. They have been the kind of people who blended in with the crowd. They have been our Fathers, Grandfathers, Uncles, Brothers and Husbands. They have lived among us for 65 years, occasionally doing something special but mostly being the kind of people who didn't have much to say about politics, although if you engaged them in conversations you tended to find out just how knowlegable and special they really were. They seemed like simple people but they were not. Although many of them did not necessarily have personal visions of horror from the Front, they all knew other soldiers who had found out the hard way just how much had to be sacrificed for the Free World to remain free. They worked hard at their jobs hopping for the days when they could retire and fish or just take it easy. They asked very little from us and they almost never bragged about their service.

In Fact, they almost never even talked about their service and were often times embarassed when others talked about it. They were the Greatest Generation and they never demanded much in the way of anything from us. They just did their job and if they were lucky enough to come back alive they lived their lives among us with an appreciation of freedom that many of us can never understand.

They were just regular soldiers doing their job. Thats all they have to say when thanked for their service. But the truth is that Hitlers Soldiers and Mussolini's and Hirohito's soldiers were all doing their jobs too. Why were German soldiers able to carry out the horrors of the Third Reich. The truth is that they truly were, like soldiers before them since the beginning of time, truly just carrying out orders because that's what soldiers do and have done since the first solier of history marched upon the field of battle. The German, Italian and Japanese soldiers should probably have questioned the lunacy of cruelty in battle or agaist civillians who did not desrve to die. Thank goodness that our leaders, especially Roosevelt and Churchill, were the right leaders for this extremely important time in world history. Certainly the hands of all soldiers are not clean in the epic struggle of the invasion of Nomandy and the defeat of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito. No war has ever been fought by people who were unwilling to kill. Death and War go together like mashed potatos and gravy. When you are a soldier and your back is to the wall and it's kill of be killed, you kill. But freedom's soldiers have learned over the years that killing should only be done when it is a last resort and as soldier has no other choice. Our soldiers, mainly a volunteer army in World War II, had no choice but to do what they did. They went to war with the knowlege that they might not come back from the experience and many thousands of them didn't return home alive. We owe these brave people, our brave veterans, everything. We certainly owe them respect and appreciation. Without them Hitler and others like him could have turned the world into a world filled with Death Camps like Aushwitz or Buchenwald. The brave soldiers of World War II allies kept that from happening to US.

On this 65th Anniversary of the salvation of the free world we salute our veterans for their valor and their sacrifice and we tell them truthfully just how much we love them and respect them and appreciate what they have done for every one of us who live in freedom in the new millenium.

Their sacrifices will not be forgotten and History will never let us forget just how important their sacrifice was.

We need to learn from experience in 2009 that in a very short period of time hatred and insanity can threaten and destroy our world just as easlity today as it almost did 65 years ago.

Help Me, I'm a Republican - Get Me Out of Here - A New Reality Show

2009-05-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

May 25th, 2009

My Dear America:

We have all heard, I am sure, of the new Television Reality Series called "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here", in which (so called) celebrities go the Survivor Route in South America for the possibility of Big Bucks. We have all heard of this show because disgraced Illinois Governor was trying to get permission to leave the country to be on it.

He failed to get the permission to go himself but Bum Rod, being the ever intense self promotor that he is, finally convinced his wife to go and suffer the humiliations and degradations of the South American Jungle in his stead, while Rod watches the kids and the show in the comfort of his Chicago home. If I were Mrs. Blogoevich, I would stay home and divorce my husband and try to get my share early of Rod Blogoevich's big money book deal.

Anyway, to get to the main purpose of this rant, I have my own projected version of this TV Reality Series that I want to call the following:

"HELP ME, I'M A REPUBLICAN - GET ME OUT OF HERE"

I think, America, that you can already see the purpose and the potential of this Reality Show. The purpose of the show will be to show that Moderate Republicans are no longer welcome into what is left of the Mainstream Republican Party. We have seen Moderates leaving the party in droves for several years as they watched their party become more Extreme and unwelcoming to them on each passing day. Those who did stay did what they had to do in order to maintain membership in the party and became more extreme to the point where they left politics or, like Arlen Specter, moved to the other side of the aisle.

Specter is a fascinating case. He has led a very interesting public life. As a young lawyer he was the staffer on the Warren Commission Investigation of the Assasination of President John Kennedy who came up with the "One Bullet Therory", which supposedly explained how one bullet could have hit both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, who rode in the front seat of the President's car in the November 22, 1963 Dallas Motorcade. This Theory has been discredited by many Warren Commission Critics but Specter marched on in his political career to being District Attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After a rather successful run in Philly, Specter then ran for Senator from Pennsylvania and has been in that position for many years. Recently Specter switched from being a Republican Senator to being a Democratic one. It was not the first time that Specter switched parties in his political career but it was a stunning blow to Republicans and seemingly a welcome switch to President Obama and Democratic Party Pros in Pennsylvania. Anyway, Specter's recent votes have not seemed very Democratic and time will tell what will happen in the 2010 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Primary. My guess is that although there will be a scuffle in the Pennsylvania Democratic Party that eventually Specter will be the Democratic Nominee and the likely winner of United States Senate seat he has held for many years.

Lets forget about Specter, Hagle and the many many moderate Republicans who have been run out of their party. Lets get back to my premise of a Republican Reality Show that I want to call:

THE MOST DESPICABLE REPUBLICAN

This show has got everything that makes a Reality show interesting enough to be a ratings grabber. There is a large cast of backbiting, intensely dislikable real life characters, each one looking to slice up the other ones in their bloodthirsty quest for dishonor and fame.

Certainly in this Reality Show along with Specter's departure we need to jettison that last of the Republican Moderates still left in the Republican Party, Colin Powell. Along with Colin, out go the two Moderate Republican Women Senators, who had the nerve to, along with Specter, support President Obama's Stimulus package.

That pretty much cleans the Republican Household of moderates, although there may be some sneakily hiding out in the House of Representatives disguised as Extreme Republicans.

Now, as we get down to the real drama of figuring out who, indeed, is The Most Despicable Republican of all who are left, the pickings are far from slim.

We can't pick Rush Limbaugh only because he has publicly resigned from the Republican Party. I guess he resigned because his party still wasn't extreme enough for him.

What a loss.

He would certainly have been my choice for winner of Most Despicable Republican.

Certainly one of my picks for Most Despicable Republican would be and is Dick Cheney. His Nationwide search continues for finding opportunities to defend torture and to damage the Obama Administration's efforts to heal the worldwide wounds caused by the Cheney-Bush Administation.

At least Bush has the good sense to keep his mouth shut.

Then again when you are talking about Despicable Republicans you cannot avoid the man who started a needless War in Iraq and deregulated you, America, into the economic toilet. When you talk about Despicable Republicans you can't avoid including George W. Bush.

But while we can look through the Congress and elsewhere across America to find Despicable Republicans and God knows they are everywhere (Hannity, O'Reilly and pretty much everybody you can find at Fox News) there is no Republican in my book as despicable as Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich wakes up every day and looks at his odd features in the mirror and says to himself:

"Why can't I be President"?

The answer to that disturbing question is because, Newt, to be President you should have at least some redeeming qualities. You, Newt, have an awful name, awful stage presence and self interest that has nearly destroyed this country in the past and if brought back into play, surely will destroy this country in the future.

You led the effort to stop the government from working by keeping it from having a budget during the Clinton years. You led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about his affair while you were doing the same thing and you told your wife you were divorcing her for your new love while she was in the hospital dying of cancer.

But despite these solid reasons for Newt Gingrich to stay out of the political arena, he continues to slither back in on Fox News and elsewhere on television and radio as a spokesman for the party that he almost singlehandedly, with the assistance of George Bush and Dick Cheney, led to ruin. Gingrich is increasingly talking more and more like a man who knows what he is doing and may be thinking about running for President. God Forbid.

Newt's latest victim of slander is the person who holds the same job Newt did during much of the Clinton Era, Speaker of The House, Nancy Pelosi, who he accuses of lying about whether or not she was advised by the CIA that they were using waterboarding on terror suspects. She claims she was not told that. Newt says she is lying.

Who is this guy kidding? According to him the CIA never lied to her. The CIA lies for a living and so does Newt Gingrich, who left the job that Nancy Pelosi now has because he was censured by the Congress for ethics violations. Now he is the protector of the Truth. PLEASE.

The truth is, however, the Republicans have no one else to promote as a Presidential Candidate in 2012. They have driven nearly every decent Republican Politician either out of the party or into hiding.

Maybe Mitt Romney can move to some further extremes and maybe some fools might go for Rudy Giuliani but that's pretty doubtful. Lousisiana Governor Bobby Jindal made the mistake of opening his mouth too early and showing you, America, that there was not much going on in that head of his. Tim Pawlenty and others like Sarah Palin, YIKES. The truth is that anyone with any brains in the Republican Party will see that Barack Obama's appeal seems to be lasting and despite some supporters being unhappy with some of his moves they still like Obama, the Person and the President.

So the bottom line is that despite which Despicable Republicans gut and slash each other for the privilege of going up against Obama, only someone in the Republican Party whose negatives are few and who is a virtual unknown at this point in time can get the Republican Presidential nod with any chance of succeeding against Barack Obama.

Looks like an 8 Year Term for Obama as far as I can see. And to those Republicans out there who continue to slice and dice each other I say:

"Keep Up the Good Work Boys and Girls"

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Bonus - Bailout Mystery of AIG

2009-03-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

March 19th, 2009

My Dear America:

The incredible Saga of the massive bonuses given to AIG Executives with our taxpayer bail out money continues unabated. It seems as though every day there is someone new for the press to villify and condemn for this Outrageous Scandal.

First it was Edward Liddy, the CEO who saw it as his civic duty to come back to AIG, where he had retired from, for a salary of $1.00 a year. I would feel sorry for this guy except that I know if he is working for a buck a year he already has stashed away enough dough to keep him in a lavish lifestyle for the rest of his life.

I watched Liddy on Television yesterday at a hearing for the Congressional Finances Committee. He didn't seem like a bad guy. He had the look of a Robber Baron but under what intense criticism I could take before I fell asleep realizing that despite its importance to me and my family I just really have a hard time understanding what it is that has been going on with Wall Street. What really gets me is all these Republican Senators and Congressmen who are suddenly portraying themselves as saviors of taxpayer money even though they voted for legislation signed by George W. Bush that set up the present system, in which up to now Wall Streeters almost had no way to lose money. A young lady testifying before the Financial Committee yesterday said something that I could understand and which I thiink is a great clue to the problems that we are dealing with at the present time. She was with one of the financial regulation agencies of the United States Government and she indicated that although her agency was initially permitted to regulate Wall Steet banks and other institutions, that permission was taken away from her agency by the Bush Era Republican controlled Congress. Dick Cheny in an recent interview indicated that the Bush Administration should take no responsibility for the Wall Street Mess.

Another bad guy in the recent Bonus - Bailout Mystery of AIG is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. I think Barack Obama was truthful when he said that this guy is working harder than anybody to solve the AIG problem. What seems to have been coming out the past couple of days, though, is that Geithner or someone from the Obama Financial team asked Senate Banking Committee Chariman, Chris Dodd, to take a provision out of the stimulus legislation which would have kept million dollar bonuses from being paid with taxpaer money given to firms like AIG through the TARP (Troubled Assets Recovery Program) funds.

So now, today, all over the 24 hour cable news networks Chris Dodd seems to be the AIG Villain of the Day.

I must confess that although I was initially in favor of bailing out Wall Street to Save Main Street, I think that this heartless episode of Greed Unlimited should teach us once and for all that what we are saving in our financial system is not worth saving. I hope that we are going to be smart enough to change our legislation to protect ourselves from future Wall shafting by those firms that we have saved only to screw us over and over again. The U.S. financial spigot needs to be turned off for any firm that we gave money to and which, in turn, gave our money out like candy in monstrous bonuses to their employees.

I realize that Wall Street Banks and Corporations have their Super Greedy ways of doing things but they need to learn what the American Taxpayer has learned.

The time has come for them to live within their means or else take the consequences.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Letters To A Lost Nation - After The Spectacular Election of 2008 The Blog Continues On

2009-02-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

February 28th, 2009

My Dear America:

It may seem as though I have been away on vacation but it doesn't seem like that to me. I apologize to those of you who have been supportive of the Blog but I have had some things to do between my last posting in January of 2009 and February 28th, 2009.

One thing that I have been doing is to try to put my 2008 -2009 Blog Postings into a manuscript with the intent of selling it as a book. I realize that this may be a pipe dream but pipe dreams need to live too. I have put together a semi literate, semi publishable manuscript but I do not have a Literary Agent or a Publisher lined up so we will see where things lead with this.

I have also been putting in some time thinking about what my next move will be regarding the Blog. When I stumbled upon Blogspot in January, 2008 and set the Blog up, I was thinking about the 2008 Election Story as the only topic or, at least the main topic for discussion in the Blog. Now that the Election of 2008 is over and its winner is in the White House, I have had to give some thought to where I was going and what I was going to do with this Blog. Although it has certainly been a lot of fun to write this Blog through one of the most incredibly interesting American Election Campaigns that has ever been, it has also been somewhat time consuming and stressful, as well.

So, the question is, or at least has been, Where do we go from here with Letters To A Lost Nation. The answer I have chosen is that although I am not sure of how much time and energy I can put into the Blog, that here in the early days of the Obama Administration there is no shortage of topics to be discussed and issues to be considered.

So for now the answer to the question about the future of Letters To A Lost Nation is that it will continue for the present time.

At a time when newspapers and financial pages in those newspapers that are left, are disappearing at an alarming rate, it is not the time for dissonant voices to go silent. My suggestion is that everybody with a computer and an opinion get to Blogspot and write your own columns about what you feel you need to say about our country and our world. It is time for all of us, America, to realize that we are in serious trouble and unless we all get out there and make some noise about how we feel, we could end up with another tone deaf Republican Administration like the one we just had, or worse.

Our Economy is a shambles. We are still involved in Iraq and are ratcheting up our military involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. China is letting us know how much in debt we are to them. Guantanamo will be closing but we don't seem to be as anxious to close other hell hole prisons elsewhere in the world. We are moving forward just by having Obama, rather than McCain in the White House, but we need to continue to remember that in America we are free to tell each other and our politicians just what we think.

I plan to continue doing just that.

Thank you all for your support.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

EPILOG - Letters To A Lost Nation - The Triumph of Barack Obama - The Next Chapter

2009-01-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

January 26th, 2009

My Dear America:

It is a week after the Inauguration of Barack Obama to be The President Of The United States. Barack has hit the ground running and has already begun the process of change in our country. He has started the process of closing the Guantanamo Bay Torture and Humiliation Center. He has also begun the process of reaching out the hand of friendship to countries like Iran and has even done a filmed interview with the El Arabiya Television network. He is pushing hard to have his 825 Billion Dollar Stimulus Package approved by the United States Congress as soon as humanly possible. He has taken the forward looking step of traveling across town to jawbone personally with hesitant Republican legislators in favor of the massive spending bill. He is doing what he can but the hard truth is he has problems to deal with that are just as massive as his Stimulus Bill. Some problems he can deal with quickly but there are certainly problems that are going to take a long time to deal with if, indeed, they can be dealt with at all.

While he has incredibly difficult problems of all kinds to deal with he now has to deal with Right Wing Loudmouth Talk Show Hosts like Rush Limbaugh, who has made the statement that he wants Barack Obama to fail. Rush is out there by himself right now looking like a jackass but I am sure that he won't be out there alone for long. Rush has nothing to lose by making incredibly controversial statements like that. He might lose some Republican fans who have come over from the Dark Side to spend some time loving their Country, Right or Left. Outside of that, however, Rush may love to be driven off the air by hostile lefties and go out in a blaze of Right Wing Glory retiring to Florida where he can spend some his hundreds of millions on his favorite drugs. But as incendiary as Rush Limbaugh tends to be, he needs to be left on the air unless, of course, he is arrested for illegal drug possesion again. But if he is not arrested for drugs he needs to be left alone in his padded radio booth ranting on as if he knew what he was talking about. Yes, Rush Limbaugh is a senseless lunatic but he is free, rich, white and on the air in America. What that means is that just like I have certain protections regarding what I can write and say, so does Rush Limbaugh. its tough sometimes to be free but we all must remember that it is much tougher not to be free.

At this point in our nation's history when Barack Obama dominates the news not only in our country but also in every country of the world, it is surely true, as Dee Dee Myers has writen in Vanity Fair Magazine, that Barack Obama is the Most Famous Person of all time. Surely that seems like a stretch, at first, but is it really. Anyone in the world who owns a television or a radio or has access to newspapers surely already knows who Barack Obama is. If they don't know who Obama is chances are that sometime in the near future they will know.

This Super Celebrity may be in some ways a deficit but in other ways it is surely an asset that Obama can use to sway public opinion not only in his own country but in almost every country of the world. This man who only five years ago was a political unknown outside of Illinois, arrived at the Boston Democratic Convention in 2004 and after his incredible keynote address left Boston with the reputation as a politician who was going places. He was a relatively young man when he was elected Junior Senator from Illinois and it was anticipated by many Democrats, myself among them, that he would wait his turn and get some seasoning in the United States Senate before making a run for President. Once elected to the Senate Obama quickly became one of the most sought after speakers by Democratic Candidates all over your country. When Obama came to town to stump for a candidate like Bob Casey in Pennsylvania that candidate was almost guaranteed an overflow crowd of excited potential voters. Consequently, many Democratic candidates like Casey and many others were elected in a Democratic landslide in 2006 which turned the balance of power in the United States House of Representatives over to the Democrats for the first time in many years.

Certainly there were other factors which led to the Democratic rout of Republicans in the 2006 Congressional Elections but one factor was inescapable to Democrats. Barack Obama had proved to the Democratic Party and to you, America, that he was more than just a flash in the pan Democratic superstar whose flame would burn out quickly. When he made his now famous Springfield, Illinois speech declaring his candidacy for The Presidency of The United States few seasoned political observers gave his candidacy much of a chance to succeed. Clearly those political observers did not know how serious and determined Barack Obama was to succeed in his quest for the Presidency. If the didn't know it then, however, they surely know it now. We all know it now. The deed is done and Barack is in the White House and is determined to deal fully with every crisis that is at hand for you, America.

We are surely living in frightening times and are facing extremely difficult challenges. The world has become complex and perilous. It is unlikely that this situation will change any time soon. To be honest, It is beyond me why anyone would actively seek the Presidency in times as frightening as these. But then every Presidential Election cycle has its own difficult challenges. The Civil War, World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and The Cold War. You, America, have always had challenges and always will.

In the early days of the Republic it is likely that England felt as though it would only be a short time before they would be able to crush the Pesky American Colonies. Not only did you survive, America but you have become the beacon of hope for all the world's oppressed people who dream of Freedom. America leads the world in every way and the people and leaders of the world are now at this time in our history looking to Barack Obama for guidance in these times of terror and renewal. Will he be up to the job? We don't know. Time will tell. We do know that his youth, dedication to family and friends, judgement, temperment, intelligence and optimism will be sorely tested in the coming months and years.

My guess is that Barack Obama is and will continue to be the kind of Global Leader who can and will help to get our country back the greatness and respectability it deserves to have not only all over our country but also all over the world. As a candidate for President he was inspired by Hope, Change and The Fierce Urgency of Now. As President he will need all of his considerable talents to guide us through the rough seas that surround us.

God Bless Barack Obama and God Bless you, America. In fact God Bless all of us. We are surely all going to need those blessings as we continue to travel through the coming rough seas.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Its Inauguration Day in the Promised Land

2009-01-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

January 20th, 2009

My Dear America:

Inauguration Day has finally come to America. There have been Great Expectations regarding this day and its significance to you, America. Great Crowds had been expected. They came and in a show of respect that may have overshadowed the entire day's activities, millions of spectators kept silent not only when Barack Obama took the oath of office but also when he gave his Inauguration speech. The crowd was massive but conducted themselves with dignity honoring the first Black American to ever be sworn in as President of the United States. Certainly security was incredibly tight for this celebration of the installation of our new President. But even with security at unbearable levels, according to those in town for the celebration, there were no arrests or terrorist threats uncovered, that we know of.

Although I gave serious consideration to actually attending the Inauguration in person, I finally decided that I would be able to truly see more of the proceedings on television than in the frigid Washington crowd. There will probably always be part of me that regrets my decision not to go but today I felt truly lucky not to be freezing while watching everything from my living room.

Barack's speech was not the best speech he has ever given or I am sure will ever give. It wasn't the barn burning kind of speech that he is capable of giving and had given on the campaign trail and at the Denver Democratic Convention. It was, however, a very good speech given by a very great orator. Moreover it was a speech that was appropriate for the day and time it was given. Barack Obama was not looking to trot out catch phrases that Americans now and in the future would treasure. He recognized that the time in which he was being inaugurated was a time of difficulties and struggle in our economy, in our foreign policy and in many other aspects of American life. He didn't have to give a speech to sway the massive crowd before him and on television. He had already done that. There were some shameful voices that would pray for his failure and worse but they were on the outside edge of The New American Dream today and clearly the days were numbered for these nattering nabobs of negativism.

It was truly a new day in Washington, D.C. today and every Republican, as well as Democratic Politician knew it. The Democrats had hit the political Trifecta. They were not only in charge of the White House but the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well. As of Tomorrow Barack Obama will no longer have to hold his tongue when asked a question about what he is going to do to fix Washington and the rest of the country. No longer will he have to talk about our country having only one President at a time. He is now that One President and it is his Administration which will now, after I am sure a brief honeymoon period of patience and understanding, be expected to come up with the solutions to some very difficult and complex problems. Surely Americans will give him some room to address the issues of our time but our 24 hour cable networks being what they are will be looking for things to happen tomorrow. Indeed, we will all be looking for at least some direction as to where we are headed if not tomorrow then sometime soon.

Barack's Inauguration speech at least gave some indications of which roads we might be heading down and what problems and programs are at the top of his priority list. He also seemed to throw somewhat of an olive branch to some of those in the world who we might see as enemies of the United States of America. It was a moving and a stirring, well written and well executed speech given with integrity and honor on this historic day.

As cameras panned around the mall in front of the capitol there were people from many places, men and women, boys and girls, black and white and many other shades of American color. Many black faces were shedding tears for themselves, as well as for others who had suffered the abuse and violence of America's past sins. On this day those blacks who had not made it to the Promised Land needed to be represented and celebrated by those who had made it. It was, indeed, a historic day for so many reasons.

While Barack Obama on this historical occasion enjoyed a popularity in polls that seemed, at least at this point, to be unmatched by any other President, there was another man who when Barack took his oath of office lost his power. George Bush, whether or not he was happy or sad on this occasion of Barack's Triumph, seemed to be putting on a good front. Although Bush seemed to have presided over a Presidency of one monumental error after another he had done one thing right. Except for not letting Barack and his family move into Blair House prematurely, George and Laura Bush seemed to be hospitable hosts when they showed the incoming family around and on Inauguration Day George and Laura seemed to be putting on a good face as they and their party lost the right to live in the White House.

I was in our bedroom when my wife shouted to me that George Bush was leaving on a plane. I'm not sure if it was the helicopter or if it was Air Force One taking him home.

I had tried after the Supreme Court virtually crowned Bush President that I would at least try to accept him and give him some respect in the hope that he would deserve it. That acceptance didn't last long although I did give Bush credit for going after Al Quida in Afghanistan following the September 11th attacks. But then, as he had planned to do all along, he swaggered his way into the quicksand of Iraq, from which you, America, have yet to emerge unscathed.

As Bush's helicopter and later his plane reached for the sky it was wonderful for Americans to realize that the long national nightmare of Bush's Cowboy Presidency was over. On this day in January 2009 the legacy of Bush's Nightmare Presidency was not over with even though he himself would be out of D.C. and back in Texas.

After the Inauguration Ceremony with musical Presentations by Aretha Franklin singing "My Country Tis of Thee" and an All Star Chamber Music Quartet, Barack and Michelle attended a dinner with Congress in the Capitol. Although reporters were not allowed to photogragh the proceedings, it was widely reported that Barack worked the room going around from table to table like a groom might work a wedding reception. Unfortunately before the dinner was over Barack had to explain that shortly after Barack visited Ted Kennedy's table Senator Kennedy, an early and important Barack supporter in the primaries, collapsed and was hospitalized following a seizure. Senator Robert Byrd, the oldest serving Senator also apparently collapsed, as well.

Clearly the health problems of these two long time, important Democrats was not good news for Obama but the show had to go on and it did.

The Inauguration Ceremony, as well as the ride and walk down Pennsylvania Avenue showed America that they had elected a very good looking family to live in the White House. Michelle, who had expressed reservations about Barack running in the early days certainly seemed to be over her initial concerns, at least for this day. She and Barack looked like a healthy young couple going on a romantic walk through Washington. And their kids. Who wouldn't love those beautiful, well mannered, parent loving and respecting children.

As the minutes of Inauguration Day ticked away it seemed like the entire country had just enjoyed a breath of fresh air and was continuing to try to hang on to it. At the Inauguration balls that the Obamas visited prior to the end of January 20th they danced to "At Last" being sung by Beyonce. The list of performers at the balls seemed like a Whos Who of popular musical stars. Springsteen and "The Dead" (a band made up of surviving members of "The Grateful Dead") played. Sheryl Crow, Fall Out Boy, Kid Rock. Kid Rock? Isn't he a Republican.

Although Barack Obama did not appear to have the best sense of rhythm in the country as he and Michelle began to visit the Inaugural Balls, they certainly seemed to be a couple that was in love and would support each other as the Obama Administration became a reality. Barack and Michelle were clearly having fun with one another on Inauguration night but both knew that this day would soon be over and the first work day of the Obama Administration would come to replace it.

But for now they had and would always have the memories of this day and it had been a wonderful sunny, cold and event filled day. It had been a day that in the words of "Walter Cronkite" in describing past events "would alter and illuminate our time".

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

A Birthday Present for Doctor King and All Americans

2009-01-19T17:43:00.000-08:00

January 19th, 2009

My Dear America:

Today is the birthday of Doctor Martin Luther King. Tomorrow is the day when Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.

The Nation's Capital is buzzing with warmth even though the temperatures are below freezing. You, America, are presently the hero of the world despite the fact that it was not all that long ago that you and President Bush seemed to be unwelcome everywhere. Something in the world has surely changed. Certainly there is no doubt about the fact that something in you, America, has surely changed.

America's Patriotic Founders were a very brave group. They stood up to English tyranny and we salute them for it. They did not, however, stand up for the black slaves in the south who were sold like cattle separating families and opressing human beings in a manner that indicated that slaves were not Americans but simply less than human beings who deserved the torture, killings and rapes they
received. It is hard for me to understand, America, just how anyone could or would try to justify the outrageous treatment of black men and women in America from our earliest days until now. I can understand how it could have drifted to the bottom of the priority list in the earliest days of the republic. What I can't understand is how the wretched excesses of slavery lasted as long as they did without other brave and just Americans trying to do something about it.

Still today some Americans tend to forgive the excesses of slavery. But I think that it may not be so easy to forgive America's legacy of slavery if you and your ancestors were victims of this criminal system. Tomorrow the day after
Martin Luther King's national holiday, Michelle Obama, The black Princeton and Harvard Educated Great, Great, Great Great Grandaughter of a slave will move into the White House in Washington, D.C. with her Columbia and Harvard Educated black husband, Barack Obama, following his innauguration as the President of The United States.

Yes, this event indicates once and for all that equality has finally come to America. There is tremendous and well deserved pride in America on Innauguration Eve. It has been, however, a hard and heavy walk to freedom for black Americans. Those brave individuals who stood in the way of slavery and segregation never seemed to come to good ends. Witness Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Lincoln won the Civil War but lost his life in order to end the legality of slavery.

Martin Luther King was a young baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama, who happened to be (just like Barack Obama) an eloquent and a moving speaker, when along came the arrest of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus boycott. Largely due to the incredible leadership skills of Martin Luther King this Community Organizer was able to lead the boycotters to victory in Montgomery. Certainly Martin could have, at the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, gone back to his church and left the community organizing to someone else.

Martin realized,however, after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, that in the era of television, segregation looked ugly and helped to move people in the direction of non violence and away from hatred. Segregation and racism needed to go. It was a tall order for a previously unknown Southern Baptist preacher. With many young preachers by his side Martin created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and took it upon himself to go or have his young preachers like Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson, go wherever they were needed in America to help stamp out segregation, racism and inequality wherever they found it in the United States of America.

Much of the progress involving racial equality that we have witnessed in our country since the late fifties and early and mid sixties was due directly to Martin Luther King and his extreme dedication to the principles of non violence as an answer to inequality and violence.

Martin was an inspiration to many individuals who followed his lead into community organizing and other forms of helping their fellow men and women.
I will never forget the day that I had the great privilege of witnessing Martin Luther King working his magic in person. I was attending Temple University in Philadelphia in the summer of 1965. The program at Temple was called the Counselor Advisor University Education Program (CAUSE II). it was a program designed to train Counselors for placement in Youth Opportunity Centers Throughout the country. These were centers which hopefully would not only provide young people with counseling but with job training and job placement.

One day at Temple a young black man who was a native Philadelphian and was also in the CAUSE II program asked me if I was going to see Dr. King that day at a rally in a church just off the Temple Campus. Tensions were high in Philly that summer in 1965 and the controversial police chief and future Mayor, Frank Rizzo, seemed to be starting more racial problems than he was solving. I went with my friend to the church where Martin would be speaking. I truly expected that there would be many white and black students at the rally. It was only after I was inside the church that I realized that mine was the single white face at this rally. I must admit that it was frightening as some of the local and national figures at this rally spoke about violence as the way of dealing with their problems. Stokely Carmichael, the leader of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was one who didn't sound too willing to continue to be nonviolent.

But then after all the others spoke this very short black man named Martin Luther King Jr. took his place at the podium and his voice dominated and filled the hall. He spoke slowly, clearly and softly at first. He made it clear from the outset that he had not come here to sell out his principles of nonviolence. As he spoke I almost felt as though his voice was so moving that he was able to lift me up. It was so powerful and he spoke with such eloquence. Then something happened that I will truly never forget. I don't recall everything that Dr. King was saying at the time but I remember Martin Luther King saying the words "our white brothers and sisters" and I remember him looking at me and smiling as he looked my way. I was stunned. I am still stunned just thinking about this magical moment in my life and what an incredible impression it has had and still has on my life.

So today on Martin Luther King's birthday I want to thank Dr. King for being here when we needed him. I want to thank him for all he has done to encourage social workers and community organizers alike, including that skinny black kid working on the south side of Chicago who was inspired by Martin Luther King to set his sights high.

Tomorrow that skinny kid who followed in Martin's footsteps around the south side of Chicago will take the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States.

You can't set your sights much higher than that.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Last Commentary of 2008 on The Triumph of Barack Obama

2008-12-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

December 29th, 2008

My Dear America:

There are many more lessons to be learned from the Triumph of Barack Obama in the Election of 2008. In addition to the lessons I have listed previously, I want to add one other lesson that I think is, in fact, probably the most important lesson of all that can be learned from the Obama Election Victory. That lesson is the following:

Lesson 5 - America's Respect in the World, which was certainly damaged by the Actions of the Bush Administration, can be restored and, to some extent, has already been restored by the 2008 Election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

The reality of this statement can be understood not only by the reaction of American Leaders and Citizens to Obama's election but also by the reaction of World Leaders and World Citizens to Obama's election. With the possible exception of Russia, (and even they finally came around) nearly every foreign leader praised Obama's election and wished him well. Even Iran's President, a man of few kind words, seemed to find some for Obama following the election. Certainly Obama's election seemed put to rest claims by world leaders seeking to sow the seeds of discontent in America and elsewhere that America is a racist country that would never elect a black man to the Presidency.

Certainly Racists and Racism still exists in the United States of America. Like Terrorists in every country in the world, Racists are a fact of life in the 21st Century. Luckilly, however, in 2008, however, Racists have taken the back seat on the bus and have been relegated to the status of third class citizens.

It is certainly a new world or at least a new country and one in which all men and women for all practical purposes truly are created equal. We have seen black candidates running for President before, Shirley Chilsolm, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. These candidates put their mark indelibly on the Presidential Campaign Path. In reality though these candidates never really had a fighting chance to be anything more than marginal presidential candidates, people who blazed a trail and left their mark but people who ultimately did not have a snowballs chance in hell really to become President.

To be quite honest,up until the end results of the Iowa Caucus I did not give Barack Obama a snowball's chance in hell either in the 2008 Election. It was only after his stunning and unexpected victory in this isolated midwest state when it became clear that we were in a new political era in which this skinny guy with the funny name not only had a chance to make a difference but actually had a chance to win the Presidency.

How he did it and why he did it will certainly be discussed by historians for decades to come certainly and for centuries to come possibly. When I started writing this story about the Election of 2008 I intended to be as non partisan as possible in my writing. I know I failed miserably in that intention but at least I made the commitment initially. Like many others, who would not resist the title of Liberal Democrat, I felt that I had, even at the beginning of the election cycle, selected my candidate. Her name was Hillary Clinton.

I could not understand how my wife and daughters could get it so wrong when they read my Blog about the January Contests. They were alrady calling me a traitor to Hillary and an out and out Barack Supporter. It is only now, nearly a year later when I have revisited and reviewed some of my posts that I can understand where my family members were coming from in identifying me as a Barack Supporter back then. I certainly showed in some of my early posts as well as my later ones my excitement about this phenomenal new candidate, Barack Obama. Although I did and do respect Hillary Clinton and would have been just as happy to see her become President as I would have Barack, I am happy to see how things turned out for both Barack and Hillary. I wonder, however, how two people with such strong personalities will do working with each other over the long haul. Although quite clearly I was torn between the two Last Candidates Standing in the Democratic Primary I am still proud that in the Pennsylvania Primary I voted for Hillary Clinton. This decision to vote for Hillary in the PA Primary was a tough one and one that my wife and daughters still question. They still believe that in the PA Primary I voted for Barack. My denials have fallen on deaf ears in my family as they have watched me become more and more fascinated with Barack in my Blog Posts over the course of the 2008 Campaign. My wife and daughter, Rachel, who got her picture taken with Hillary at a party at Hillary's home in D.C., say they have finally forgiven me for selling out Hillary when I voted for Barack in the PA Primary. Rachel said Hillary reacted with excitement when Rachel mentioned my mother's family, The Houlihans, who had a cottage for years at Lake Winola in Northeastern Pennsylvania. To tell you the truth that sealed the deal for me. Once Rachel told me that Hillary was jumping up and down in her own home saying "The Houlihans, Sure I know the Houlihans from Lake Winola", quite frankly that did it for me. I realize that it may be a shallow reason to vote for someone for President when there are so many other dire and complicated issues to consider to consider. But I did it and I'm glad I did it.

To tell you the truth, the handwriting was already on the wall as far as I was concerned. I voted for Hillary not only because she acknowledged my family but also because she and her husband put Democrats back into the White House and those Democrats left the White House after 8 years with everything in the country going well. The Clinton's sex life should have remained something that only Hillary and Bill should have discussed with each other. Bill's indiscression with Monica Lewinsky instead was plastered all over the news and he was impeached for getting a sexual favor from a horney Intern because the Republicans in Congress had no other real issue with which to drive a stake through the heart of Bill Clinton's Presidency. But by 2008 when Hillary had become the Politician in the family, it was no longer her stumping for Bill, It was Bill stumping for her.

To be sure Hillary in 2008 was the better campaigner of the two Clintons on the road. Bill made gaffes and statements on the road that could be and were taken out of context. Bill proved to be a tireless cheerleader for his wife, though, and you had to admire his beaming, smiling support as he took a back seat to her on campaign stages throughout America. Despite all the Jay Leno jokes about the Clintons they proved once and for all that in 2008 they were still a formidable Duo who despite their failings still oved each other very deeply. Hillary, on the road proved to be able to stand up well to the Campaign fatigue that exhausted other, younger members of her staff. She had her problems with keeping her Campaign staff under control at times but she fought like hell in 2008 until the numbers became so tilted toward Obama that she had to give up her valiant and groundbreaking campaign to allow her opponent's valiant and groundbreaking campaign to take its rightful place at the head of the Democratic Pack.

Hillary was criticized by many pundits when she did not immediately shut down her campaign and endorse Obama. She did eventually in a very classy and emotional way shut down her Presidential Campaign paying tribute to her supporters and unmistakeably throwing her support to the only remaining Democratic Candidate, Barack Obama. The conspicuously campaigned together in New Hampshire and even though she was passed over for Vice President Hillary and Bill Clinton made it Clear at the Denver Democratic Convention that they were strongly supporting Barack Obama. The Democrats came out of Denver as United as is possible for Democrats to be. Hillary, despite what many believed to be a Vice Presidential snub, Hillary made good on her promise to support Obama. Bill was not as visible a supportive presence for Obama on the road as Hillary was until the last days of the campaign. Bill and Hillary truly came through for Obama. Were they the only reason Obama won. Probably not. They certainly were one of the main reasons that Obama won, however. Now as the Obama Administration begins to take shape and Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State the respect that these two former rivals have for each other has become more evident.

Much can be said and will be said in the coming years about the Exciting, Groundbreaking and Monumentally Historic Presidential Campaign of 2009. In the end, however, the history of the 2008 Campaign will pale in comparison to the important challenges that face Barack Obama as he begins his Administration in January of 2009.

As every President who has held the office knows full well, There will be very serious and dangerous surprises during the term of President Obama, in addition to the very serious and dangerous surprises that have already occurred that President Obama will be required to deal with. We live in dangerous and surprising times and it is a mystery to me why so many eminently qualified and capable people continue to present themselves every four years as candidates for what is arguably the worst, most impossible, most thankless and dangerous job in the world. I guess the reason that they come might have to do with the fact that it can also be the most highly respected, most enduring and the most important job in the world.

I am just glad that they keep coming and that The United States of America, a relatively young country compared to many others continues to endure and attract Presidents like Barack Obama.

As has been said for over 200 years and will be said for many hundreds of years

God Bless The United States of America and let us also say at this time of national pride and challenge

God Bless The Presidency of Barack Obama.

May we all survive to witness The Presidency of Barack Obama and the Presidencies of many who might come after him.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Lessons at the End of The Long and Winding 2008 Campaign Trail

2008-12-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

December 19th, 2008

My Dear America:

"It is Over", a sign read in a long distant Presidential Campaign of many decades past. That sign was a sad one. A depressing one, announcing the burial of George McGovern by Richard Nixon in a landslide victory that still stands as one of the most stunning presidential campaign defeats of all time in the political history of the United States. Clearly if Nixon had simply campaigned above board and on the level he still would have won a convincing victory over George McGovern in 1972. But Richard Nixon was a very strange character and he saw the world in a very disturbed way. He saw and felt enemies everywhere and that was his downfall. Certainly he had his share of enemies but they were nowhere near as dangerous nor as powerful as he was and in the end his paranoia killed what might have been and in some significant ways still is a Presidency of enormous accomplishments. Nixon opened the door to China and although the Chinese are killing us in the marketplace there is much less tension in the world since Tricky Dick opened the door to China. But far more memorable than Nixon in China is Nixon's involvement in "Watergate", a burglary that came to symbolize the worst of what politics is capable of becoming.

"It is Over" once again in December of 2008 and this time the mood among left leaning Liberal Democrats is far different that the mood of 1972.

It is no longer a view of hopelessness and continued death and destruction in the world. It is, in fact, a view of hope for the future and a turning around of the destructive and mind numbing policies of the George W. Bush era.

Clearly there are Countless Lessons that can be learned by the Triumphant Victory of Barack Obama in the Election of 2008. What I am going to try to do is to discuss some of those lessons that I see as most significant.

Lesson 1 - The United States of America is truly No Longer a Racist Nation

Certainly that statement could not always be truthfully said about America. Our tortured past includes a history of slavery in America that is beyond shameful. Slavery in America has not only been tolerated it has been responsible for incredible brutality against human beings. This legacy of brutality was mainly in the southern states during our country's infancy but slavery was also tolerated in the northern states, as well, during the early years of our country. When I recently watched the HBO Television Mini-Series, "John Adams", I was struck by the fact that many of the signers of "The Declaration of Independence" and the United States "Constitution" had slaves waiting outside of Independence Hall to pick up their masters after a hard day of figuring out how to keep Americans from becoming slaves to the English King. Fighting for Freedom to many of our American Forefathers, however, did not mean fighting for Freedom for all Americans, merely for white Americans.

For many years after the American Revolution the system of slavery continued in The United States of America. In fact, two of our most beloved Patriots and Presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson not only defended slavery but were themselves practicing slave owners.

The United States of America, in fact, had to wait until the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln before an American President had the bravery and decency to insist that the practice of slavery was not consistent with the American tradition of Freedom. Lincoln freed the slaves and got a Civil War Victory but his personal reward was a bullet fired by a racist actor who became a hero to many southerners.

Luckilly, for Black Americans, Lincolns death did not resurrect slavery but the residue of slavery continued to contaminate mainly the southern states throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. For long periods of time even up to and including the 1950's, blacks, who were supposedly free, ended up being killed in many types of murderous ways in the American South and even at times in the northern states, as well. For several generations of southerners Lynching became something of a southern tradition, which sometimes led to photographs being taken of smiling whites in front of a hanged, charred and mutilated human being. The truth is that were it not for the bravery of Martin Luther King and his followers and the dawning of the Television Age Lynching might still be the continuing sport of racist southerners who feel nothing but contempt and anger for people of color.

Martin Luther King went the way of many other freedom fighters, however. He, also took a racist bullet the day after he wisely predicted that his death was near and that his people, like those of Moses, would "get to the Promised Land."

Certainly there is evidence that in certain pockets of America, racism is alive and well and just as dangerous and insidious as ever. We even have reverse racism, which in today's society black gang members are just as feared and many times just as deadly as white racists. Racism is not as widespread or as blatently deadly as it used to be between blacks and whites. But racism is still alive and can still be just as deadly as it ever was.

That being said, there is something to be thankful for as we now see Barack Obama getting ready to lead our nation during the next four years. To be honest I was not sure just how racist a nation we were. I heard racist statements being made during this past election by people who surprised me by their level of hostility to Barack Obama. I did not know if, in fact, Obama's positive qualities could, in the end, win out over racism in America. Barack's election indicated that racism, while certainly not dead, was not the most important factor in the election of an American President.

LESSON 2 - In an Increasingly Unstable World, It is Encouraging to Realize
that the United States of America is Capable of Changing its Government in an Orderly and Calm Manner by Informed Voting And a Bloodless Coup.

Certainly our Forefathers, the Leaders of the American Revolution and the Writers and Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were brave and honest men. Some of them were also brilliant and scholarly men.

Some were also slaveholders and some, although they respected women, would never have entertained the idea that a woman would someday vote, never mind the fact that one day a woman might someday run for President of The United States and very nearly win the Presidency.

Certainly many of those same early Forefathers also never thought that The Presidency of the United States would be actually won by a Black Man. In a society, much of which was based on Slavery, the idea of a black man voting was outrageous enough. The idea of a Black Man running against a White Woman for the Presidency in 2008 was surely a concept that none of our Forefathers could even have dreamed could happen. Surely those were ideas that out Forefathers could not and would not fathom yet here we are today with a Black Man about to take the Oath of Office for the Presidency of The United States.

While we Americans in 2008, ready to leap forward to 2009, can hardly fathom the world that our American Forefathers lived in, we need to be grateful for many of their decisions regarding the country which they created and lived in. Because of these strange and divergent individuals living in a difficult period of time in a world far different from ours they could have looked the other way and accepted the difficult hand they were dealt. They did, for a time, do just that but as black hearted rulers tend to do, King George pushed our forefathers to the limit and beyond. And beyond that limit was waiting a Democracy the likes of which the world had never known. Beyond that limit was America.

It is difficult for most of us who were born and raised in America to understand what the rest of the world is like outside of America. No country is more free, more generous or as welcoming as America. While many countries of the world have difficulty keeping their residents from trying to escape their borders, America has the opposite problem. In Amereica anyone who wants to get out is free to do so. Our problem is that those fleeing from other countries are looking to get into, not out of America.

How do we as Americans over 200 years down the line from our country's birth understand the miracle country America always was and continues to be. To be sure it is at least partly a miracle that America still exists, never mind the fact that America is truly a leader in the world. Despite its troubles and handicaps America still continues to be the leader in almost every way in the year of 2008. A reminder of America's leadership in the world is what has happened to the economy of the world in the waning months of 2008. When America's economy took a nose dive so did the economies of nearly every country in the world.

In December of 2008 we are still in serious economic trouble but we have been there before and we will undoubtedly be there again in future years but who do the worlds economies look to to lead the way out of economic turmoil. America, thats who.

After 8 years of Bush era deregulation turning Wall Street and the American banking system into a money making machine in which there were no rules other than "getting rich quick". To be honest it is amazing tha the economic collapse took this long to occur.

On the plus side, however, is the fact that the economic meltdown seems to have put Barack Obama in the enviable position of being the one Last Candidate Standing who seemed to have ideas other than those which had been in operation for Bush's 8 unbearable years of American decline. John McCain claimed to have all the economic answers but his answers seemed foolish and awkward at best and at worst, answers guaranteed to keep the rich richer and the middle class poorer and the country in awful shape.

An economic system with the kind of money on the line that America had was one more thing that would have been hard for our American Patriotic forefathers to predict. How did they know then just how to set up a Democratic Government that would be capable of continuing itself from 1776 to 2008 and beyond. A good question, certainly but one which is difficult to answer.

Surely having intellectuals like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams didn't hurt. Also having brilliant soldiers like George Washington didn't hurt either. Clearly there were a lot of factors that these lonely rebels had to think about in setting forth a new country. Surely they must have all thought that there chance was a slight one to end up building a solidly democratic new country. It must have at least entered their minds that their chances of starting a new democratic nation was much less likely than their ending up on the hanging end of a rope.

But they did it, those brilliant brave buggers. They accomplished the impossible and now every four years we accomplish the impossible too. Our country goes through the painful throes of an election every four years and we come out of it shaken but willing to accept the verdict of the American people, whatever that verdict might be. And before, after and during the elections we praise our Forefathers once again for being smart enough and brave enough to do what they did in America so many years ago. They probably didn't even dream of how capable they were of establishing a Democratic Government capable of continuing itself. But they were capable in their time and we are capable in ours of bringing forth a new and charismatic leader, whose leadership ability seems to have blurred the lines of color in America and hopefull will be able to lead us once again to peaceful economic security.

Lesson 3 - The Majority of American Voters wanted the United States Millitary Forces out of Iraq.

Clearly it does not take a genius to figure out that Americans are tired of sacrificing the lives of our soldiers in Iraq. Iraq was a misadventure from the beginning. Certainly Saddam Hussein was a brutal dicator who needed to be watched closely and when the time came gotten rid of in one way or another. What Bob Woodward makes clear in his book, "Bush at War", is that George W.Bush and probably Dick Cheney had their eye on invading Iraq and toppling Saddam from the first days of their Administration. Bush had put out the word to his Top Pentagon officials long before 9/11 that he wanted to see a plan for the invasion of Iraq. That plan was prepared but interrupted by the 9/11 attacks and the response to that attack in Afghanistan. But after gaining wide support for the Afghanistan mission, Bush took his eye off that ball and lasered in on Iraq, where he claimed the mission was to defuse "weapons of mass destruction" first. Then when it became obvious to the world that this reason to invade Iraq was not flying and that we should get out of this misadventure then came new reasons for us to be in Iraq. "Regime change" and "to bring democracy to the middle east" sudenly popped up as the new reasons for the USA to be in Iraq.

The United States Armed Forces have been fighting in Iraq longer than we have been fighting in any other US war. I often wonder how long it would take me or you to become a terrorist if another country, lets say Canada, invaded the United States deposed our president and made it a policy of shooting our neighbors, at will and kicking in the doors to our homes in the middle of the night to cart off our relatives or ourselves to Abu Garib or Guantanamo. How would I respond to a week or two or a month or so in Abu Garib, if I was lucky enough to make it out alive or not be sent to Guantanamo. Our policy in Iraq was clearly from the first moment to depose Saddam and prevent his sons from continuing the brutal legacy of Saddam's family. To be honest this was probably not a bad goal in many ways. The trouble was that this was not our country to do with as we pleased. We were, and as of today's date continue to be, occupiers of this land of brutality where civilization started and, god forbid, may be finishing.

Yes, of course, nobody misses Saddam in Iraq except his syncophants. We are all glad he is gone but what a price our millitary and the Iraqi people paid to get rid of this monster. Now to the Iraqi people it must look as though we are the monsters. Any and every poll taken regarding what Iraqi's want in terms of our forces are overwhelmingly in favor of the United States Armed forces getting out of Iraq as soon as possible. Although we were, in fact, greeted as liberators for a short time in the early days of our invasion, the Bush/Cheney Administration seem to have done nothing, or at least very little right, in their conduct of this disastrous struggle.

Barack Obama has made no secret of his opposition to the War in Iraq from the earliest days when he was not even a candidate for the Senate. In the early days of his Presidential Campaign he used this issue to constantly challenge other candidates regarding their initial complicity with George Bush in giving him the power to conduct the war. Although the Iraq war has never been a dead issue in the Obama Presidential Campaign it took a back seat in the later days of the campaign to the United States and worldwide economies as the primary campaign issue.

Those of us who voted for Barack will certainly look forward to his following through on his campaign promise to end the War in Iraq in a timely manner. Barack needs to think very clearly about the lesson of history when it comes to Afghanistan. Osama bin laden has made it clear that he wants to do to us what he helped do to the Russians. Namely, bleed us dry financially so that our power is depleted with our funds. If there was one country that was responsible for the downfall of the USSR, it was Afghanistan. Certainly getting bin laden is an essential goal of the United States but we need to be wise in how we go about it. Partnership with Pakistan, Black Operations with bin laden and other terrorists as the target are the way to go. While we do not want to turn over Afghanistan to the Taliban, we also do not want to do what we did in Iraq and stay so long that we and not the Taliban or bin laden become the most hated enemy occupiers. The middle east is a complicated place with a complicated history of troubles and strife. We need to understand that warlords, tribal chiefs and complicated interactions are the way of life in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and every other middle eastern country with which we deal. We need to be smart enough not to play into the hands of Al Quida and other terrorist organizations. We have learned some hard lessons in the middle east. It is time to put those hard lessons to good use in our foregn policy of the Obama Administration.

Lesson 4 - The Election of Barack Obama in 2008 was an Election that was Highly Influenced by the use of the Internet by the Presidential Candidates and by the American People.

2008 was not the first year that the Internet proved to be influential in American Politics. Certainly 2006 was a year that saw current Democratic Party Chariman, Howard Dean, raise enormous sums of money through his campaign's Internet appeals to like minded Democrats and Independents. Unlike previous Democratic Presidential Campaign Fund Raising, Much of Dean's money was raised by many small contributions rather than a few large contributors. Television coverage of the Dean Campaign Fund Raising Phenomenon almost immediately turned Howard Dean from a largely unknown former Doctor and Governor of Vermont to the Democratic Party Front Runner in 2005 and 2006. Dean remained the Front Runner up until the 2006 Iowa Caucus results, when his Iowa loss turned his voice weird and his Internet coffers dried up along with his 2006 Presidential Aspirations. The next Democratic Front Runner in 2006, John Kerry, did not have much to say that was positive about his rival, Howard Dean. But Kerry surely paid attention to Dean's Internet campaigning and as Dean's Internet fund raising ability sunk to disastrous levels, John Kerry, using many of the Internet fund raising skills developed by the Dean Campaign, began to fill his campaign coffers with money that had probably once been destined for Dean.

Also in 2006 Republicans also began to pay attention to what the Democrats were doing in Fund Raising. The Bush Backers were still largely the Wall Streeters, Pharmaceutical Companies, Insurance Companies, War Contractors and Oil Companies, whose management and Investors had become bloatedly Rich during the first Bush term. These tax dodging fat cats had lined up in 2006 to help George Bush, who had spent his first four year in office helping them to line their own pockets while the average hard working Americans picked up the tax tab for their greed. Line workers and Union members were losing their jobs at an alarming pace in 2006 while Republican ripoff artists walked away from their failures at being CEOS with million dollar lined Golden Parachutes.

Although the Bush Campaign in 2006 did not need the kind of funding that the Democrats did, they certainly paid attention to some of the Democratic Campaign techniques such as building up a base of E Mail addresses, where the candidate could communicate with the voter by E Mail. This technique proved valuable to Republican operatives as they promoted their dire warnings about the evils of Gay Marriage and Abortions. These issues Karl Rove felt would be the Republican ticket to success in 2006. E Mails about these issues and George Bush's intent to protect the nation from the evil gay marriage and abortion seekers joined the direct mail lies that Republicans also sent, which, along with some serious methods of voter manipulation eventually kept George Bush living on Pennsylvania Avenue for another four years. Of course once Bush was reelected the issues of gay marriage and, to some extent, abortion became non issues to him once again

In 2008, however, it was a different day and a different time and a completely different take on George W. Bush. While it was expected that Democrats would certainly trash W in their seemingly endless string of debates, it was a bit more startling to see and hear how much the Republican candidates tried to distance themselves from the President.

The Republican Candidates seemed to use the Internet sparingly in their campaigns, with the exceptions of Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Although Paul and Huckabee were not successful in winning their party's endorsement both of these out of the mainstram candidates proved to be relatively successful in their Internet Fund Raising efforts. Other Republican candidates seemed to rely on the tried and true methods of direct mail and personal contacts and phone calls to raise funds and drum up support.

On the Democratic side of the 2008 Presidential Race it appeared as though John Edwards seemed to be the first Democratic Candidate to hit the Internet running. That was understandable since Edward's first Campaign Manager in the 2008 Election was Joe Trippi. Trippi had been Campaign Manager for Howard Dean when Dean's campaign hit high gear in fundraising for the 2006 Campaign. Following the disastrous 2006 Iowa Caucus results Trippi was thrown overboard with the hope that new blood would jumpstart the Dean Campaign. It didn't. Trippi did not last forever with Edwards either but Trippi made a practice of sending out E Mails letting Democrats know what was going on in the Edwards Campaing and, of course, asking for money. Personal messages from Johnnny E. also arrived frequently in Democratic E Mail boxes also asking for Money. As the campaign rolled on and Edwards was mildly successful in fund raising on the Internet at least a few of his competitors, namely Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came online not only to Fund Raise but also to get out their messages. Hillary announced her candidacy online.

Obama's campaign seemed to have little chance against the more experienced candidacies of Clinton and Edwards. Early on there were a lot of Democratic Candidates besides the big 3 of Obama, Clinton and Edwards. Joe Biden and Bill Richardson's Campaigns ran out of steam and money quickly. Mike Gravel was almost an invisible candidate who disappeared from view quickly. Chris Dodd was somewhat successful in getting his message out, as was Dennis Kucinich, who had very good messages and good ideas to promote. But none of these candidates were able to break the spell over the Democratic voters that Obama and Clinton seemed to have been able to cast.

And then suddenly, seemingly without warning, Obama's fund raising with individual small amount donors seemed to go through the roof and with each passing month seemed to become even more unbelievably successful, eventually leaving not only Hillary Clinton far behind but even leaving the Republican Fat Cat sponsored Republican Party Front Runner, John McCain, far behind, as well.

Fund Raising on the Internet was just one part of the story when it comes to Barack Obama's Campaign use of the Internet. The story of how Barack and Company used the Internet to help get him elected is a story of brilliance personified. A visit to the Obama site was enticing even to some poor Democrat who had little interest in Obama. There were blogs designed to let the visitor tell their story to Obama and in every manner of speaking the Obama website was a masterpiece of online engineering, campaign recruiting and fundraising that will undoutedly stand the test of time as a guideline for online presidential campaigning for many years to come. You Tube, which had barely existed in 2006 was available to the Obama campaign in 2008. On You Tube Obama commercials Which would cost a fortune to air on commercial television aired for free. Even Obama Girl took You Tube and the country by storm. Although the Internet was not the only reason that Obama waas successful in his bid to become the President of the United States, It was certainly a primary Reason that Obama will take the oath of office in January 20th, 2009 to become The President Of The United States.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

NOVEMBER 4TH, 2008 - DEMOCRATIC VICTORY AND CHANGE HAS COME TO THE PROMISED LAND

2008-11-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

November 8th, 2008

My Dear America:

I got up early Tuesday morning. I was scheduled to hand out literature for Sam Bennett, an attractive young lady running for Congress in the 15th Congressional District in Pennsylvania on the Democratic ticket. Sam was a Leader in the Allentown City and Lehigh County Democratic Committees. I thought she had a good shot at defeating Charlie Dent, a committed Republican Stooge for George Bush in his early term. Charlie had started to vote a little more moderately after the trouncing many Republican members of Congress received in the 2006 election. In that election, Charlie Dent had barely survived a write in challenger with little money and little name recognition. In 2006 Charlie Dent, with the obvious support of the leading local newspaper, The Morning Call, barely recognized that he had an opponent and that opponent almost finished him off. Dent was not going to let that happen this time.

Sam had fought hard and steady during this years campaign to try to get smears out of the election and talk about the issues such as Iraq and the economy. Dent smeared this year like he had never smeared before and on Election night Sam bravely and classily took her bows at The Allentown Brew Works, which was Election Central for the Lehigh County Democrats and then moved to the back of the celebration with her family to deal with what must have been a heartbreaking loss.

But despite Sam's loss there was something else happening that night at the Allentown Brew Works. Democrats, with the exception of Sam, were watching their dreams finally coming true on a wide screen television. It had been a long time since Bill Clinton left the White House and George Bush and his cronies stole the Election in 2000. Disgustingly dirty tricks including obvious vote suppression and pandering to the right wing had brought Bush back for a second term in 2004 to further wreak havoc on the country for four more long and agonizing years.

But that was over on November 4th, 2008. During the last three and a half years George Bush had not only become a Pariah in the Democratic Party but was also Persona Non Grata in his own Republican Pary, as well. Indeed, John McCain, the 2008 standard bearer didn't even want Bush anywhere near the Republican Party Convention in St. Louis, where McCain would be nominated for Republican Presidential Contender.

I had never seen as many Democrats gathered together in the Lehigh Valley before and it was obvious even at the Brew Works that the makeup of the Democratic Coalition was not just changing but, in fact, had already changed. Blacks, Latinos, Young People of all colors and persuasions were joining together with the Older White Democrats to celebrate the passing of the torch to a Young, Black Man who had rocketed out of obscurity after his Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic Convention.

On November 4th, 2008, a mere four years later he had captured the Democratic Party Nomination after defeating a relatively strong group of Democratic rivals. He whittled the group down a bit at a time and finally there was only one rival left, Hillary Clinton. She was a formidable rival, nevertheless. There were many faithful Democrats who, like Hillary, admired Barack Obama but felt that he was cutting in line too soon for his shot at the highest office in the land.

Hillary fought hard for the nomination but although Barack always gave her the respect she deserved in the Democratic Party Debates, he also gave her a run for her money in the Primary Race for the Democratic Nomination. Hillary, to her credit, when she realized that her hopes for getting the Nomination were dashed, followed through on her promise to support Barack. She was not able to convince every Hillary supporter to support Barack but she did her best to do just that in the remainder of the Election. Hillary and Bill Clinton's very strong Support for Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention in Denver allowed Barack to leave the Convention with his campaign and his party in fine form and ready to face the days that were left as unified as the Democratic Party had ever been. Before and after Denver Barack felt like and looked like a winner and although the polls didn't always agree his self confidence and his finely tuned message of Hope, Change, Getting out of Iraq, Getting Bin laden, Giving Tax breaks to the Middle Class and no more tax breaks for the Super Rich, resonated with voters.

As Barack said over and over across the United States of America IT TRULY WAS OUR TIME.

Now that our time has come we must enjoy it. We must celebrate it. We must rejoice over it. We have waited a long time for this moment. I read a very moving open letter to Barack Obama this week written by Alice Walker. She advised Barack not to let himself be overwhelmed by the job and to continue to pay attention to his wife and daughters and let himself relax. Somehow I don't think that this will be a problem for Barack Obama. He does not appear to be a nervous guy. He has had plenty to make him nervous over the course of this year's campaign and it seems as though he has maintained his cool throughout this harrowing time. My guess is that he will continue to make time for his lovely family and that he and they will make us proud to be Americans again.

The messages from all over the world have shown that not only Americans but Planet Earth Citizens from everywhere are no longer looking with disdain at The United States of America. Barack Obama's message of Hope, Change and Peace is a message that can and will resonate everywhere in the world.

We were still at the Brew Works when one of the networks called the election for Obama. The shouting was deafening. These Democrats were stoked up. As my wife, Sandy (a committed Hillary Supporter before she was a Barack Supporter) and I left the Brew Works, where we had also met with our daughter, Rachel (Another Hillary Supporter, Rutgers Law School Student and Future Presidential Candidate, Mark My Words) there were a few Allentonians whooping it up on Hamilton Street. We joined them for a few whoops as we walked to my car. We decided to drive by the Brew Works and beep our horn on the way home and it brought back memories of doing so many years ago. As I hit the horn the Democrats outside of the Brew Works yelled and gave V for victory signs.

When we got home Sandy fell asleep before Barack came on CNN and gave his rousing Victory Speech. It had been one Hell of a Night and a proper end to one Hell of a Historic Election.

During his Victory Speech Barack acknowledged that he knew that his Grandmother, who had just died, was there with him in Chicago that night. It takes a lot to make Jesse Jackson cry but he was visibly weeping probably realizing that along with Barack's Grandmother, Martin Luther King was also there in Chicago that night thinking about the speech he gave the night before he died in Memphis.

"I've been to the mountaintop and I've seen the Promised Land", Martin Said. "I may not get there with you", he continued, "but we as a people will get to the Promised land."

On this beautiful Chicago night as we watched the first Black man ever to win the Presidency of the United States it was quite obvious that we had all arrived together in The Promised Land.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Home Stretch Begins - An Incredible Review of an Incredible Campaign Up To This Point

2008-10-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

My Dear America:

It has certainly been a wild and bumpy ride on this year's Road To The White House and it is far from over yet. This has been a year of incredibles in every way, shape and form and it is only prudent to expect that there will be more mind blowing incredible things to come, although it is difficult to anticipate what could be more incredible than what we have already seen.

What have we seen that is incredible. Well lets see.

One incredible thing that has happened or more accurately two incredible things that have happened is that both Democratic and Republican Last Candidates Standing were not the Candidates that the party pros would have picked at the beginning of January. The Mavericks in both parties took the lead the hard way. They earned it. And now they are racing each other toward the finish line. INCREDIBLE

Hillary Clinton proved to be a formidible candidate and a very aggressive opponent of Barack Obama. After the bloodletting Primary Campaign was over even though many of Hillary's backers were angry to begin with when Hillary endorsed Barack she meant it and both Hillary and Bill Clinton proved to be Barack backers with a Capital B at the Incredible Denver Convention. Barack, Joe Biden,The Clintons and the Convention were INCREDIBLE.

The Republican Convention was just as Incredible as the Democratic Convention. John McCain immediately took the wind out of the Democratic Sails on the Friday after the Democratic Convention by announcing his Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin. The Conventioners loved her and she was especially greeted with enthusiasm by the Republican Religious Right, who were overjoyed to see someone who was just as extreme as they were taking the second spot on the ticket. Sarah soon showed that although she was an attractive Hockey Mom Governor she had a few skeletons in her closet. Her unmarried daughter was pregnant and evidence was mounting that Sarah had put pressure on the Alaska Director of Public Safety to fire her ex brother in law. Although the ex brother in law was still on the job the Alaska Director of Public Safety was no longer in his. He had been fired. Sarah said it was for reasons other than refusing to fire the ex brother in law. Now the McCain Campaign is involved in trying to shut down the scandal before it completely finishes their candidate. INCREDIBLE.

And then there is the most Incredible development of all. The impending Financial Collapse on Wall Street. McCain at first claimed that it was all an illusion and that the fundamentals of our ecomomy are sound. Shortly after he realized how dire things really were he changed his tune and the man who claimed to know nothing about the economy was suddenly acting like an expert and claimed to suspend his campaign while he flew back to Washington to help alleviate the crisis. He also threatened not to show up for the First Presidential Debate and wanted to delay the debate. Obama refused to follow the bait. He allowed McCain to suspend his campaign and rush back to Washington. Then Bush and his financial team came up with the idea of a bail out package for Wall Street with a price tag of 700 Billion Dollars. Not only was that amount incredible. The original proposal from the White House and Henry Paulsen would have placed that amount of money in Mr. Paulsen's hands with no oversight of any kind. He would not even have had to answer to the courts in the first proposal. That proposal was not approved and finally a more realistic proposal with oversight and with some curtailing of million dollar parachutes for escaping wall street executives was part of the final deal.

McCain and Bush, the proud deregulators had insisted "Hands off Wall Street". These guys wanted no part of Nationalizing Health Care but now they wanted Wall Street Nationalized.

Just think of what the rest of us could have done with 700 Billion Dollars. We could have paid for a National Health Care Program. And where in the world is this money going to come. From Chinese and the Middle Eastern Bankers who must be continuing to chuckle as we continue to show them that they are in charge of our financial situation, not us.

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE.

I fear for our safety in the future and what I fear most is that this Ship of Fools that we are on could possibly Continue with Captain McCain taking over for Captain Bush. If that happens, God Help Us.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Invasion Of The Mind Snatchers

2008-09-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

John McCain, Where Are You

2008-09-02T07:50:00.001-07:00

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

On a Beautiful and Historic Night in Denver Barack Obama Gives The Speech Of His Lifetime and Knocks It Out Of Mile High Stadium

2008-08-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 30th, 2008
2:19 PM

My Dear America:

Thursday, August 28th, 2008 was a night that was destined to go down in history. There was no doubt about that. Barack Obama was coming at the end of this evening to accept the Democratic Party's 2008 Nomination for President of the United States of America.

The Warm Up Music included performances by Michael McDonald, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. The Warm Up Speakers included Howard Dean, Bill Richardson and Al Gore. You knew that this was going to be a Super Important Night. Of that there was no doubt. There was a stageful of retired Army, Navy and Air Force Brass. I can't recall any Marine Generals, although there may have been one or two. The group included Wesley Clark, although he was not the one who spoke for the Millitary Brass. The gentleman who did speak for the group made it clear that these Generals and Admirals had confidence in and had already pledged their support to the man who would soon accept the Democratic Mantle.

But the most impressive speakers in the Pre Barack show included a bunch of regular folks, at least some of them recently retired from the Republican Pary, who told their heartbreaking stories of being left behind by the Bush Administration during the last 8 years. They were people who had worked hard and expected their government to help them and be there for them in their hour of need but found out the hard way that when they lost their jobs and their health care and their businesses that they were no longer the deserving party faithful.

They were on their own.

But on this special, historic night in Denver they had finally found an audience willing to listen to these voices crying out in the wilderness for help. There were plenty more stories like theirs out there and tonight they were speaking with and for the multitude.

Barney Smith was a proud, Ex Republican, who was one of the group that graced the Mile High Stadium Stage. He was certainly one of the least impressive speakers of the night but he had what was probably one of the most impressive speech lines of the night when he informed the nationwide crowd:

"I want a President who cares more about Barney Smith than about Smith Barney."

Clearly the crowd reaction told Barney Smith that he was not alone.

And then came Senator Dick Durban, the Illinois Senator who had introduced Barack Obama at the 2004 Convention where Barack, not even an elected Senator yet, gave the Keynote address and brought the house down. Dick Durban was back on the podium in 2008 introducing Barack Obama again. This time, though, Barack Obama, was more than the keynote speaker at this Convention. He was the key speaker. He was the 2008 Nominee.

The stadium crowd erupted in adulation for this kid from the wrong side of the tracks who had turned his life around and in so doing turned a lot of other kid's lives around. As Barack, the Talented Orator took off you could feel it even watching the show on TV. This was a night of profound history. As Barack gave his Acceptance Speech it was the 25th Anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King gave his "I have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C..

At the beginning of this Campaign when the Debate Stages were still filled with such Democratic hopefuls as Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton, it was hard to imagine that on this August Night in Denver it would actually be Barack and not Hillary making their acceptance speech. It had been a long, sometimes ugly but always interesting Democratic Primary Campaign. The Democratic Party Convention, even at the beginning of this Convention week looked as though it could still turn ugly again. After all, The Clintons were being featured on two Convention speech nights. Certainly that was dangerous, others must have told Barack Obama and Howard Dean. But if there is one thing that the Clintons understand about Politics it is that politics truly does make some strange bedfellows and that Unity is everything in Democratic Party Politics.

So in the end after this ugly and contentious primary The Clintons came through for Barack Obama and on this beautiful Denver night Barack gave the speech of his lifetime, thus far, anyway. The speech was a well crafted litany of why Barack should be elected and why John McCain should not be. Anyone who has not seen it should see it and hopefully pay attention to it.

In the end the entire Democratic Denver Convention went off very smoothly and it was certainly a love fest for not only Barack and Michelle Obama and their kids. But it was also a love fest for the Clinton's, as well, Those Democratic Stalwarts, who went home from the Denver convention with as many good memories and as much good will as The Obamas and the Bidens.

It had, indeed, been a historic night in Denver and in America Millions of Black Youngsters had been shown just what heights they could aspire to. America would never quite be the same country again.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

And Now For Your Listening Pleasure -The Main Event - From Mile High Stadium - BARACK OBAMA

2008-08-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 28th, 2008
11:00 AM

My Dear America:

The 2008 Democratic Convention could not have come off any better than it has so far. It has been a love fest for the Clintons and the Obama's featuring nearly every Democratic Luminary in the country. Teddy Kennedy's Rousing speech, Michelle Obama's Impressive speech, Hillary Clinton's Home Run followed by Bill Clinton's short (by his standards) Excellent speech noting the fact that the Republicans back in 1992 called him "too young and inexperienced" also. Bill Clinton is always a hard act to follow but John Kerry and Joe Biden did it as well as any politicians could have.

It was a bit sad to see, John Kerry, the nominee the last time out on the podium in a completely different role than 2004. But Kerry was hard hitting and effective as he pointed out John McCain's numerous Republican faults.

Joe Biden was also clear about his freindship with McCain being a long one but he also zeroed in on the inexplicable changes in John McCain's views over the past few years. Vice Presidential Nominee Biden may have been disappointed by the changes but he certainly used them effectively last night to show that McCain was nothing more than McBush and simply a shell of the progressive maverick that he once had been.

Over the Course of the Convention there have been many Great Speeches by many Great Democrats. Many Great short films have also been featured, such as the ones for Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But tonight comes the night that all Democrats have been waiting for. Among Barack Obama's many leadership qualities perhaps his gift for public speaking may be his most impressive gift. I got the chance to see and hear him during the Pennsylvania Primary at Muhlenberg College Memorial Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Although the speech was basically the same stump speech that I had heard on C Span many times before, Barack Obama seemed to be able to make it somehow more relevant in person than it had been on television. It was a packed hall and most speakers would probably have been intimidated or at least tired from many months of campaigning. But Barack was relaxed and on message when he spoke that night. He was not in any way a showboater. He was just a truly Great public speaker.

No matter how many people show up tonight I don't believe that it will make much difference to Barack. He is going to be speaking on the anniversary occasion of Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. He will be speaking to a crowd of Democrats many of whom just participated in his Nomination as the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States. He is also going to be speaking to millions of Democrats, Republicans and Independents over the Television airwaves.

As Barack said last night when he arrived for the last couple of minutes of the Convention "Hillary Clinton Rocked the House Last Night". Tonight it will be Barack Obama Rocking Mile High Stadium and like may of his fellow Democratic speakers at this week's Convention he too will be "hitting it out of the park".

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Its Monday Night Live in Denver at the Michelle and Teddy Show

2008-08-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

August 25th, 2008
12:20 AM

My Dear America:

The First Night of The Democratic Convention in Denver was truly a memorable night for two Reasons. Those two reasons were Teddy Kennedy (and Family) and Michelle Obama (and family).

There were quite a few interesting speeches such as that by Jerry Kellerman, who hired Barack Obama to be an Organizer in the South Side of Chicago when Obama was just graduating from Columbia University. Clearly Barack's old boss liked him, respected him and still considered Barack a friend. There was also Jim Leach, a former Iowa Congressman who prior to running for office, left the Nixon Administration when Nixon fired Archibald Cox and others in the Saturday Night Massacre, which led to the final downfall and humiliation of Richard Nixon. Leach, I am sure did not make any friends in the Republican party tonight as he endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama. Claire MCaskell and her children were impressive also, as were Caroline Kennedy introducing her "Uncle Teddy" Kennedy and Michelle Obama's brother introducing her.

The night belonged, however, to "Uncle Teddy" Kennedy, who, against his doctor's advice, came to Denver anyway tonight to show the Democratic Party where he stood and who he stood behind. Although Teddy Kennedy has done his share of shameful things in his life it was hard to watch Ted Kennedy tonight as a Democrat without feeling an extreme amount of Pride. Clearly Ted Kennedy even in his deteriorating health can still give a Firebrand Speech and although his speech wasn't as fiery as some he has given at previous Democratic Conventions it was still a barn burner and it lit up this convention floor. As he promised to be there in January to watch Barack take the oath of office his energy and his vigor made it seem like he might truly be on his way to full recovery and may yet return to the Senate in good health.

Speaking of Good Health, Michelle Obama seemed to be the picture of beauty, good health and good looks as she closed down the First day of the Convention with a speech that showed that she may be a new kind of First Lady, feisty, sexy and opinionated possibly beyond even Hillary Clinton. In Michelle's speech she once again mentioned the cracks in the glass ceiling that Hillary had made for the daughters and sons of the future. Following Michelle's speech Barack's image showed up on the Giant Onstage Screen and his youngest daughter in what was an adorably unscripted moment asked Barack on the giant screen "Daddy, what city are you in". Barack calmly explained that he was in Kansas City, where he had watched Michelle's speech and expressed his admiration for her eloquence and her being "Cute".

It was, overall, a Great night for the Democrats and a good start for the Convention.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Welcome to Demoland from Barack O and Regular Joe

2008-08-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

August 25th, 2008

My Dear America:

Well, Democrats the day has finally come.

It has been a long haul from those early 2008 January days of Iowa and New Hampshire when the possibility of Barack Obama's name being considered for the Democratic Party's Nomination for President seemed like a pipe dream that only Barack and a select few were having.

This week that long shot pipe dream will become a reality in Denver, Colorado at the Democratic Party Convention where Barack will become the Democratic Party's annointed One and Delaware Senator, Joe Biden, will become the Democratic Party's choice for Barack's Vice Presidential running mate.

From where I sit, at home, in my easy chair watching this spectacle unfold on Television I am somewhat envious of my fellow Democrats sitting on the Convention floor in Denver. They are watching something that is truly historical. A black man is not only running for President of the United States but has a very good chance of being successful at winning the presidency. Who in the world would have thought this would ever have happened in America. But it has happened. He is running and if he is able to bring this Democratic Convention together, which I am sure he can and will do, he is well on his way to his Innauguration in January of 2009.

Can it happen. Yes it Can

Will it Happen. I believe it will.

I, like many other Hillary Clinton supporters was disappointed that she will not be the Candidate for either President or Vice President.

But Hillary when she lost her opportunity she lost it with class and very soon after her concession did her best to throw her support to Barack. It was in my estimation, Hillary's finest hour, until now.

Now, Tomorrow, in Denver, Hillary will take the stage and soak up the adulation that, until now was reserved for her husband. Bill will also get his share of Respect this week but Tomorrow night, Tuesday night, will certainly be Hillary's night. It will be a night she certainly deserves. It will be a sad night for those of us who are having trouble understanding why it didn't happen for her but did for Obama.

But after tomorrow, Democrats, will come Wednesday, with Bill Clinton and Joe Biden on tap, among others. And Thurday Night in Mile High Stadium it will be Barack Obama's night. And what a night that will be. Barack blew the lid off the arena in Boston when he spoke four years ago.

Is that all it was. Four Years ago.

In Boston Barack showed what he had and I don't think that there was a Democrat that heard him giving that speech that didn't realize that this was a Democratic Politician who was going places.

What we didn't realize back then, when Barack was not even a national politician yet, was just how fast this guy was going places.

This week the place he is going is to Denver.

Its probably a good thing that he is giving his speech in a stadium so that there is no roof to blow off when this Extraordinary Public Speaker gives the most extraordinary speech of his life. This is a Convention that will long be remembered and in my opinion Barack Obama will not only set this Convention on fire he is going to leave this convention spreading his message of Hope like a wildfire across America.

America is hungry for change and if Democrats can survive the Republican smear machine which is in high gear right now and stay together there is no stopping this Dynamic Democratic Ticket.

Stay Together Democrats.

This election is ours if we can stay together

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

BACKFIRE - Barack Obama On The Road in The Middle East and Europe

2008-07-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

July 26th, 2008

My Dear America

My strong advice to John McCain is be careful what you ask for.

You just might get it.

McCain certainly got what he had asked for this week. Chances are he is very sorry now that he pushed the issue so hard.

McCain had badgered Barack Obama for a long time about his lack of experience in foreign policy and in particular about his failure to go to Iraq and see for himself what was happening there. McCain's point seemed to be that without going to Iraq and seeing the show that the American Military Commanders and the Bush Administration allowed U. S Legislators to see, that Obama would not be able to tell for himself what a great job "The Surge" had done in Iraq. McCain hounded Obama like a wolf moving in on a sheep for the kill.

"Why Don't you Go?"

"When are you going", McCain taunted.

McCain is not taunting any longer. Chances are he is sitting together today with his confidantes asking them "What were we thinking."

This week after the gentle prodding of John McCain, Barack Obama took McCain's advice and went to the Middle East and Europe with the anchors of CBS, NBC and ABC all in tow, along with other members of maybe the most prestigious Press Corps of all time. He started in Afghanistan and Pakistan as if to send some sort of message about their importance to the United States in the Middle East. Then Barack moved into Iraq, where it seemed like Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki stunned the Bush Administration ( who had been recently talking about "Time Horizons"for American troop withdrawals with Malaki) and the world with his agreement with Barack Obama's assessment that 16 months, give or take a month or two, would be a perfectly feasable time to get American troops out of Iraq. The message clearly was that Malaki not only could work well with Obama but that they were already on the same page when it came to the pullout out of American troops from Iraq.

Who knew that "Time Tables", "Time Lines" and "Time Horizons" were exactly the same things.

While he was in the Middle East Barack decided to stop by and meet with some Israeli Political Up and Comers.

In the end Barack not only made it out of the Middle East Gaffe Free but with apparently successful contacts ready to work with him in every country he visited, especially in Iraq, which had to really gall President Bush, as well as John McCain. The truth was that everywhere Barack Obama had visited in this MIddle East trip things could not have gone any better than they actually did go.

Now it was on to Europe where the American Charmer meeting with the leader of France made the appearance of two very friendly world leaders holding a news conference together. To those in the White House and the McCain Campaign this was a sight that was disturbing enough to make them drop their ""Freedom Fries" on the floor.

Before he was done Barack Obama had also, like other Presidents before him, Kennedy and Reagan, spoke to an overflow crowd in Germany.

CAN'T THIS GUY DO ANYTHING WRONG.

Hey, John McCain, any more advice about what Barack Obama should do.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Greetings From Unity, New Hampshire

2008-07-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

July 14th, 2008

My Dear America

It has been several weeks since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton got together for their First Post Primary Appearance together on the Road in Unity, New Hampshire. It was an appropriate place for both Candidates to get together for the first time since Hillary acknowledged Barack's Primary win. The name of the town was appropriate, as was the fact that both Barack and Hillary had won an equal number of votes there in that long ago New Hampshire Primary Election that had been Hillary's first squeaker of a primary win.

It was certainly a sight to see and hear for Democrats looking to move on to the next stage of the election. The Dream Team of Barack and Hillary was up and running, at least thats what it looked like and thats what those of us who had supported Hillary in the Primary Election hoped for. Despite Unity Day in New Hampshire, however, the Obama Camp seems to have gone out of their way since to make it clear that the search for a Vice Presidential Running mate for Barack Obama is far from over.

There has also been the issue of Hillary's campaign debts, which Obama's well funded campaign handlers seem to resent being asked to help with. Clearly they have a point. Hillary staying in the race too long caused her own debt. Why should the Obama Campaign share in that debt even if Hillary does end up as the Vice Presidential Candidate. Although Barack, himself, seems to be more open to helping Hillary, he and his campaign is bound by legal limitations, which I am sure Barack is not unhappy about. Barack does seem to be willing to help Hillary by interceding with his backers to help her. it is anybodys guess how that will go in the long run.

When Barack and Hillary got together in New Hampshire last month Barack Obama was considerably ahead of John McCain in virtually every poll by as many as 15 percentage points. In a poll reported today, July 14th, Barack's lead has shrunk to just 3 or 4 percentage points. Why has Barack's lead been shrinking. Who truly knows. For Democrats, however, this is very very bad news.

Some of the reasons for the incredible shrinking polls may be some of the following: Racism is not dead in the United States in either the Republican or Democratic Parties. We also have several Third Party groups who are organizing and presenting their own fringe Candidates for President like former U. S Representative, Cynthia Mckinney (Green Party), Former U.S. Representative, Bob Barr (Libertarian Party) and Ralph Nader (Nader Party), among others. We have also seen Barack Obama indicate a shift to the Center on certain issues. This may have gained him some supporters but some of his views such as indicating that his view on pulling out of Iraq might change may have angered some of his long time supporters. Also another factor that may be in play is the uncertainty of what Hillary Clinton's role is going to be in the Obama Campaign. Clearly there are some Clinton supporters who have no use for Obama and no matter what he does they will not be satisfied. What seemed to be very clear throughout the Primary was that there appeared to be two well organized camps. Hillary has done what she can to bring her supporters into the the Obama Democtratic Camp. Now it is up to Barack to take a chance and once and for all bring the Clintonites home.

There is no way to guarantee that the Clinton Supporters will stick with Barack even if he offers Hillary the Vice Presidency. It certainly seems clear today, however, that this is a gamble that needs to be taken.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Its Mid June And The Race Is On

2008-06-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

June 19th, 2008

My Dear America:

Sorry I haven't communicated with you in awhile. In addition to what has been happening on the campaign trail I have been dealing with a lot of things on my own trail. Some very good things and some awful things.

I don't want to jam up this Blog with a lot of personal issues, though. Let me just talk about some of the more important things that have happened in the presidential campaign during the past month.

As predicted by everyone, President Clinton, er excuse me, Senator Clinton finally and gracefully bowed out of the race. Although she was soundly criticized for staying in the race to the end, she did so. When it was clear after the last early June races that it was over for her she had a very fine Last Hurrah speech on primary election night but did not announce that she was quitting the race only suspending the campaign. The Talking Heads of course criticized her for not wrapping it up that election night but Hillary Clinton, to her credit, did not do it the way she was expected to but the way she wanted to.

On the Saturday after her last primary election night speech she ended the speculation in a big way. She had a rally of her supporters in D.C. and went out in a blaze of glory and class. She wrapped it up in a way that brought tears to the eyes of her supporters. Although she must have been dying inside she kept it together and gave her incredible speech. In that speech she enthusiastically threw her support to Barack Obama and the Democratic Primary was finally over and the party headed on down the road to unity.

There are those who will resist unity for many reasons but in the end this race will come down to two candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama. Two candidates and two political and Philosophical agendas that couldn't be more different. There will be a clear choice this November and all of the indicators show that voters will vote for a new future and not just a continuation of the abominable policies of the last 7 years.

I watched a tape this morning of Barack's wife, Michelle Obama, sitting in as a co-host on The View. This girl is bright, beautiful, a good mother and is not afraid to be herself. She even had kind words for Laura Bush who had previously had kind words for her.

What a truly historic impact these two people, Barack and Michelle Obama, are going to have when the Obama family moves into the White House and the winds of change once again blow through Washington, D.C. and from there out across our country.

You need a change America.
We all need a change.
Hold On, Its coming.

Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher

Down To The Wire in West Virginia And Kentucky

2008-05-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

May 13th, 2008

My Dear America

It seems like a lifetime since I wrote to you last and, in fact, it has been. In this Democratic Primary Season a day is a lifetime. Three Months is like a century in this race. Although my blog has been inactive for awhile I haven't been, though. When the Political Rock Stars traveled through my area (The Lehigh Valley Area of Pennsylvania) I went to see them. I saw both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. I didn't see and hear Hillary Clinton though because when she came to town on a Sunday I was just returning to Allentown from the Greenbriar Mountains of Pennsylvania where I had spent a Rock and Roll extended weekend with some band buddies.

Bill Clinton looked Great when I saw him at Muhlenberg College's Memorial Hall. He was tall and relatively skinny and walked around a large stage in front of a Giant American Flag. I went to see Barack with My married daughter and two of her kids. The kids were great, for the most part, but they had to wait a long time and finally they started begging to be taken home. When Barack came out onto his tiny platform they were as excited as my daughter and I. Barack was a wonderful speaker, as was Bill, but the Barack moment was marred by the fact that the umbrellas we had been forced to leave in boxes outside Memorial Hall were stolen. Both Barack and Bill spoke at the same place, Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

My family was "A Tale Of Two Candidates" throughout the Pennsylvania Primary. My married Daughter was a Barack supporter (Still Is) and my second youngest daughter was a Hillary supporter to begin with. My Youngest Daughter never mentioned who she was supporting . She just went and voted on election day without a word about who she chose. My second youngest daughter became a even more of a Super Hillary Supporter when the husband of her boss, Congressman Rob Andrews, A Superdelegate from New Jersey, took my daughter along with his own to a party for Superdelegates at the Clinton's D.C. home. When she got a chance to get a picture taken with Hillary she told Hillary that our family had a cottage right down the road from Hillary's at Lake Winola outside of Scranton. Hillary asked the family name and when my daughter said Houlihan Hillary jumped up and down saying "Sure, I know the Houlihans". Anyway my daughter got her picture taken with Hillary and I sent it by E Mail to everyone on my E Mail List. Hillary recognizing my mother's family name at Lake Winola. That did it for me. I was on the fence before. But after hearing about that and seeeing the pictures of my Daughter and Hillary I was hooked on voting for Hillary, At least in the PA Primary. My Hillary loving wife and Daughter have accused me of voting for Obama in the PA Primary but I did not. I voted for Hillary and my candidate won in PA.

Now its down the road right before the West Virginia and Kentucky Primaries and the Pennsylvania Primary seems like a distant memory. If you listen to Television Talking Heads Hillary hasn't got a chance. To be honest I think its time that Hillary and Barack get together at some God Forsaken place off the beaten path out of the reach of TV Cameras and lock themselves in a room until they negotiate a peace treaty with each other and an agreement to run together for the good of the party and the good of the country.

We can't allow the Democrats to snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Certain Victory. Not this time. Hell No

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Eyes of Texas are Upon Them

2008-02-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

February 24th, 2008

My Dear America:

One thing about this years Presidential Campaign that I love is that it is never boring. Well almost never.

Certainly this week is one of those more interesting weeks. There was, of course, the Texas Debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama last Thursday night. There was probably more civility in that debate than most we have seen. Both Hillary and Barack made their points, mostly the same points that they have made in previous debates. The difference in this debate from most of the others was the rather strange but welcome interruption of the political hostilities by Hillary Clinton as she made the point at the end of the debate that she has been blessed in her life and so has Barack and that regardless of what shakes out in this Presidential Primary season they both will be "fine." Hillary ended up talking about how proud she was to be on that stage with Obama. It was hard to read from what happened what Message Hillary was really trying to convey. Was she giving up? Was she ending her Presidential Campaign and turning over the reins to Barack Obama?

Not a chance. Just days later the fur was flying between Hillary and Barack again. Hillary was unhappy about what she felt was Barack's misinterpretation of her involvement in the Clinton Administration. Once again we see that between these two it aint over til its over.

Barack's wife, Michelle Obama, also got herself in some political hot water last week by making a comment about the fact that after a long period of time she was finally proud of her country. Naturally the Republican pundits pounced on this like it was red meat that they could chew on and spit out for a long time. Clearly Michelle was not saying anything other than she was proud of her husband and his campaign but to hear the Republicans tell it Michelle was an Anti American Liberal Shameful Hussey.

Probably this story would have dragged Michelle Obama through the mud much longer but then along came a story in the New York Times that knocked everything else off page one all over the country. The story was mainly about the fact that Republican Front Runner, John McCain, who has presented himself over these many years as a political reformer, may have, indeed, been influenced himself by lobbyists during the time that he had advocated reducing lobbyist influence. If that, in itself, had been the heart of the story it probably would have died a quick death within a few days. Unfortunately for McCain, or perhaps fortunately, the story had a couple of sentences which pointed to a concern on the part of former McCain staffers that it had been suspected by McCain people 8 years ago during his ill fated campaign for the Presidency that McCain was having an affair with Telecommunications Lobbyist, Vickie Issacson. Talk about lobbyist influence.

Suddenly and without warning this boring 8 year old story of lust, legislators and lobbyists had turned McCains Right Wing Radio Talk Show Tormentors into McCain supporters. McCain's campaign strategists had been trying to figure out how to make this happen since it became obvious to all concerned that McCain was going to be the Republican standard bearer in 2008. Now here it was Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly all together defending McCain instead of running him down. It was extraordinary and all it took was a marriage threatening embarassing story run by The New York Times. Suddenly it was this left leaning national newspaper, which supposedly had been sitting on the story for a long time and had also endorsed McCain as their choice to win the Republican Primary that was being demonized again by the right. It was truly manna from heaven for the McCain Campaign.

It is so strange right now to be observing Rush Limbaugh rushing to John McCain's defense. Limbaugh is now castigating The New York Times for "trying to destroy" John McCain's Presidential bid. According to Limbaugh it is unforgivable that The New York Times is trying to destroy John McCain. Yet only a week ago it was more than OK for Rush to be working daily to destroy John McCain.

Incredible. Absolutely Incredible. But I am sure that there are many more incredible surprises to come in this interesting and unpredictable campaign.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Two Days After Super Tuesday - Goodbye Mitt Romney

2008-02-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

My Dear America:

Well It's two days past Super Tuesday and another one bites the dust as the Republican field of prospective candidates has shrunken to two. Mitt Romney is gone after a self serving speech to a roomful of extreme Right Wing conservative Republican fanatics. Romney seemed to be the last best hope to Conservative Republicans despite the fact that he barely won more than a few states outside of Massachusetts. It apparently meant nothing to conservatives that Romney was not a conservative despite his continued verbal homage to Ronald Reagan. Romney showed from the beginning of his campaign for the presidency that he was willing to say and do anything to be elected to the presidency. Although he swore that he was pro choice when he ran for governor of Massachusetts that position went out the window once he decided that he needed the backing of conservatives in his presidential bid. Rudy Giuliani may have been a snake but at least he did not throw out every principle he had ever believed in once he set his sights on the White House. But now both Rudy and Mitt are Presidential Candidates with no future but only a past. They have joined Tom Tancredo in the Republican Candidate scrap heap and all I can say is "Good Riddance." They are gone because the American people are letting the political pundits and party leaders know that they have had it with the conservative agenda. Abraham Lincoln said that "you can fool some of the people some of the time", which the Republicans have done for the past 8 years. Lincoln also wisely pointed out, though, that "you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

over the past 8 years Republicans seemed to care less and less about the voters they were fooling into thinking that they were being helped by the Republican agenda. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity spewed out their poison like the dangerous snakes they were and rich and poor Republicans adored them. No Longer. These heartless oracles are finding out the hard way that their days are not only numbered. Indeed, their day is almost done. The poor suckers that these meglomaniacs pulled into their web have broken loose. Rush, Sean and Bill do not like John McCain. He is not extreme enough for them. Too bad, they are stuck with him. The Republican Party is stuck with him. I just hope that you, America, are not stuck with him.

McCain is truly a wolf in sheeps clothing. He does have some redeeming qualities. Unlike George Bush and the rest of the Republican candidates, John McCain is truly a war hero. He has also been the prime mover and shaker for some very responsible legislation which has addressed some pressing problems such as Immigration and Campaign Financing. To his credit, McCain voted against the tax cuts for the wealthy when they were presented and put into place by Bush and McCain's fellow Republicans. Not to his credit is the fact that McCain has now, like Mitt Romney before him, changed his position on one of his core issues. Todays John McCain, who fought the powers that be in the Senate over the issue of unfair taxes has seen the Republican light. He now wants to make permanent the tax cuts for the well to do that he would not touch with a ten foot pole when they were first introduced. In addition to this outrage, McCain is also a fervent supporter of the War in Iraq and would have no problem with you, America, staying in that violent and unstable country for a hundred years. On the positive side, McCain has not changed his mind on Iraq and has taken his share of criticism for supporting Bush on Iraq. On the negative side, McCain might very well be supporting mass suicide. That makes just as much sense.

And so it goes in the world of politics. At this point, like it or not, John McCain is a go. He will be the Republican candidate for President and now the Republican spin machine will hold their collective noses and get behind McCain as they begin the process of smearing both of the Democratic front runners. Will McCain be okay with this. Yes he will.

Hopefully, though Hillary and Barack will survive the Republican smear machine and the American electorate will say together

"WE WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN" and mean it.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Turning Point of South Carolina

2008-02-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

January 28th, 2008

My Dear America:

Although I am actually writing this post on February 2nd, I am using the date of January 28th because that was when I first wrote what I thought was a pretty good letter to you, tried to post it and watched the error message come up on my computer apparently sending my letter off into the electronic digital abyss never to be heard from again. Although I will probably not be able to write anything as good as my first try I have two choices. One; forget about it and the Blog or two; try again. I am making the second choice. So here goes.

The past two Saturdays in South Carolina have been monumental. First, a week ago last Saturday, John McCain left this state energized and thrilled that his plan for a "Surge" past Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee had worked in South Carolina. McCain flew into Florida like he was shot out of a cannon ready to work on wiping out his remaining opponents in the Republican Primaries. It is becoming clearer every day that McCain is the man to beat in the Republican Party. He is, what one pundit called "The Gentle Warmonger" which is certainly an accurate description of McCain. Clearly on the war in Iraq McCain is out of touch with the vast majority of Americans when he states that it would not bother him if U.S. Forces "stay in Iraq for a hundred years." It is too bad that McCain is such a disappointment to the Right Wing Fringe who are looking for a Thousand Year Commitment to the Iraq War on the part of the United States. McCain is also a disappointment to those who have admired his Maverick reputation over the years. For instance, gone is McCain's initial opposition to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that McCain refused to vote for when they were first passed in the Senate. Now he can't get the Wealthy Welfare Tax Bill passed fast enough. Goodbye Maverick. It was nice knowing you.

On the other side of the political street in South Carolina a very interesting development has occurred. Barack Obama throughout the last week was on the receiving end of a barrage of criticism from not only Hillary Clinton but also from her husband, Former President, Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton not only slammed Obama hard at every speaking engagement in the state he also called Obama a liar, who was not really against the War in Iraq at the outset and was also a Reagan Supporter, as well.

Bill Clinton clearly should have thought more clearly before he went on this weeklong verbal rampage across South Carolina. Although Bill Clinton does not always think with his brain he should have in this case. The end result in South Carolina was staggering. Barak Obama won the South Carolina Primary with a 2 to 1 vote margin of victory over Hillary Clinton. Another bad sign for the Cliintons was the fact that half of the primary voters had not voted in the 2006 Primary.

Today, on the day that George Bush gave his last State Of The Union Speech ( Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty we will soon be Free at Last, of him) One of the final nails was driven into Hillary Clinton's Presidential Bid Coffin.

As if the brutal defeat of Hillary (and Bill) in South Carolina wasn't enough bad news for Hillary's Campaign, Ted, Caroline and Patrick Kennedy joined Barack Obama on a college campus stage in Washington, D.C., where Ted gave one of his most passionate speeches ever linking the excitement about Obama's campaign to memories of his brothers campaigns for President. There was no doubt about who was receiving Ted Kennedy's endorsement.

At The State of The Union Speech Barack and Teddy hung out together like Frat Brothers smiling and talking before and after the President's Speech. Hillary kept her distance from Ted and Barack. At one awkward moment she did come over and shook hands with Kennedy but Obama walked away from her. It had to be a sad moment for Hillary and there will clearly be other sad moments to come but who knows what will happen next in this truly historic and unpredictable campaign. It certainly looks like Barack has the momentum right now but Super Tuesday is coming and I have the feeling that it is going to be a night of many shocks and surprises for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

Memories of New Hampshire

2008-01-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

My Dear America:

It seems as though the dust has finally begun to settle in the Granite State of New Hampshire, the site of 2008's First actual Primary Election in this important Election Year. New Hampshire was an even more interesting contest than the Iowa Caucus.

The Iowa Caucus was interesting enough in that two dark horse candidates that no one had expected to win won rather handily in both the Democratic and the Republican Parties. Former Arkansas Governor, Mike "Who" Huckabee, had come out of nowhere to beat the pants off of all the Money and Media Hogs who up until the reality of the Iowa Caucus set in had been annointed by the media as "The Front Runners" in the Republican Party. After the Iowa Caucus, though, the Front Runners were no longer the Front Runners and everybody knew who Mike Huckabee was.

There was a very short period of time between the Iowa Caucus and The New Hampshire Primary. The Iowa Caucus was on Thursday, January 3rd and the New Hampshire Primary was on Tuesday, January 8th. This did not leave much time for the New Front Runners to use their newfound status to campaign advantage in New Hampshire.

On Saturday, January 5th, there was a debate scheduled at St. Anselm's College in New Hampshire that was sponsored by ABC and featured ABC News Anchor, Charlie Gibson, as the Debate Moderator. What was different about this debate was that it was an all nighter featuring First The Republicans and then The Democrats on the same stage. Charlie Gibson had enough clout and moxie to even force the Republicans and Democrats to greet each other civilly, some shaking hands and some even hugging, while the Democrats were coming on the stage after the Republican Debate. It was a nice touch and it gave Charlie Gibson an opening to not only talk about bipartisanship but also to actually force it to be practiced on the stage of the debate that he was moderating.

There was not a lot of new information revealed in the debates. Rudy Giuliani said "9-11" about 200 times, basically every time he opened his mouth. Mitt Romney lied about as many times as Rudy said 9-11 but this time there was a definite negative vibe toward Romney by his Republican Debate Colleagues. Clearly Mitt was in need of serious medical and political rehabilitation by the end of the evening as his stagemates played "Hammer the Huckster" with Mitt and his constantly changing positions on everything no longer getting a free pass by John McClain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. Clearly these guys had had it with Romney's annoying BS and they let him have it full force. Although it seems to be hard to knock that "Joker"smile off Romney's face it seemed to me that the The Republican Candidates Boys Club came as close to doing it that night as they probably ever will.

When the Democrats turn came it seemed as though the game had changed from "Hammer the Huckster" to "Bash the Bitch". Certainly John Edwards and Barack Obama played it. Bill Richardson, who hadn't seemed too comfortable with greeting the Republicans also did not seem to be comfortable with playing the chosen Democratic Game for the evening and just as he seemed to avoid contact with Republicans departing from the stage Bill avoided bashing Hillary. Certainly Hillary did not seem to have a very good night on stage at St. Anselms. She was asked the terribly embarassing question about her lack of likeability compared to Obama to which she stated, probably only half in jest, that the question "hurts my feelings". John Edwards mainly along with Barack Obama worked her over pretty well that Saturday night but you had to give Hillary credit for taking her punishment as well as any man could have and not crying. By Monday night, January 8th, things had gotten about as bad as they could for Hillary. Polls showed that minute by minute and hour by hour what had appeared to be Hillary's comfortable lead in the previous New Hampshire polls had disappeared just as Barack's lead in those same polls seemed to be taking off like a rocket building to what looked like a sure fire win for Obama on Tuesday, Primary Election Day.

While Obama wasn't claiming victory on Monday night he seemed to be looking pretty relaxed and confident. On the other hand Hillary seemed to be stunned by what was happening and at one of her campaign stops her voice quivered and it looked as though she might start crying. She never did cry, at least in public, but the press acted as if she had been bawling like a baby and ran the story of her "breakdown" over and over especially on CNN and, of course on Fox News. Reporters then started asking the other candidates and each if they thought this was an "Ed Muskie Moment". Muskie was a long gone Democrat who had seen his hopes of being a Presidential contender go up in smoke when he got emotional after an editorial writer criticized Muskie's wife during his New Hampshire Primary. As if things weren't bad enough Bill Clinton really did seem to be having an Ed Muskie Moment and was angrilly shooting his mouth off to any reporter or media group or crowd that would listen to him. Although he looked kind of like a jerk you also had to admire Bill's courage in this difficult moment to let his true love for his wife show through. He may have been a cheating bastard but obviously his love for his wife was not a show. Bill was clearly hurting because his wife was hurting. Then came the moment that I'm sure Hillary was angry about when Bill Clinton started talking about the litany of Barack's Obama's lies about Hillary. It was truly a pot calling the kettle black moment.

On Election Day in New Hampshire it was hard to get those talking heads out of your own head that you had seen the night before commenting on, gloating over, focused on the polls which had shown Barack Obama giving Hillary Clinton her second trouncing in less than a week.

But something happened in New Hampshire that nobody expected, America. The polls taken the day before Primary Election Day were wrong about the Democratic winner of this Primary Election. When the votes were all counted a miracle had happened. The winner who had been annointed by the press didn't win after all. The polls were wrong. Hillary Clinton finally emerged the winner in a tight race on the Democratic side. The pollsters were stunned. John McCain, a Republican maverick who had been left for dead on the campaign trail by the press months ago had also won the Republican Primary. The talking heads were now all talking about how they had missed this one. "How the hell did this happen" they wanted to know. But none of them know the answer to that question. To be sure Hillary didn't win by much but a win is still a win. Although John Edwards came in a rather distant third you might have thought that he had won listening to what should have been a concession speech by Edwards. In fact John Edward's speech wasn't much different than that given by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. If you didn't know better you might have thought that Clinton, Edwards and Obama had all won the New Hampshire Primary. As the campaigns rolled out of New Hampshire and on to Michigan and Nevada Bill Richardson made it official. He was leaving the campaign trail and going home to New Mexico where life was warmer and more predictable than New Hampshire. Other news has come out this past week. McCain and Romney are neck and neck in Michigan. Hillary is unopposed in that state. In Nevada the very influential Culinary Workers Union has endorsed Obama. Stranger still is the endorsement of Obama by past Democratic Presidential Candidate, John Kerry.

Tonight those next two contests will have answers or will they. I hope so. I would suggest to both the Democrats and Republicans that rather than investing in the shaky science of polling that they would probably be better off hiring official Democratic and Republican Party Mediums. Then at least you are dealing with a more exact science.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher

The Day After the Iowa Caucus

2008-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Friday, January 4th, 2008

My Dear America:

Well, the big day has come and gone. We heard about it every day for the past six months, almost a year. Its Coming. The Iowa Caucus. In the past it has brought us such winners as Pat Buchanan and George Bush. But then again it has also brought us the seeming meltdown of Howard Dean and the meteoric rise of John Kerry in 2004. Iowa is a land of Grassroots and Political Upsets and this year is no different. Well, let me rephrase that. This year is far different. Although the surprises were not totally unexpected, the margins by which the winners won were pretty phenomenal.

In Fact, Phenomenal is a word that can and should be used to discuss the first real Presidential contest this election year. AND THE WINNERS ARE: On the Democratic side of the ticket, Barack Obama. What the Hell. Somebody named Obama getting elected to any political post is a story. Somebody named Obama wiping out every other viable candidate on the Democratic Slate, including Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, is more than a story it is THE STORY. Its a hell of a story too. Anyone who thought that the day would never come when we would see a black man elected to the White House better knock down your still and head for the hills because the Phenomenon is no longer Coming. The day has arrived to recognize once and for all what Oprah has already recognized and Iowans now recognize also. Barack Obama is no flash in the pan. He is the Real Deal and he is not only in this race to stay he is now the FRONT RUNNER, The man to beat in the Election Year of 2008.

Why is Barack Obama sitting at the head of the pack of Democratic Presidential Hopefuls. I think Barack showed us last night when he gave his victory speech. Every single talking head on CNN pointed to Barack's speech as being not just one of the best political victory speeches they had ever heard but also one of the best speeches they have ever heard. This guy not only has Leadership Potential. He clearly showed us all last night, America, just how much Leadership Ability he has. Clearly he has a long way to go to sew up the nomination but he has certainly come a long way so far. It has been a long time since we have seen his kind of exciting charisma on the Presidential Campaign trail. Kennedy had it, Carter and Bill Clinton had it too but Barack Obama, when he is on the speakers podium on a winning night. Watch Out. Greatness is not only coming. It is already here. Now its on to to New Hampshire and if he wins there all bets are off and it may be time for even Hillary and John to hang it up.

As Chris Dodd and Joe Biden say goodbye to the Presidential Campaign Trail, America, I think we should all thank these two decent Senators for classing up the debates. But they know as does Hillary Clinton and John Edwards that as they say in the bingo halls of Des Moines "We have a winner" and his name is Barack Obama. I think we had all better get used to saying that name with a degree of respect.

PRESIDENT OBAMA - It Has a Nice Ring To It .

It may sound strange and it may feel strange, America. But we had all better get used to saying it. PRESIDENT OBAMA. It certainly sounds a hell of a lot better than President Bush.

Sincerely Yours

Jerry Gallagher