Our Candidate for President

It's no secret that progressives in general are disappointed with President Obama and that the Facebook Left tends to be outraged. This is not because Obama has accomplished nothing. He gambled his presidency on opening the door to universal health care. He integrated gays into the military. He ended our combat mission in our most pointless and stupid war (Iraq). The problem is that Obama is by temperament a thoughtful centrist who operates in slow motion. That's not what progressives voted for. He's not FDR, Truman, JFK or LBJ.

The Republicans apparently will nominate a daffy liar or an empty suit who caters to the Tea Party. That makes Obama our candidate for President in 2012.

Congressman Weiner

In the long line of political figures who mispronounce their own names, Hamilton Jordan (which he pronounced "Jerdin") used to be my favorite, but now Anthony Weiner, a congressman planning to run for mayor of New York, has pushed Jerdin into second place. Congressman Weiner first became famous as an aggressive defender of progressive ideas. Then he became even more famous for sharing photographic information about the bulge in his underpants and lying about having done this with the fervor of wolverine. Today he has few defenders because people fear the next Weiner surprise.

So far Weiner is guilty of tweeting some suggestive photographs of himself (not a crime) and then lying about it (not a crime). But many people believe his behavior is creepy and find his hard-nosed lying offensive. To date, no real sex has been uncovered, just minor exhibitionism. As a comic said, "Never has anyone lost so much in return for so little."

Should Weiner resign? I don't care. As our entitled political leaders go, he's probably average.

The truth is that men have all sorts of fantastic sexual notions, some of which are physically impossible--but most men don't act out the stupid ones. They grasp the difference between fantasy and reality. They hope no one can read their minds. Weiner lost his grip on the difference and did it in public--anything you put on the internet is public.

Apparently many political leaders cannot get it through their gongs that (1) no matter where they go, someone will be filming them with cell phone, (2) that if they tweet an underpants shot, it will end up on TV, and (3) that if they go on the Colbert show, they will look ridiculous.

--Gary Goss

Iran's Bomb

There is a new American National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Our own government experts state that there is no convincing evidence that Iran is building a weapon. None. Nada. Nothing.

We are boycotting Iran to stop a program that doesn't exist (as far as we know). And we have spies reporting to us from all over Iran. You can read about this. See Seymour Hersh, in the June 6 New Yorker, where he discusses the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.

When you spot someone talking on television about when Iran will get the bomb, remember that, as far as our government intelligence agencies are concerned, there is nothing to back up the claim that Iran even has a program in mind. The talking heads are slicing pure baloney.