Where Are Our Priorities?

If At First You Don’t Succeed...
In an interview this weekend with the Washington Times, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) promised to privatize Social Security. "If I'm around in a leadership role come January, we're going to get serious about this," Boehner said. Privatization plans championed by Boehner and others would sharply cut guaranteed benefits and are opposed by the overwhelming majority of Americans. Nevertheless, Boehner is just the latest prominent conservative to reaffirm his commitment to privatize Social Security in the months and years to come. Last month, President Bush said, "If we can't get it done this year, I'm going to try next year. And if we can't get it done next year, I'm going to try the year after that," while House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCrery (R-LA) argued that "Congress should make Social Security overhaul its top priority next year."

Republican Senator Calls For Cease-Fire
Urging President Bush to turn all US efforts toward "ending this madness," leading Republican senator Chuck Hagel broke with the Bush administration Monday and called for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East. Hagel also notes: The generals say that we’re destroying the US Army.

Boy Scout Motto: Be Prepared, Bush Motto: "Huh?"
In a letter to President Bush last week, Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) warned that the Army is at dangerously low levels of military readiness. "The Army is showing the wear and tear of constant battle after nearly five years of war." Skelton explained, "Army readiness is in crisis. The administration has brought us here because of a lack of planning and a lack of funding. Today two-thirds of the brigade combat teams in our operating force are unready." These combat brigades would be the units, according to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), that "could be called upon or would be called upon to go to war in North Korea, Iran, or any other country or region." During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush claimed that lack of military readiness should be considered a failure of the White House. "So let’s get something straight right now. To point out that our military has been overextended, taken for granted and neglected, that’s no criticism of the military. That is criticism of a president and vice president and their record of neglect," he said. A group of former defense experts released a letter today, warning, "Not since the Vietnam era and its aftermath has the Army's readiness been so degraded."

The Sky Is Falling!
On July 31, CNN's Paula Zahn Now featured a segment on "whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world," marking the third time in eight days that CNN has devoted airtime to those claiming that the ongoing Mideast violence signals the coming of the Apocalypse. The segment included a report from CNN correspondent Delia Gallagher, which showed video clips of Christian author Joel C. Rosenberg comparing apocalyptic Scripture in the Bible to modern events. Yet even though Gallagher noted during her report that "some Armageddon believers" think recently passed legislation -- such as the Real ID Act -- are "taking the world a step closer to the End Times," neither Gallagher nor Zahn mentioned Rosenberg's assertion on the July 26 edition of CNN's Live From ... that he has "been invited to the White House, [and] Capitol Hill" to explain the current Middle East conflict "through the lens of biblical prophecies."

Throughout the segment, an onscreen graphic of fiery horsemen appeared alongside the words, "Is it the End?" The segment also featured images of biblical drawings interspersed with video of toppled buildings and rubble from what appeared to be the current Middle East conflict.

At the end of the segment, Zahn interviewed Rev. Kevin Bean of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City, and Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University. Bean warned against identifying specific modern-day events as fulfillment of scriptural prophecies stating: "I think that any correlation that is made with present war making or other political schemes with the events that could lead to a final day and the second coming of Jesus and the separation of the faithful from the rest is an arrogant identification with these present-day events." Zahn responded by challenging Bean's assertion that the apocalyptic interpretation of modern events is "arrogant," stating: "Arrogant, you say, and yet the Bible does talk about one-third of the world being wiped out, a world filled with 10-headed beasts, things coming up out of the ocean."

As Media Matters for America has noted, CNN is one of several news outlets that has covered reports on the Apocalypse in the wake of renewed fighting in the Middle East. Zahn aired a segment on the Apocalypse on the July 24 edition of Paula Zahn Now…

More War
As I type I see that a major operation is under way against a “terrorist hideout” near Baalbek in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley

Quickies:
Hurricane experts and insurance industry reps met for the first time last month to plan for "a long overdue northeast hurricane which the latest computer models now predict could devastate the region and cripple the U.S. economy."

The Wall Street Journal reports that the "U.S. and Israel are diverging some on how much longer Israel should continue its offensive against Hezbollah," while the Washington Post "sees 'fissures' between the U.S. and its European allies" over the make-up of a potential cease-fire.

A renovation of the White House press briefing room will include a video wall that could display everything from "flags waving in the breeze [to] detailed charts and graphs," part of a "subtle but sweeping effort by administration officials to deliver their message directly to the public, particularly through video.”

Violence in Iraq left at least 55 people dead on Tuesday, including at least 23 soldiers. One Iraqi man said, "The government is useless. Only days ago we suffered from a huge blast here. The interior minister has to admit they lost the war against the terrorists."

"After months of disillusionment, America's neoconservatives have fallen in love again with the Bush administration over its tacit support for the ongoing Mideast violence", the Financial Times reports.

Former Vice President chief of staff Scooter Libby “asked a federal judge on Monday to allow a memory expert to testify in their bid to show Libby may have been confused or had a faulty memory in recalling conversations in the CIA leak case.”

The amount in taxes lost each year due to sham companies hiding the assets of super-wealthy Americans and corporations offshore is appx $100 billion.

And last, but not least, the growing call for full disclosure on 9/11 gains C-Span airtime (click for video) and some scientific polling that demonstrates just how many unanswered questions there are. Also, a special report is to be aired Tuesday Aug 1 on Nightline (a 9/11 exclusive) http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

(Sources: Center For American Progress, TruthOut, House of Representatives website, Financial Times, Washington Times, CNN, Yahoo!News, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, Slate, MSN, Reuters, Media Matters, C-Span, 911Truth, FOXNews)