Thursday, June 14, 2012
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
More Bad News
Here’s a coincidence. President Barack Obama delivered a speech on the economy in Cleveland, Ohio, this afternoon. At virtually the exact same time, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke in Cincinnati, Ohio.
It’s a good thing that both candidates were discussing the economy today, because the economic news continues to be discouraging.
Jobless claims rose again this week to 386,000. The four-week average, which is a more stable gauge, is also up to 382,000 — the highest level in six weeks. The Associated Press reports that retail sales again fell 0.2 percent last month, “matching April’s decline.” According to the AP, that marked the first back-to-back drop in two years.
Reuters reports that foreclosures are up for the first time in 27 months. The good news, if you can call it that, is that this doesn’t appear to be the result of a new round of delinquencies. Instead, banks are finally unloading homes they have been holding on to while they negotiated the mortgage abuse settlement with the federal government and various states. With the details ironed out, the banks are now putting these homes on the market.
Unfortunately, that’s still bad news for the housing market. As Reuters notes, “By moving houses out of the so-called ’shadow inventory’ and onto the market, the increase in foreclosures could be a drag on the fragile U.S. housing recovery.”
Also this week, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that this year’s annual deficit would likely be $1.17 trillion. If that prediction proves accurate, it would mark the first time in our history that we have run trillion-dollar plus deficits for four years in a row. Such a level of spending is incomprehensible and unsustainable.
And these latest reports come on the heels of the Fed’s bombshell that family net worth has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years due largely to the collapse of home values, as well as losses in the stock market and in retirement accounts. Meanwhile, the economic crisis in Europe continues to spiral out of control with no resolution in sight, while the United States marches ever closer to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of this year.
Pentagon Purges Military Bibles
The Pentagon has caved in to the demands of radical secularists. Since 2003, the B&H Publishing company, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, has published the Soldier’s Bible, Sailor’s Bible, Marine’s Bible and Airman’s Bible with the service emblem of the specific branch prominently featured on the cover. But an atheist foundation sued after some service members “witnessed the Bibles being conspicuously featured on military exchange shelves and storefronts across the globe.”
A spokesman for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said, “The very fact that the Pentagon — or ‘Pentacostal-gon’ — had allowed for the insignias of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force to be used for such a clearly evangelical fundamentalist agenda should sicken anyone with any inkling of respect for the ’sacred’ principle of religious freedom…”
In response, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty is asking Congress to investigate. Col. Ron Crews said, “This is one more case of Department of Defense officials bowing to political pressure to create a ‘religion free’ zone in the military. …These Bibles cost the Department of Defense nothing, and their presence is legally legitimate; therefore, no reason exists for the DOD to retreat in the face of the small anti-religious group that demanded removal of the Bibles.”
The Washington Times reports that the Pentagon will, for the first time, participate in “Gay Pride” events this month. On June 1st, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring June “Gay Pride Month,” and various federal departments will host events throughout the month recognizing their homosexual employees.
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