Cato Institute and Fox News Columnist Use Web to Attack Grassroots Organization
A policy analyst at the Cato Institute and columnist for Fox News, Radley Balko, is using the web to throw down the gauntlet against a startup grassroots organization that is fighting for the American working class.
MESA, AZ, (PRWEB) May 11, 2004 -- A policy analyst at the Cato Institute and columnist for Fox News, Radley Balko, is using the web to throw down the gauntlet against a startup grassroots organization that is fighting for the American working class.
A self-proclaimed "liberal libertarian" who works as a policy analyst for the Cato Institute, one of the nation's most powerful corporate lobbyist forces, called the authors of the American Joblog (www.AmericanJoblog.com) "Buchananite protectionists" and stated unequivocally, "This is what we're up against, folks."
Rob Sanchez, author of the Job Destruction Newsletter from ZaZona.com, and one of the authors on the American Joblog, stated, "Its funny that he called us ‘Buchananite protectionists. I take that as a compliment. But," he continued, "We also have Naderite protectionists and everything in between, and most stand somewhere in the middle."
The American Joblog (www.AmericanJoblog.com) is a new web community from Rescue American Jobs (www.RescueAmericanJobs.org), and the blogs are authored primarily by outsourced American workers who have turned to activism within a myriad of organizations to bring awareness to the current jobs crisis in America.
Rescue American Jobs and the organizations it works with boast some of the most diverse and non-partisan memberships of any political organizations.
"Rescue American Jobs membership is split evenly – one-third Republican, one-third Democrat, and one-third everybody else," states James Pace, the President of Rescue American Jobs, "and the organizations we work with generally have similar membership compositions."
Catos analyst, Balko, threw the gauntlet down after an author on the American Joblog criticized an article written by Balko on Fox News. In the article, Balko suggested that Americans should buy more products from third-world sweatshops. Pete Johnson, an American Joblog blogger, criticized the Balko's support of worker exploitation and sweatshop labor and the effects of felt by workers in the U.S. who are displaced by sweatshop workers overseas.
Balko complained about this criticism on his blog, "TheAgitator", stating, "not everyone agrees" (with his proposal), with a link to the critique on the American Joblog. Balkos supporters quickly descended upon the grassroots organizations blog.
Micha Ghertner, a college student who is up for a summer internship at the Cato Institute posted criticisms on the American Joblog comments forum, saying, "What gives us the right to protect jobs for relatively wealthy Americans when poor workers living in third-world countries make so little? We should be encouraging outsourcing with every available breath!" and continued with "This 'country' is not my home. The house I live in is my home. My family and friends are my home. But anyone outside that small circle is no more a part of my home than anyone else in the world." She summed up the position of the Cato Institute and its supporters with, "There is no need for a 'country' or borders."
After these and other similar exchanges between grassroots activists at the American Joblog and Cato Institute supporters, Balko threw down the gauntlet, telling his supporters, "This is what we're up against, folks." and pointed a new link to the exchanges between Cato supporters and grassroots activists, fingering Rescue American Jobs as the opponent.
This kind of thinking is a result of the deterioration of community values in America," states James Pace, "We now have powerful lobbying forces like Cato who have forgotten the value of the nation state and the community that surrounds them. They no longer believe that America should exist as a country, and they ignore the plight of American communities. If we cannot feed ourselves, how can we feed others?"
According to the Cato Institute website, the Cato Institute has an annual budget of just under $13 million and a staff of more than 166 full-time employees, adjunct scholars, and fellows, plus interns. Rescue American Jobs is manned by an all-volunteer staff and is self-funded by members and volunteers with an annual budget in the thousands.
This is like David versus Goliath," says Dawn Teo, Public Outreach Director, "We are just regular Americans, and Cato is the epitome of radical one-world corporate special interests with a multi-million dollar annual budget and millions more in the corporate pockets where that came from. But we have faith that we will prevail. Americans believe in America, and they will stand behind us."
Rescue American Jobs is a nonpartisan 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the economic security of the American middle class. Their fundamental objective is to restore and preserve the employment of the American workforce by ensuring balanced economic, labor, immigration, and trade policies.
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