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, "It’s
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."
Cato’s
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. Balko’s supporters quickly descended upon the grassroots
organization’s 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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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/5/prweb125209.htm