US worldviews world’s apart

By Jim Lobe: WASHINGTON - While the ongoing financial crisis has almost entirely displaced foreign policy and even the Iraq War as the main concern of voters in the United States, differences in approach to the world beyond US borders between Republican candidate Senator John McCain and his Democratic rival Senator Barack Obama remain substantial. In broad terms, McCain identifies closely with the unilateralist instincts and Manichean worldview of the coalition of Israel-centered neo-conservatives and aggressive nationalists who dominated the first term of President George W Bush’s administration and place a premium on military power, as opposed to diplomacy or other forms of “soft power”. Obama, on the other hand, is generally seen as grounded in the “liberal internationalist” school, whose founding is credited to president Woodrow Wilson and which became the basis for the US - and Western-led multilateral order - presided over by the United Nations, the two Bretton Woods institutions, and an embryonic World Trade Organization - elaborated in large part by president Franklin Roosevelt in the waning days of World War II. … whoever wins the November 4 election is likely to come to office in January with a foreign policy team that spans a fairly broad spectrum of advisers susceptible to fundamental disagreements regarding the definition of US national interests, the appropriate use of military force and the degree to which Washington should rely on multilateral institutions, as opposed to taking unilateral action, if those interests are threatened.

So, we have the official numbers from the Department of Labor. The presidential election and economic disaster have taken America’s eye off the ball, again. The only good part is that the number one focus is no longer Paris Hilton, O.J. Simpson, American Idol or Dancing with the stars. America’s short attention span has been grabbed by personal survival and courted by political and religious philosophies.

America’s founders believed religious freedom to be the “first liberty.” The content of this site is concerned with issues of religious freedom in the U.S. and around the world.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending Sept. 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 493,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 461,000. It is estimated that the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and the effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas added approximately 50,000 claims to the total. The 4-week moving average was 462,500, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 446,500. UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 395,601 in the week ending Sept. 20, an increase of 10,544 from the previous week. There were 247,643 initial claims in the comparable week in 2007.

Ten Years of Promoting Religious Freedom Through U.S. Foreign Policy

Oct. 27 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act, a law that made the promotion of religious freedom a basic aim of U.S. foreign policy. The passage of the legislation marked the culmination of a campaign of unlikely religious allies, who went on to champion other international human rights causes. Pew Forum Visiting Senior Fellow Allen Hertzke, an eyewitness observer of the birth and growth of the international religious freedom movement and author of Freeing God’s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (2004), recounts what he witnessed in Washington, D.C., a decade ago and discusses the difference the landmark legislation has made in promoting religious freedom worldwide.

H. R. 2431 - This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Religious Freedom Act of 1998’’

Religion becomes a trump card when enough people suffer. Misused, as we witness today, Religion becomes the number one excuse for misbehavior, human rights abuse, civil rights abuse and class warfare. Toxic rhetoric is spewed from pulpits to give suffering congregations a sense of privilege. Regardless which religion, the George Bush administration has polarized religious communities against one another. Making religion his tool for policy decisions and making “faith based” programs a part of government funded social policies, George Bush cannot put this genie back into the bottle. Hitler used the economic suffering of the German people, gave them a target to blame and proceeded to take the world into the horror of global war. As the world hurtles into the economic abyss created by Kleptocratic world powers, George Bush moved the Republican Party into the philosophy of being a privileged class … his current religious abuse supports this.

Religion is supposed to be a tool for personal support, instead of a tool for social division. Taking religion to this level has guaranteed conflict on a global scale. Becaused Bush has bought in to the Armageddon philosophy, whether true or false, he has endorsed a self-fulfilling prophesy. Not satisfied with the natural process of allowing the world to approach a catastrophe, recognize it and take evasive action. Bush chose to embrace catastrophe and take the world into the abyss with him. To avoid it, at this point, the perilous US Presidential election is the crucial step. The world watches with baited breath. Whoever wins US leadership will tip the scale toward disaster or recovery.

Beware the misuse of campaign rhetoric claiming that government responsibility is socialism. Hearing candidates turn to fear mongering to attract a population that has digested half truths, fed by their own politicians, this election will show the world how gullible and uninformed America really is. How the world will react to the United States depends on who is elected.

Small companies … are struggling to survive in the midst of a poor economy exacerbated by higher prices for everything from food to gas. Already, some plan to close up shop.

Dr. Daraius Irani, director of applied economics for the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, said he doesn’t expect this to be the end of the slide.
“They’re competing for an ever-decreasing share of the household income expenditures,” he said.

As prices climb an the economy slumps, people shop less.

No surprise there. But the way consumers choose to reduce their spending does not affect all businesses equally.

The hardest-hit retailers in an economic downturn are sellers of durable goods, said Randy Cray, director of the Central Wisconsin Economic Research Bureau at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, because items in that category generally are the things people can put off buying.

… small business owners bear the brunt of an economic downturn without having much they can do about it.

“They do not have ultimate flexibility with regard to changing whatever it is that they’re doing,” Cray said. “They can watch their cost side as much as they can, keep their costs down so they can maintain their margins. But the best medicine for the small business in central Wisconsin would be for the overall economy to improve. … Unfortunately, they don’t have a whole lot of control over that sort of thing.”

See how necessary our trip to the store is before we fire up the old Chevy (or Toyota) … make sure the list you take is complete. Make sure every family member is polled before you commit that tank of gas. Try to make every trip multi-functional … don’t forget pet food and prescriptions. Teenagers will be socially impacted by new spending disciplines, so you might need to conference them in to your game plan. With the support of your kids, you may be able to weather the hard times facing the entire country. Don’t underestimate the creative suggestions your children come up with. Making your family a team will be the first step for survival in this depressing economy. That’s the up-side of this economic disaster. Becoming a family team … like the old days.

The down side is the emotional energy it takes to keep up. The emotional energy … that’s the Energy Crisis least addressed. This is the psychological toll many Americans are paying. Reality is a hard taskmaster. Freedom as we know it is no longer determined by spending … America has linked freedom to spending for too long. Americans must re-define what freedom really is. Our Declaration of Independence defined freedom as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Maybe Americans must rethink “Pursuit of Happiness”. In our consumer oriented society, happiness is buying, whether you need it or not. This concept has just hit the wall. It is time to add common sense to this equation, happiness is your relationship with your fellow travelers on this planet. Have Americans lost their ability to relate to their families, neighbors, countrymen and fellow earthlings? Maybe there is a positive twist to the depressing condition we find ourselves in … We are forced to re-define our relationship with the planet we occupy.

I have not been as present in the blogsophere, except for a ghostly presence.

To keep you up-to-date, I have blown the whistle on my former employer, who summarily fired me two days ago. The reasons they fired me are not nearly as important as the fact that I did, but I can, on the record, say that I was fired because I was called a ni**er lover to my face by a fellow white male co-worker. Trying to hold my temper in check, I called him Judas in response. Betrayal happens to be what he did do when he found his job on the line. Judas betrayed me to keep his job.

So right now, I could dive into why Hillary’s this, or Barack’s that, or McCain but at the moment, my attorneys and I are deciding whether we should take this to civil court.

So here’s my Saturday post. I’ve been advised by my attorneys not to leave the house or continue to inflame things. I might not necessarily be killed if walked outside, but I would certainly be mocked to my face with the intention I’d lose my temper and then be arrested.

So I’m at my safe haven.

All of you regular readers and anyone in general sympathy, know you are loved!

If you want to contribute to the Free Comrade Kevin fund, then check out my info on this page or contact Kevin Hayden! *grins*

At an event today at UPENN supporting the student loan component of the Democrats’ 100-Hour Agenda and marking the release of a PIRG report on student loan costs, a speaker from PA Action, where I work, made this excellent point: 

According to Bush’s speech last night, he wants to spend $11B to restore civil society in war-torn Iraq.  If $11B can have that kind of impact, then what kind of impact could the $12B slashed from the student loan programs in 2005 have had in this country?  How many kids aren’t walking next to you today and on college campuses across the country because of that?   What has America lost with the loss of their talent and potential?

Call your members of Congress today and let them know that you expect them to support the 100 Hour Agenda, without reservation, as mandated by the American people.