and it looks to me like the gripe is partly with the extremes of both parties seen as dominating, labeled "liberals" and "conservatives":

"Many Americans Uneasy with Mix of Religion and Politics

69% Say Liberals Too Secular, 49% Say Conservatives Too Assertive"

by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, released August 24, 2006.

New York Times summary article, August 25:

"In Poll, G.O.P. Slips as a Friend of Religion"

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN,

beginning excerpt:

A new poll shows that fewer Americans view the Republican Party as “friendly to religion” than a year ago, with the decline particularly steep among Catholics and white evangelical Protestants — constituencies at the core of the Republicans’ conservative Christian voting bloc.

The survey found that the proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion fell 8 percentage points in the last year, to 47 percent from 55 percent. Among Catholics and white evangelical Protestants, the decline was 14 percentage points.

The Democratic Party suffers from the perception of an even more drastic religion deficit, but that is not new. Just 26 percent of poll respondents said the Democratic Party was friendly to religion, down from 29 percent last year.

The telephone poll, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, was conducted July 6-19 among 2,003 adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus three to four percentage points, depending on the question.

The survey examined Americans’ attitudes on such topics as politics, science, the Bible, global warming and Israel. But the most startling change, said John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum, was the perception of the Republican Party by its core constituency.

“It’s unclear how directly this will translate into voting behavior,” Mr. Green said, “but this is a baseline indicator that religious conservatives see the party they’ve chosen to support as less friendly to religion than they used to.”

He speculated that religious conservatives could feel betrayed that some Republican politicians recently voted to back stem cell research, and that a Republican-dominated Congress failed to pass an amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.

“At the minimum, there will be less good will toward the Republican Party by these conservative religious groups, and a disenchantment that the party will be able to deliver on its promises,” Mr. Green said.

Americans remained critical of the influence of both the right and the left on religion. Sixty-nine percent agreed that liberals had “gone too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government” — an increase of three percentage points, which is not statistically significant. And 49 percent agreed that conservative Christians had “gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country,” also a three percentage point increase....

Note: The Pew poll has included comparisons with their poll of a year ago on the same topic with some of the same questions.

U.S. Hopes to Rival Hezbollah With Rebuilding Effort

By Paul Richter, L.A. Times Staff Writer, August 17, 2006

"Administration officials say quick action is needed in response to the militant group's reconstruction plans"

note that a Mr. Anonymouse is the basis of the article:

...People have been seized by the need to do more, in a tangible way, and they're working feverishly on this," said a senior administration official who asked to remain unidentified because he was speaking about plans still in development. "They know we're in a race against time to turn around these perceptions."...

Five recommended reads:

Congo’s Election, the U.N.’s Massacre

By AIDAN HARTLEY, Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times, July 28

Laikipia, Kenya--THE Democratic Republic of the Congo will hold its first legitimate elections in four decades on Sunday. The United Nations peacekeeping mission there has played the role of electoral midwife, so if the vote is free and fair it will be among the global body’s greatest successes on the continent.

But in eastern Congo, many people will be unable to vote because the fighting that has killed millions in the past decade continues unabated.... And in this, the United Nations is largely at fault. Not only has it failed to stop the killing, its troops have even been party to some of the violence against civilians whom they were to deployed to protect.....

Congo elections threatened by dirty tricks and murders

The Times (of London) July 27

By Jonathan Clayton

The question is increasingly being asked of President Kabila: is he a democrat or nascent dictator?

Congo's big test

San Francisco Chronicle, Editorial, July 27

....It's the biggest ever conducted by the United Nations, with a $500 million budget, 50,000 polling places and 25 million voters. Building on a end to a ghastly civil war, the outcome could stabilize Africa's geographically biggest nation -- and its decidedly unstable neighbors.

Or not. Just as possible is the exact opposite of such rosy predictions...

Congo on knife edge as election dawns

by David Lewis, Reuters, July 28

KINSHASA — A prominent Congolese militia chief has agreed to disarm ahead of historic elections, but tensions flared in Kinshasa yesterday as fire destroyed part of a compound belonging to a leading presidential candidate.

The blaze destroyed a barracks housing soldiers loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader and vice-president in the transitional government. He is a leading contender in Sunday’s landmark polls in Democratic Republic of Congo....

The world’s biggest international peacekeeping force, about 17000 United Nations (UN) and 2000 European Union (EU) troops, is overseeing the landmark elections.

French Mirage jets flew low over Kinshasa in a show of force by the peacekeepers.

Angry Bemba supporters, some of whom accused the jets of bombing the candidate’s compound, chased away UN vehicles and roughed up foreign journalists near a rally in support of the candidate. “Two jets flew over and bombed us, they are doing it to sabotage Bemba,” said one soldier at the candidate’s compound.

The EU force to whom the jets belonged rejected the accusations.

Earlier, UN officials had welcomed a peace deal signed by militia chief Mathieu Ngudjolo in northeast Ituri district in which he agreed to lay down arms and allow voting on Sunday....

Congo-Kinshasa: The Human Rights Situation in the DRC During the Period of January to June 2006

by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)

DOCUMENT posted on AllAfrica.com, July 27

Human Rights Division

1. In the pre-electoral period, MONUC has noted a significant increase in the number of politically motivated human rights violations linked to the electoral campaigning....

2. Freedom of expression in the media has also been affected....

3. The routine use of physical violence against civilians, including summary executions, beatings and rape, committed by FARDC soldiers, who often underwent the 'brassage' process, is reported wherever the army is deployed. MONUC has also noted with concern...

"Ghana's New Money"

Time Magazine, August 28

Story blurbs:

"African Americans used to visit Africa only to connect with the past. Now they land with investment dollars and business skills."

"Black-owned businesses in the U.S. grew 45% from 1997 to 2002."

"Once a major slave center, Ghana is a favored destination of African-Americans."

"Is Latin America willing to sacrifice some of its traditional Iberian “virtues” in order to develop and, yes, get rich. Or is that too American and “materialistic”?" (blurb from Arts & Letters Daily where I found the link):

Hoover Digest

BY William Ratliff

Do the nations of Latin America really want economic development?

William Ratliff is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

BUENOS AIRES—The Western Hemisphere meeting in Buenos Aires that drew the most attention recently was the Summit of the Americas in November 2005. But any serious discussion of real issues at the summit was blind-sided by the anti–George W. Bush campaign of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales (a candidate at the time of the summit), and the faded soccer idol Diego Maradona......

Have Asians been more successful over the past 40 years because they are smarter or more virtuous than Latins?....

"How We Ended Welfare, Together"

By BILL CLINTON

New York Times Op-Ed, August 22.

Blurb: "Partisan rancor is the enemy of progress."

"G.O.P. Corruption? Bring In the Conservatives."

By THOMAS FRANK

New York Times Op-Ed, August 22.

Blurb: "Cynics cause, then gain from, a loss of faith in government."

by Alan Cowell in London for the August 23 New York Times; excerpt:

The government acknowledged Tuesday that immigration from Eastern Europe had soared far beyond initial forecasts, fueling a rancorous debate over Britain’s readiness to absorb additional outsiders as the European Union expands to the southeast.

The figures, released by the Home Office, are likely to build one more challenge for Prime Minister Tony Blair when he returns from vacation to face a new opinion survey showing that his Labor Party’s popularity has skidded to a 19-year low.

The Home Office said that since the European Union embraced 10 more countries in 2004, some 427,000 workers, almost two-thirds of them from Poland, had applied formally to work in Britain. The figure is closer to 600,000 if self-employed workers, like those in the construction business, are included, said Tony McNulty, a Home Office minister. Those figures do not include illegal immigrants, whose number the government says it does not know.

Initially, the government had predicted that no more than 15,000 Eastern Europeans would arrive each year after 2004.

Britain, Ireland and Sweden were among a minority of European Union countries prepared to grant open access to their labor markets when the Union expanded to 25 nations in 2004. The new members were Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus.

Freedom of movement is one of the guiding principles of the European Union. But as British unemployment nudges upward, politicians and others have begun to express concern about the likely influx of new immigrants if Bulgaria and Romania join next year, as scheduled.

The issue is one that feeds on deep-seated xenophobia among some Britons and could strengthen the far-right British National Party.....