The Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism (CICJ) has operated Freepress.org since 2000 and ColumbusFreepress.com was started initially as a separate project to highlight the print newspaper and local content.
ColumbusFreepress.com has been operating as a project of the CICJ for many years and so the sites are now being merged so all content on ColumbusFreepress.com now lives on Freepress.org
The Columbus Freepress is a non-profit funded by donations we need your support to help keep local journalism that isn't afraid to speak truth to power alive.
The unholy alliance between the corporatists and religious fundamentalists,
the "Talibankers," is beginning its final naked play for complete control
of the mechanisms of government by pursuing the GOP strategy of imposing
the "nuclear option" against minority voices in the Senate. This change
would end the use of the filibuster in Senate debates on judicial nominees.
Of course, a blitzkrieg of disinformation is being spread about what this
means, but anyone devoted to intellectual honesty knows that this radical
and unwarranted act is hypocrisy. It is pandering to power over principle
(After all, the Senate has approved over 95% of the judgeship nominees made
by Bush, a far greater percentage than Clinton nominees approved by the GOP
in the 90's. And these handful being rejected are not on religious
grounds, but due to their extreme inclination to side with corporations
against the interests of America's working class).
Leading this propaganda assault is our homegrown Taliban with their
"Justice Sunday" (Just Us Sunday?) event on April 24th, being used to
declare their jihad against the Constitution. This event features Senate
leader Bill Frist explaining how the filibuster is being used "against
people of faith." So, using centuries old tools of republican government
is now somehow sinful? Against which faith? There are probably around a
billion people who would claim that the "war on terror" is a crusade
"against people of faith" as well.
In the ads for the Sunday pep rally for Sharia law, there is an image of a
perplexed boy contemplating a gavel and the bible. Above it is a statement
that reads "He should not have to choose". That is right. No one should
have to choose between serving America and serving their religion. That is
one of the reasons our system was designed the way it was. So just who are
the theocratic political forces at work in our nation forcing this choice?
It's certainly not anyone who believes in our Constitution (which contains
a grand total of exactly zero references to God).
This entire effort by the GOP leadership and their theocratic cronies on
the far right runs completely counter to the United States Constitution,
which CLEARLY states in Article VI "that no religious Test shall ever be
required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United
States."
To those ayatollah-wannabes and their followers who are trying to destroy
the wall between church and state, I say "America, love it or leave it."
If you don't like the fact that America was established by our Founders in
1789 upon Enlightenment principles as a secular democratic republic, then
you should move to Iran or Saudi Arabia where you obviously belong.
- Andy Valeri
Dayton, Ohio
UnCommon Sense TV Media
