Jack Kingston

We just wanted to draw your attention to a Wall Street Journal story about a lawsuit filed against the Salvation Army by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What has the Salvation Army done? Giving employees a year’s notice that they should speak English on the job (they would be fired if not).

You can read the article HERE. But we wanted to highlight the following:

A new Rasmussen poll finds that 87% of voters think it “very important” that people speak English in the U.S., with four out of five Hispanics agreeing. And 77% support the right of employers to have English-only policies, while only 14% are opposed.

Yesterday afternoon, Jack took to the House floor to pay tribute to former Congressman Charlie Norwood who passed away earlier this year. Jack authored a bill to name the VA hospital in Augusta the “Charlie Norwood Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.” The bill passed unaimously.

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Last night, Jack played in the Longest Yard Football Classic. The charity game was between the Members’ “Mean Machine” and the Capitol Hill Police Officers. The game was expected to raise close to $30,000 for the Capitol Police Memorial Fund; to date, over $100,000 has been raised for the fund.

Jack got some good playing time and made some key defensive plays but the Mean Machine fell 28-0. You can check out pictures HERE.

Last night, Jack spoke on the House floor in favor of H.Res. 716, expressing the sense of Congress with respect to raising awarementss and enhancing the state of cyber security in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

Armstrong Atlantic State University just recently opened up the Cyber Security Research Institute. Jack spoke at the opening ceremony of the center which is only one of a few in the nation which focus on cyber security.

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Recently, staffers for the Homeland Security Committee were advised by a Democrat official to get immunized before a recent trip. The immunizations were for Hepatitis A, B, tetanus, diptheria and seasonal influenza. Nothing unusual at first glance; staffers often take overseas trips where this is recommended. However, these staffers were not travelling overseas, but rather heading to Talladega Superspeedway and North Carolina’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

If the Democrats were hoping to win over NASCAR dads for the 08 election; this isn’t the way to go about it.

UPDATE: Jason Pye is on this story with undoubtedly one of the best headlines - Race of the Living Dead - so check it out.

Don’t worry, you’re not having deja vu. This time it’s Iranian students protesting Ahmadinejad’s speech at Tehran University. It seems that while he was willing to speak to plenty of students at Columbia University as well as answer their questions; the same standard doesn’t apply in his own country. Instead, access to his speech was limited to people with invitations; only selected students were allowed in.

Milad Niazi, a student at Tehran Azad University, “criticized the president for avoiding hard questions at home, saying “Supporters of Ahmadinejad praise his appearance at Columbia University as a heroic act, but they don’t dare to let students appear in the speech hall.”

And yes, this is the man who Columbia University invited all in the name of free speech and an open forum.

The week started with the Democrat Whip James Clyburn admitting that good news in Iraq would be bad news for the Democrats:

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party’s efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

You can check out the full story HERE.

The week ended with Democrat shenanigans on the floor when it came to a vote regarding government assistance going to illegal aliens.  You can read all the details HERE  and HERE.

To sum up, in the Democrats’ world, good news is bad news and a losing vote can quickly be turned into a winning one.

 This past Saturday the Kingston Staff was present at the D.C. World War II memorial to welcome World War II veterans from Valdosta and the surrounding area.  Over one hundred World War II veterans flew to D.C. accompanied by many other citizens that helped make this trip a success. The trip was established through a program called Honor Flight and was funded by donations totaling over a $100,000 dollars. The Kingston office was excited to meet with the veterans and display our appreciation of their efforts by making signs and handing out Georgia Peanuts.

We were saddened to learn this afternoon that fellow Georgian Rep. Charlie Norwood has lost his long battle with cancer.  He passed away this morning at his Augusta home. 

Jack released the following statement a short time ago:

“I was saddened to hear of Charlie’s passing today.  Charlie was a fighter both in politics and health; an ordinary man would have thrown in the towel long ago.  Charlie and I have been friends and colleagues since he came to Congress in 1995.  Besides being a great representative, Charlie was an incredible man who served his country in Vietnam where he won two Bronze Stars.  When he came home, he opened his dental practice where he helped hundreds of patients.  He brought concern for people to Congress where he fought for patient rights, veterans and small businesses.  Congress and the State of Georgia have lost a good man today.  My thoughts and prayers are with Gloria and their family.”

As many of you know, over the weekend there was an anti-war protest here in DC.  While the protest was peaceful, there was an incident that has caught people’s attention around Capitol Hill. 

According to The Hill newspaper, a small group of protesters were allowed to spray paint steps in front of the Capitol’s West Front Lower Terrace.  It is, of course, against the law to deface the United States Capitol.  These protesters broke that law yet weren’t arrested.

That begs the question - Why?  According to the Capitol Police FOP “the officers . . . are upset that some of this weekend’s demonstrators were able to deface part of the Capitol complex . . .  the officers . . . . were ordered to withdraw by their officials and let the demonstrators have the area where the graffiti was later discovered.” 

It’s clear that the rank-and-file officers aren’t too happy with the decision of the higher ups.  And we don’t blame them.  It’s not up to the Capitol Police to decide what laws to enforce and what laws not to enforce.  It begs the question, where does it stop? Will future groups also be allowed to spray paint the Capitol?  What if a group wants to burn something in effigy?  Is that allowed?

It’s a slippery slope, my friends.

We’ve had strong responses to Jack’s vote on the resolution honoring the championship win by the University of Florida Gators and I’m sure everyone would like to know what prompted his vote.  It was plain and simple Bulldog pride.  As Jack told the Red and Black:

 “I was raised in Sanford Stadium - my heart is in the rolling hills of Athens.”

You can also check out Jack’s comments to ESPN. 

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Last night, the House took up a resolution to honor the University of Florida for their victory in the BCS National Championship game.  Although we do feel that the Florida Gators did a great service by proving once again that the SEC is THE elite conference in college football, as Georgia Bulldogs, we could support no such resolution.  We encouraged Jack to vote against this resolution as we felt the constituents of the First District would want him to do so.  

Jack was the lone Member of Congress to oppose the resolution, and we couldn’t be more proud of him.  Despite getting much grief for his vote from his House colleagues, he was able to deliver the fundamental message we wanted him to convey —

GO DAWGS!

With the Dems taking over Congress this week, we’re sure you’ve got lots to say, so welcome to the first Friday Open Thread of 2007.

And to get it started, check out Jack on Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes last night.

The Democrats haven’t even officially taken over and already the promises they made are already being broken.  

First, throughout the election, the Democrats promised they would implement all the 9/11 recommendations, but afterwards Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi announced that “you can’t do them all.” 

Second, after the elections, Democrats promised that under their leadership there would be an open and honest government and Republican opposition would have a voice and be able to offer alternative proposals.  Now:

 “But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.”

Dems promised that the House would operate in a democratic fashion.  But the so-called “100 Hours” Plan will not be going through ANY committees. As the Washington Post points out:

“When Republicans took over in 1995, they at least went through the motions of putting their “Contract With America” proposals through the normal committee process. Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have decided not to bother with that, nor to let Republicans offer amendments on the floor, nor even to put a GOP alternative up for a vote. . . . Questions such as whether the minimum wage increase should be combined with tax breaks for small businesses and whether the federal government should be the only party negotiating Medicare prescription prices ought to be put up for discussion and a vote. If that causes a fracture in the Democratic caucus, so be it.”

Not exactly the “open, full and fair debate” promised by Speaker-elect Pelosi, is it?

Promises made, promises broken.  Welcome to Nancy’s House.

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