Healthcare Town Hall Meeting at the North Cobb Senior Center

Congressman Phil Gingrey is holding a healthcare town hall meeting this Friday,
November 13th. The public is invited to attend.

November 13, 2009
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
North Cobb Senior Center
4100 Hwy. 293 (Old 41 Hwy.)
Acworth, GA 30101

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.politicalpotluck.com
Political News You Can Use

Congressman Phil Gingrey in Memory of Specialist Ryan Charles King

Congressman Gingrey delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in memory of Specialist Ryan King, who was killed in action in Afghanistan on May 1, 2009. Click HERE to view a video of Congressman Gingrey's remarks.Remarks by Congressman Phil GingreyIn memory of Specialist Ryan Charles KingMay 12, 2009

Remarks by Congressman Phil Gingrey
In memory of Specialist Ryan Charles King
May 12, 2009

Madame Speaker, today the residents of Northwest Georgia are saying goodbye to a native son who died while bravely serving his nation in Afghanistan. Specialist Ryan Charles King was killed in action on May 1, 2009 in Afghanistan when his unit came under enemy fire while on a night mission.

Last night, I joined Specialist King’s family, friends, and supporters at his visitation to honor the life of this brave soldier.

In speaking with Specialist King’s parents, I found out that he and I have a history together – I actually delivered Ryan King a little over 22 years ago on Veteran’s Day in 1986. How fitting that this brave soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country was born on such a special day. We remember Ryan as a man of the highest character, whose receipt of the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and NATO Medal are testament to the supreme sense of duty he felt to his country and his comrades.

Born in Marietta, Georgia, Ryan attended Faith Lutheran Church for many years. Ryan was a talented and spirited baseball player, leaving his mark on baseball diamonds throughout Canton, Powder Springs, and Dallas, Georgia. A few months after graduating from East Paulding County High School, Ryan King fulfilled a lifelong dream and enlisted in the Army. He went to basic training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, followed by Advanced Individual Training at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. After completing his training, Specialist King was stationed in Korea for a year, where he met his wife, Sergeant Rachel Nicole Smith King. As a member of the Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry, he left for deployment to Eastern Afghanistan in July of 2008 and was scheduled to return to Fort Hood in Texas in June of 2009.

Specialist King leaves behind his wife, Sergeant King, his father, Charles King of Temple, Georgia, his mother, Candice R. King, of Decatur, Georgia, younger brothers, Tyler King of Temple, and Dante Moore of Decatur, grandparents, Dorothea King of Temple and Tommy and Nancy Roberts of Dallas, Georgia, as well as many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Madame Speaker, my prayers go out to his family, and my deepest gratitude goes out to Specialist King for his selfless sacrifice for our nation. I ask all Members to join me in honoring the distinguished memory of Specialist Ryan Charles King, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Rep Gingrey Steps Into The Limbaugh Brouhaha

Commentary:

A few days ago Mr. Obama told GOP leaders, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

Recently Rush Limbaugh was criticised, out of context, for saying he wanted Obama to fail. Limbaugh actually said he wanted him to fail IF he pursued socialist policies, if he pursued policies that were bad for the country. What freedom loving American wouldn't want someone to fail if they were going to destroy the underpinning of our country? if they were going to move us from a democracy to socialism or worse?

Mr. Obama's showed his ignorance regarding how conservatives think, and he showed his bias, when he made his remarks. I seriously doubt if Mr. Obama has listened to Rush Limbaugh enough to have formed a balanced opinion of the show. I would bet that all he ever hears are the snippets played by the media when there's a controversy. I'd guess some of his staff and friends have reported things second-hand to him, also.

Of course, no one likes having holes poked in their policies. The Democratic caucus would prefer that conservative talk radio die a quick death. Talk show hosts across the country present an opposing view that raises the hackles of some.

I liken talk radio to the two party system. The mainstream media is the Democratic Party, talk radio is the Republican Party. Just like our current situation, the Dems are in the majority.

One of the best, and possibly worst, things about conservatives is our independent thinking process. We can listen to Rush and others, but we're not going to follow like sheep. Gosh, just look at the divergent views expressed by the most popular talk show hosts! They disagree with each other.

On the negative side, it's rather hard to get us all to rally around one candidate or issue simply because we are so independent minded. We'll stick to our principles to the detriment of the overall goal of electing Republicans at times.

I believe Mr. Obama and the Democratic caucus have a long term goal to shut down talk radio. They're very openly trying to enact the un-"Fairness Doctrine" which would do just that.

The so-called Fairness Doctrine is on the near-horizon. Conservatives and proponents of free speech should be concerned. Like Limbaugh or not, once the government successfully shuts down talk radio, they'll go after the next bastion of opposition be it newspapers, television or the Internet. In fact, with the growth of blogradio and similar on-line quasi-radio ventures, one has to wonder if they'll be included.

This is not a Rush Limbaugh issue, this is a free speech issue.

I don't think this is the last time Obama will paint Rush as a wedge that divides. I don't believe he's going to stop until he quiets all those who point out the flaws of his policies.

Yesterday Georgia Rep Phil Gingrey was interviewed by Politico and the current flap was brought up. Here are links to a blog about the interview and to the actual Politico article. I've also included some information on the "Fairness Doctrine" and encourage all everyone to learn more about this issue. - Janet McGregor Dunn

House GOP member to Rush: Back off
Rush Limbaugh may command a large following, but his caustic comments Monday about the GOP’s congressional leadership have at least one Republican House member defending his colleagues and offering an unusually candid critique of the talk radio powerhouse and his fellow commentators.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18049.html

Rep Gingrey Steps Into The Limbaugh Brouhaha
Posted by: Danny Garner 01/28/2009 5:21 AM
In an interview yesterday with Politico Rep Phil Gingrey (GA-11) stepped into the dust up between Rush Limbaugh and Barack Obama. This whole soap opera started a couple of days ago when when Obama warned Republicans not to listen to Limbaugh.
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.
http://www.redcounty.com/cobb/2009/01/rep-gingrey-steps-into-the-lim/

Great site that "talks" you through the Fairness Doctrine: http://www.aclj.org/FairnessDoctrine/default.html

Petition to voice your opposition to the Fairness Doctrine: https://www.aclj.org/Petition/Default.aspx?sc=3293&ac=1

Why the Fairness Doctrine is Anything But Fair
Legislation currently is before Congress that would reinstate a federal communications policy known as the "fairness doctrine." The legislation, entitled the "Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1993," is sponsored in the Senate (S. 333) by Ernest Hollings, the South Carolina Democrat, and in the House (H.R. 1985) by Bill Hefner, the North Carolina Democrat. It would codify a 1949 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation that once required broadcasters to "afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance." The fairness doctrine was overturned by the FCC in 1987. The FCC discarded the rule because, contrary to its purpose, it failed to encourage the discussion of more controversial issues. There were also concerns that it was in violation of First Amendment free speech principles. The legislation now before Congress would enshrine the fairness doctrine into law.

The doctrine's supporters seem not to appreciate just how much the broadcast world has changed since 1949. With the proliferation of informational resources and technology, the number of broadcast outlets available to the public has increased steadily. In such an environment, it is hard to understand why the federal government must police the airwaves to ensure that differing views are heard. The result of a reinstituted fairness doctrine would not be fair at all. In practice, much controversial speech heard today would be stifled as the threat of random investigations and warnings discouraged broadcasters from airing what FCC bureaucrats might refer to as "unbalanced" views....
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Regulation/EM368.cfm

Committee Passes Bill To Reauthorize NASA Programs

Committee Passes Bill To Reauthorize NASA Programs
Dr. Gingrey Offers Amendments to Allow NASA to Utilize Alternative Fuels

Today, the Science and Technology Committee unanimously passed H.R. 6063, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008, authorizing programs at NASA for fiscal year 2009.

“H.R. 6063 is a one year bill that demonstrates Congress’ commitment to maintain a strong and vital space program and will serve as a signal to a new Administration that NASA has deep support within Congress,” said Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX). “Once the Shuttle is retired at the end of this decade, our country will have to buy seats from the Russians – for as long as five years – to assure a U.S. presence on the International Space Station. Our payments for rides on their Soyuz spacecraft have not yet been negotiated, but it will be expensive, and sadly, we’ll be making these purchases at a time when NASA will be laying off thousands of engineers and technicians from the Shuttle program.”

Hall continued, “In an effort to minimize our reliance on the Russians, this bill authorizes an additional $1 billion to speed up development of the new Constellation system. This additional investment is more than justified.”

While Members on both sides of the aisle strongly supported the underlying bipartisan bill, Republicans at the markup stressed that contrary to section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, NASA should be allowed to purchase alternative fuels to power its fleet. Dr. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, offered two amendments that the Chairman ruled as non-germane.

One amendment aimed to give the NASA Administrator the flexibility and discretion to purchase alternative fuels, derived from unconventional sources, such as coal-to-liquids, oil shale, and biofuels. It also sought to exempt NASA from a controversial section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that prohibits federal agencies from purchasing unconventional fuel sources, if those sources produce more emissions than their conventional counterparts.

“NASA has historically been on the cutting edge of innovation with numerous contributions to the technologies that we use on a daily basis in the United States,” Gingrey said. “Currently, NASA is partnering with the Air Force and is already aggressively conducting research to convert domestic energy sources – coal, natural gas, biomass, and oil shale – into cleaner and more economical alternatives to traditional jet fuel.” He continued, “However, as gas prices continue to rise, and at a time when we could best utilize the research of emerging technologies for alternative fuels, with Section 526 the Democratic Majority has effectively stymied innovation at NASA that could potentially help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

Republicans at the markup spoke in favor of the amendments, stressing how this provision strictly limits an agency, such as NASA, that purchases millions of dollars worth of jet fuel every year. Further, NASA is currently engaged in groundbreaking research on many of the fuels that this section prohibits any federal agency from purchasing.

Dr. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Ranking Member of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, highlighted the fact that the type of fuel NASA chooses to use is a technical decision that shouldn’t be limited by a law that restricts the discretion of the agency. Ehlers noted that decisions on the type of fuel used in rockets is based on the energy density of the fuel and shouldn’t be restricted by emissions calculations.

H.R. 6063 authorizes $20.21 billion in funding for NASA in FY09, which includes $1 billion in additional funding to accelerate development of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). The Constellation system, which includes development of both the CEV and CLV, will provide our country with a modern, more robust, and safer manned spaceflight capability that will enable U.S. astronauts to fly beyond Low Earth orbit, an ability NASA has not had since the retirement of Apollo over 30 years ago. The bill also provides for a balanced set of programs in human spaceflight and exploration, aeronautics research and development, and space science research.

H.R. 6063 also directs NASA to include two so-called contingency missions to the International Space Station to be part of the baseline shuttle flight manifest, and adds an additional flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. The bill also includes provisions related to detecting asteroids and comets that threaten to collide with Earth, education, and commercial space initiatives.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of NASA and the dawn of the United States space program. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 provided policy and programmatic guidance for NASA, and the bill passed today reaffirms congressional priorities and policies.