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Tag Archives: Jack Kingston
Senate Farm Bill adds Rural Gigabit Amendment
The U.S. Senate just adopted an amendment to invest in gigabit
(1,000 megabit per second) rural broadband networks.
Our local leaders need to lobby for the House to pass this,
if they are serious about fast affordable Internet service for everyone here.
Senator Leahy’s tiny Vermont, with the population of a single Congressional district,
is already well along towards gigabit Internet.
Our three House members can help get south Georgia on the road to better
jobs, education, and health care through better Internet service.
Jennifer Reading wrote today for WCAX, Leahy’s high-speed internet amendment passes,
What I want to make sure is that a rural area can compete the same way an urban area can. It’s actually the argument, the debate that went on before I was even born about whether you had rural electricity, rural telephone or not and if we hadn’t done that much of this country would be a wasteland,” said Sen. Leahy.
Don’t we want that, too?
Continue readingGM Ag corporations thank Jack Kingston for Monsanto rider
A long list of agricultural corporations wrote a letter thanking Jack Kingson (R GA-01) for working to get the Monsanto rider into the 2013 Ag. bill:
Again, we commend Subcommittee Chairman Kingston’s efforts and urge the support of Section 733 in the Fiscal Year 2013 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
This letter is on
Monsanto’s own website.
It contains not one word about public health or quality of food or preservation of farmers who do not choose to
poison people the Monsanto way.
The glyphosate mentioned in the letter is the principal ingredient in Roundup, and
research shows it causes DNA damage even when vastly diluted.
Monsanto’s glyphosate-resistant crops are genetically modified to include a gene which produces a poison that
other research indicates is toxic to humans.
These poisons are what the Monsanto rider makes harder to get out of fields.
June 12, 2012
The Honorable Harold Rogers
Chairman
House Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
H‐307 U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515The Honorable Norm Dicks
Ranking Member
House Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515Dear Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks:
Our organizations strongly support Section 733 of the Fiscal Year 2013 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The provision will give growers assurance that crops developed through biotechnology that have already been approved by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) can be planted and harvested under temporary stewardship conditions in the event of litigation against the agency’s decision. We commend Subcommittee Chairman Kingston for including Section 733 in the subcommittee bill and urge your support for this necessary provision when the Appropriations Committee considers this bill later this month. The provision addresses Continue reading
Monsanto rider came from south Georgia: Jack Kingston GA-01
Jack Kingston (GA-01) slipped the Monsanto rider into a recent law, requiring “the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed”.
Alexis Baden-Mayer wrote for AlterNet 8 July 2012, The “Monsanto Rider”: Are Biotech Companies About to Gain Immunity From Federal Law?
Whom do we have to thank for this sneak attack on USDA safeguards? The agricultural sub-committee chair Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) — who not coincidentally was voted “legislator of the year for 2011-2012” by none other than the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose members include Monsanto and DuPont. As reported by Mother Jones, the Biotechnology Industry Organization declared Kingston a “champion of America’s biotechnology industry” who has “helped to protect funding for programs essential to the survival of biotechnology companies across the United States.”
The Biotechnology Industry Organization’s PR about that award of 24 April 2012 says down at the bottom:
Photos of the award presentation are available upon request.
If that award is such an honor,
why are they hiding the pictures of Jack Kingston receiving it?
If Monsanto’s products are so great, why don’t they label them
so we can tell which they are?
Why did a French court
just uphold a conviction of Monsanto
for poisoning a French farmer?
Why does Monsanto
oppose independent GMO research?
And why did
hundreds of thousands of people just march against Monsanto?
Could it be because of
liver and kidney damage, cancer and birth defects, pollution of water and air,
systematic gaming of the patent system,
perversion of the regulatory system,
and corruption of the legislative system?
Speaking of corruption, Kingston has put the survival of biotechnology companies above the survival of farmers and the health of the American people.
Jack Kingston, voted Biotech “Legislator of the Year.” Responsible for adding the Monsanto Immunity Rider to the farm bill (H.R. 5973, Section 733). Tell him what you think!
www.facebook.coim/jackkingston/, 202-225-5821, 912-352-0101
-jsq
Locals weigh in on presidential debate on WCTV
Who would understand base politics better than Jack Kingston?
“I think for base politics, the red meat Democrats, the red meat Republicans, they like to see a good squabble and they saw one.”
Kingston, who lapped up Moody Air Force Base with his green tongue. He left out the rest of Lowndes County, so he’s barely local anymore. But two others on WCTV last night are local.
Eames Yates wrote for WCTV yesterday, Emotions of Local Politicians and Voters Run High After Debate,
Laverne Lewis Gaskins is with Obama For America. She said “it was a decisive victory for President Obama. I think he was clear in his message. He was able to articulate the future that he has for America.”
Congressman Kingston said “I really think it was a tie. I would like to say that Romney won, but I have to say I think Obama won on some questions.”
That’s Jack-speak for he would like to say that, but he can’t, because he knows it’s not true. Laverne was more straightforward. So was Gretchen:
Continue readingLast call for Georgia redistricting comments
Jeanne Bonner wrote for GPB News 23 November 2011,
Redistricting Map Review Underway
Continue readingGeorgians have until Dec. 23 to comment on new state and congressional district maps. The U.S. Department of Justice is in the midst of its 60 day-review of the maps. Voter advocate groups say this may be the last chance to comment before the maps go into effect for a decade.
…
Elizabeth Poythress, president of the League of Women Voters of Georgia, says the Justice Department is eager to receive citizen comment.
“We’re just encouraging people to take the advantage they have
Georgia and Florida Railway (GFRR) – Valdosta to Willacoochee Rehabilitation $6.25 million T-SPLOST
Now here’s a T-SPLOST project I like:
upgrading the railroad that runs
from Valdosta to Moody AFB
and on to Ray City and Nashville in Berrien County,
and Willacoochee in Atkinson County.
This proposal is to aid freight, but with this upgrade to the track,
the same track would be even more readily usable for passenger rail.
That same track was used for passenger travel up into the 1950s.
My mother used to catch the train at Barretts (just north of Moody) to go visit her relatives in Pearson (a bit east of Willacoochee).
from Valdosta to Moody AFB
and on to Ray City and Nashville in Berrien County,
and Willacoochee in Atkinson County.
This proposal is to aid freight, but with this upgrade to the track,
the same track would be even more readily usable for passenger rail.
That same track was used for passenger travel up into the 1950s.
My mother used to catch the train at Barretts (just north of Moody) to go visit her relatives in Pearson (a bit east of Willacoochee).It’s true the project sheet talks about “potential customers in the region”:
This project will provide for more efficient train operations along the rail corridor to accommodate the increase rail traffic serving the existing and potential customers in the region.However, rail promotes development in existing population centers and at stations, unlike all along automobile roadways.
This project is also another example of how the economic area of Moody AFB includes Continue reading
Jack Kingston has a green tongue —Gretchen Quarterman
VDT LTE today. -jsq
Georgia has gained enough population in the past ten years to add a congressional seat. This means redrawing the CongressionalContinue readingdistrict lines not only to balance population, but to also add another representative in Congress. Lowndes County has been split between the first and second districts, and all spring rumors of where we might end up were circulating. Eventually we saw a draft map that had Lowndes completely in the 8th District,
along with other counties along Interstate 75. That map made some sense south of Macon. Some communities of interest were preserved (most of the Lowndes-Valdosta MPO was in the same district) and the hospitality corridor of I-75 was in one district, along with the rural farms that surround it. Valdosta to Macon is easier to traverse than Valdosta to Savannah, or Valdosta to Columbus.
BeforeBut then Congressman Jack Kingston stuck out his green tongue.
Private prisons considered harmful —Gretchen Quarterman to Jack Kingston
|
Gretchen Quarterman
3338 Country Club Road #L336 Valdosta GA 31605 26 August 2011 |
|
PDF
Hon. Jack Kingston Member of Congress First District of Georgia |
Dear Mr. Kingston,
You
asked me last week in Tifton to provide you with evidence
that private prisons have fewer guards per prisoner than public
prisons.
Here is an example:
“The largest juvenile prison in the nation, Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility houses 1,200 boys and young men, between the ages of 13 and 22, and is run by a private contractor, the GEO Group based in Boca Raton, FL. … State audits over the last several years had already indicated the burgeoning problem. While it is recommended at youth facilities to have an inmate-to-guard ratio of 10:1 or 12:1, Walnut Grove had a ratio of 60:1.”It’s not just less staff, it’s less qualified staff: Continue reading
“When the Wolves Guard the Sheep,” by Mariah Adin in Kids and Crime, 28 March 2011
Gerrymandering Georgia for Jack Kingston to get Moody AFB
Jack Kingston told Gretchen
last week in Tifton
that he was heading to Atlanta the next day to try to retain
Moody Air Force Base in his district.
Looks like he may get that, by chopping just the Moody area out of Lowndes
County, and splitting the Pine Grove precinct.
Walter C. Jones wrote for the Rome News-Tribune yesterday, Revised congressional map passes House committee
The House redistricting committee voted along party lines Wednesday to approve a revised congressional map with multiple changes from the one made public Monday.Yeah, they restore it all right. Here’s before and after:The changes restore Valdosta’s Moody Air Force Base to Republican Jack Kingston’s district and about 16,000 people in Effingham County to Democrat John Barrow’s to keep the two equal in population.
Before |
After |
Hard to see?
Look at the detail map on the right here.
This latest proposed gerrymander gives Kingston Clinch and Echols
Counties just so Jack can send a green tongue out from Echols
to lap up Moody with as little of the rest of Lowndes as possible.
It gets better. Look at the Lowndes County precinct maps: Continue reading