Members of Congress Win Right to Say 'Merry Christmas' Without Ethics Violation - WoC 2013

For anyone out there who still believes that there isn’t a war on Christmas, religion, or Christianity… It is a battle that has been ramping up for years, but check out this terrific victory in that ‘politically correct’ battle: 

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) has just won a major battle against the politically correct left’s “War on Christmas,” he announced in a press release on (Tuesday)… Christmas Eve.

 

By Marion Algier – The War on Christmas (and religion) verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 25

Breitbart: Since 1973, U.S. House rules made it an ethics violation for any official congressional communications to contain the phrase “Merry Christmas.” This month, after battling the system for the more than two years since he took office in 2011, Huelskamp was able to get the House to determine it will not consider use of the phrase “Merry Christmas” an ethics violation.

“For decades the PC Police have intimidated Christians throughout America with their attacks on the symbols and language of Christmas,” Huelskamp said in a statement released midday on Christmas Eve. “From nativity scenes to Christmas trees, those opposed to Christmas has sought to eradicate any reason for the season from the public square.  And Congress has not been exempted.”

Huelskamp noted the history of the U.S. House’s War on Christmas before detailing how he has won this battle in the war.

“Amazingly since 1973, the U.S. House of Representatives has forbidden the use of ‘Merry Christmas’ and deemed use of such words in any official mailing or e-mail an ethics violation,” Huelskamp said. “Instead, they demanded the use of ‘Happy Holidays.’ This month, the House Franking Commission accepted the position I have fought for since arriving in Congress — ignore the PC Police and let us use ‘Merry Christmas.’”

Huelskamp added that since 2011, he has fought against the politically correct people in the U.S. Congress who implemented and still attempted to enforce this rule. “In 2011 during an interview on Fox News, I stated my refusal to comply with this decades-old policy, which reflects the continual leftist war on Christmas,” Huelskamp said. 

I have continued that refusal through today, even as it has cowered many other public officials and private industry alike. The new refusal of the U.S. House to cater to the PC Police moves us one small step away from that carefully crafted secular society devoid of any reference to our religious and cultural heritage. I am glad that finally Members of Congress can express their holiday joy in a manner that they see fit and consistent with our American history—without an ethics threat.

Huelskamp ended his statement with a warm Christmas greeting for his constituents and all Americans: “As I have done for the past two years, I personally wish you and all of America a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

Merry Christmas, folks.

WATCH REP. HUELSKAMP ON FOX NEWS IN 2011 FIGHTING AGAINST 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' BAN IN CONGRESS

Video: Fox & Friends - Holiday Greetings (2011)

Plus NORAD Tracks Santa on Christmas Eve

For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight.

The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. LINK: NORAD tracks Santa on Facebook

In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for North America called the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which then took on the tradition of tracking Santa.

Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to phone calls and emails from children all around the world. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Millions of people who want to know Santa’s whereabouts now visit the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source to provide updates on Santa’s journey.

Santa Tracker Christmas or Santa Tracker

Related:

Simpler Times, A Groetzmeier Christmas – WoC 2013

Presidential Christmas Addresses… WoC 2013

Last Minute, Budget and Gifts of Thoughtfulness – WoC 2013

The Best Part of the Christmas Season – Love, Charity, and Kindness – WoC 2013

Christmas for Pet People – Woc 2013  -  Watch Glenn Beck’s (2012) Emotional Tribute To His Dog, Victor

Christmas Baking – WoC 2013

The Best Christmas Gifts – WoC 2013

Remembering Military and Veterans at Christmastime – W0C 2013

American Traditions – WoC 2013

Still Think There Is No War on Christmas – WoC 2013

In Defense of the Truth and Megyn Kelly – WoC 2013

Carolling… or Caroling and Christmas Music – WoC 2013

Best Christmas Season Movie Classics – WoC 2013

Santa Photos… Often Yesterday’s Oooops Are Tomorrow’s Treasures! – WoC 2013

Christmas Lights – WoC 2013

Nativity Scenes and Glories – The Reason For the Season – WoC 2013

European Markets or Christkindlmarkts Capture the Christmas Spirit – WoC 2013

St. Nickolas Day – WoC 2013

Hanukkah… The Jewish Festival of Lights – WoC 2013

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve – WoC 2013

Where Does the War on Christmas Come From? A Worthwhile Read – WoC 2013

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series 2013 at AskMarion – WoC 2013

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope – WoC 2013

2013 Official Christmas Card Only Features the Four-Legged Obamas

Sending Holiday Season Regards to our Conservative Warriors

ANOTHER FAILED IDEA: Woman gets laughed at after bringing up Obamacare at Thanksgiving…

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

Huckabee’s ’12 Days Of ObamaCare’

Disney scores big with biblical values – But their subsidiary A&E suspends Phil Robertson for expressing his

The Thanksgiving Illusion

Obama Thanksgiving and Christmas Disgrace

Keeping Pets Safe for the Holidays: The “Not So Safe” or No-No Pet Food List

Sarah Palin on Politics and Religion • 11/10/13 With Susan Page

The Cross – Billy Graham’s Message To America

Citizenship and Church Membership

Happy 101st Birthday, Daddy

There are some great books out for Christmas this year: ‘Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas’ (Kindle), The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes & Favorite Traditions (Kindle) and Dear Chandler, Dear Scarlett: A Grandfather’s Thoughts on Faith, Family, and the Things That Matter Most (Kindle) Plus: Losing Our Religion(Kindle) by atheist S. E. Cupp and The United States vs. Santa Claus: The Untold Story of the Actual War on Christmas (Kindle)

Technorati Tags: Congress,House,Fox,Huelskamp,Ethics,PC,NORAD,Reagan,Obama,Conservatism,Obamaland,Inspiring,Books,Desparation,Speeches,Nativity,Presidents,ObamaCare,Patriotism,Tradition,Choices,Love,Kindness,Santa Photos,Christmas,animals,holidays,War on Christmas,Charity,Hanukkah,American Traditions,American values,Pets,WoC,Gifts,Movies,Fatih,CONAD,Groetzmeier,Grötzmeier,Christians,Memories,Progressivism,Spirit of Christmas,Simpler Times,The War on… The War on Christmas,War on Religion,War on Christianity,Tracking Santa,Political Correctness

A House in chaos

Is Pelosi Losing Grip on the House?

For a few hours Thursday night, the House of Representatives was in chaos.

Shortly after dinnertime, New York Democrat Charlie Rangel emerged from his private hideaway after news broke that he would be admonished by the House ethics committee.

But reporters in the Capitol rushed right past Rangel to ask House Democratic leaders about a critical intelligence bill that had just been pulled over a torture provision. The language had been inserted in defiance of leadership by House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).

At the same time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was slated to meet with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus to try to salvage a routine $15 billion jobs bill that had turned into a piñata for progressives, the moderate Blue Dog Coalition and members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Any of these three issues — a floundering jobs bill, a hastily scotched intelligence authorization or an ethics committee admonishment of the powerful chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee — would qualify as a midlevel crises.

Together, these incidents illustrated a chamber in a minimeltdown near week's end.

“It’s a mystery how that language got in there,” Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said of the controversial intelligence bill provision backed by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.). “I think there are a lot of issues about the drafting of the McDermott amendment.”

House leaders huddled on the floor to figure out what to do next when they realized that the language — adopted by Slaughter’s panel the day before — could kill the bill. The spot they chose was only 15 feet or so from the one in the well of the House where Rangel had just lit into ethics Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) in full view of their colleagues and the galleries above the chamber.

As the intelligence bill was melting down, word began circulating that House leaders might bypass the Rules Committee altogether on a jobs bill because members from multiple factions were threatening to vote against a rule that would allow its consideration.

Black lawmakers say the package is skimpy and Blue Dogs are upset that it would take a waiver of deficit-reduction rules to pass the House. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) objected to the apportionment of a small tranche of highway dollars in the measure.

But House leaders are nearly convinced that rank-and-file lawmakers won’t quash a jobs bill if they are faced with a vote on it. So, they began discussing whether to bring it up under suspension of the rules, which would require a two-thirds vote for passage but eliminate the sticky trick of getting the votes to allow it to be considered.

Meanwhile, Rangel dragged Lofgren and Bonner into two meetings in his private office just off the House floor. The ethics admonishment, leveled because of actions taken by Rangel’s aides, was accompanied by one for the ethics committee’s own former counsel, opening the door to the question of who is to blame if ethics rules are broken by the ethics committee itself.

After consulting with the ethics leaders, Rangel finally emerged to face the cameras, only to find print reporters sprinting past him to get the scoop on other legislative matters.

Amazingly, Rangel’s latest scandal was playing second fiddle even in his own home state, where a brouhaha continued over whether Gov. David Paterson’s administration improperly used state resources to intimidate a woman who accused a gubernatorial aide of domestic violence.

And all this as news of a disheartened public reacting negatively to Obama’s arrogance at the healthcare summit earlier in the day, that turned out to be the sham that most expected, was pouring in.

House leaders seemed likely to have at least the intelligence bill — and perhaps the jobs bill — in better position by Friday.

But for a few hours Thursday, nothing seemed to be going right.

“Can’t anybody here play this game?” joked a Democratic aide whose sense of humor remained intact.

Source: Politico