U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, the conservative Republican who turned against the war in Iraq, is writing a book called called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" which he hopes will atone for his vote to go to war, according to Congress Daily.

The title of the book was inspired by a visit in 2007 to a classroom at Johnson Elementary School at Camp Lejeune, in which a little boy expressed the fear that his father would be killed in Iraq, Rob Christensen reports.

Jones said his vote to authorize the war in Iraq has left him with deep guilt. "I profess to be a man of faith," Jones told Congress Daily," but I didn't vote my conscience."

Jones said any proceeds from the book will be donated to help treat the wounded. He said the Iraq experience is making him take a hard look at President Barack Obama's request for more troops for Afghanistan.

"We're trying to police the world," Jones told George Wilson. " Every great nation prior to America that tried to police the world has failed economically. That's why I tell people that I'm a Pat Buchanan American. I want to stop trying to take care of the world and fix this country. Our problems are so deep that there is no easy way to fix them."

Four U.S. House members from North Carolina signed a letter calling for the firing of an education official charged with advocating school safety.

The letter to President Barack Obama was signed by 53 Republicans who say that Kevin Jennings is unfit because he has been "promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools," according to a copy of the Oct. 15 letter published by The Hill.

Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.

The signers from the state delegation are Sue Myrick (R-Charlotte), Walter Jones (R-Farmville), Patrick McHenry (R-Cherryville) and Virginia Foxx (R-Banner Elk).

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No, not the kind you're thinking about.

In this case, we're talking about what's known as "the other white meat."

Seven of North Carolina’s members of Congress have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect the pork industry from its economic troubles by buying $100 million worth of meat for the USDA’s federal food assistance programs.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, they say the recession and the recent swine flu outbreak have hurt the industry. The lawmakers thanked Vilsack for his push earlier this year to call the swine flu virus H1N1 to disassociate it from pork products, but they said the impacts of the scare have hurt the industry.

The letter notes that USDA already has announced $30 million in purchases through the end of the fiscal year, reports Barb Barrett.

“We asking for additional help with the economic crisis the U.S. pork industry currently faces,” the letter reads. “Without your assistance, we are putting thousands of rural jobs and businesses at risk.”

The N.C. lawmakers are Democratic U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge, Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Brad Miller and G.K. Butterfield, along with Republican U.S. Reps. Howard Coble and Walter Jones. Fifty-five other lawmakers also signed the letter.

They want Vilsack to use $100 million to buy pork for federal food assistance programs, with an emphasis on sow meat to reduce breeding stock.

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Republican U.S. Rep. Walter Jones was the only member of the North Carolina delegation to cross party lines Tuesday in the House vote to rebuke U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.

Jones, of Farmville, voted "yes." He was one of seven Republicans to do so, Barb Barrett reports.

Twelve Democrats voted "no," and five voted "present." None was from North Carolina.

The House voted 240-179 Tuesday, mostly along party lines, to issue a reprimand against Wilson, a South Carolina Republican.

A week earlier, Wilson had shouted, "You lie!" at President Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress.

North Carolina Public Television is planning a call-in show on health care that will be brought to you by the letters "D" and "R."

UNC-TV intends to air the live show 9 p.m. Tuesday. All members of the state's congressional delegation have been invited. So far, Democratic Reps. David Price, Bob Etheridge, Brad Miller and Mel Watt have accepted, according to a UNC-TV spokesman. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican confirmed his participation Thursday afternoon.

Sen. Kay Hagan (D), and Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D), Howard Coble (R), Virginia Foxx (R), Walter Jones (R), Sue Myrick (R), Mike McIntyre (D) and Heath Shuler (D) have declined the recently issued invitations.

Reps. Larry Kissell (D) and Patrick McHenry (R) have not yet responded.

Perhaps UNC-TV should sweeten the pot with a few tote bags and mugs.

Update: Post includes updated list of who has decided to participate. 

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, then Congressmen Health Shuler, a Democrat, and Virginia Foxx, a Republican, are the two members of the Tar Heel delegation who are well provisioned at the moment.

Both have over $1 million in their campaign war chests as of June 30, according to campaign reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission, Rob Christensen reports.

Shuler, a Bryson City Democrat whose name had been bandied about at one time as a potential U.S. Senate candidate, had $1.1 million in his campaign committee. Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk had $1,006,121.

The middle weights in campaign war chests were Democrat Bob Etheridge of Lillington ($895,137), Democrat Mike McIntyre of Lumberton ($696,540), Republican Howard Coble of Greensboro ($505,759), Democrat David Price of Chapel Hill ($271,619), Democrat G.K. Butterfield ($225,204), Democrat Larry Kissell of Bisco ($214,051) and Republican Sue Myrick of Charlotte ($160,751).

The light wallet crowd included Democrat Mel Watt of Charlotte ($123,767) Republican Patrick McHenry of Cherryville ($119,270), Republican Walter Jones of Farmville ($85,424) and Democrat Brad Miller of Raleigh ($70,654).

As far as fundraising during the past three months, the big three are Etheridge ($326,561), Kissell ($322,631) and Shuler ($314,753).

The Navy could be prohibited from building an isolated landing strip for its Oceana Naval Air Station fighter jets at the Hales Lake and Sandbanks sites that are now under consideration by the Navy.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, included an amendment prohibiting that site for an outlying landing field in the 2010 Defense Authorization Act approved Wednesday by the House Armed Services Committee, Barb Barrett reports. U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat, also helped with the amendment.

"The people of eastern North Carolina have spoken loud and clear on this issue," Jones said in a statement. “If the OLF is needed to support F/A-18’s operating out of Oceana Naval Air Station, then Virginia should bear the burden."

The Navy has been trying several years to find a rural spot in eastern North Carolina to practice nighttime landings, but has been blocked by lawsuits and Tar Heel state politicians.

The Hales Lake site is in Camden County; the Sandbanks site is in Gates County.
The bill must still go to the full House, and then to the Senate for approval.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones has received a shout-out from syndicated columnist Mark Shields.

Shields lauds Jones, a Farmville Republican, for writing 7,933 letters to relatives of American military killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, of his pictures of the fallen heroes in his Washington office, and his visits to Walter Reed Army Hospital, reports Rob Christensen. 

Whenever you get fed up listening to some gasbag run on and on about how everybody in Congress is a faker or a hypocrite or both, tell the gasbag to call me so I can introduce him to Rep. Walter Jones, the North Carolina Republican now serving his eighth term.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones stood on stage behind President Barack Obama today as the president signed a sweeping credit card reform act into law.

Jones, of Farmville, was a co-sponsor of the reform bill and the only Republican House member to have a seat on the stage at this afternoon’s White House ceremony, Barb Barrett reports.

He won re-election to his 8th term last year after a tough GOP primary battle in which some Republicans said Jones wasn’t conservative enough on some issues.

Among those in the audience were Democratic Reps. Brad Miller of Raleigh and David Price of Chapel Hill. Miller also co-sponsored the bill.

And Price inserted a key disclosure requirement in the bill that forces credit card companies to tell borrowers how much it would cost them to make just minimum payments on their debts.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the anti-predatory lending bill by U.S. Reps. Mel Watt of Charlotte and Brad Miller of Raleigh.

The bill, HR 1728 would tighten regulations and require lenders to have proof that borrowers could actually repay their mortgages, Barb Barrett reports. The bill would also require that refinanced mortgages show an actual financial benefit to borrowers.

The legislation is aimed to prevent the surge of shady lending that took place in the runup to the current housing crisis.

The vote in the House on Thursday was 300-114.

In North Carolina, the state’s Democrats were joined in “yes” votes by Republican Rep. Walter Jones.

Republicans Howard Coble, Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry and Sue Myrick voted no.

The bill passed the House last Congress as well, but never got anywhere in the Senate. This year, it again goes to the Senate with an uncertain future, as there is no companion legislation.

But U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee, told reporters he believes Democrats’ stronger majority in the Senate this year will give them the thrust to push the bill through.