One day you can tell your children about the family vacations they will never get to take

Two years ago Ray LaHood (Transportation Secretary) brought this idea up and now it’s seeing more light of day.  With the Randian name Transportation Opportunities Act (TOA) they plan to tax how many miles we drive by installing an Orwellian-type electronic device in our cars.

1984 meets Atlas Shrugged all in one fell swoop.

Of course this is in addition to the national gas tax (average) of $.495 that we are already paying.

Take a look a these PDF maps (H/T Mark Levin’s website), here and here,  to see how much you are now paying in state and federal taxes per gallon of gas.  And those taxes won’t ever go away; they will be added to the VMT (vehicle mileage tax) that this regime wants to impose on us with this new TOA.

No one, it seems has considered how this will impact employment, or lack thereof.  Take for instance the number of people who will stay home rather than take a family vacation. The impact on communities and states that rely on tourist dollars will surely feel it. And lets see — how will this impact state and national parks that rely on tourism dollars.  Fewer people will be hired and more people will be laid off or not replaced should they have to quit their jobs.

Then there’s the more sinister side of this: controlling our movement and restricting relocation to other states. People are easier to control if they can’t move around much.  Make it more expensive to travel and people do (and already have) cut back. That means less money spent in the retail sector, as well – again, a job killer.

This gives me a headache. This man and his regime HAVE GOT TO GO in 2012 or we are doomed.

67% rise in gas prices and where is the outrage?

According to the Weekly Standard, gas prices have risen 67% since Obama became the imperial leader.

Mark Hemingway writes that “this is the President who told us “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”

This is the President that appointed a Secretary of the Interior that famously said he didn’t mind if gas hit $10 a gallon.

This is the President whose administration secretly urged him to bypass needed Congressional approval to create as many at 17 national monuments throughout the west, effectively closing off all that land to energy exploration forever.

This is the President who has illegally tried to illegally enforce an offshore drilling ban.”

But here is where Mark misses the point: “How much higher is gas going to go before the Administration takes a long hard look at what its doing to send gas prices through the roof?”

News flash, Mr. Hemingway: This regime knows what it’s doing to raise the price of gas and heating oil. It’s their plan to make prices go high and higher. We all know it and all your links provide proof of it. Obama told us as a candidate that we would see prices go through the roof with his cap and trade scheme. His transportation secretary has told us that they were going to “coerce” us out of our cars and into government transportation.

Make no mistake: THIS IS ALL PLANNED! This regime knows what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. It was Obama’s budget that calls for cutting out subsidies to heat the homes of the poorer among us. And where are those poverty pimps – Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton – on that? Not a word. Not a whisper. No outrage at all.

Where is the outrage at 67% higher gas prices? Have we all become a nation that lays down and accepts this because we’ve been told that “this is how it’s going to be forever?” Get used to 9% unemployment and $5/gallon gas because they tell us to?

Not me. Not you. And not ever!

 

LaHood to push for disabling cell phones in cars

I wrote last year about Ray LaHoods desire to “coerce Americans out of” their cars. His plan is to make driving as uncomfortable, inconvenient and expensive as possible.

So now he wants to prevent the use of cell phones in cars due to the “distraction” factor. He says the technology is out there to disable phones in cars. I keep asking myself, is this what the progressive left really want? Do all those college students who support the Obama agenda really want to give up their phones?

And where do distractions in cars end? How many parents will be leaving their kids at home because the “Mom! he’s looking at me again!” screeches from the backseat are a distraction?  How about a bottle of water while you’re driving, not to mention a burger and fries? Or God forbid – a cigarette!!!I don’t want my family out on the highway without a cell phone. Hell, I don’t want to be out on the highway without mine.

Where does it end? At $10/gallon gas? Not only will that “coerce” us out of our cars but out of the grocery store and malls, too. Which in turn, means job loss to millions more.

A year ago LaHood was talking about chips in cars that would monitor gas consumption which would then be taxed as part of the carbon footprints BS, which in turn would be part of crap-n-tax that the EPA will be trying to enforce on us, all the while walking around congress.

Oh, what a tangled web they weave . . .Non-elected officials writing laws that will dramatically and fundamentally change our lives and our nation.

It’s all about protecting us right out of our jobs, our healthcare, all our civil liberties in what has become an obscene desire to control every aspect of our lives, by the ruling class. They know better than the rest of us how to spend our money and what’s best for our health and welfare. How many rights will be enough? When do we finally say enough?

2 years of this has been scary. Another term with this regime will mark the end of America as we’ve known and loved it.

Batteries not included in economic recovery

This happens to be Buzz Golfcart - oops I mean, Lightyears personal car. And you too, might be driving one!

In several cities in Michigan, new ion batteries are being produced for the giant wave of electric cars that will be taking over the highways and byways of America. Mind you, the cars aren’t really there, the demand isn’t there, but the batteries will be. In fact, most Americans don’t even want this kind of car.

I envision a warehouse in Livonia, MI full of ion batteries for a car that will never be embraced by the American people – until the gas prices go so high, thanks to the government, that we have no choice left.

From the AP- 9/12/10:

“Cost is high [for the electric car batteries].”

How high you ask?

Right now they will cost the consumer $33,000.00. That’s on top of the price of the car. “Although stimulus money could [- COULD -] bring them down to $10,000.00 by the end of 2015.”

That’s still $10K on top of the price of a new car. But Good Lord – who can afford a new car, anyway?

Remember those words from Obama’s Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, and I paraphrase: I plan to coerce Americans out of their cars.

Buzz Lightyear, the new Government Motors mascot

The battery has a life of 100miles, when charged. You won’t be going too far from home, will ya? Once again, a ploy by the statists to control your travel . . . your mobility. Easier to keep track of the population when they can’t go anywhere, isn’t it?

The battery factory in Holland, MI expects to employ 90 workers and produce between 75,000 and 150,000 cars by the end of next year. But of course, this all depends on the demand for the Lego-like cars to be produced. (I know I’m mixing cartoons and toys here – Lego and Disney – but never mind that.) This factory got almost $300 MILLION in federal grant money.

“The rapid buildup of production capacity by companies with limited experience for product with challenging market may prove wasteful,” said Menahem Anderman, founder and president of Total Battery Consulting, a California-based battery consulting firm. (There are consulting firms for BATTERIES???)

Yes, well, that’s my point. We are producing massive amounts of car batteries for a car that is hardly rolling on the roads, yet and may never be rolling.

But doggonit! we the taxpayers are employing thousands of Michiganders!

Patriot Post – Founders Quote of the day

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” –James Madison, Federalist No. 45

In case anyone misunderstands, the Founders did not believe in centralized government. The more centralized and expansive government becomes, the less involvement is allowed by “the people.” The bigger government becomes, the farther away from “the people” it gets.

The Founders believed in local governments, run by the citizens of those locales; that includes education.

The Founders would be appalled by the formation of the Department of Education. Education is, and was to them, a local responsibility. Every community, every county and every state should be and must be responsible for the education of those who live there. That includes not only what they are taught and how, but how it’s paid for.

This goes back to what Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny called the “harmonious diversity” of America, which is what the Founders invisioned. If Idaho has an education system that is more compatible with how one person believes, or is more afforable, for instance, he can leave the state he lives in and move to Idaho. This also goes to Reagan’s belief that Americans are free to vote with their feet. They are not stuck in one state with no recourse but can move to another that might have policies that are more appealing. Levin’s example in his book was the death penalty – Texas has an fairly active policy while New Jersey has no death penalty. But anything from abortion to education could be used as an example.

Our mobility has not yet been halted by Ray LaHood and we are still free to move where we choose to. However, that has potential to change if he has his way to “coerce us of our cars” and restrict our movement.

But I digress and I think I made my point.

Education should be and must be a state’s rights issue and there is no question that the Founders intended it to be that way. Every state should have it’s own department of education, funded entirely by the state’s citizens and managed with curriculum established by those same citizens.

That’s the long and the short of it.

Thank goodness my daughter is not a member of the teacher’s union.

Rhetoric that makes me see red — or brown shirts

Most of us are children or grandchildren of WWII vets and grew up during the “duck and cover” days of the cold war.  We grew up fearing the great Soviet war machine that was an out growth of WWII. We are not yet, that far removed from those days.  I think that’s why when we hear the words of Ken Salazar keeping his “boot on the throat of BP” it simply causes a small wave of nausea to wash over us.

Those are dictatorial words that make Americans see red – as in communist red.

Rhetoric like that is a total disregard for the rule of law that we have grown to expect, that we take for granted and that most of us don’t even consider because it’s become so — American.

No one wants to see BP off the hook for this mess. Everyone wants BP to take full responsibility for what has happened, in all ways, including financial.  But phrases like ‘knowing whose ass to kick’ and ‘keeping a boot on the throat’ does not reflect the kind of justice most of us want or the way we want justice to be meted out.

Words matter and how words are used matters, a lot. These kinds of threats only serve to turn off Americans and reinforces the opinion of a great many that this administration is too far left or too far red – you choose. It sounds a little too jack-booted Nazi for my palate.

It also illustrates how Obamas thug mentality has trickled down in his administration and infected his underlings. Remember Ray LaHood (Sec. of the Dept. of Transportation) saying he would “coerce Americans out of their cars”? Coerce me from driving? Coercion isn’t such a nice word either. It has some criminal overtones, actually. I will not be coerced out of my car to have the government’s boot on my throat so that someone in the Obama adminstration can kick my ass… thank you very much!

Who do these people think they are? And how long do they think they will remain in charge of anything?

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from the Green Church of Obama

Ray LaHood (an Archbishop of Obama’s green church or as he is commonly known, the Secretary of Transportation) plans to “coerce” Americans into staying out of our cars in order to combat pollution and lower gasoline use and dependency on foreign oil.

Or so he says.

The Fugitive David Janssen

I believe that’s partially true. But I also believe this is a plan to restrict our movements – an attempt to prevent us from traveling or moving to another locale. It’s easier to control, contain and identify people when they aren’t on the move. Just ask Lt. Gerard who chased Dr. Richard Kimble for several seasons while the real murderer, the one-armed man, was not even on the radar.

But I digress.

The reason I’m becoming even more suspicious of LaHood and the administration’s motives is because of one more snippet I heard on Limbaugh’s Friday show. A nurse called in and talked to guest host, Mark Steyn about crap-and-tax (AKA as cap-and-trade by the Marxists in power.)

She said that in this bill, every city, town and hamlet would be granted 3 commissioners or inspectors who would rate and inspect your home – in the event that you wanted to sell it – and inform you of it’s compliance or more importantly, it’s non-compliance as a temple to the green religion of the so-far-left-they-are-not-even-in-this-galaxy.

She said that they would inspect your dishwasher, furnace, even the lights used to illuminate a piece of art on your wall and if you fail the compliance test, you have to shell out the bucks to bring it into compliance.  Or forget about selling it.

Think about this.

We have almost 10% unemployment and by other authorities that rate is closer to 17%. People are looking for work and with this administration’s plans to make it more difficult to travel or re-locate, they are making those unemployed full time unemployed (or government dependent) citizens. Unemployment checks, welfare, food stamps and free health care for life – what more can anyone ask, huh? A true cradle to grave European America – coming right up!

You can’t travel to work or to find work because LaHood has “coerced” the price of gas to outrageous levels and you can’t move to find work because your house is not green enough to sell. You can’t be misplaced by the ADMINISTRATION (cue Twilight Zone music)  because you can’t leave your place. Like the innocent Dr. Kimble, we will never be able to go on the run and stay 10 steps ahead of this administration’s Lt. Phil Gerard. They will see to it that they know where we are at all times.

We should be afraid. We should be very afraid.

So, what becomes of the American dream of home ownership? Well, that’s another topic for another blog in a galaxy far, far to the left…