Link to article here.
This sobering and frightening scenario is just over the horizon unless citizens wake-up and put a stop to it!
Government control goes that extra mile
By Henry Lamb
World Net Daily
July 11, 2009
Sara was late for work. The alarm clock didn’t alarm, the kids were unusually slow getting ready for school, and nothing went right. She finally got to her car – a brand new 2020 Chevy Adventure. She touched the finger-print secured start button. Nothing. It wouldn’t start. She touched it again. Nothing. Furious, she banged the steering wheel with her fist. Then she noticed the paper hanging from the receipt printer on the dash.
“Your designated visa account rejected your Road Use Tax in the amount of $87.32 for the month of June, 2020. You must insert a valid account card to activate your automobile.”
It’s coming. With a $16 million grant from the federal government, the University of Iowa is developing a Global Positioning Satellite system that can measure the mileage, apply a variable tax rate that will increase during rush hours and in high-traffic areas, calculate the total, charge a designated account card, and shut down your automobile if unpaid when due. Some 2,700 automobiles in five states will be used in the test.
The system has been under development for more than a decade. The concept was proven in a similar, but smaller test in Oregon two years ago. The new tax system is being designed to replace the outdated by-the-gallon tax. Government mandated higher-mileage requirements result in less tax revenue for all governments. Hybrid and all-electric cars contribute little or nothing to road tax revenues.
The new by-the-mile tax system will give government much more than a new tax collection mechanism; it will give government much greater control over everyone.
The new GM – Government Motors – can install this new system in all of its vehicles. All that’s needed is an instruction from the car czar. Automakers that have not yet been taken over by the government can be required to install the system quite easily, by regulation or legislation. With such a system in every vehicle, the government can have virtual control over the population.
Purchase of a vehicle will give the government a database containing the name and residence location of every automobile owner. Since the system has the ability to record and track the geographic location of the vehicle at every moment of the day or night – only for the purpose of applying the correct tax rate, of course – government can know where your vehicle is at any moment.
Frightened yet? This is not hocus-pocus conspiracy-theory nonsense. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission has unanimously endorsed the scheme. A past president of the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says several states have considered not waiting for the federal government and will implement this system within their states. It is on the horizon and currently targeted for implementation by 2020.
This system will give the government the power to know your every movement. Where does the Constitution authorize the government to exercise this power? How does the exercise of this power square with the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guarantee of a right to privacy? Does anybody care?
Privacy concerns have kept the project out of the public spotlight, but not out of the lab. As the project matures, there will be the obligatory lip-service to “prohibiting” the government from using the capability to invade individual privacy. “Assurances” will be mouthed, from both the administration and the Congress, that the rights of individuals will be protected. And the program will move forward.
Imagine this scenario: a police station in Podunk, New Jersey gets a silent alarm that a bank robbery is in progress at the corner of 4th Avenue and Main Street. The chief radios the regional Road Tax Monitoring Center, and immediately, every vehicle in the vicinity is disabled. The police arrive at the scene to find the robbers sitting in their vehicle banging on the steering wheel of an automobile that won’t start. The press lauds this wonderful new technology.
Now imagine this scenario: a detective knocks on your door. “Your vehicle was parked on 2nd Avenue Saturday evening between 10:32 and 11:15 pm. Why?”
“It’s none of your business,” you protest.
You are informed that there was a crime committed in the neighborhood and until you can explain why you were there, you are a suspect. You are in the position of having to prove your innocence rather than the state having to prove your guilt.
There is no end to the mischief that government can impose upon the people with this system. Government could control when and where people go simply by adjusting the tax rate. Government could force people to use public transportation, by adjusting the tax rate. Government could deactivate vehicles as a form of punishment for unpaid speeding or parking tickets. Government could easily dictate the type of vehicle you drive, simply by adjusting the tax rate on GM vehicles.
Those who think these scenarios are far-fetched have not been watching what the federal government has been doing, especially since the new Democratic socialists have taken control of Washington. It’s going to take more than tea parties to prevent this “change” that is being imposed. It’s going to take a determined electorate to throw the bums out!
I’ve been involved with this anti toll road movement from it’s incipience. I’m on written record warning everyone at the very first Tex.Dot. public hearing at Ronald Reagan (presidential hero in my mine) high school about the abuses of using private information collected through the use of GPS black boxes installed in your private vehicle. It was the only way to tax you by the mile (recording each and every movement you made in your vehicle). I alerted everyone present of the ongoing pilot testing programs in Oregon and Kansas. At that time this wasn’t even on anyone’s radar, but I knew this was the only way to make these (international) toll roads work. I wrote Terri late last year, that these international corporate skunks will ultimately use this technology to control your movements within the country, so it doesn’t surprise me now that they are talking about it for toll paying compliance reasons. THINK folks, if they can unlock your car using satellites or communication towers, they can affect your fuel lines as well. George Bush granted a monopolistic toll road pricing structure through a last minute presidential order before leaving office (thank God that guys gone from office) and yes, Rick Perry is hell bent on raiding retirement funds to disburse amongst his corporate cronies. These are not your Grandfather’s Republicans, but evil, evil, evil reprobates that are hell bent on taking your personal freedoms away. Their loyalties are steeped in fascism ( fiscal marriages between corporations and state governments). Support the grassroots movement now and what Terri is trying to do for all of us. I’ve donated on a number of occasions and you should too. Don’t donate to political parties that continue to bail out wall street bankers. These are the very same Wall Street pirates (Goldman Sacs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America) that went out to state governments to lobby state legislatures to change state laws to make it easier to setup these international toll road privatization plans or I should say piratization scams with your tax dollars, outfits like Cintra ( a Saudi Arabian front organization). Cintra is the very same organization that bought 25 Texas small town newspapers just to feed you propaganda about toll roads. This is the same organization that backed, Joe Krier, the head of the San Antonio chamber of commerce that now is a chief spokesman and lobbyist for Cintra, isn’t that nice !!!!! Be sure to read Terri’s blog so that you are informed and kept up to date. Most importantly, fight for you freedom as it just might be taken away from you ! And that’s the way is. Kudos to all ( we lost a great one in Walter Cronkite). Brad